Weird & Supernatural
Comfort (Will Levington) and Zamin Ki Dost [pseud. Willimina Armstrong] Son of Power
London, Thornton Butterworth, 1922.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, price cut from spine.
An uncommon first edition, especially in the Abbey dust-jacket. The title is listed in Bleiler's Check-List of Science-Fiction and Fantasy, where it is coded for 'paranormal abilities'.
Modern Literature
London, Skeffington, [1920].
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
Attractive first edition of this work by prodigious Irish author, who specialised in romantic novels set within the Irish sporting gentry.
Modern Literature
London, Mills & Boon, 1925
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket correctly priced at 7/6 on spine.
Short stories some of them set in Ireland. Thirteen tales six featuring her recurring character Sandy Acland.
Dorothea Conyers was a prolific Irish novelist. Her books are romantic novels set among the Irish sporting gentry. Her output numbered some 40 titles.
A very difficult title to obtain in a wrapper
Modern Literature
Coon (Carleton S.) Measuring Ethiopia and Flight into Arabia
Boston, Little, Brown, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original light brown cloth stamped in blue. Dust-jacket, priced $2.50.
Fabulous jacket artwork on this book, recounting the author's experiences during an anthropological expedition to Ethiopia and Arabia, 1933-1934. The author's career suffered something of a nose-dive when he got caught up in complicated arguments about racial history subsequently.
Modern Literature
London, Collins, [1930].
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A nice first edition of this romantic adventure in the fur country.
Children's Books
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [c.1925].
First UK Wyeth edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth blocked in black & gilt. Dust-jacket, with stockist's price-sticker of 4/6.
A very good example of Wyeth's illustrated edition of Fenimore Cooper's classic tale, uncommon in the original dust-jacket.
Detective Fiction
London & Glasgow, Blackie & Son, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
The first edition in book form of a story that was made famous by a successful West End play.
Detective Fiction
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1933.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, second issue priced 2/6.
A superior example of this Secret Service thriller from the pen of the inimitable Corbett, "King of the one-line gaffe" (Rod Collins).
![James Corbett, Gallows Wait, first edition, [1947]](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/84584-300x300.jpg)
Detective Fiction
London, Herbert Jenkins, [1947].
First edition. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8/6.
An attractive first edition by the productive James Corbett, from Jenkins' 'House of the Green Label' series.
Detective Fiction
London, Herbert Jenkins, [1932].
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, with publisher's 3/6 price-sticker on top of original 2/6 price.
A scarce early title by this prolific author, who wrote over forty novels, often with a flair for unusual phrasing that would be lucky to escape the editor's blue pencil these days.
Detective Fiction
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1941.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
'"The case of the century" was how the Press described the weird mystery that centred around "The Bat" - a ghoul of the air who, in his efforts to perfect an almost incredible invention, swooped down to kill without mercy". (jacket). A very good first edition, uncommon in the jacket.
Weird & Supernatural
London, Herbert Jenkins, [c.1934].
First edition, second impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 2/6.
A wonderful, bright jacket on this scarce early printing by a prolific author, who wrote over 40 novels, often with a flair for unusual phrasing that would be lucky to escape the editor's blue pencil these days.
![James Corbett, The Somerville Case, first edition, [1949]](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/84602-300x300.jpg)
Detective Fiction
London, Herbert Jenkins, [1949].
First edition. 8vo. Original orange boards, lettered in black. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Quite a lovely dust-jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth blocked in black. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Classic whodunnit murder-mystery by an author often better remembered for his spoonerisms and malapropisms, unfairly perhaps.
Modern Literature
London, Hutchinson, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Actor, theatrical manager and playwright Robert Courtneidge's sole venture into fiction writing.
Detective Fiction
Courtney (John, pseud. John Cournos) Grandmother Martin is Murdered
London, Skeffington, [1930].
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Crime fiction by an intriguing author: born in Russia with Yiddish as his first language, Cournos moved to London in 1912 where he engaged in anti-communist activism, notably via his pamphlet London under the Bolsheviks: A Londoner's Dream on Returning from Petrograd (1919); he also enjoyed some success as an Imagist poet, but garnered more renown for his novels and short stories under the Courtney pseudonym - today he is perhaps best known for his failed relationship with Dorothy L. Sayers, an unhappy experience recounted by both authors (Strong Poison by Sayers (1930) and The Devil Is an English Gentleman by Cournos himself in (1932)).
Weird & Supernatural
London, Frederick Muller, 1938.
First edition. Inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
Blessedly not the Ash-Tree Press edition that is normally the only way one finds this rare title these days, and with a nice personal inscription from the author, but unfortunately it looks like someone tried to suppress this weird & supernatural compilation through drowning! The slightly damaged inscription reads 'To Mrs Hindes w[ith] the [author]'s compliments and very pleasant memories [of] a happy evening. Frederick Cowles 21st January 1941'.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, John Hamilton, [1927].
