Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, WM. Collins Sons & Co, Ltd By The London Book Co. Ltd., [1934]
A film tie in Issued around the same time of the release of the film adaptation of The Invisible Man which was filmed by Universal Pictures Ltd. Uncommon in wrapper.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1934.
First edition, reprint. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, with price sticker 2/6.
A darn decent copy of this difficult title to find in a contemporary jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A very good first edition of one the of later, stand-alone titles by this crime writer.
Art & Architecture
London, Batsford, 1898.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blind-tooled cloth lettered in gilt.
A very good copy of this Wharton's first book, written in collaboration with the architect Ogden Codman, Jr. The book is now considered a classic of its sort, and a wellspring for the subsequent enthusiasm for interior design by professional decorators and stylists.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Hutchinson, 1936. First edition. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6. A rare 'thirties Wheatley first edition, enhanced further by the inscription from the author, 'To Mr E.W. Sheppard With the best of good wishes from his friend Dennis Wheatley'. Sheppard could possibly by the military historian, who was certainly writing around the same time.
Modern Literature
First edition, Huchinson, [1943]. A rare collection of short stories, particularly scarce in the dust-jacket.
Modern Literature
Wheatley (Dennis) Mediterranean Nights – with signed photograph
First edition, [1942]. A collection of Wheatley's short stories, rare in the dust-jacket. Included with this is a signed photograph of the German singer & actress Renate Müller (1906-1937), who was the inspiration for the Wheatley short story 'Espionage'. A tragic life cut short on the back of a blossoming career, either being murdered by the Gestapo or intimidated by them sufficiently that she seemingly took her own life. The story and a short discussion of the incident involved are included in this collection.
Horror & Gothic
First edition.
London, Hutchinson, 1948.
A pleasing copy of one of Wheatley’s most famous titles and surprisingly uncommon in the wonderfully grotesque wrapper.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Hutchinson, 1941.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 9/6.
The second of three novels by Wheatley featuring Julian Day.
Detective Fiction
London, Herbert Jenkins, [1946].
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8/6.
A plot of diabolic ingenuity taxes Chief Inspector Stephen Rant of the Yard. Attractive jacket artwork.
Weird & Supernatural
New York, George H. Doran, 1927.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth stamped in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced $2.50.
A scarce edition, collecting stories mostly derived from the author's own dreams. The title tale, 'Lukundoo', is the author's most anthologised story, recounting the plight of an explorer who falls foul of a local witch doctor's ghastly curse.
Detective Fiction
London, Fisher Unwin, 1927.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth blocked in black. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
An important work by Thrilling Stories of the Railway author Canon Whitechurch, more famous perhaps for its insight into the author's working method as outlined in his preface. An uncommonly good example.
Weird & Supernatural
London, The Readers Library, n.d. [1939].
First edition thus. Small 8vo. Original cloth, gilt. Dust-jacket.
Film tie-in edition, written by the author of the original stage-play. Disturbing jacket artwork, especially for ailurophobics...
Sports & Pastimes
London, Longmans, 1957.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, price sticker of 15/- to inside flap.
A very good first edition of this uncommon cookery book, "not merely a collection of recipes, but a compendium of useful information on every aspect of cookery. No Nigerian home should be without it." (jacket). The pink here is fresh and bright in the main.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1936.
First Omnibus edition. 8vo. Original oatmeal cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
An attractive edition comprising four stories, 'The Man with the Clubfoot', 'The Return of Club Foot', 'The Crouching Beast' and 'The Gold Comfit Box'.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1931.
First edition, stamped 'Publisher's file copy' on prelim. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
An attractive mid-period mystery novel by the author and journalist Valentine Williams, creator of 'Clubfoot'. Distinctly uncommon in the original dust-jacket. Murder and royal intrigue.
Detective Fiction
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1922.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue pictorial cloth. Dust-jacket, with publisher's overlaid price 2/6 on spine.
An early title by the author and journalist Valentine Williams, distinctly uncommon in the original dust-jacket. Murder in the library gets the ball rolling.
Detective Fiction
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1940.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Major Alexander Wallace continues to thrill with the exploits of Sir Leonard Wallace, Chief of Secret Service, in this forties first edition. Scarce in dust-jacket.
Detective Fiction
First edition. Sequel to Pulitzer Prize winner, The Mclaughlins’ - difficult in d/w
London, Cassell, 1936
The story begins 6 months after the end of the first novel in December 1868. Two men have been found lynched. The story follows the attempts of the community to bring their murderers to justice, intertwined with the stories of Willy and his sister Jean and their reactions to the community's thirst for justice.
Children's Books
London, Ward, Lock, 1940.
