War, Invasion & Spy
London, Andrew Melrose, [1935].
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in yellow. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Compelling jacket artwork complements this uncommon tale of aerial combat and British pluck.
Modern Literature
Bristol & London, J.W. Arrowsmith; Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, [1892].
First edition, early issue. 8vo. Original orange decorative cloth.
The Grossmiths' only published work, a classic satire on the pretensions of the English middle class.
Modern Literature
London, Quality Press, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale blue cloth. Dust-jacket,
Pleasing jacket artwork graces this tale of town life in the Basque country on the eve of the Spanish War.
Modern Literature
London, Robert Hale, 1942.
First edition, blind-stamped 'file copy' on front free endpaper. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
An industrial tale of the big corporates versus the humble worker, set against a backdrop of the paper-mills of southern England.
Detective Fiction
Gunn (Victor, pseud. Edwy Searles Brooks, aka Berkeley Gray) Ironsides Smahes Through.
London, Collins, 1940
First edition. 8vo. 3pp. advertisements. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7'6.
A very good first edition of this Ironsides title, distinctly uncommon in the original dust-jacket. Victor Gunn was one of several pseudonyms for Edwy Brooks, alongside his perhaps more well-known moniker 'Berkeley Gray'.
Detective Fiction
Gunn (Victor, pseud. Edwy Searles Brooks, aka Berkeley Gray) Three Dates with Death
London, Collins Crime Club, 1947.
First edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 3s.6d.
A pleasing first edition of the twelfth novel in the author's "Ironsides" Cromwell series.
Modern Literature
An Amusement
London, Secker, 1927.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
The first edition of the second book by US journalist & writer John Gunther, seemingly preceding the first US edition.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London. Columbine Publishing Company, [?1940]
This is the correct first issue wrapper and rare as such. Titles published by this publisher are sought after due to their lurid jacket art of which this is a great example
Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1914
Hodder & Stoughton Sevenpenny library, first edition thus. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
First published in U.K. in 1889, this is the first edition where getting a jacketed example is feasible.
A long 'short' story featuring Allan Quatermain in which following his father's death, Allan fights with Zulus aides by Hans, rescues and marrow who becomes the mother of his son Harry, and eventually loses her because of the jealousy of the Baboon woman.
Second impression, Stanley Paul, [1930]. The wrapper is unpriced but identical to first (which is priced 7/6 on spine) and list of titles on back panel. The lack of a price may imply it was a copy intended for export.
Modern Literature
London, Cassell, 1920
First edition. 8vo. Original light brown cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 8/6 net on spine.
An Allan Quatermain novel, direct sequel to The Ivory Child. An interesting way of resurrecting the character of Allan away from the period and Africa of his day.
Rare in jacket.
Weird & Supernatural
First edition.
London. Hutchinson, [1926]
The continuing adventures of Allan Quatermain, set in the middle of the Dark Continent ruled by a huge, pale man with a strange knowledge of future events. One of two works published posthumously.
Detective Fiction
Hale (Christopher, pseud. Frances Moyer Stevens) Stormy Night.
A Detective Story London, Heinemann, 1937. First UK edition. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket. A woman dead in the sleet at the bottom of an empty swimming pool, with two bullets in her body, but only one wound...
Modern Literature
London, Cassell, 1926.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth.
The first edition of one of Hall's better known works, after The Well of Loneliness, about a waiter who becomes disgusted with his job and goes to live in the forest as a hermit.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1926.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A collection of short stories by the author of The Well of Loneliness.
Modern Literature
London, Cape, 1932.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
An early work by Well of Loneliness author Radclyffe Hall. The work's deeply religious theme was to prove so affecting to the author that she actually claimed to have suffered from stigmata whilst writing it.
Modern Literature
First edition, first printing. London, William Heinemann Ltd, 1936 'Radclyffe Hall has had the courage to set down the thoughts and conversations of her characters without censorship. Here is English as it is really spoken by the poor in cottage, field and inn' (dust-jacket) Dust-jacket by Edgar Holloway.
Weird & Supernatural
London, Rider, 1915
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket correctly priced at 6/- on spine.
Paraphrasing the book's preface....''From the abundant records and traditions dealing with the curious belief that certain men and women can transform themselves into animals, the author has collected a number of instances and examples which throw fresh light on the subject both from the point of view of folklore and occultism''
There are chapters on the ''Bush-Soul," on human souls in animal bodies, on animal dances, the "Were-Wolf Trials," on witches, on cat and cock phantoms, on the "Phantasmal Ghost" as well as bird-women.
