Horror & Gothic
London, The Readers Library, n.d. [c.1935].
First edition thus. Small 8vo. Original cloth, gilt. Dust-jacket, with advertisements printed to reverse.
Originally entitled A Chink in the Armour; a scarce Readers Library edition, in fun jacket.
Children's Books
New York, Random House, 1942.
First edition. Large 8vo. Original pictorial red cloth. Dust-jacket.
The Adventures of Superman, illustrated by Joe Shuster, co-creator of the original character with Jerry Siegel. The jacket has some uniform sunning which has most notably desaturated the red.
Modern Literature
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1934. First edition, third printing. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6. Early printing of this adventure story which dates to around 1934 based on the author's other titles listed in the rear catalogue; in excellent jacket.
Detective Fiction
London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1947.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 9/-.
A superior example of the courtroom drama subgenre.
Modern Literature
London, Gollancz, 1932.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A weighty omnibus of literary delights, featuring works by Henry James, Sheridan Le Fanu, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rose Macauley and Jane Austen, to name but a few.
Modern Literature
London, John Lane The Bodley Head, 1916.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket.
A remarkable survivor, the rare jacket protecting the book below admirably.
"What 'Moby Lane' really has to offer you are stories and sketches of the everyday life of ordinary people — that is, of people who seem ordinary until Mr. Lyons picks them up and casually shows you how extraordinary they are." (The Bookman, 1915).
Horror & Gothic
First edition. London, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Ltd 1925
Weird & Supernatural
London, The Houghton Publishing Co., 1933.
First edition. Initialled presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original blue cloth stamped in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 5/-.
A known scarcity, especially in the extremely rare jacket and, as in this case, initialled & inscribed by the author. A great little collection of weird & supernatural tales by paranormal investigator Maby: "A rare work of uneven quality, dedicated to the unlikely combination of M.R. James and Edgar Allan Poe." (Shadows in the Attic, p.334)
Detective Fiction
London, Harrap, 1929.
First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket.
The first crime fiction work by this prolific author, published as part of Harrap's 'Sealed Mysteries' series. Each member of a small party at a cabaret on the night a murder is committed is suspected and then eliminated through evidence.
Detective Fiction
London, Robert Hale, 1970.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
Two headlong tales of intrigue, suspense and murder, by a master storyteller. Uncommon.
Detective Fiction
London, Robert Hale, 1972.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Travis McGee experiences the rough side of Southern hospitality...
Detective Fiction
Macdonald (John Ross, pseud. Kenneth Millar) The Drowning Pool
New York, Knopf, 1950.
First edition (stated on copyright page). 8vo. Original green patterned cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced $2.50
The first edition of John Ross Macdonald's second Lew Archer title, preceding the UK edition by two years; subsequently the inspiration for the 1975 Paul Newman film of the same name.
Detective Fiction
London, Collins Crime Club, 1948.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8s6d.
An interesting collaboration, recounting the misadventures of a Jekyll & Hyde New York socialite.
Detective Fiction
New York, Alfred Knopf, 1958.
First edition. 8vo. Original patterned boards. Dust-jacket, priced $2.95.
An attractive first edition by an author ranked amongst the very best of American crime fiction. Detective Lew Archer is hired by Carl Hallman to investigate his wealthy parents' deaths. Delving into the corrupt world of the Hallman dynasty in Purissima, Archer uncovers political intimidation, treachery, and a family under threat from its own dark past. Uncommon.
Detective Fiction
London, Collins Crime Club, 1965.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original cloth-backed boards. Dust-jacket, priced 16s.
The first UK edition of this example of US hardboiled 'tec fiction, featuring recurring protagonist Lew Archer.
Detective Fiction
London, Thornton Butterworth, [c.1934].. Crime Circle Novels series. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6. An attractive edition of this teasingly lycanthropic novel, translated from the original French. The jacket design for the series is by Bip Pares, whose work also graced the jackets for Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker and James Hilton's Mr Chips titles, amongst many others.
Detective Fiction
London, F.V. White & Co., Ltd., 1915.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in black. Dust-jacket, priced 6/.
An uncommon murder mystery, particularly in the original 1915 dust-jacket, a rare survivor.
Modern Literature
London, MacGibbon & Kee, 1959.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered in gilt to spine. Dust-jacket, priced 15s.
Classic coming-of-age novel set in 1950s London, following the journey of a young photographer and the "absolute beginners" generation. Adapted for film in 1986, featuring Bowie's song inspired by the book.
Modern Literature
London, MacGibbon & Kee, 1957.
First edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 15s.
A picaresque novel set in London and following the experiences of a newly arrived Nigerian youth and his official mentor.
Modern Literature
London, Cassell, 1925.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, no price.
An excellent first edition of this the sequel to Mackenzie's Carnival.
War, Invasion & Spy
First edition.
London. Hutchinson, [1940]
Part of the ‘First Novel’ series. Hutchinson’s First Novel Library would go on to publish a total of 139 titles in the series before ending in 1951, comprising first novels, often by authors using a pseudonym.
Detective Fiction
London, Collins Crime Club, 1945.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket,
The first edition of the Scottish author's first novel, featuring former CID detective David Stanners. Uncommon in the jacket.
Modern Literature
and other stories
London, Macmillan, 1948.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8s6d.
'Short stories reflecting a wide field of human emotion' (jacket), by Irish playwright, novelist and short story writer MacMahon.
Modern Literature
London, Faber & Faber, 1938.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 25s.
The second collection of poetry by Irish poet MacNeice, with the correct blurb to the jacket's front inside panel: 'Mr. MacNeice's position as a poet was incontestably established in 1935 by his first volume of Poems. He is one of the few poets to-day none of whose poems could have been written by anyone else. His second volume has been awaited for some time: now that it has arrived, it needs no advertisement.'
Detective Fiction
First edition, second impression first month as first state April 1935.
London. Collins, 1935
Stephen Maddock was a pseudonym used by prolific adventure and crime fiction writer JT Walsh born 1897 to 1952. He had two main series characters under this name: Inspector Slane and Timothy Terrel, the latter of whom appears in Conspirators in Capri. Very scarce in a jacket.
Detective Fiction
First edition.
London, Collins, 1947.
Stephen Maddock was a pseudonym of JM Walsh and used for his more explicitly criminous titles.
Biography
A story which began in China
London, Cape, 1947.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.
The autobiography of the daughter of a Chinese diplomat, reflecting on her experiences and education in England and the USA, and her time learning to paint in France.
19th century literature
A Modern Grotesque
London, Methuen, 1907.
Fifth edition. Small 8vo. Original read cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/-.
A rare jacketed edition of this intriguing insight into the nature of English fin-de-siecle grotesquery, and in particular the role of the then "modern woman". The author was widely regarded as one of the leading writers of fiction in the English-speaking world at the time, but has become somewhat forgotten in the mists of time it seems.
African literature
Introduction by Oliver Tambo. Edited by Ruth First
London, Heinemann, 1965.
First edition. 8vo. Original black boards lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket.
A very good first edition of Mandela's collected early writings, including his famous speech at the Rivonia Trial (1964). Distinctly uncommon, preceding his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom by almost thirty years.
Weird & Supernatural
London, George Newnes, 1894.
First edition. 8vo. Advertisements, patterned endpapers. Original decorative cloth.
A collection of linked stories of a supernatural bent, originally published serially in The Strand, here collected for the first time. The author would go on to garner relative acclaim for his Haggard-esque Under the Naga Banner (1896), and lost-race tale The Great Green Serpent (1926).
Horror & Gothic
Marlowe (G.S., pseud. Gabriel Beer-Hofmann) I am your Brother
London, Collins, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced at 7/6.
Cult novel about a man who discovers his mother has been hiding his monstrous brother in the attic, the author's only dalliance within the fringes of Sci-Fi. Very scarce in the original Rex Whistler jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Jonathan Cape, 1970.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, priced 35s/£1.75.
A very nice first UK edition of this famous multi-generational story by Colombian writer and Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez, published three years after the South American edition.
Detective Fiction
London, Collins Crime Club, 1943.
First edition. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
A murder mystery, set in a thermal spa in the author's home country New Zealand.
Detective Fiction
London, Collins Crime Club, 1940.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
An uncommon first edition, featuring Marsh's series character Chief Detective-Inspector Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard.
Detective Fiction
London, Collins Crime Club, 1939. First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth lettered in black. Dust-jacket, without price (Colonial issue?) A Haycraft Queen Cornerstone, and a scarce first edition in the original jacket. This is the eighth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and the third novel in which Alleyn's love interest, the painter Agatha Troy features, hastening the imminent departure of Nigel Bathgate (Alleyn's "Watson").
London, Digby, Long, 1900.
First edition. 8vo. Advertisement leaf, publisher's catalogue at end dated October 1900. Original pictorial cloth blocked in white, black & green.
A very attractive turn-of-the-century title by the author of The Beetle. Listed in Hubin.