The 59th new york book fair a modern selection
STAND D22
Item 13
BLACKWELL’S RARE BOOKS 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BQ, UK Tel.: +44 (0)1865 333555 Fax: +44 (0)1865 794143 Email: [email protected] Twitter: @blackwellrare blackwell.co.uk/rarebooks
BLACKWELL’S RARE BOOKS
1. Carroll (Lewis) Doublets. A Word-Puzzle. Macmillan, 1879, FIRST EDITION, light browning to title-page and terminal blank, pp. 39, 12mo, original red cloth, blind-stamped border to both boards with lettering in gilt to upper, some light soiling with black ink spot at head of lower board, front hinge a little tender, good $3,580 A presentation copy, inscribed at the head of the title-page: ‘Alice Hull from the author’. Dodgson had met the Hull family during his holidays at Eastbourne, which became a regular destination for him from 1876 onwards - the pater familias was Henry Hull, a London barrister, but Dodgson’s attention was largely absorbed by his four daughters, particularly Agnes Georgina, for whom he developed an infatuation that became disconcerting to its subject. A well-known acrostic was written for the latter, and his interaction with them followed an established pattern: he would draw and photograph them whilst offering in return entertainment of various types, including the output of his playful and inventive mind in the form of letters, riddles, verse, and games - in respect of the latter, the present gift seems an appropriate one. ‘Doublets’ is an enduring invention by the ingenious Dodgson. A notable features of Carroll’s version of the game, as opposed to its popular versions in modern newspapers, is that the progressions are in themselves humorous, APE to MAN, for instance, CAIN to ABEL, HOOK to FISH, &c.
2. Markham (Albert H[astings]) A Polar Reconnaissance. Being The Voyage of the “Isbjörn” in 1879 to Novaya Zemlya in 1879. C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1881, FIRST EDITION, 6 plates, 4 illustrations, 2 folding maps at rear, p.81 with short tear at fore- margin, pp. xvi, [ii], 362, 2 folding maps, 8vo, original royal blue decorated boards, spine lettered in gilt, chocolate brown endpapers, corners bumped, spine faded and rubbed at head and foot, boards with slight bubbling, top edge dust-soiled, hinges cracked but holding, good $1,560 A first-hand account of the Isbjörn’s voyage to Novaya Zemlya, a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, in search of the ideal route to the North Pole, which Markham was convinced could be achievable in the summer months, with observations on ice conditions, animals and birds. Admiral Sir Albert Hastings Markham’s illustrious career included helping to suppress the South Sea island slave trade, achieving, by sledge-party, the highest altitude yet attained at the time, in the Arctic, in 1876, and meticulously documenting Pacific gulls - Markham’s Storm Petrel was named in his honour. A copy of this book was included in the onboard collection, the National Antarctic Expedition Library, which Captain Scott took on his Discovery expedition of 1901-04.
3. Ibsen (Henrik) Hedda Gabler. Skuespil I Fire Akter. Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandels, 1890, FIRST EDITION, tiny mark at foot of page 5, pp. [iv], 236, foolscap 8vo, original red cloth, stamped in black and gilt to upper board and backstrip, the latter very gently faded with a slight lean, lower board with blind-stamped border and publisher device, a hint of rubbing to extremities, a.e.g., patterned endpapers, very good $1,950 Issued simultaneously in various colours of cloth - this a very attractive copy of the desirable red version. A hugely important work, selected by Carter & Muir for inclusion in ‘Printing and the Mind of Man’ - though with the qualification that ‘it is virtually impossible to select any one play’. The text in Danish, and the edition preceded by one of 12 copies printed in London in Norwegian for the purposes of copyright.
4. (Yeats.) The Book of THE RHYMERS’ CLUB. Elkin Mathews, 1892, FIRST EDITION, ONE OF 450 COPIES, title-page printed in black and red, pp. xv, 94, small 4to, original mustard cloth, backstrip with browned printed label, some minor dustsoiling to cloth, edges roughtrimmed with a few faint spots, endpapers faintly spotted, ownership initials of A.E. (i.e., Albert Ehrman) in pencil to rear pastedown, good $780 Contains six contributions by W.B. Yeats; other contributors included Ernest Dowson, Lionel Johnson, Richard Le Gallienne, Ernest Rhys, Arthur Symons, Richard le Gallienne and John Todhunter. From the library of noted collector Albert Ehrman (and subsequently in the collection of his son, John). [With, containing a further six Yeats contributions:] The Second Book of THE RHYMERS’ CLUB. Elkin Mathews & John Lane. 1894, FIRST EDITION, ONE OF 500 COPIES,pp. xvi, 136, 15 [ads dated May 1894], small 4to, original dark brown bevel-edged buckram, backstrip gilt lettered, edges untrimmed with a few spots, ownership initials of A.E. (i.e., Albert Ehrman) in pencil to rear pastedown, very good
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5. Dostoievsky (F[yodor]) Poor Folk. Translated from the Russian... by Lena Milman with an Introduction by George Moore. Elkin Mathews and John Lane: Roberts Brothers, Boston. 1894, FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, title printed in red, with a design by Aubrey Beardsley on the title-page, tissue-guarded, pp. xx, 192, xvi [Publisher’s list for March 1894], crown 8vo, original yellow cloth, backstrip gilt lettered, design of a key on the backstrip (repeated to lower board) and lettering and Beardsley design on the front cover all blocked in black, minor spotting to upper board, very light overall soiling, edges untrimmed, gentle foxing at foot of rear endpapers, clipping of review of George Moore book from 1913 (mentioning his opinion of Dostoevsky) laid in at front and faintly offset to endpapers, very good $650
6. (Ford.) HUFFER [sic] (Ford [Madox]) The Queen Who Flew. A Fairy Tale. With a Frontispiece by Sir E. Burne Jones and Border Design by C.R.B. Barrett. Bliss, Sands & Foster, 1894, FIRST EDITION, the half-title, title and dedication page printed in black and red, the frontispiece printed in sepia, a couplpe of faint spots to borders and the odd light handling mark, pp. [vi], 118, [1], [1, ad], crown 8vo, original variant binding of bevel-edged green cloth with a foliate border design stamped in black to upper board, lettering to same in gilt (the backstrip unlettered), light rubbing and soiling, edges and endpapers browned, crease to rear free endpaper, rear hinge dry in the gutter and cracking a little but entirely firm, good $2,340 A variant binding of this scarce early Ford book. All variants noted by Harvey have the misspelling of the author’s name on the title- page, but here it is also misspelt on the upper board (suggesting, perhaps, that it precedes those where it is correctly spelt). Rota’s ninetieth anniversary catalogue in 2013 had a version of the present design in red cloth
7. Lee (Vernon, i.e. Violet Paget) Renaissance Fancies and Studies. Being a Sequel to Euphorion. Smith, Elder, 1895, FIRST EDITION, a few faint spots to half-title, pp. xi, 260, [2, ads], crown 8vo, original dark green cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, some minor rubbing, top edge a little dusty, slight abrasion to front hinge, very good $1,950 A scarce book, inscribed by the author on the half-title: ‘To dear Evelyn, from her affectionate Vernon, Xmas 1899’. The recipient is likely to have been Evelyn Wimbush, Paget’s long-standing friend and travelling companion - the dedicatee of her later ‘Sister Benvenuta and the Christ Child’. Presentation copies of Lee’s work are uncommon.
8. James (Montague Rhodes) Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. With Four Illustrations by the Late James McBryde. Edward Arnold, 1904, FIRST EDITION, tissue-guarded frontispiece and 3 further plates, spotting to half-title and one or two faint spots to borders, pp. 270, 16 [List, dated November 1904], 8vo, original beige linen, the rules overall stamped in red with lettering in black to upper board and backstrip, hint of toning to backstrip and leading yapp edges, touch of fraying to cloth at one corner, edges roughtrimmed with a few spots, top edge a little dusty, spots to endpapers, very good $2,600 An excellent copy of this masterful work: ‘There is no question of apprenticeship here’ (ODNB).
9. ‘Saki’ (H.H. Munro) Reginald. Methuen, 1904, FIRST EDITION, pp. vi, 118, foolscap 8vo, original red cloth, lettered in gilt to upper backstrip and upper board, single fillet gilt border to latter, the backstrip a shade faded with some faint waterstaining along lower joint, edges roughtrimmed and lightly spotted, free endpapers likewise, later ownership inscription to flyleaf, pencil note to recto of rear free endpaper, a little cloth- bleed to margin of rear endpapers, good $360
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10. ‘Saki’ (H.H. Munro) Reginald in Russia, and Other Sketches. Methuen, 1910, FIRST EDITION, a few spots, pp. viii, 123, foolscap 8vo, original blue cloth, lettered in gilt to backstrip and upper board, minor rubbing to extremities and bottom corners gently knocked, light edge-spotting, ownership inscription to flyleaf, very good $360
11. Sherring (Charles A.) Western Tibet and the British Borderland. The sacred country of Hindus and Buddhists with an account of the government, religion and customs of its peoples... With a chapter by T.G. Longstaff... describing an attempt to climb Gurla Mandhata. Edward Arnold, 1906, FIRST EDITION, 2 large coloured folding maps, 2 further monochrome maps and one chart, photogravure frontispiece of Mount Kailash, numerous photographic illustrations, occasional spotting at fore-margin, short tear to first map at gutter margin, frontispiece tissue-guard creased, pp. xv, 376, 8vo, original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, front board with pictorial gilt stamp, endpapers toned, backstrip faded, a couple of faint stains on rear board and a few puncture marks on front board, rubbed at board corners and backstrip edges, slightly shaken, good $1,300 ‘...the book is, in its measure, a real literary work, from the simplicity and dignity with which he relates his actual experience... he is a man of wide sympathies and keen interests; conscious of the romance of legends and myths and of the quaint customes “which appeal to the poetry in all men’s veins”’ (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 39, Issue 2).