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
One of the last books by a prolific author who had enjoyed literary success since 1900, as well as some controversy for her 1916 Sci-Fi book, The Last Weapon, A Vision, the anti-sentiment contained within resulting in the book being banned. Wilson was a founding member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Sexuality & Erotica
London, Heinemann, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
What would happen? On this lively supposition Author Winter has written a tale that is blurbed as another 'South Wind' but is more like Somerset Maugham's spiteful 'Cakes and Ale' (Time Magazine, 1936)
Modern Literature
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1933.
First edition, first printing. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A superb first edition example of this comedic masterpiece by P.G. Wodehouse, the second book to feature Blandings Castle staple Galahad Threepwood (The Honourable).
Modern Literature
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1934.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, colonial issue.
One of the key '30s Jeeves titles, in a great, bright example of the original Abbey jacket, with "Herbert Jenkins' Colonial Library" to spine - extremely uncommon!
Modern Literature
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1934.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, colonial issue, with original wrap-around.
One of the key '30s Jeeves titles, in a great, bright example of the original Abbey jacket, with "Herbert Jenkins' Colonial Library" to spine and the original belly-band, declaring "For the first time the incomparable Jeeves in a long complete novel" - extremely uncommon!
Modern Literature
Wolfe (Tom) The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamlined-Baby
London, Jonathan Cape, 1966.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original pink boards. Dust-jacket, priced 30s.
The first UK edition of US journalist & author Tom Wolfe's collected essays, including articles on the counter-culture in America. This copy has a printed note from the publishers to the front free endpaper, apologising to the artist Bridget Riley for not obtaining her permission to base the jacket design on one of her artworks.
Modern Literature
Worthington (Frank) The Witch Doctor and other Rhodesian Stories
London, The Field Press, [1925].
First UK edition. Tall 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in black. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
Worthington first arrived in Africa as the personal secretary of Thorne Coryndon, the representative of the British South Africa Company, who was sent there to prepare for the British takeover of the Lozi kingdom, and when Coryndon was named Administrator of Northwest Rhodesia, Worthington continued to assist him and went on to become the first Secretary for Native Affairs there. This is a mix of anecdotes, ethnographical contributions and memoirs about the Central African days of yore. Very rare in the dust-jacket, which like the boards is titled, 'Chiromo the Witch Doctor'.
War, Invasion & Spy
First edition. Foreign Legion short stories.
London, John Murray, 1933
A fine first English edition of this compilation of Foreign Legion stories by the author of Beau Geste (1924), in the fabulous Art Deco design correctly priced at 7/6 on front flap. 'Very many of these men are examples of the "flawed blades" that have snapped, leaving little but the sheath that once contained the sword - spirits that have broken, leaving only a weary body.' (dust-jacket).
Detective Fiction
London, Rich & Cowan, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Visually intriguing jacket artwork, and a tale of espionage, treasure, murder, and at least one giant hunchback, of course.
Weird & Supernatural
A Weird Legend
London, W.J. Sinkins, 1893.
First edition. Inscribed by C.H. Ross. 8vo. Floral endpapers. Original green cloth stamped in red.
A very good example of this rare first edition, a weird, Hugoesque tale about a wild child called Terra who is unleashed from the bowels of the earth to wreak havoc on the fortunes of Lord Netherdale and his family with her wicked & wanton ways. Inspired by the story of Mademoiselle Leblanc, the mysterious savage of Soigny, near Chalons, who died in Paris in 1780, it is probable that this work is also leveraging the pervading fin-de-siècle anxiety about the emerging 'new woman'.
This copy is inscribed by one of the authors, C.H. Ross, on the half-title, 'Miss Emily Burgess, with Charles Ross's kind regards, Feb 19th 1905.'
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Michael Joseph, 1959.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in white. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 13s6d.
Conventional science fiction from the pen of Wyndham, comprising four chapters - a fifth chapter was added to subsequent editions.
Modern Literature
London, Philip Allan, 1924.
First edition. 8vo. Device to title. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
A strange and occasionally beautiful book...rather a dangerous study in the emotion of sex... (The Referee). Rare, especially in the jacket.
Detective Fiction
London & Melbourne, Ward, Lock, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. 6pp. advertisements. Original yellow cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Jonathan Mansel, one of Dornford Yates' most popular characters, heads a small private organisation dedicated to the detection of serious crime "by methods sadly unavailable to the regular police". Uncommon in the jacket.
Non-Fiction
London, Grant Richards, 1912.
First edition. 8vo. Frontispiece. Original cloth with gilt stamped illustration of the Titanic to upper cover.
The first book published on the sinking of the Titanic, by journalist Alexander Bell Filson Young.