Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1930.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth-backed marbled boards. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
The first edition of this science fiction author's reflections on the ways in which the world might in fact end.
Detective Fiction
London, Macmillan, 1977.
First edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced £3.50.
The scarce third Inspector Morse title.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Rapp & Whiting, 1970.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced £1.40.
A very good first UK edition of this novel set in a future 1992 where psychics are common and utilised in corporate espionage while intricate technologies allow recently deceased people to be maintained in a lengthy state of hibernation.
Modern Literature
Diehl (Ludwig); Wilcox (Louise Collier, translator) The Sardonic Smile
London, Thornton Butterworth, 1928.
First English edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A very nice, jacketed first edition in English of Diehl's novelised take on the life of Heinrich Heine.
Children's Books
London, John Lane The Bodley Head, 1934.
First UK edition. Small 4to. Original pictorial boards. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
"Story and Illustrations by the staff of the Walt Disney Studios".
Children's Books
London, Newnes, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
Maritime treasure-hunting thriller for children; listed in Hubin.
![Arthur Conan Doyle, [Adventures of Sherlock Holmes], in vol.III of The Strand, January - June 1892](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/85658-300x300.jpg)
Detective Fiction
comprising: The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle; The Adventure of the Speckled Band; The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor; The Adventure of the Copper Beeches
London, George Newnes, 1892.
Together in The Strand Magazine, vol.III January to June. 4to. Bound in contemporary half calf, spine gilt.
Including several of the most famous Sherlock Holmes adventures, in their original first appearance.
Victorian Literature
and other stories of War and Sport
London, Smith, Elder, 1900.
First edition. 8vo. Advertisements at end. Original red pictorial cloth lettered in gilt.
A very good first edition of this collection of stories by the creator of Sherlock Holmes.
Detective Fiction
London, Newnes, 1902.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth blocked in elaborate gilt to upper cover and spine, with inset black silhouette of the Hound to upper cover.
Without doubt one of the most thrilling and atmospheric adventures of everybody's favourite consulting detective, a glorious blend of goth pseudo supernatural and definitive Holmesian deductive scene stealing, The Hound of the Baskervilles exists very much in a realm of its own.
The novel, the third of four featuring Holmes, was the first tale to be published after Doyle threw his most notable creation off a waterfall, and its considerable commercial success was really the catalyst for Holmes' triumphal return to life. With more plots than Varney the Vampire (actually five in all, including red herrings...so we're exaggerating, because everyone knows Varney has about 750), it seems very much a harking back to the Victorian style of creeper, very Le Fanu or Wilkie Collins, with its diary entries, and letters, unearthed manuscript and doom laden portents uttered by gloomy locals staring out of windows overlooking marsh land.
American Literature
An essay toward an autobiography of a race concept
New York, Harcourt, Brace, 1940.
First edition. 8vo. Original dark orange cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $3.00.
An important work, regarded in part as one of the first scientific treatises in the field of American sociology. The title refers to his hope that African Americans were passing out of the darkness of racism into an era of greater equality.
American Literature
The Negroes in the Making of America
Boston, Mass., The Stratford Co., 1924.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in gilt.
An important work by the American sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist Du Bois, highlighting the unique contributions of African-Americans in building the United States.
Children's Books
Dulac (Edmund).- Quiller-Couch (Sir Arthur) The Sleeping Beauty
and other fairy tales from the old French
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1910.
First Dulac edition. Deluxe issue, one of 1000 numbered copies signed by the artist. 4to. Original brown morocco gilt.
A handsome copy of the superior issue of Dulac's rendering of these fairy tale classics.
Detective Fiction
London, Skeffington, n.d..
Early printing, stating '6th Thousand' on jacket spine. 8vo. Original olive cloth. Dust-jacket, with price rather dramatically excised from spine.
An early printing of the US author's first book.
Detective Fiction
Eadie (Arlton, pseud. Leopold Leonard Eadie) The Crimson Query
London, Skeffington, n.d..
