Detective Fiction
London, John Long, 1965.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
A stand-alone crime thriller set in a Nottinghamshire housing development, in which a doctor investigates the suspicious death of a disliked man apparently killed by wasp stings at his wife's birthday party.
Ghost Stories
London, Psychic Press Limited, 1948.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
The case of a spectral presence in an 1880s Cheltenham mansion, a tall, veiled woman in black, reported repeatedly to the daughters of the Despard family and investigated by the then newly founded Society for Psychical Research.
Horror & Gothic
London, Heinemann, 1903.
First edition, first issue (with Chapter XVI present). 8vo. Original red cloth with blind-tooled scarab motif to covers, lettered in black to upper cover, with gilt lettering to spine.
One of the rarer Stoker titles as a first edition, probably due to the fragile nature of the production. This edition features the original ending, before it was updated to a slightly more upbeat version.
Edinburgh, for Archibald Constable and Company; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1812.
First edition. 4to. Contemporary calf, gilt-roll borders and decorative blind-tooled border to boards, spine elaborately gilt-tooled compartments within raised bands.
Maria Graham (née Dundas; 1785-1842) later Maria, Lady Callcott, was a British writer of travel books and children's books, and also an accomplished illustrator. She moved to India in 1808, marrying a Scottish naval officer in 1809. The couple returned to England in 1811, where Graham published this work, Journal of a Residence in India, followed soon afterwards by Letters on India.
Soviet Russia, 1920... with an introduction by Col. John Buchan
London, Methuen, 1931.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A fascinating insight into life in Soviet Russia in the early days of Bolshevik rule, from the rescue of Prince Peter Wolkonsky by his wife, who had succeeded in escaping Russia in 1919 but returned on foot to Petrograd to secure the release of her husband from a Moscow prison. It recounts her travels and the conditions she found, and their eventual crossing of the border into Estonia.
Detective Fiction
London, The Cresset Press, 1958.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original baords. Dust-jacket, priced 15/- (though scored out by hand and changed to 2/6).
Set aboard a small passenger ship sailing from Liverpool to Barbados, the novel presents a series of fatal "accidents" among a mixed group of passengers, investigated by an amateur sleuth, a middle-aged conductor named Edgar Cantrell.
Weird & Supernatural
Twenty-One Tales
London, Percival Marshall, [1951].
First edition, first impression. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
Rare collection of weird tales by Irish author Barker, perhaps best known for his ghost story 'Whessoe'. Inscribed by him to the front free endpaper.
Disaster Story
London, Sampson Low, Marston, [1936].
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, clipped to inside front flap but with price 5/- present.
The only Hubin-listed title by this presumed Canadian author; uncommon.
Modern Literature
A Comedy in Three Acts
London, Chatto & Windus, 1926.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original stiff card printed wrappers.
Awarded the 1925 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this comedy was the basis for Frank Loesser's acclaimed Broadway musical The Most Happy Fella (1957). Howard also wrote the screenplay for Gone with the Wind (1939).
Modern Literature
A play in three acts
London, Heinemann, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original boards, printed spine label. Dust-jacket, priced 5/-.
Set in pre-First World War Europe, the play tells the story of two brothers who are composers, sharing a flat and in love with two women; the original West End run starred Elisabeth Bergner, for whom the play was written.
Translated from the Portuguese by J.B. Wood
Clarksburg, VA., Saucerian Books, 1960.
First US edition, first printing. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced $3.75.
A story in the vein of classic contactee George Adamski, in which a nameless alien from the moons of Jupiter, described as a good Christian, conveyed to Felix a series of unorthodox scientific claims and prophecies. Felix later resurfaced as a cult leader and prophet, making predictions about natural disasters and terrorist attacks during a politically turbulent period in Brazil.
Non-Fiction
London, Lutterworth Press, 1963.First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.An account of a four-month journey through the Northern Territory of Australia, the book ranges from the Tropic of Capricorn across desert landscapes and mangrove coasts, focusing substantially on Aboriginal culture and art.
Detective Fiction
London, Methuen, 1930.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth.
One of two Hubin-listed titles by this author, featuring Inspector Digby. Seemingly rare.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, [1939].
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Maugham's most political novel, written just before the outbreak of World War II. In 1944 it was adapted into an American film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly, often classified as a film noir.
Detective Fiction
Macdonald (John Ross, pseud. Kenneth Millar) The Barbarous Coast
London, Cassell, 1957.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Lew Archer's attempt to locate a missing young woman associated with an upscale Malibu country club, an early foreshadowing of Macdonald's later treatment of cross-generational themes.