12. Cunninghame Graham (Gabriela) The Christ of Toro, and Other Stories. Eveleigh Nash, 1908, FIRST EDITION, a little foxing to prelims, pp. xi, 275, crown 8vo, original green cloth, publisher device to lower board and lettering to upper board stamped in dark blue, backstrip lettered in gilt, edges rubbed, a few minor marks to cloth, edges browned, ownership inscription of Anita Bartle to flyleaf dated June 1913 (see below), good $390 Inscribed by the author’s husband, R.B. Cunninghame Graham, by whom this posthumous volume of short fiction was collected - his short Preface precedes the text. The inscription is difficult to make out, but perhaps reads, ‘I am glad you have & love this book, R.B. Cunninghame Graham’ - the recipient was presumably Anita Bartle (married name, Brackenbury), an author and journalist whose ownership inscription is on the flyleaf. During the First World War, Bartle had - on account of her Chilean accent - been forced to confirm her status as a British subject; the basis for her speaking thus presumably rests on her Spanish education - her parents for a time lived in Valencia - though why it should relate so specifically to Chile is a point of obscurity, albeit one that bears an intriguing connection to Gabriela Cunninghame Graham’s own puzzle of heritage. Though the latter purported to be the child of a French nobleman, who had been taken to Chile to live with an aunt and attend convent school following her parents’ death, she was in fact Caroline Horsfall from North Yorkshire. The facts of her origin only became generally known in the 1980s - and the circumstances of the fabrication remain a matter of intrigue and speculation, likewise the degree to which her husband was aware.
13. Nietzsche (Friedrich) Also Sprach Zarathustra. Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen. Leipzig: Insel, 1908, 446/430 COPIES (from an edition of 530 copies), decorations printed in claret red and gold, including an extravagant ornamental double title-page, title-page and section titles, with head and tail-pieces and other typographic flourishes, all by Henry van de Velde, the typeface designed by Georges Lemmen and cut with the assistance of Harry Kessler, occasional faint spots, the red off-setting slightly, pp. [vi], 161, [2], folio, original vellum with overlapping fore-edges, van de Velde design stamped in gilt to upper board, backstrip lettered in gilt within decorative border of same, the gilt in all cases showing very gentle rubbing, minor knock at head of backstrip, t.e.g., others untrimmed, endpapers with typographic gold border and some spotting, dropdown box of morocco and cloth, very good $6,500 A sumptuous piece of book design, perhaps the finest in the Art Nouveau style - produced under the direction of Count Kessler, with a new typeface by Georges Lemmen and lavish decorations by Henry van de Velde that operate in a very unified way with the text.
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A POET AND FRIEND ’S COPY 14. Pound (Ezra) Exultations. Elkin Mathews, 1909, FIRST EDITION, pp. 52, [12, ads], foolscap 8vo, original burgundy boards, backstrip and front cover gilt lettered, with ‘OF’ on backstrip, some minor rubbing, corners a little pushed, hint of wear at foot of upper joint, the backstrip gently faded, untrimmed, successive ownership inscriptions of J. Griffyth Fairfax and John Ehrman to flyleaf, good $590 The copy of Pound’s friend James Griffyth Fairfax, with his contemporary ownership inscription to the flyleaf (dated ‘Dec: 1909’). Griffyth Fairfax was an Australian-born poet who attended New College, Oxford; Pound had met and befriended him alongside his similarly-derived contemporary Frederic Manning. Griffyth Fairfax’s first book of poetry had been published by Smith, Elder the year before, and he reviewed the present work for ‘The Book Lover’ in Melbourne: considering that this and ‘Personae’ might ‘almost be used as touch-stones for the finding of what is genuine in the poetry of our time’. 1,000 sets of sheets were printed with around 500 of these issued as ‘Personae & Exultations’ in 1913; Gallup determines that the issue with the external ‘of’, as here, is likely the earlier one.
BOUND BY JAMES AND STUART BROCKMAN 15. Beerbohm (Max) Zuleika Dobson. Or an Oxford Love Story. William Heinemann, 1911, FIRST EDITION, half-title and title printed in brown, a few spots to prelims some of which tempered with chalk by binder, pp. [viii], 350, [1], crown 8vo, new James and Stuart Brockman binding (with their ticket to box and a signed tipped-in Binder’s Note at rear), full Harmatan ‘Oxford blue’ goatskin with onlays of goatskin and calf in black and yellow, horizontal gilt rules, backstrip lettered in gilt and further decorations in gilt and silver to Sheldonian ‘Emperors’, multi-coloured end-bands incorporating both Oxford and Cambridge blues, top edge gilt, others roughtrimmed, endpapers of Louise Brockman blue and black marbled paper, in custom dropdown box with leather label lettered in gilt $5,200 A unique and very handsome binding, commissioned by Blackwell’s Rare Books, on this classic Oxford novel - superbly conceived and executed by the Brockmans, basing their design on motifs from the story (commissioned by Blackwell’s Rare Books). The oars of Eights Week and the turned heads of the Sheldonian Emperors (including the detail of sweat on their brows) occupy the upper half, with the spire-filled Oxford skyline wrapping around the lower, the gilt rules going over this, suggestive of drowning. The heroine’s final departure for Cambridge is discreetly referred to in the presence of the other blue in the end-bands.
16. Dostoevsky (Fyodor) The Brothers Karamazov. A Novel in Four Parts and an Epilogue. [Translated] From the Russian by Constance Garnett [The Novels of Dostoevsky, I.] William Heinemann, 1912, FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, pp. xii, 838, crown 8vo, original red cloth, blind-stamped roundel design to upper board with publisher device in same to lower, the backstrip with lettering and ornate border design in gilt, top edge a trifle dusty and a hint of a knock to the bottom corner of upper board, tail edges roughtrimmed, very faint browning to free endpapers, near fine $13,000 An important publication: the first English translation of one of the author’s major novels, and the first in a series of translations of his work by Constance Garnett - the beginnning of ‘a literary craze’ (ODNB). An unusually good copy of a scarce book that normally gives signs of having been read. Though without mark of ownership, this copy originally belonged to Edmund C. Yates - the son of Edmund H. Yates, editor of World magazine and a close friend of Dickens; a contemporary review of the book from The Spectator (September 28, 1912) has been preserved by him, though apparently never stored with the book (no offsetting) and still thus. The lettering to the spine reads ‘Novels of Dostoevsky’ - other copies seen (but not all) carry the author’s full name, the latter being presumably the earlier issue – though blibliographic resources for Garnett’s work are scant, the laid in material might lead us to suppose that the change in binding had been effected before or around September in the year of publication.
17. (Pound.) GUILBERT (Yvette) Selection from Collection. English Translations by Ezra Pound. Harmonized and arranged by Gustave Ferrari. Augener Ltd, 1912, FIRST EDITION, the second issue with the stamp regarding Ferrari to the title-page, musical notation throughout, a couple of spots at page-heads, one page with some faint erased pencil
5 BLACKWELL’S RARE BOOKS markings, pp. 30, 1, 4to, original first issue binding of quarter cloth with greyish-tan boards, printed label to upper board, the edges rubbed and a trifle worn, a couple of faint water-spots at foot of upper board, light adhesive browning to endpapers, pencilled ownership inscription to flyleaf, good $1,300 Singing translations undertaken by Ezra Pound for the celebrated French chanteuse’s American tours - a scarce addition to his oeuvre, with some characteristic touches to the translation. The first song, ‘Suivez, beautez’ (its text from Villon) was used by Pound in his one-act opera ‘Le Testament’.
18. Dostoevsky (Fyodor) The Idiot. A Novel in Four Parts. [Translated] From the Russian by Constance Garnett [The Novels of Dostoevsky, II.] William Heinemann, 1913, FIRST GARNETT EDITION, pp. [iv], 620, crown 8vo, original red cloth, blind-stamped roundel design to upper board with publisher device in same to lower, the backstrip with lettering and ornate border design in gilt, top edge a trifle dusty and very minor dink to tail of lower board, tail edges roughtrimmed, incredibly faint spotting to free endpapers, near fine $3,250 Scarce, and an excellent copy. The second of Garnett’s important translations, which brought the work of Dostoevsky to a wider Anglophone audience and instituted a literary craze. Though without mark of ownership, this copy originally belonged to Edmund C. Yates - the son of Edmund H. Yates, editor of World magazine and a close friend of Dickens.
19. Mann (Thomas) Der Tod in Venedig. Novelle. Berlin: S. Fischer, 1913, FIRST TRADE EDITION, pp. 145, [2, ads], foolscap 8vo, original grey wrappers printed in black, a small amount chipping and creasing to edges, textblock edges untrimmed and partly unopened, bookplate of Lucie Ceconi to flyleaf, very good $2,600 A very well-preserved copy of the first trade edition, this formerly belonging to Lucie Ceconi (née Oberwarth) - the first wife of German art dealer Paul Cassirer, who played an important role in bringing to a wider audience the work of the Berlin Secession, and then the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, particularly in his promotion of the work of Paul Cézanne and Vincent Van Gogh. There was a deluxe, signed issue of 60 copies, as well as an issue in cloth - but it is much less common to find the wrappered issue in such a state as this.
20. Poore (Henry R.) The New Tendency in Art. Post Impressionsim, Cubism, Futurism. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, 1913, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece and 7 plates showing reproductions of work discussed and earlier models, one instance of underlining in red ink and one glossing the text in pencil with Japanese translations of a couple of English words, bottom corner of second half of textblock with small waterstain, a few handling marks, pp. ix, 60, crown 8vo, original quarter dark green cloth with mid-green boards, printed label to upper board, touch of wear at corners, publisher advertising slip laid in at rear along with some Japanese newspaper clippings, Tokyo bookseller ticket to front pastedown, dustjacket with Tchouyco illustration to front, loss to browned backstrip panel and a little chipped elsewhere, good $260 An impressively pragmatic attempt by a member of the old-guard to absorb the ‘shock of the new’.