Early printing, stating '7th Thousand' to title-page. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
Originally published in 1929, sometimes subtitled Or How the Squid Got Besuckered, introduces a villain known as the Crimson Query because he leaves, Zorro-like, a sign of his machinations. In this case, a bright red question mark. All in all, this hard-to-find detective story stands alongside the more horrific novels Eadie is known for.
Detective Fiction
London, Arthur H. Stockwell, [1929].
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
A very good first edition of an elusive crime thriller, especially in the jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Nicholson & Watson, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Attractive jacket artwork on this uncommon first edition about the divisive effect a legacy gift has on a town.
African literature
A Journal of African and Afro-American Literature. No.17
Ibadan, Nigeria, For Mbari Club by Longmans of Nigeria, June 1965.
Small folio. Original pictorial wrappers.
An attractive issue of this seminal West African literary journal. Includes 'The Voter' by Chinua Achebe.
"The steady development of Black Orpheus over the last seven years amounts to a remarkable achievement. It has succeeded in breaking the vicious circle that seems to inhibit the development of a proper reading public by its continued existence, by its very availability; more than that, it has also gone on to establish itself as one of the most important formative influences in modern African literature.…It can be said, without much exaggeration, that the founding of Black Orpheus, if it did not directly inspire new writing in English-speaking Africa, at least coincided with the first promptings of a new, modern, literary expression and re-inforced it by keeping before the potential writer the example of the achievements of the French-speaking and Negro American writers." (Abiola Irele, editor, Journal of Modern African Studies). The magazine ceased publication in 1975.
African literature
A Journal of African and Afro-American Literature. No.18
Ibadan, Nigeria, For Mbari Club by Longmans of Nigeria, October 1965.
Small folio. Original pictorial wrappers.
An attractive issue of this seminal West African literary journal. Includes an article on 'African Writers of the 18th century'.
"The steady development of Black Orpheus over the last seven years amounts to a remarkable achievement. It has succeeded in breaking the vicious circle that seems to inhibit the development of a proper reading public by its continued existence, by its very availability; more than that, it has also gone on to establish itself as one of the most important formative influences in modern African literature.…It can be said, without much exaggeration, that the founding of Black Orpheus, if it did not directly inspire new writing in English-speaking Africa, at least coincided with the first promptings of a new, modern, literary expression and re-inforced it by keeping before the potential writer the example of the achievements of the French-speaking and Negro American writers." (Abiola Irele, editor, Journal of Modern African Studies). The magazine ceased publication in 1975.
Detective Fiction
London, Faber & Faber, 1935.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
22 murder stories that only appeared in periodical form before.
Non-Fiction
London, Routledge for the Fabian Society, 1942.
First edition. 8vo. Original patterned boards, rebacked preserving original backstrip.
The fifth in a series of six lectures organised by the Fabian Society. Orwell was not happy that his own lecture, 'Culture and Democracy', had been included, writing in 1942: "I see that beside toning down several phrases I used you have gone all through my manuscript and altered every phrase which revealed that I was delivering a spoken lecture … it gives a quite false impression of my written style and makes me use phrases which I should never dream of using".
Weird & Supernatural
London, Sampson Low, Marston & Co., [1929].
First edition. 8vo. Original dark red cloth. Dust-jacket.
A collection of Farnol's shorter fiction, including the tale 'Black coffee' with it is Ancient Egyptian themes. A popular author for weird & supernatural anthologies. Scarce in the jacket. Stories featured:
The Shadow.--Captain Hector.--Retribution.--The heir.--Black coffee.--Upon a day.--A boy and the man.--An episode.--Jasper Railton.--The cupboard.--Fortune's fool.--A change of mind.--Journey's end.--The great quietude.--Sir Pertolepe the Red.--The divine Phyllidia.--A woman's reason.
Detective Fiction
London, Francis Aldor, [1946].
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
"Miss Fenisong knows her New York backgrounds very well, as she shows in this exciting story of what happened in Brooklyn Heights when the family from Gramercy Park moved over." (jacket blurb)
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Pan Books, 1955.
