Modern Literature
Boston, Little, Brown & Company, 1938.
First US edition. 8vo. Original yellow cloth lettered in red. Dust-jacket, neatly price-clipped.
Attractive jacket artwork on this US edition of one of Waugh's most famous works, in which the protagonist, William Boot, is loosely based on the journalist Bill Deedes, with whom Waugh had worked alongside in Abyssinia.
Modern Literature
New York, Farrar & Rinehart, 1932.
Second US edition. 8vo. Original yellow cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.50.
Originally published in England under the title Remote People.
Modern Literature
London, Longmans, Green and Co., 1936.
Waugh's intriguing mix of travel writing, political commentary, and journalistic observation that offers a snapshot of the Abyssinia Crisis of the 1930s. The worked courted some controversy upon publication, with some, including author Rose Macaulay, considering it too supportive of the Italian Fascists.
Modern Literature
London, Hutchinson, [1926].
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
An attractively jacketed example of this twenties first edition.
Modern Literature
London & New York, Harper, 1900.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth blocked in gilt.
A decent H.G. Wells first edition. Young, impoverished and ambitious, science student Mr Lewisham is locked in a struggle to further himself through academic achievement.
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.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, William Heinemann, 1896.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth, with publisher's monogram in black to lower board.
A shipwrecked man uncovers horrifying scientific experiments turning animals into human-like beings on a remote island...a cautionary tale.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, William Heinemann, 1896.
First UK edition, first impression, issue with rear advertisement for The Time Machine on terminal leaf preceding publisher's list. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth, with publisher's monogram in black to lower board.
A shipwrecked man uncovers horrifying scientific experiments turning animals into human-like beings on a remote island...a cautionary tale.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Heinemann, 1896.
First UK edition, first impression, issue with rear advertisement for The Time Machine on terminal leaf preceding publisher's list, beginning with The Nigger of the "Narcissus" and ends with Chun-ti-Kung by Claude Rees. 8vo. Original pictorial cloth, with publisher's monogram in black to lower board.
A very good first UK edition of Wells' "weird science" classic, contemplating the blurred lines between man and beast, civilisation and savagery...
Horror & Gothic
London, Methuen, 1897.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original red cloth blocked & lettered in gilt.
A very good first edition of this collection of short stories by Wells, comprising ghost stories, tales of horror and even a cautionary tale about an apple.
Modern Literature
London, Herbert Jenkins, 1924.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 2/6 with contemporary bookseller's price sticker '1/-' to upper panel.
The novel's title references H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, where Morlocks live underground as the world's workers. In Welsh's book, the Morlocks symbolise covert groups in trade unions aiming to incite revolution, leading to tragic consequences during a major miners' strike. Notably, the author was a miner, trade unionist, and served twenty years as an MP for the Scottish Labour Party.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Alston Rivers, [1905].
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth with red zigzag line down upper cover and lettered in gilt.
Military fiction by Brigadier-General Arthur Frank Umfreville Green CMG DSO, a senior British Army officer in World War I and author of several publications.
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.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1937.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in black. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
The author's second 'Miss Silver' book, extremely uncommon in the original, artistically excellent, dust-jacket. A compelling tale of wrongful imprisonment and the pursuit for justice that eventually falls on the shoulders of Miss Silver to take up.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1944.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 8/6.
On New Year's Eve 1940, James Paradine accuses a family member of theft and is later found dead. Miss Silver must unravel the tangled web of family resentment to solve the mystery. Uncommon in jacket.
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.
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
and other stories
London, Ernest Benn Limited, 1927.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original yellow cloth ruled and lettered in black.
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.
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.
Children's Books
London, Collins, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
The second book in White's series 'The Once and Future King'. It continues the story of the newly crowned King Arthur, his tutelage by the wise Merlyn, his war against King Lot, and also introduces the Orkney clan.
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...
Detective Fiction
London, Cassell, 1957.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original black boards lettered in silver. Dust-jacket, priced 12/6.
Hardboiled noir fiction by the author of Dead Calm.
African literature
Ibadan, Mbari Publications, 1964.
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers.
Inspired by the songs and verse traditions of the author's native Ewe people, this marked the publishing debut of the Ghanaian poet and author Williams, also known as Kofi Awoonor. Uncommon in this condition.
![Lloyd Williams, The Great Raid, first edition, [1909]](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/85546-300x300.jpg)
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, The Black and White Publishing Company, [1909].
First edition. 8vo. Original pictorial boards, smartly rebacked in later blue cloth.
A scarce 'future war' title, with only seven copies seemingly recorded in institutional holdings and no auction records we could trace. The work first appeared in serial form the same year: "...a relatively late Battle of Dorking tale, The Great Raid: A Story of Britain's Peril (13 February-15 May 1909 Black and White; 1909), with the German Invasion of Britain being narrated with a clear apprehension of the nature and possibilities of a Future War in Europe. Unusually for novels of this type during these years, there are hints of trench warfare." (The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction). The author was a journalist and author of ten works of popular fiction. Presumed particularly rare in the original boards.
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
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)