HER FIRST PUBLISHED WORK 21. (Richardson.) CARTON (Paul, Dr.) Consumption Doomed. A Lecture on the Cure of Tuberculosis by Vegetarianism delivered to the French Vegetarian Society. Translated from the French by D. M. Richardson. C.W. Daniel, 1913, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, pp. 94, 16 [ads], foolscap 8vo, original green cloth lettered in gilt to backstrip and upper board, a couple of tiny spots to edges and some very minor rubbing to extremities, endpapers browned, very good $260 The first published work of novelist Dorothy Richardson, here undertaking translation duties for publisher C.W. Daniel.
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22. (Saki.) MUNRO (H.H.) When William Came. John Lane The Bodley Head, 1914 [but 1913,] FIRST EDITION, very light foxing to first handful of leaves, pp. 322, [6, ads], 24 [Publisher list], crown 8vo, original red cloth, lettered in gilt to upper board and backstrip, the latter with some mottled fading, top edge red, the others roughtrimmed with a few spots, enlarged corner to rear free endpaper turned down (minor production fault), good $10,400 Inscribed by the author on the flyleaf: ‘To Lady Rosalind Northcote, With the author’s good wishes, H.H. Munro, Nov. 19th ‘13’ - the date in advance of the stated publication, the recipient a fellow author (of books on Devon and herbs respectively). Saki grew up in Devon, and the friendship encapsulated by this gift may have originated there - given the scarcity of inscriptions by the author, we can infer that it must have been close, although the inference made by Munro’s sister in her biography, that Munro and Northcote were romantically involved, must be wide of the mark. This, the second of the author’s two novels, ‘a portrait of England shamefully giving way to a German invasion’ (ODNB), predicts the conflict in which the author would himself die - compelled to enlist despite his age (with the subtext of the book being an advocacy of compulsory military service). No other inscribed copies are known.
23. (Eliot.) POUND (Ezra, Edits and Contributes) Catholic Anthology, 1914-1915. Elkin Mathews, 1915, FIRST EDITION [ONE OF 500 COPIES], a few faint spots, pp. vii, 99, crown 8vo, original pale grey boards with overall illustration printed in black by D.S. [i.e., Dorothy Shakespear Pound], some wear at corners, underlying cloth at backstrip ends showing through, small pink stain at head of lower board, and some signs of light handling, edges untrimmed, in grey cloth dropdown box, good $2,280 An important anthology, edited by Ezra Pound and constituting the first appearance in book-form of the most notable of all his charges - T.S. Eliot, who contributes five poems, including ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ and ‘Portrait of a Lady’ (the others are ‘Hysteria’, ‘The Boston Evening Transcript’, and ‘Miss Helen Slingsby’ - the latter subsequently collected as ‘Aunt Helen’). Other contributions come from W.B. Yeats, William Carlos Williams, John Rodker, et al.
WITH AN UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT SONNET 24. Macleish (Archibald) Yale University Prize Poem, 1915: Songs for a Summer’s Day (A Sonnet-Cycle). [New Haven, CT:] Yale University Press, 1915, FIRST EDITION, light vertical crease to textblock, pp. 13, crown 8vo, original sewn dark green wrappers printed in blue to front, edges a little chipped and creased with a light handling mark to front, good $980 The author’s first book, and scarce. Laid in is a TLs from Macleish, dated June 1940, on Library of Congress headed-paper, to a Mr Baleria, and a (seemingly unpublished) manuscript sonnet in Macleish’s hand - beginning ‘This is the deathless sin - to see the flesh’.
‘ON THE SUBJECTS OF PACIFISM AND OF ABNORMALITY IN THE AFFECTIONS ’ 25. Fitzroy (A.T.) Despised & Rejected. C.W. Daniel, [1918,] FIRST EDITION, pp. 350, [2, ads], crown 8vo, original blue cloth, lettered in dark blue to upper board and backstrip with border in same to both, very slight lean to spine and a little rubbing to extremities, a few faint spots to edges and endpapers, tail edge roughtrimmed, very good $2,930 Fitzroy was a pseudonym of Rose Laure Allatini, a romantic novelist who created a stir with this novel concerning a group of wartime COs. The book was prosecuted and banned soon after its publication, following a press campaign against it; the given reason was its pacifist theme, which was in contravention of Regulation 27(c) of the Defence of the Realm Regulations for publishing work ‘likely to prejudice the training, recruitment and discipline of his majesty’s forces’, although the homosexual relationships at its heart no doubt played a large part in creating the ‘rather unwholesome vapours’ that The Guardian identified in its review of June 14th, 1918. The publisher, a committed pacifist who was fined £460 as a result of the court case, professed himself unaware of the latter element although it generally drew the attention of reviewers. A landmark publication and scarce in this condition.
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RARE HIMALAYAN ACCOUNT 26. Minney (R.J.) Midst Himalayan Mists. Calcutta: Butterworth, 1920, FIRST EDITION, 24 photographic plates (including map frontispiece), title with inscription ‘E.J. Reynolds, 11/11/30’ at upper margin, stamp of A.J. Hunt, 23 Plumstead Road, S.E.18, half- title with red Chinese stamp at upper corner, title with slight spotting, pp. [viii], 80, 8vo, publisher’s ruled cloth, cover lettered in gilt with pasted-on photographic pictorial label, edges rubbed, cover with slight bubbling, letter stamp at lower page edges, upper hinge cracked but holding, good $2,340 Rubeigh James Minney, journalist, critic, editor, author, Labour party candidate and film producer, is perhaps best known for his biography, ‘Carve Her Name with Pride’ (1956) and his play, ‘Clive of India’ (19330), both of which became highly successful films. His early career, however, was more adventurous: following a brief period of study at King’s College, London, he left in 1914 to join the Indian Army, and as special reporter to the Duke of Connaught, travelled extensively through India, journeying to Tibet on horseback (described here) and flying across the continent in a pre-fabricated plane. More of a narrative than a guide, this idiosyncratic account of the author’s journey to the Tibetan passes includes descriptions of vertiginous paths, missing brandy, bazaars, scenes ‘to be remembered. Even the horse paused to gaze upon it’, and ‘mist [which] came down before us and between us... while leeches dripped from trees to seek what nourishment they could from our necks and ears...’ Captions of the photographic plates include ‘The only “pub” in Gantok’ and ‘The Awful Road from Jelep La’. Rare to the market (2 auction records in the last 20 years); chapters originally published in ‘The Englishman’, Calcutta, of which Minney was joint editor.
27. (Brancusi.) POUND (Ezra), Mina Loy, Iwan Goll, Jean Cocteau, Mary Butts et al. The Little Review. Quarterly Journal of Arts and Letters [VIII:1, Brancusi Issue.] New York, Autumn 1921, 24 plates showing photographs of Brancusi sculptures, a couple of minor outbreaks of faint spotting, pp. 112, 4to, original wrappers, minor creasing with some faint foxing and a small chip at head of backstrip, good $290 An important number of this major modernist magazine, beginning with Pound’s essay on Brancusi and illustrated with his sculpture throughout. It ends on a terse note: ‘Before we could revive from our trial for Joyce’s “Ulysses” it was announced for publication in book form. We limp from the field’.
WITH T.E. LAWRENCE ’S INTRODUCTION 28. Doughty (Charles M.) Travels in Arabia Deserta. With a new Preface by the author, Introduction by T.E. Lawrence, [...] and all original Maps, Plans, Cuts [2 Vols.] Philip Lee Warner and Jonathan Cape, 1921, FIRST LAWRENCE EDITION, frontispiece photographic portrait (by Emery Walker) to first volume, 4 plates (3 folding), text illustrations (some full-page), colour lithographed map mounted on linen in pocket to rear pastedown of first volume, the occasional small spot to borders, pp. xxvx, 623, xiv, 690, 8vo, original green cloth with differing illustrations stamped in gilt to upper boards within a blind-stamped single fillet border, backstrips lettered in gilt, these faded with a little wear at ends, similar wear at corners a couple of which are gently knocked, a small amount of wear to edges and a few waterspots with some damp-staining causing discolouration to leading edges, t.e.g., others roughtrimmed, black endpapers with that housing map lifting slightly (though much less than usual) at foot, good $780 One of only 500 copies in a second edition of the text that it is notable in two main respects: the introduction by Lawrence, the first such he had contributed, for a book that he greatly admired; and as the first publication by Jonathan Cape. Doughty's assertion of the superiority of all things English and Christian, and his uncanny knack for saying and doing the wrong thing in Arab society, brought him unimaginable hardships and danger. That he survived his two years in Arabia was nothing short of miraculous.
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29. (Curwen Press.) RUTHERSTON (Albert, Illustrator) [Cover title:] The Four Seasons. [A Calendar & Diary with designs by Albert Rutherston.] Plaistow, Curwen Press, 1922, SOLE EDITION, 4 full-page colour-printed illustrations by Albert Rutherston with small vignette to title-page by the same printed in blue, the text-pages with green line-border, [unpaginated], 12mo, original beige cloth with colour-printed label designed by Rutherston inset to upper board, a hint of faint foxing to endpapers, original Press advertisement laid in (a single sheet with typographic header and footer printed in red), very good $1,040 Inscribed by the artist on the flyleaf: ‘For Michel, affectly Albert, Xmas 1922’ - the recipient is obscure, but Michel Salaman is the outstanding candidate. The quality of the printing met with the artist’s approval, and the production marked the beginning of a golden decade for the Press. A delightful little gift book, of utmost scarcity - with no other copies currently for sale, and no record on COPAC; it functioned as an advertisement (indeed it begins with a statement headed thus) for the Press’s new phase under the guidance of Harold Curwen and Oliver Simon. None of its recipients could fail to be impressed by the work on show - and where in the main the blank format allows the design and printing quality to speak for itself, a small outbreak of self-promotion recurs at the close with a description of the types and decoration held at the Press and a page for telephone numbers headed by the sole printed entry of the Press’s own contact details. The small flyer laid in at the front conveys the news of their occupancy of a room in St. Stephen’s House, Westminster - where Oliver Simon will be found, amongst an ‘ever-changing Exhibition of modern English and Foreign books’.