First reprint of the first paperback edition. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers.
The first paperback edition of Fleming's first James Bond book, the blonde Bond adorning the cover seemingly anticipating Daniel Craig's eventual adoption of the role...
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Jonathan Cape, 1965. First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original plain black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 18s. A very decent first edition of the last full-length James Bond novel by Ian Fleming, in the plain second state boards. Under the heat of the Caribbean sun, Bond faces a seemingly impossible task: win a duel against Scaramanga, the Man with the Golden Gun, and regain M's trust.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Pan, 1967.
First Pan edition. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers, priced 3/6.
Set apart from the other books in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, The Spy Who Loved Me is told from the perspective of a femme fatale in the making, Vivienne Michel.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Jonathan Cape, 1963.
First edition. Small 4to. Original cloth-backed boards. Dust-jacket, priced 30s.
An attractive first edition of Bond-creator Fleming's adventure-charged visit to the world's most exciting, exotic and sinful cities. Includes snapshots of Hong Kong, Tokyo, Honolulu, Las Vegas, New York and Monte Carlo.
War, Invasion & Spy
London, Pan Books, 1963.
First paperback edition. 8vo. Original wrappers.
The first paperback edition of Fleming's ninth James Bond book.
Detective Fiction
London, Ward Lock, n.d. [c.1930].
8vo. Original red cloth lettered in black.
An early edition of this interesting yarn about two ex-jailbirds threatened by a blackmailing detective. Originally published in 1919.
Modern Literature
London, Skeffington, 1952.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
"Here is a delightfully witty compound of frolic, fantasy and satire, which describes what happens when an African magician gets busy in an English village..." (jacket blurb)
Biography
A Personal Remembrance
London, Duckworth, 1924.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth lettered in gilt to spine. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A personal remembrance of the author Joseph Conrad, by the author Ford Madox Ford. Uncommon in the dust-jacket.
Modern Literature
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1901.
First edition. 8vo. Title printed in red & black. Original red cloth lettered & decorated in gilt.
An early title by this once hugely popular writer, an English author of popular romances, and a poet and children's writer.
South Africa, The Automobile Association of South Africa, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth, gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 20/-.
An attractive guide to the then blossoming road routes that were opening up South Africa to the tourist.
Weird & Supernatural
London & Edinburgh, Chambers, 1929.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
A rare book in jacket; a collection of tales and stories dealing in a popular way with haunted Scottish houses, historic ghosts of Midlothian, and similar subjects, including werewolf interest.
Weird & Supernatural
Translated by G.F. Monkhood
London, Literary Press, n.d..
8vo. Original red cloth, spine gilt.
An attractive jacketed edition of Gautier's Le Roman de La Momie, originally published in 1858, a historical novel set in Ancient Egypt, which features the Biblical Exodus.
Weird & Supernatural
Original stories illustrating posthumous personality and character... Sole Edition
London, Roxburghe Press, [1894].
First edition. 8vo. Title-page printed in green. Original green cloth.
Scarce edition of weird stories: "...these blood-curdling tales are published on a novel plan. The fiction has never been serialised; during the continuance of the copyright no other edition will appear; there will be no sale after the last day of March, 1895. Every reader is thus made a participator in two advantages, for all the matter is fresh, and it is quite certain that the book can be safely purchased for presentation- if a friend's hair is to be turned into quills. And now a few words with regard to Phantasms. It may be judged from this engaging title that apparitions play at hide-and-seek among these pages. Only two of the stories are free of shudders, and we think we may venture to say that there are few readers, however jaded, however distant from the habit of shivering over bogies, who will not go somewhat mincingly to bed after spending the midnight with Mr. Wirt Gerrare." (The Literary World, vol.LI, 1895)
Detective Fiction
London, Ward Lock, 1937.
First edition. 8vo. Original beige cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
An attractive 'thirties title, involving cheque-book fraud.