First UK edition, a "Sundial Edition". Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original dark blue cloth lettered and with publisher's device in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A rare jacketed edition of this sci-fi classic, originally published in serial and book form in Melbourne, Australia. The tale recounts the discovery of the last-but-one revenant of a lost civilisation, discovered in Australia's outback by a homesteader; the 'wonder-woman' discovered preserved underground is from an ancient race with a vastly superior technology than our own, but also a rather unfortunate penchant for eugenics and racism, putting humanity itself in terrible peril. The author has signed & inscribed the front endpaper in 1934, thanking the reader to help "bring water to a thirsty land". There is a small clipped portrait of the author tipped-in next to the inscription.
Modern Literature
First edition.
London, Putnam, 1936
A very elusive political satire in which a Scottish shirt maker - Andrew McAndrew - corners the market for political shirts. In the novel the author satirises the symbolic power of the shirt with garments whose actual colour imbue the wearer with a political attitude. What’s not to like about a novel that pokes fun at Oswald Mosley’s Fascist Blackshirt movement.
Weird & Supernatural
London, Ernest Benn, 1933.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth, dust-jacket.
Intriguingly uncommon title, in attractive jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, John Long, 1947.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
Dr Palfrey tackles dubious friars, a giant and "the Testament of Evil" in this cruise-ship caper.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1956.
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 10s6d.
A rather topical Dr Palfrey adventure, as floods begin to besiege the world...
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1964.
First edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
A very good first edition of this later Dr Palfrey tales, by one of the most prolific authors in the crime/thriller genre.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1959.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 12s6d
A very nice first edition of this sinister sci-fi novel, by ex Merchant Seaman Frank Crisp.
Detective Fiction
London, Gollancz, 1945.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6 and with 'The Fanfare Press, London' printed to bottom edge of lower panel.
The author's second novel, continuing the capers of the Oxford professor and amateur detective Gervase Fen. The copyright page includes a printed dedication to the poet Philip Larkin.
Detective Fiction
Crispin (Edmund, pseud. Bruce Montgomery) Obsequies at Oxford
Philadelphia & New York, Lippincott, 1945.
First US edition of The Case of the Gilded Fly. 8vo. Original black cloth stamped in white. Dust-jacket, priced $2.00.
The first US edition of the first Gervase Fen title.
Detective Fiction
London, Gollancz, 1947.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6 and with 'The Fanfare Press, London' printed to bottom edge of lower panel.
First edition of the fourth in Crispin's series featuring the Oxford Don and amateur detective Gervase Fen.
Detective Fiction
Crispin (Edmund, pseud. Bruce Montgomery) The Case of the Gilded Fly
London, Gollancz, 1944.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6 and with 'The Fanfare Press, London' printed to bottom edge of lower panel.
The first edition of the debut of the pseudonymous Crispin (in reality, composer Bruce Montgomery), whom the New York Times once called the heir to John Dickson Carr. Gervase Fen's first outing.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1957.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 12/6.
A very good first edition of this later and hard-to-find Freeman Wills Crofts title, featuring series character Chief Superintendent French, "the most human sleuth to be found in detective novels today" (Punch).
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1941.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/3.
Inspector French investigates a poisoning in this uncommon first edition. The handwritten note to the jacket spine refers to the American edition.
Detective Fiction
being weird episodes from life
London, Jarrold, 1903.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown pictorial cloth.
An excellent copy of this collection of ten short stories about the history of poisons and their use in crime, told from the perspective of a doctor-detective.
Detective Fiction
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1926
First edition. 8vo. 2pp. advertisements. Original dark red cloth blocked in black. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 3/6.
A great first edition, with enticing jacket artwork. The authors had previously collaborated on the The Forbidden Hour.
Weird & Supernatural
1st printing contained within Volume 3 of Hogg’s Weekly Instructor (pages 184-189).
London, Hogg's Weekly Instructor, 1846
The volume contains many articles, stories and poems as was the nature of the periodical but primarily it is the inclusion of the important first printing of Catherine Crowe's 'The Story of a Weir-Wolf' that makes this desirable. It is a 'Witch Trial' story of the sufferings of a maiden who is wrongly accused of Lycanthropy.
This story is arguably wrote the first werewolf short story by a female. It was reprinted in The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Werewolf Anthology but its first appearance was in this volume.
Two years after “A Story of a Weir-Wolf” was published Crowe published a collection she titled “The Night-Side of Nature, or Ghosts and Ghost-seers.”
An attractive addition to any collection of gothic and/or supernatural fiction.
Detective Fiction
Cumberland (Gerald, pseud. Charles Frederick Kenyon) The Cypress Chest
London, John Hamilton, 1927.
First edition. 8vo. Origial blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
From Hamilton's Sundial Mystery Library series. "An experiment in sensational fiction in which careful and detailed character drawing comes second to an absorbing plot." (jacket blurb)
Modern Literature
London, Quality Press, 1938.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 2/6.
Nautically themed tales of an oft humorous bent, and of some criminous interest too apparently, as listed in Hubin.
Detective Fiction
London, Constable, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Suitably ominous jacket artwork on this uncommon first edition; one of at least three works by Scottish author Curle, better known today for his friendship with and works about Joseph Conrad.