30. Bilby (Julian W.) Among Unknown Eskimo. An Account of Twelve Years intimate relations with the Primitive Eskimo of Ice-bound Baffin Land, with a Description of their Ways of Living, Hunting, Customs & Beliefs. Seeley Service & Co., 1923, FIRST EDITION, 16 photographic plates (including frontispiece), 10 illustrations, 1 folding map, pp. 280, [8, ads], folding map, 8vo, original black boards with pale blue eskimo conjuror motif on upper board, boards with a couple of faint spots, upper board lower edge a little rubbed, backstrip ends slightly pushed, dustjacket with repeated motif on cover and backstrip, imperceptible repaired tear at top of backstrip, very good $1,170 A detailed description of Baffin Island and the Inuit way of life, with an appendix of eskimo deities, including the vampiric Aipalookvik who ‘Has a large head and face, huuman in appearance but ugly like a cod’s. Is a destroyer by desire and tries to bite and eat the kyakers.’ (p.266). His account is also notable for descriptions of euthanasia: a blind man is willingly led to an ice hole where ‘He went right under, then and there—under the ice—and was immediately drowned and frozen. A handy piece of ice served to seal the death trap, and all was over. Nandla had died on the hunt, and had entered the Eskimo heaven like the other valiant men of his tribe, and taken his place with the doughtiest of them, where there would be joy and plenty for evermore.’ (p. 153). From the library of Franklin Brooke-Hitching with his mark in pencil on flyleaf.
31. Proust (Marcel) Swann's Way. Translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff [Remembrance of Things Past, Part One, 2 Vols.] Chatto & Windus, 1922, FIRST ENGLISH EDITIONS, pp. [x], 303; [vi], 287, crown 8vo, original blue cloth, backstrips lettered in gilt and darkened, spine of first volume slightly cocked, a couple of little spots of wear, top edge blue now a little faded with a couple of small waterspots to both, other edges roughtrimmed, to first volume a small waterstain affecting bottom corner of textblock through to rear pastedown, free endpapers browned, good $2,280 Inscribed by the translator on the flyleaf of the first volume: ‘A.H.S. from C.S.M., January, 1923’. The recipient is obscure, but presentation copies of the translator’s major work are uncommon.
32. Proust (Marcel) Within a Budding Grove. Translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff [Remembrance of Things Past, Part Two, 2 Vols.] Chatto & Windus, 1924, FIRST ENGLISH EDITIONS, pp. [viii], 396; [viii], 356, crown 8vo, original blue cloth, backstrips lettered in gilt and a shade darkened, minor rubbing, first volume a little knocked at corners, top edges blue with others roughtrimmed with a few faint spots, blank bookplates to each front pastedown, good $510 Each the first impression, the first volume being particularly elusive in such state.
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33. [Robins (Elizabeth)] ANONYMOUS Ancilla's Share. An Indictment of Sex Antagonism. Hutchinson, 1924, FIRST EDITION, pp. 313, 8vo, original green cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt and a little faded, one corner knocked, mark to lower board, some small spots to edges, endpapers browned with dried adhesive residue to front pastedown and ownership inscription in pencil thereupon, front panel of dustjacket laid in, good $130 An important book and a scarce first edition from the Anglo-American actress and author - published anonymously to withhold the ‘intrusion of personality’ from its thesis, it provides a thoroughgoing treatise on gender imbalance, rich in detail and discourse. Robins was admired by Virginia and Leonard Woolf, and published by them at the Hogarth Press - the present work has been regarded as a model for longer discursive pieces by Woolf, such as ‘A Room of One’s Own’ and ‘Three Guineas’.
34. (Riding.) GOTTSCHALK (Laura Riding) The Close Chaplet. New York: Adelphi, [1926,] FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, English sheets, pp. 77, foolscap 8vo, original pale blue boards, backstrip and borders faded, printed label to upper board, a few faint spots and some light wear at extremities, good $1,240 Inscribed by the author on the flyleaf: ‘Mary, with love, Laura. March, 1927’ - the recipient is obscure, but the form of the inscription betokens a degree of affection.
INSCRIBED BY THE ARTIST TO JOHN BETJEMAN 35. (Nash.) (Betjeman.) BERTRAM (Anthony, introduction) PAUL NASH. [British Artists of To-Day, Number V.] [Printed at the Curwen Press for] The Fleuron, 1927, FIRST EDITION, 17 monochrome plates reproducing the artist’s work, pp. [5] + plates, 12mo, original Curwen patterned paper boards (though Enid Marx rather than Nash), label to upper board printed in red, slight sunning to backstrip, very good $1,300 An excellent association copy of this early work on Nash, inscribed by the artist to the flyleaf: ‘John Betjeman from Paul Nash [minor deletion] (bought)’ - the inscription apparently recording the nature of the gift. Nash was among those whom Betjeman drew into the group for the celebrated Shell Guides, with Nash contributing that for Dorset in 1935.
EARLY ARDIZZONE DUSTJACKET 36. O'Leary (Con) This Delicate Creature. Constable, 1928, FIRST EDITION, a couple of faint spots to prelims, pp. viii, 281, [2, ads], crown 8vo, original variant binding of terracotta cloth, upper board and backstrip lettered in black, faint spots to edges, dustjacket (see below) with some light dustsoiling and the odd tiny nick, very good $330 The dustjacket carries a striking period design signed with the initials EJIA - though not characteristic of his main and later style, this must be Ardizzone (i.e., Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone) then making his first steps as an artist. Born in Ireland, this is O’Leary’s best-known work, a science fiction novel in which ‘a woman is given a Drug that induces a range of Identity Transfer experiences, including life as a mouse, and as her own betrayed husband’ (Science Fiction Encyclopedia, online).
37. Bryher [i.e., Winifred Ellerman] Film Problems of Soviet Russia. Photographs chosen and titled by Kenneth Macpherson. Territet: POOL, 1929, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece and numerous photographic plates largely showing stills from work discussed, a few small ink-spots not affecting legibility, pp. 140, crown 8vo, original red cloth lettered in gilt to upper board and backstrip, the latter very gently faded, a few faint spots to fore-edge, bookseller ticket at foot of rear pastedown with contemporary ownership inscription to flyleaf, very good $260 The POOL group were pioneering in their serious approach to film as an art-form. Bryher’s study introduces an anglophone audience to a cultural phenomenon to which they were denied access - her research is thorough and well-presented, finding room for personal response and anecdote within the information.
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38. (Joyce.) OUR EXAGMINATION Round his Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress. By Samuel Beckett, Marcel Brion, Frank Budgen, Stuart Gilbert, Eugene Jolas, Victor Llona, Robert McAlmon, Thomas McGreevy, Elliot Paul, John Rodker, Robert Sage, William Carlos Williams. With Letters of Protest by G.V.L. Slingsby and Vladimir Dixon. Faber and Faber, [1929,] FIRST EDITION, English issue with cancel title-page carrying the Faber imprint, outer margins a little browned as usual, pp. [v], 194, crown 8vo, original turquoise cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt with a few very faint spots, top edge a little spotted, foxing to endpapers, dustjacket with backstrip panel browned, tiny hole to rear flap-fold, very good $330 Includes brief quotations from Joyce's Work in Progress and the Letters of Protest are reputed to be by him.
39. Beckett (Samuel) Whoroscope. Paris: The Hours Press, 1930, 266/200 COPIES (from an edition of 300 copies), a few tiny and faint pinprick foxspots at head, pp. [ii], iv, [2, notes], 8vo, original stapled orange wrappers printed in black to front, staples slightly rusted, some creasing and a patch of fading at head of rear, very good $4,550 Signed by the author on the verso of the limitation page, though not one of the designated hundred signed copies. This, the winning entry in a competition conceived and judged by Nancy Cunard in conjunction with Richard Aldington for an original poem on the subject of time, is the author’s ‘first separately published work’ - and described as such on the wraparound band that is here absent. The ‘Notes’ at the end were provided at Aldington’s suggestion, and felt by Cunard to increase its ‘clarity and consecutiveness’ (‘These Were the Hours’, p. 118).
40. Buchan (John) Castle Gay. Hodder and Stoughton, 1930, FIRST EDITION, a couple of faint spots to prelims and final leaves, pp. 320, crown 8vo, original green cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt with author’s monogram in same to upper board, slight lean to spine, a few faint spots to edges, front endpapers faintly spotted withownership inscription to flyleaf, dustjacket lightly soiled with a few small nicks, light chipping at corners, very good $390
41. Hueffer (Oliver Madox) Cousins German. Ernest Benn, 1930, FIRST EDITION, a few faint spots to prelims and final leaves, pp. 284, crown 8vo, original black cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, spine a little canted, one corner knocked, crease to top corner of flyleaf, dustjacket lightly dustsoiled overall with a little chipping to extremities, a little bleed from cloth to bottom corner of front panel, front flap with perforated section as issued, very good $650 A novel of the Great War by the younger brother of Ford Madox Ford, the title of which - and the plea for sympathy in the ‘Apologia’ (the need for which, one imagines, was stressed by the publisher) - indicate the author’s German heritage. The front flap of the dustjacket has, an innovation in the experience of this cataloguer, a synopsis which it suggests one detaches and sends to ‘the friend who is continually asking you to recommend a good novel’.