The book is uncommon without a jacket, it is genuinely rare with one. A remarkable survival.
Rare in jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Hutchinson, n.d. [c.1930].
Third edition (stated). Small 8vo. Original cloth, gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 2/- and stating '5th Thousand'.
An early edition of this collaboration between the Hanshews, scarce in the original dust-jacket - with artwork by the illustrator Joseph Abbey.
Detective Fiction
London, Hamish Hamilton, 1957.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced 12s6d.
Maths meets murder in this crime fiction debut by an American author.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Jonathan Cape, 1930.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Lovely jacket artwork graces this intriguing tale of drastically accelerated evolution; winner of a £1000 literary prize at the time.
Weird & Supernatural
First edition.
London. Dent, 1910
The author’s first short story collection containing some fine examples of ghost and horror stories including the much anthologised tale, ‘August Heat’ (Shadows in the Attic p.247).
London, Becks, 1950.
Sole edition. Signed by the author. 4to. Original cloth-backed boards.
Historian Fea's homage to Lewis Carroll's classics for children, replacing Alice with 'Little Lu'. An attractive copy.
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, [1886].
First edition. 8vo. 16pp. publisher's catalogue at end, dated '3 G. 8.86'.
A creative and productive author, Julian Hawthorne never sadly quite lived up to the literary pedigree inherited from his father, Nathaniel Hawthorne, but his fiction is engaging and often incorporates the sort of weird and sci-fi elements on which later subgenre fiction was predicated. This novel sees the author dallying rather with crime fiction, including mob-like figures, a bank robbery and the curse of opium addiction...
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1945.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
An intriguing psychological thriller by the author & philosopher H.F. Heard, author of The Ascent of Humanity (1929).
Weird & Supernatural
and Other Weird Tales
London, Cassell, 1947.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped and with publisher's '4/6 Cheap Edition' sticker to upper panel.
A collection of mysterious and weird tales, by an author who numbered among his close friends Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood, and whose work was compared favourably to that of H.G. Wells and Conan Doyle: "He plays as daringly with the test tubes of science as did the early H.G. Wells...Mr. Heard is a new master in this field..." (New York Times).
Detective Fiction
Heller (Frank, pseud. Gunnar Serner) The Thousand and Second Night,
An Arabesque
London, Williams & Norgate, 1926.
First English edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
First English edition, translated from the Swedish. Cleverly combines modern mystery with an Arabian Night's kind of vibe.
Modern Literature
London, John Hamilton, [1938].
First edition. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Hubin-listed crime fiction with a quasi-nautical element.
American Literature
London, Cape, 1932.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 15s.
Hemingway's famous work on the art of bull-fighting, illustrated with over eighty illustrations from photographs and paintings.
Modern Literature
A Romantic Novel in Honour of the Passing of a Great Race
London, Jonathan Cape, 1933.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original yellow cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5s.
The first UK edition of Hemingway's first long work, a satirical treatment of pretentious writers; here with an introduction by David Garnett.
Modern Literature
London, Jonathan Cape, 1934.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original yellow cloth. Dust-jacket, price obscured by ink.
Hemingway's third collection of stories, six of which are first appearances.
Children's Books
London, Blackie, 1886. First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth. Henty's tale of the Luddite Riots.
London, C.Arthur Pearson, 1916.
First abridged edition. Small 8vo. Original dark grey cloth blocked in black.
An attractive abridgment of the weird & supernatural tales of psychic detective Flaxman Low, written by mother & son team 'E. & H. Heron'. The stories first appeared in Pearson's Magazine (1899). Hesketh was a prolific turn-of-the-century author, creator of then then very popular sadistic bandit character Don Q., as noted by Bleiler now "deservedly forgotten".
Modern Literature
London, Macdonald, [1943].
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8/6.
A light-hearted book. If you not like mean people, you will not be discouraged by the fate which overtakes the characters... (jacket blurb)
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1938.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
An uncommon detective fiction title by the author most well-known for her historical romances, one of only eleven she wrote in this genre.
Ernest Fletcher's butler, his nephew Neville, and Helen North provide conflicting evidence about his untimely demise in a London suburb. Then a second murder is committed, giving a grotesque twist to a very unusual case.
Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1929].
First edition. 8vo. 8pp. advertisements. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket.
Golden Harvest is a particularly good yarn of gold discovery in Australia's wild, uninhabited Northern Territory...There is a mysterious Chinaman, abduction, rescue, a dramatic chase across the desert to the mine... (jacket blurb)