Modern Literature
London, Hogarth Press, 1950.
First edition, second impression. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8/6 and stating 'second impression'.
An attractive second impression of this work by Guyanese author Mittelhölzer, particularly notable in the context of Caribbean literature. The author sadly killed himself in 1965, at the age of 55. An important book.
Detective Fiction
London, Chapman & Hall, 1904.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth.
A collection of adventure stories featuring Don Quebranta Huesos, a fearsome Spanish bandit who operates as a kind of antihero.
![Alternative view of Bishop (Major [W.A.]) Winged Warfare.](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/88182_2-300x300.jpg)
Hunting the Huns in the Air
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1918.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth.
A vivid account of the early days of aerial combat, describing Bishop's Nieuport Scout and his battles against the Baron von Richthofen's squadron. Air Marshal William Avery Bishop, VC, CB, DSO & Bar, MC, DFC, ED (1894-1956) was a Canadian flying ace officially credited with 72 victories, making him the top Canadian and British Empire ace of the First World War.
Detective Fiction
An account of the hitherto unknown circumstances connected with the extraordinary affair of Charles Michael Haworth
London, Cassell, 1928.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth.
First published in the US the year before, this is the only novel by the actor Gillette, famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. "The mystery addict who wants... horrors tempered by novelty and a good style will be entranced both by the originality of the plot and by Mr. Gillette's unfolding of it... a mystery that will puzzle the most seasoned reader of detective thrillers. It is a most amazing and baffling crime." (US jacket blurb)
and other poems
London, Macmillan, December 1933.
First edition, second impression. 8vo. Original blind-tooled sage cloth decorated in gilt to spine. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
An excellent example of the second impression of this collection by Yeats, the title poem from which had originally been published in 1929 by Fountain Press in a signed limited edition.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1947.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Contemporary library cloth with ex-libris stamp to upper cover. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
Bowers' fifth & final novel, concerns a series of apparent suicides in a quiet English village and the murder of a local business proprietress, investigated by Detective Inspector Raikes.
Non-Fiction
London, Macmillan, 1933.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, publisher's price label of 5s net to upper panel and spine.
George Saintsbury (1845-1933) was one of the most prolific and influential literary critics of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, holding the chair of English Literature at Edinburgh from 1895 to 1915.
London, Hobart Manufacturing Co., June 1935.
4to. Original pictorial wrappers. Housed in custom cloth case with colour illustration and title label to upper cover and 2 inset illustrations to lower.
A special souvenir issue relating to the French Line's North Atlantic steamship Normandie.
Detective Fiction
Hopley (George, pseud. Cornell Woolrich) Night Has a Thousand Eyes
New York & Toronto, Farrar & Rinehart, 1945.
First edition, first printing. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.50. Housed in later drop-back cloth box (somewhat misleadingly stating 'signed', which the book is not).
The novel centres on a con man haunted by a genuine clairvoyant ability - an unusual blend of noir and the supernatural. Cornell Woolrich (1903-68), who also wrote as William Irish, is a foundational figure of noir fiction whose work inspired numerous films including Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954). First edition copies in dust jacket are scarce.
Horror & Gothic
London, Heinemann, 1927.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6. Housed in later drop-back cloth box (somewhat misleadingly stating 'signed', which the book is not).
Priestley's only foray into horror, rare in the dust-jacket. Benighted was adapted into the classic James Whale film The Old Dark House (1932), and has more recently been adapted for the stage.
A Survey of Evidence
London, Faber & Faber, 1939.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Sir Ernest Bennett (1868–1947) was a British Liberal MP and psychical researcher who compiled this survey of reported apparitions and hauntings as an evidential study.
Detective Fiction
London, Geoffrey Bles, 1939.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
An uncommon bibliomystery by this British detective fiction writer of the Golden Age, who authored some thirty mystery novels, many featuring Detective Inspector William Austen.
American Literature
A true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
London, Hamish Hamilton, 1966.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Considered by many to be the prototypical true crime novel, In Cold Blood details the 1959 Clutter family murders in the small farming community of Holcomb, Kansas; Capote learned of the quadruple murder before the killers were captured, and spent six years working on the book, which he described as a "non-fiction novel."
n.p., G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1937.
First edition, first printed. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.50.
A work adapted from the diary of a Scots private during World War I: 'It ends as it began with the sight of the long road unrolling from the opened end of a moving car; first a lorry and last an ambulance.' (jacket blurb)
Weird & Supernatural
drawn from various trials...edited by the Rev. Montague Summers
n.p., John Rodker, 1929.