COLIN DAVIS ’ ANNOTATED COPY 42. Schoenberg (Arnold) Von Heute auf Morgen. Oper in Einem Akt von Max Blonda... Partitur. Berlin-Charlottenburg, Edition Benno Balan, [1930], full score, facsimile of fair copy, partially in Schoenberg's own hand (pages 3-9, 18, 29, 34, 38, 46, 48-49, 57, 66, 72-72, 79, 89, 92, 102-164), partially semi-printed, with ‘Copyright 1930 by Arnold Schönberg, Berlin’ at foot of first facsimile page and ‘beendet 3.VIII. 1929’ at foot of final printed page, tone-row analysis annotation in pink and blue pen, with occasional pencil division marks, pp. 164, large folio, modern black boards by Stoakley, Cambridge with their stamp, original printed cover bound in, slightly dust soiled, with occasional paint spot, good $4,550 An intriguing assocation copy of the rare self-published full score of the first 12-tone opera with which the composer hoped to prove that dodecaphonic music and popular success were not entirely incompatible. The reception to the premiere of this comic marriage eulogy, with libretto by Schoenberg’s second wife, Gertrude (pseud. Max Blonda) at the Frankfurt Opera in February, 1930 was not what he had
11 BLACKWELL’S RARE BOOKS hoped for, and was followed by a similarly non-plussed reaction to a broadcast of the work later in the year. Though the opera was not performed again in his lifetime, it has been staged more recently, notably at the Leipzig Opera in 2009 and a film version made by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet (Du jour au lendemain) in 1997. The various coloured annotations made by the renowned conductor – circled note figures in pink, tone-row numbers in pink and blue, row divisions in looping pencil lines - would have served both for analytical and interpretation purposes.
43. (Surréalisme.) BRETON (André) Second Manifeste du Surréalisme. Paris: Éditions Kra, 1930, FIRST EDITION, title-page printed in blue, pages a little toned throughout, pp. [iv], 104, 4to, original grey wrappers printed in black and blue, light overall dustsoiling and faint spotting, with a few nicks and short split at head of upper joint, top edge a little dusty, pages uncut, very good $460 A well-preserved copy of this important text, from the collection of Lord Berners at Faringdon House, but without mark of ownership.
44. Hamsun (Knut) Vagabonds. Translated from the Norwegian by Eugene Gay-Tifft. Cassell, 1931, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, a couple of spots at rear, pp. [iv], 549, 8vo, original black cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, some minor discolouration to bottom corner of upper board with all corners very gently knocked, top edge black, light spotting to other edges, dustjacket with backstrip panel a little sunned and some chipping, good $3,580 Inscribed by the author to the flyleaf: ‘Mr B.A. Abel, With thanks! Knut Hamsun, Norholm, 15 Mars 1931’. Abel was a Nottinghamshire solicitor - the reason for Hamsun’s gratitude is unknown, but his signature is uncommon.
45. Kafka (Franz) Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer [The Great Wall of China]. Ungedruckte Erzahlungen und Prosa aus dem Nachlass. Herausgegeben von Max Brod und Hans Joachim Schoeps. Berlin: Gustav Kiepenheuer, 1931, FIRST EDITION, pp. 266, [5, ads], foolscap 8vo, original wrappers, the backstrip browned with a few hairline cracks and chips at tips, a little corner-creasing, a small amount of paper repair to bottom corner of flyleaf, good $1,950 The scarce wraps issue of this first posthumous collection of stories by Kafka.
‘T HESE VOICES ARE BEGINNING ONLY NOW TO EMERGE ’ 46. (Woolf.) LLEWELYN DAVIES (Margaret) Life As We Have Known It. Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, 1931, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece and 9 further monochrome plates from photographs, pp. xxxix, 141, crown 8vo, original yellow cloth, backstrip gently faded and lettered in black, small section darkened at foot of upper board corresponding to dustjacket loss, a few spots to edges, partial browning to endpapers, dustjacket lightly dustsoiled and chipped with a few short closed tears, very good $390 One of 1,500 copies. Woolf’s Introductory Letter is a revised version of her ‘Memories of a Women’s Working Guild’, printed in the Yale Review, September 1930 - whilst the original version has been collected multiple times, the present revision appears to be uncollected. ‘When you asked me to write a preface to a book which you had collected of papers by working women I replied that I would be drowned rather than write a preface to any book whatsoever’...
47. Butts (Mary) Traps for Unbelievers. Desmond Harmsworth, 1932, FIRST EDITION, pp. 51, crown 8vo, original speckled blue cloth, backstrip lettered in red, edges roughtrimmed, very faint spotting to endpapers, dustjacket carrying portrait of author by Jean Cocteau, with a few nibbles to extremities, possibly insect and not affecting cloth, good $360 The publisher’s copy, with Harmsworth’s signature on the flyleaf. A study of religion’s decline and its needful substitutes.
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48. Gershwin (George) George Gershwin's Song-book. Alajalov, Illustrator. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1932, FIRST EDITION, colour-printed fly-title illustrations by Alajalov for each of the 18 songs, frontispiece and 11 further photographs, pp. xi, 167, 4to, original quarter terracotta suede-effect cloth with beige linen sides, lettering to backstrip and upper board printed in blue with border design in same to upper board, dustjacket by Alajalov a little frayed, very good $590 With a TLs from the publisher, Richard L. Simon, presenting the book to fellow-publisher Mitchell Kennerley tipped to the initial blank - Simon’s note concludes by mentioning that ‘I have just acquired a Steinway Grand’, and inviting the recipient for lunch at his apartment.
49. Nagy ([S.], Illustrator) The World Conference in Caricature. At the World Economic Conference, London, 1933. Described by William Foss and A.B. Austin. Soncino Press, [1933,] FIRST EDITION, line drawing to each recto, pp. xii, 215, 4to, original blue buckram, lettered in gilt to upper board and backstrip, some faint spotting around head, all edges blue with some foxing to these and endpapers, dustjacket a little darkened, dustsoiled and lightly foxed, internal tape repair at foot of backstrip panel, good $420 Inscribed on the title-page by the illustrator, ‘To Mrs Maria Korda, With all my respect. London 21, May, 34. S. Nagy’. The recipient was an actress and the wife of director Alexander Korda - a further inscription on the verso of the same re-presents the book to their son Peter in 1945. A note to the latter inscription, the recipient a journalist, mentions that ‘Every journalist says that I am a first class cartoonist. Every cartoonist swears that I am the best journalist in the world’.
50. (Summers.) TAILLEPIED (Noel) A Treatise of Ghosts. Being the Psichologie, or Treatise upon Apparitions and Spirits, of Disembodied Souls, Phantom Figures, Strange Prodigies, and of other Miracles and Marvels, which often presage the Death of some Great Person, or signify some swift Change in Public Affairs / Written in French by the learned Father Noel Taillepied, of the Order of Capuchins, and now first translated into English, with an Introduction and Commentary by Montague Summers. The Fortune Press, [1933,] FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, title-page printed in red and black, pp. xiii, 263, crown 8vo, original black buckram, backstrip lettered in gilt, edges untrimmed and a little browned, faint spot to flyleaf, bright yellow dustjacket with a little toning, heavier at backstrip panel, a few spots of internal tape repair, very good $230 A sixteenth-century treatise on the supernatural, given its first English translation by Summers - like the author, a Catholic priest, with the theological basis of these events given a thorough exposition. The black buckram binding is described by d’Arch Smith as being primary, preceding - as often with Caton’s publications - a host of variants.
51. Zweig (Stefan) Marie Antoinette. The Portrait of an Average Woman. Translated by Eden and Cedar Paul. New York: Garden City Publishing, [1933,] FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, frontispiece and 8 further portrait plates, pp. xv, 476, royal 8vo, original blue cloth, lettering and decorations blind-stamped to upper board, backstrip with lettering and decorations in silver, top edge blue, dustjacket in 4 pieces and laid in, good $720 Signed by the author in his characteristic purple ink on the half-title.
52. Karlin (Alma M.) The Death-Thorn, and other strange experiences in Peru and Panama. Translated by Bernard Miall. George Allen & Unwin, 1934, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, pp. 346, [6], crown 8vo, original yellow cloth, lettered in yellow to upper board and backstrip within a black panel, knock to top corner of upper board with trivial wear to backstrip ends, lean to spine, a few spots to edges, ownership inscription to flyleaf, dustjacket with striking design, price-clipped, a little toned and chipped with some internal repair at head of backstrip panel, good $190
13 BLACKWELL’S RARE BOOKS
A fascinating account of the author’s travels into remote regions (what the dustjacket blurb forthrightly puts as ‘an abysmally ignorant world of savages and decivilised half-breeds’) in pursuit of experiences at odds with a childhood that she refers to in her autobiographical summary as ‘severely repressed’. Translated from the third German edition, the author would soon after abandon the language (she was fluent in around ten others) in protest at the rise of Nazism.
53. Moore (Olive) The Apple is Bitten Again. (Self Portrait). Wishart & Co, [1934,] FIRST EDITION, frontispiece showing sculpture of author by Sava Botzaris, pp. [viii], 207, crown 8vo, original quarter green cloth with sides of Cockerell marbled paper in shades of green, black and gold, backstrip lettered in a darker green and a little browned, dustjacket repeating frontispiece portrait (in green), the odd nick or short closed tear with two spots of internal tape repair, some light creasing, very good $200 Moore is nothing less than forthright - the rear flap offers the term ‘pungent’. The volume gathers contents of her notebooks, ranging from the aphoristic to essays on ‘Woman as Uncreative Artist’ and ‘Further Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine’ - her meditation on Lawrence (reprinted here because, she asserts in a short Foreword, ‘I am sick and tired of being quoted and plagiarised without acknowledgement’.
54. (Outhwaite.) MELLOR) (Dorothy) Enchanting Isles. Illustrated by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. Sydney: Howard, Whyte & Coy, 1934, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece and 5 further illustrations by Outhwaite (3 of these full-page), pp. 112, crown 8vo, original quarter blue cloth with grey marbled boards, backstrip lettered in gilt, edges spotted, endpaper maps, those at rear faintly browned, single spot to flyleaf, grey dustjacket printed in blue with illustration (by Outhwaite?) to front, faint browning to backstrip panel and borders, very good $330 ‘The thrilling experiences of two young Australians who fly in gliders among the glamorous islands of the Pacific’ (dustjacket blurb).
PAUL NASH , HENRY MOORE , BARBARA HEPWORTH , ET AL . 55. Read (Herbert, Editor) Unit 1. The Modern Movement in English Architecture, Painting and Sculpture. Cassell and Company, 1934, FIRST EDITION, 67 monochrome plates showing photographs and reproductions of work, faint spotting to half-title, pp. 124, 4to, original yellow cloth, backstrip and upper board lettered in brown, spotting to cloth, the backstrip a little rubbed at foot, top edge dusty, endpapers spotted, dustjacket chipped at ends of faded backstrip panel, lighter chipping at corners, light overall soiling with a pencil-drawing of a face to rear panel, good $750 Accompanying the first (and only) exhibition of the group at the Mayor Gallery that year. Formed by Paul Nash, whose letter to The Times announcing their programme is incorporated by Read into his Introduction, Unit One consisted of sculptors Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, painters John Armstrong, John Bigge, Edward Burra, Ben Nicholson and Edward Wadsworth (alongside Nash himself) and the architects Welles Coates and Colin Lucas. The book provides an artistic statement by each accompanied by examples of their work.
56. (Surrealism.) HUGNET (Georges, Introduction) Petite anthologie poétique du surréalisme. Paris: Éditions Jeanne Bucher, 1934, FIRST EDITION, photomontage of contributors by Man Ray and further monochrome plates by Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Yves Tanguy, Victor Brauner, Hans Arp, Giorgio de Chirico, et al., literary contributions by André Breton, René Char, René Crevel, Paul Eluard, Benjamin Péret, Tristan Tzara, et al. pp. 166, [4], crown 8vo, original wrappers, a little sunned to borders with reading creases to spine, a little nicked and creased at extremities, good $360 The copy of Lord Berners with his ownership inscription to the front cover.
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SIEGFRIED SASSOON ’S COPY 57. Joyce (James) Anna Livia Plurabelle. Music by Hazel Felman. Chicago: Argus Book Shop, [1935,] FIRST EDITION, ONE OF 350 COPIES, this copy out of series, designated a review copy and inscribed by the composer to Siegfried Sassoon, pp. 20, 4to, original green stapled wrappers, printed in a darker shade of green, the front a little faded (or at least varying in shade to rear cover, some faint spotting, staples a little rusted, stamped ‘Review Copy’ to front, good $590 The inscription to the limitation page reads: ‘For Siegfried Sassoon, with my best wishes, Hazel Felman’. This copy does not have the paper slipcase referred to by Slocum & Cahoon, but does have the 12pp booklet ‘Music and James Joyce’ by Martin Ross, issued with it and in the same format. There we find, in ‘Other Compositions by Hazel Felman’ her connection with Sassoon - she had earlier scored his poem ‘Song, Be My Soul’. Further work includes adaptations of Carl Sandburg, Rudyard Kipling, and Malcolm Cowley.
58. Lawrence (T.E.) Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a Triumph. Jonathan Cape, 1935, FIRST TRADE EDITION, first impression (with incorrect listing of illustration, pp.304-305), photogravure frontispiece, 53 plates and illustrations, 4 folding maps, pp. 672, stout 4to, original brown buckram with illustration in gilt to upper board, backstrip gilt lettered and a touch faded, a hint of fading to margin of upper board, top edge brown, dustjacket with some light dustsoiling, a few faint spots, and a small amount of chipping, very good $620 With ‘Lawrence of Arabia Memorial’ leaflet (4-pages) loosely inserted.
59. Pankhurst (Sylvia) The Life of Emmeline Pankhurst. The Suffragette Struggle for Women’s Citizenship. T. Werner Laurie, 1935, FIRST EDITION, a few faint spots to prelims and opening leaves, largely restriccted to borders, pp. 180, crown 8vo, original green cloth, lettered in blue to upper board and backstrip, publisher device in same to lower board, light foxing to edges, pictorial dustjacket with some faint spots, light dustsoiling and minor rubbing, but in excellent shape, very good $2,150 An account of her life and work by her daughter, a positive account but spiced a little by their latter disagreements. The dustjacket is scarce, as indeed is the book itself.
60. Jones (David) In Parenthesis. Seinnyessit e gledyf ym penn mameu. Faber and Faber, 1937, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece and plate at rear both tissue-guarded, pp. xv, [vi], 225, [1], crown 8vo, original beige cloth, backstrip lettering in gilt and grey, the former against a grey ground, top edge grey, tail edge roughtrimmed with a couple of faint spots, a little foxing to endpapers, exhibition booklet for a David Jones/Bryan Winter/Derek Hill show at the Redfern Gallery in 1948 laid in along with an invitation to the Hawthornden Prize ceremony in 1938 made out to Vincent Evans (see below), dustjacket with a couple of small nicks, very good $5,500 Inscribed by the author on the initial blank: ‘For Vincent Evans, David Jones, July 10th 1937’. A 2pp. ALs from Jones to the same is laid in, in its original envelope, following Evans’ attendance at the show of Jones’s paintings at the Redfern Gallery in 1948 - the catalogue for which is enclosed. Jones thanks his correspondent for attending and apologises for having not been at the gallery. Jones mentions having recently seen Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, author of ‘Up to Mametz’, another memoir of an episode of the war recounted in this work - his first reference to what he mentions less obliquely later on as ‘the old days in France [...] Mametz & all that’. The Evans here is Lewis Noel Vincent Evans, Jones’s comrade in the Royal Welch Fusiliers - others such as G.A. Hensher, Leslie Poulter, and Major Edwards are mentioned in the course of the author’s reminiscences; Evans was the son of Sir Vincent Evans, the eminent Welsh nationalist, and became Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions. The ticket for the Hawthornden Prize ceremony, laid in, is from the year in which this work won.
61. MacNeice (Louis, Translator) The Agamemnon of Aeschylus. Faber and Faber, 1936, FIRST EDITION, pp. 71, 8vo, original purple cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, bookplate of J. Timothy Kenrick to front pastedown, dustjacket a little tatty with some tape repair at head of rear panel, good $780 Signed by MacNeice at the foot of his Preface.
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62. Steer (G.L.) Caesar in Abyssinia. Hodder and Stoughton, 1936, FIRST EDITION, 4 maps including a folding one at rear, occasional light foxing, pp. 411, 8vo, original black cloth, backstrip lettered in red, some light rubbing, edge-spotting, Australian bookseller stamp to flyleaf, dustjacket by Bip Pares price-clipped and faintly spotted, short closed tear at head of front panel, a few tiny nicks at head of backstrip panel, very good $310 An account of the region contemporary with that of Evelyn Waugh - who conjured the memorable description of Steer as a ‘very gay South African dwarf’. Their allegiances and outlooks were at odds, and whilst both used their experiences as the basis for important books, as Nicholas Rankin notes, ‘Waugh's novel Scoop saw the conflict as a comedy; Steer's Caesar in Abyssinia as a tragedy’ (p. 10).
63. Byron (Robert) The Road to Oxiana. Macmillan, 1937, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece and 15 further photographic plates, 4 full-page maps, very faint foxing to title-page and to one or two of the plates, pp. [ix], 341, [2, ads], crown 8vo, original blue cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt with very slight lean to spine, a few pinprick foxspots to endpapers, dustjacket with some tiny faint spots at foot of rear panel and one or two further faint marks, a tiny amount of deft restoration at corner-folds, very good $4,550 Scarce in the dustjacket. A ‘sacred text’ to Bruce Chatwin, a view which is echoed by many modern travellers.
64. 'Whipplesnaith' [vere, Noel Howard Symington] The Night Climbers of Cambridge. Chatto and Windus, 1937, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece photograph and numerous other photographic plates showing climbers in action, pp. vii, 183, 8vo, original black cloth, backstrip lettered in blue with the lettering a little rubbed, a touch of fraying at head of lower joint with a few spots to edges and endpapers, gutter of front endpapers with some rust offset from staples of previously laid-in item, good $260 Scarce in the first edition. A classic in the small genre of urban climbing books, recounting the exploits of an outlaw band of students indulging in this traditional Cambridge sport. Stylishly written, and with sufficient detail to serve as a practical guide for others (indeed it was quickly reprinted in order to address an omission regarding how to escape from the Marks and Spencer building), the photographs offer a striking visual accompaniment.
65. Crisp (Quentin) Colour in Display. Blandford Press, 1938, FIRST EDITION, richly illustrated with 5 colour-printed plates (including a folding one at rear) and 23 figures to the text, one leaf nicked at fore-margin, pp. 131, crown 8vo, original green cloth, lettered in black to upper board and backstrip, light spotting to edges and endpapers, dustjacket price-clipped with light spotting to white areas and a little rubbing and chipping to extremities, very good $160 A treatise on the use of colour in merchandising and advertising, particularly as applied to fashion - early work by Crisp.