One of 1275 copies. 8vo. Title-page printed in red & black, rubricated initials. Original boards with paper-covered covers. Dust-jacket, priced 25/-.
First published in 1590, An Examen of Witches describes the witch trials conducted by Boguet and includes a chapter on the procedure necessary to a judge in trials for witchcraft. It is one of a group of important witchcraft texts published by John Rodker (who also issued Summers's translation of the Malleus Maleficarum), a publisher often associated with modernist works & authors.
Horror & Gothic
London, B.T. Batsford, 1956.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 21s.
A non-fiction survey of British haunted houses with illustrations by Felix Kelly, whose atmospheric paintings of country houses and gothic interiors were widely admired.
American Literature
London, Picador, 1985.
First UK hardback edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
The eighth novel by Underworld author Don DeLillo; widely considered DeLillo's breakout work, it won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction, was included in Time's List of the 100 Best Novels and is generally regarded as a cornerstone example of postmodern literature.
Modern Literature
London, Sampson Low, Marston, [1931].
First edition, early impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5/-.
Book and wrapper are both early issues based on titles listed on half-title. A story of the films and of the stunt girl whose life is full of thrilling adventures, told in Mr. Starr's entertaining manner.
A new edition including many pieces now first published, and notices of his life and work by Edmund Blunden
London, Chatto & Windus, 1931.
First edition thus, first impression. 8vo. Original purple cloth.
The 1931 Blunden edition adds nineteen poems to the first edition of 1920 edited by Siegfried Sassoon, and represents the second major collected edition of Owen's work.
American Literature
London, Michael Joseph, 1964.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
A first UK edition of American writer & civil rights activist James Baldwin's first non-fiction book, first published in the US in 1955. The ten essays collected here include Baldwin's critiques of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Richard Wright's Native Son, alongside reflections on his decade living in Paris.
Weird & Supernatural
A Study of Master Matthew Hopkins commonly call'd Witch Finder Generall...together with a Reprint of The Discovery of Witches from the rare original of 1647
London, at The Cayme Press, 1928.
First edition. Small 4to. Original wrappers with printed title label to upper cover.
Summers' introductory narration on Matthew Hopkins's The Discovery of Witches, an essay by the notorious seventeenth-century witch hunter who was the driving force behind the execution of more than a hundred alleged witches in the 1640s.
Sexuality & Erotica
London, Secker & Warburg, 1958.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Largely autobiographical, Peyrefitte's famous work on adolescence deals with an intimate relationship between two boys at a Roman Catholic boarding school and how it is destroyed by a priest's will to protect them from homosexuality. An uncommon title, in attractive Ayrton jacket.
Children's Books
London, Oxford University Press; Humphrey Milford, 1937.
First edition. 8vo. Original dark blue cloth with gilt stamp to upper cover and stamped in black to spine. Third issue (1942) dust-jacket, price-clipped.
First serialised in twelve parts as 'Biggles' Treasure Island' in The Modern Boy between June and September 1937, the plot sends Biggles, Algy and Ginger to the Caribbean in search of a cursed doubloon and a long-lost pirate hoard.
Weird & Supernatural
London, Arthur Barker, 1934.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Second issue dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
A dark Gothic novel set on a Cornish farm, Raven's Brood centres on old John Pentreath's fear of God and love of the flesh & drink - a far cry from the work usually associated with the author of the Mapp & Lucia series. Rare in the jacket.
American Literature
A short history
New York [London], Alfred A. Knopf, 1929.
First UK edition, on US sheets. 8vo. Original cloth-backed patterned boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.
A satirical overview of American history from "discovery" to the present, featuring explanatory diagrams and caricatures by the author. The book did not sell well, seemingly a contributing factor to the author & illustrator's suicide in 1931.
Horror & Gothic
London, George Routledge, 1914.
Fifth impression. 8vo. Advertisement for The Lair of the White Worm. Original red cloth decorated in black.
A collection of nine supernatural short stories by Bram Stoker, published posthumously in 1914 by George Routledge & Sons at the behest of his widow Florence Balcombe. The title story is widely believed to be the deleted opening chapter of Dracula (1897): Florence Stoker writes in her preface that it was "originally excised owing to the length of the book."
American Literature
Around the world in 100 days...foreword by Lowell Thomas
New York & London, D. Appleton-Century Company, 1935.
First edition, first printing. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.00 with code 3289**** to foot of inside front flap.
Pierrot was born in Chicago in 1898, but grew up in Washington state, and came to Detroit to edit The American Boy magazine; he went on to found the World Adventure Series at the Detroit Institute of Arts.