66. Malraux (Andre) Days of Hope [L’Espoir]. Translated from the French by Stuart Gilbert and Alastair Macdonald. Routledge, 1938, FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, pp. [viii], 507, [4, ads], crown 8vo, original tan cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, faint spotting to edges and endpapers (a little more prevalent to the latter), dustjacket with minor chipping, very good $390 A novel of the Spanish Civil War, based on Malraux’s own experiences. Considered by the publisher to be ‘perhaps the first time that a great novelist, who is also an aviator, has written against the background of modern air warfare’ - according to the dustjacket blurb, which was perhaps written by Herbert Read, then chief reader at the publisher and chiefly responsible for their excellent list at the time, which included books such as Beckett’s ‘Murphy’ and Kafka’s ‘America’ (both carrying the same dustjacket design to signify ‘peculiar merit’)
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67. (Picasso.) MESENS (E.L.T.) & Roland Penrose (Editors) LONDON BULLETIN. No. 6. The London Gallery, October 1938, SOLE EDITION, printed on various colours of paper, 20 illustrations including work by Picasso, di Chirico, Dalí, Diego Rivera, and John Banting, title-page and verso a little browned, likewise final text-page, pp. 32, 4to, original sewn grey wrappers printed in blue, light crease to top corner of front, very good $330 An important issue of this British surrealist magazine, partly marking the arrival in the UK of Picasso’s Guernica - a visit arranged by Penrose - with an introductory essay by Herbert Read and a poem by Éluard on that subject. The organ of the London Gallery, managed by Mesens, the ‘London Bulletin’ based itself on the interaction of word and image. This issue is also notable for the first appearance, in French, of a joint manifesto by André Breton and Diego Rivera - ‘Pour un art révolutionnaire indépendant’.
68. Joyce (James) Finnegans Wake. Faber and Faber, 1939, FIRST EDITION, initial blank and final text-page browned as usual, pp. [viii], 628, 8vo, original brick-red cloth, backstrip lettered and with rules in gilt, a couple of minor marks, top edge yellow, others untrimmed, Blackwell’s sticker at foot of front pastedown, very good $1,240 The copy of Lord Berners with his pencil ownership inscription to the front pastedown writ large - on the facing flyleaf a couple of page numbers are noted, p. 572 for its synopsis with an illegible note to p. 212.
IN THE SCARCE DUSTJACKET 69. Lewis (Wyndham) The Hitler Cult. Dent, 1939, FIRST EDITION, a few spots to prelims, pp. x, 270, crown 8vo, original black cloth, backstrip with lettering blocked in sliver and blind, some very faint discolouration to cloth, top edge red with edges lightly spotted, light foxing to endpapers, dustjacket with some light soiling and a sprinkling of tiny spots, the front and backstrip panel toned with extremities chipped, good $1,040 The dustjacket is uncommon and clearly apes the yellow and text-heavy designs of Gollancz jackets from this period; part of a series on ‘Hitlerism’, other instalments of which are enumerated on the rear flap, Dent may simply have been trying to appeal to an area of the market that Gollancz had successfully cornered at that time.
70. Lewis (Wyndham) [Signed contract for:] The Hitler Cult. J.M. Dent, 1939, folded sheet of blue paper printed on all sides with some manuscript amendments made by Lewis (initialled by him), signed at foot by author and W.G. Taylor (on behalf of publishers), typed filing label pasted to back, pp. [4], folio, in publisher’s original card folder (labelled with the caveat ‘(NOT D B Wyndham Lewis)’, alongside photocopied sheet with simultaneous reply to Lewis bibliographers Pound and Morrow regarding various points, very good $650 An interesting document from the publishers’ files: the clause deleted by Wyndham Lewis relates to the ‘option of publishing the Author’s next work’ - given the author’s preternatural ability to make enemies, there is a measure of self-awareness, but also self- protection, in Lewis’s revision here.
71. Thomas (Dylan) Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. J.M. Dent, 1940, UNCORRECTED PROOF COPY, ownership inscription of B.J. Morse to half-title, one leaf with crease to top corner, pp. 254, crown 8vo, original plae blue wrappers printed in black to front and backstrip, the latter browned with a little lean to spine, faint sprinkling of spots to covers and the odd nick, ownership stamp to front corresponding to that on half-title, a few small spots to edges, good $1,300 Proof copies of Thomas’s major works are uncommon. This is the copy of the Welsh poet, translator and critic Benjamin Joseph Morse - Morse translated Thomas’s work into German, and provided an obituary of the author for the University of Wales’ ‘Broadsheet’.
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PRESENTATION COPY 72. Williams (William Carlos) In the Money. White Mule - Part II. Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1940, FIRST EDITION, pp. 382, crown 8vo, original blue cloth, backstrip lettered in silver with a small amount of fading at head, a touch of soiling to upper joint, top edge pale blue, edges roughtrimmed, adhesive browning to endpapers, dustjacket price-clipped with short closed tear at head of front panel, very good $590 Inscribed on the flyleaf: ‘To Paul C. French, William Carlos Williams’ - the recipient Paul Comly French, the journalist and author.
IN THE DUSTJACKET 73. Musil (Robert) Der Mann Ohne Eigenschaften [The Man Without Qualities.] Roman [Dritter Band.] Lausanne: Imprimerie Centrale, 1943, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece photograph of author, with further plates showing facsmile page and Musil’s death-mask, some foxing at head of prelims and to pages either side of plates, pp. 462, crown 8vo, original grey cloth blocked in black to upper board and backstrip, top corners a little knocked, some foxing heaviest at borders, stamp of Australian bookseller at foot of flyleaf, dustjacket toned with a small amount of chipping, good $2,600 One of 1,000 copies, the third volume of Musil’s sprawling meisterwerk - published by his widow Martha following his death, and assembled from his working material. Scarce, particularly so in the dustjacket.
74. Picasso (Pablo) Le Désir attrapé par la queue. Paris: [Privately printed,] [1944,] FIRST EDITION, facsimile of the author’s manuscript including his illustrations, pp. [25], 4to, original stapled tan wrappers printed to front to imitate notebook design, minor browning and some very light signs of handling, splitting at spine ends, very good $2,600 A play in six short Acts - this privately distributed first edition (a trade edition was issued by Gallimard in 1945) only exists in a small number of copies, thought to be around fifty. It is a farce, the improvised nature of whose composition - in the surrealist tradition of automatic writing - is well rendered in facsimile form. Written in 1941, it was first performed during occupation in 1944, in the private setting of Michel and Louise Leiris’s apartment with a cast that included Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Dora Maar, and Raymond Queneau, and an audience that added Georges Bataille, Georges Braque, Henri Michaux, and Pierre Reverdy to the assembly - Max Jacob, who had died in the concentration camp at Drancy that year, was present in tribute-form via a photograph placed on the mantelpiece by Picasso during the reading.
INSCRIBED TO RALPH KIRKPATRICK 75. Vieillard (Roger, Illustrator) Hommage à Rimbaud. Burins de R. Vieillard. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1945, FIRST EDITION, 46/150 COPIES (from an edition of 186 copies) signed by the author and printed on Vélin d’Arches paper, title-page and half-title printed in black and terracotta, 17 copper-engraved illustrations by Vieillard including title-page vignette, 4 tail-pieces and 12 full- page, all tissue-guarded, a few with heightening in white, 4to, the sheets loose as issued in original wrappers, tissue wrapper, cloth and board chemise faintly spotted with the backstrip lettered in gilt, cloth and board slipcase with some light wear, very good $850 A selection of 12 poems by Arthur Rimbaud, exquisitely illustrated by Roger Vieillard - an artist associated with Atelier 17, and one of the finest working in his medium. This copy is inscribed by the artist in pencil on the initial blank leaf: ‘à Ralph Kirkpatrick, pour les possibilités harmoniques, Roger Vieillard, amicalement’ - a few characteristic decorations adorn the inscription, and continue onto the half-title where they fill the page, with an additional inscription (’pour Ralph Kirkpatrick’) at the foot. The recipient was an American musician and musicologist, and many of Vieillard’s decorations are suggestive of musical notation. Kirkpatrick’s bookplate, designed by Vieillard, is on the inside of the chemise.
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TOLKIEN GETS THE HOMPE 76. Tolkien (J.R.R.) Hompen eller, En resa Dit och Tillbaksigen [The Hobbit.] [Översatt av Tore Zetterholm.] Kooperativa Förbundets, 1947, FIRST SWEDISH EDITION, illustrations by Torbjörn Zetterholm, pp. 269, crown 8vo, original quarter red cloth with illustration by Charles Sjöblom to upper board, backstrip lettered in gilt, some light rubbing and a little wear at corners, endpaper maps by Charles Sjöblom, good $780 Per the bibliography, this would appear to be the first translation of this work into any language - and indeed, the first translation of any of the author’s work. In a letter from 1956, the author dismissed it as having ‘taken unwarranted liberties with the text and other details, without consultation or approval’ - reserving particular disgruntlement for the failure to use the word ‘Hobbit’ (’I will not have any more Hompen (in which I was not consulted), nor any Hobbel or what not’).
THE TRANSLATOR ’S COPY , INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR 77. Mauriac (Francois) Saint Margaret of Cortona. Translated from the French by Bernard Frechtman. New York: Philosophical Library, 1948, FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, pp. xii, 231, crown 8vo, original blue cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt against a red ground, top edge red, dustjacket a little chipped and rubbed, very good $460 A presentation copy, inscribed by the author to the translator on the half-title: ‘Pour Bernard Frechtman, en le remerciant d’avoir tenté et reussi une traduction aussi difficile - et en cordial hommage, François Mauriac, Paris ii Mai 48’. A hagiographical work by the French novelist. The recipient is best-known for his translations of Genet’s work, and also served as the latter’s agent - introducing him to a wider Anglophone readership.
78. O’Hara (Frank) A City Winter and Other Poems. New York: (Printed by Ruthven Todd for) Tibor de Nagy Gallery, 1951, FIRST EDITION, 28/130 COPIES (of an edition of 150 copies) printed on French Arches paper with the 2 inserted illustrations by Larry Rivers printed on Japanese Shogun paper, the title printed in blue, unbound as issued, pp. [iv], 16, crown 8vo, original plain white wrappers, untrimmed, fine $2,150 Scarce. Frank O’Hara’s first book. O’Hara took up residence in New York where he worked as Assistant to the Curator at the Museum of Modern Art. Whilst there he met and befriended several of the artists of the American Abstract Expressionists group, especially Jackson Pollock and Willem DeKooning. He was also a member of the New York School of Poets, other members of whom included John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch and Barbara Guest. The Tibor de Nagy Gallery was founded in 1949 by de Nagy and J.B. Myers. Although initially a financial failure, funding from Dwight Ripley placed it on a more firm financial footing. ‘A City Winter and Other Poems’ was the first in a series of books issued by this gallery.
SIGNED BY PICASSO AND PIGNON 79. (Picasso.) LE POINT. Revue Artistique et Littéraire. XLII, Octobre 1952. Souillac & Mulhouse: Le Point, 1952, various photographs of and reproductions of artwork by Picasso, the photographs by Robert Doisneau, a couple of inky fingerprints (conceivably the artist’s, see below), pp. 56, 4to, original card wrappers with integral green dustjacket, protective tissue jacket a little chipped at foot of front panel, very good $1,950 Signed by Picasso and his friend and protégé Edouard Pignon, beneath the Doisneau photo of the two of them together in the artist’s studio. One of the two must have got some ink on their fingertips during the process of signing - there are two fingerprints to the same page, and one elsewhere, at the beginning of the text. Pignon contributes an account, ‘Chez Picasso’; other contributors include Tristan Tzara and Pierre Reverdy.
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INSCRIBED TO THE TRANSLATOR 80. Beckett (Samuel) Watt. Roman [Traduit de l’anglais par Ludovic et Agnès Janvier, en collaboration avec l’auteur.] Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1968, FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH, a few passages marked (presumably by Janvier - see below) with a word supplied then deleted to the margin of p.61, pp. 268, small 4to, original white wrappers printed in blue and black, minor toning to backstrip and the odd light mark, very good $1,630 An important presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title to one of the translators with whom he collaborated on this work: ‘Pour Agnès, avec reconnaissance et affection, Sam, Paris mars 69’. Ludovic Janvier and his wife (née Vaquin) were schoolteachers who had approached Beckett regarding the possibility of translating this work in 1966 (Ludovic having just published a critical study, ‘Pour Samuel Beckett’) - the working process was that they would submit parts of the translation for Beckett’s extensive editing, upon which they would base a typed version that Beckett would again edit whilst writing out in notebooks.
81. (Picasso.) VERVE Nos 29-30. Suite de 180 dessins de Picasso. Vol. VIII. 28 Novembre 1953 au 3 Février 1954. Paris: Éditions de la Revue Verve, [1954,] 16 colour-printed Picasso lithographs (12 of these tissue-guarded) by Mourlot Frères and 164 drawings by the same reproduced in photogravure by Draeger Frères, the text by Michel Leiris, Tériade and Rebecca West, pp. [220], 4to, original illustrated boards with an overall design by Picasso, some minor wear at joint ends, a little minor soiling and a touch of rubbing to extremities, a few spots to edges, very good $1,950
‘T HIS WAS THE BEGINNING...’ 82. Hunter (Evan) The Blackboard Jungle. A Novel. Constable, 1955, FIRST EDITION, page-borders toned throughout, pp. 320, crown 8vo, original blue boards, backstrip lettered in gilt with spine slightly cocked, some faint mottling to boards, dustjacket a little chipped and rubbed with internal tape repair at head of backstrip panel, good $130 Inscribed by the author on the title-page, to author and bibliophile John Baxter: ‘To John, This was the beginning. Here we are now. Best wishes, Evan Hunter 3/25/94’. An important book, based in an inner-city New York school, and the basis for the film starring Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier - the latter in his breakout role. The book’s epigraph is from Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’: ‘What are the roots that clutch...’ etc.
83. Achebe (Chinua) Things Fall Apart. Heinemann, 1958, UNCORRECTED PROOF COPY FOR FIRST EDITION, a couple of handling marks and a few faint spots occasionally, a couple of passages marked lightly in pencil to the margin, pp. [viii], 185, crown 8vo, original tan wrappers printed to front and backstrip, the front with publication date and price written in blue ink, the stamp of ‘Juta & Co Ltd’ in Cape Town and ‘21 Apr 1958’ (date of sending?) stamped at foot, a few spots to edges, pencilled ownership inscription to half- title (flyleaf not called for), proof dustjacket chipped at head of backstrip panel with spotting to rear panel and rubbing to extremities, Juta & Co stamp at foot of front flap, good $3,900 An important work of post-colonial fiction, set in Nigeria at the end of the nineteenth-century - a scarce proof, the dustjacket of which does not carry the price but otherwise matches the design of the published version. A copy with African provenance, the publisher having offices in Cape Town.
84. Rice (Craig) & Ed McBain. The April Robin Murders. New York: Random House Mystery, 1958, FIRST EDITION, pp. [iv], 217, [1], crown 8vo, original grey boards, publisher device stamped in gilt to upper board, backstrip lettered in gilt with a black lattice design, top edge orange, faint partial browning to free endpapers, the flyleaf with a tiny ink-spot, dustjacket with very minor dustsoiling, very good $200
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Signed by Ed McBain (Evan Hunter, etc.) on the title-page. Unfinished by Craig Rice (a pseudonym for Georgiana Ann Randolph) at the time of her death, work was completed by Ed McBain - also a pseudonym, this time the recently coined crime fiction guise of Evan Hunter (born Salvatore Albert Lombino).
85. Southern (Terry) Flash and Filigree. Andre Deutsch, 1958, FIRST EDITION, pp. 204, crown 8vo, original black boards, backstrip lettered in gilt, faint partial browning to endpapers, very light spotting to top edge, dustjacket by Stephen Russ with some very faint spots to pale areas and the backstrip panel very gently sunned, very good $120 The author’s first book, with the UK edition preceding its US counterpart.
VOICE OF GOD ’S COPY 86. Britten (Benjamin) Noye's Fludde. The Chester Miracle Play... Op. 50. Vocal Score by Imogen Holst. Hawkes & Son, 1959, vocal score, with ‘Notes on Production’ 8-page leaflet tipped in, pages with ‘Voice of God’ entries marked with paper clips at upper margin, pp. (vii), 76, 4to, pebble-grained navy cloth, cover with owner’s initials ‘K.N.J.L.’ in gilt at lower corner, backstrip lettered in gilt, gilt edges, signed by the composer on headed note paper attached to pastedown, flyleaf with owner’s signature ‘Kenneth Loveless, FSA, Hoxton, 1959’, very good $1,240 The Rev. Kenneth Loveless MBE (for services to Morris dancing) was Britten’s inspiration for the ‘Voice of God’ and performed the part for the production at All Saints’ Church, East Finchley in April 1959 - a community project which was much closer to Britten’s original intention for the production of the work than the professional premiere the previous year at the Aldeburgh Festival.
87. Lewis (C.S.) Studies in Words. Cambridge: At the University Press, 1960, FIRST EDITION, pp. vii, 240, crown 8vo, original blue cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt partially against a black ground, top edge a trifle dustsoiled, dustjacket with corner clipped at head of front flap (price intact at foot), very good $98 The copy of Sir Geoffrey Keynes, with his ownership inscription to the flyleaf dated ‘Rome Oct. 1960’ - in pencil to the same, below, he has noted a reference to Harvey on Wit on p. 91.
INSCRIBED TO ‘M R LSD’ 88. Trocchi (Alexander) Young Adam. Heinemann, 1961, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, pp. 162, crown 8vo, original maroon boards, backstrip lettered in gilt, mild traces of damp to boards, very minor knock to bottom corner of upper board, tiny waterstain to leading edge of rear free endpaper, dustjacket a little frayed with some light soiling to rear panel, good $3,250 Inscribed by the author on the flyleaf: ‘For Desmond O’Brien - a small & overdue token of my esteem - Alex. London, 1.1.65! (Tempus fuxit [sic])’. An excellent presentation copy, inscribed to a man Trocchi called a ‘fellow traveller’: O’Brien was an Old Etonian and Lloyd’s underwriter who had founded the World Psychedelic Centre with Michael Hollingshead in the year of this inscription - his reputation as a psychedelic impresario already conferring upon him the title of ‘Mr LSD’ (enshrined by a sensationalist exposé in ‘London Life’ magazine).
89. Paolozzi (Eduardo) Metafisikal Translations. Kelpra Studio, [1962,] FIRST EDITION, screenprinted illustration combined with text throughout, pp. [45], imperial 8vo, original white wrappers printed in red to front, a little light creasing and a few faint spots, a strip of faint browning at head of rear and a few faint pressure marks, faint spotting to inside covers even more faintly offset, very good $1,760 Inscribed by the artist to the flyleaf: ‘For Elizabeth Claridge, Eduardo Paolozzi, January 1965’. The recipient was the wife of art dealer Mark Glazebrook.
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90. Sigal (Clancy) Going Away. A Report, A Memoir. Boston and Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin and The Riverside Press, 1962, FIRST EDITION, pp. [x], 513, 8vo, original orange cloth, backstrip lettered in silver, top edge black, fore-edge roughtrimmed, dustjacket price-clipped with chip at head of upper joint-fold and some minor rubbing, very good $260 With a lengthy inscription by the author to the flyleaf: ‘Dear John - Tom Haydn says this novel “made a man” of him. Do I have to take responsibility for this?’ before speculating that it ‘wd make a great movie - directed by, um, Frankenheimer? w/ a cost of thousands. Be well, Clancy’. The recipient was John Baxter, noted bibliophile and - like Sigal - a cineaste. An autobiographical bildungsroman, describing the author’s road trip from the west to the east coast of a homeland that has begun to alienate.
THE TOVE JANSSON HOBBIT 91. Tolkien (J.R.R.) Bilbo. En Hobbits Äventyr [The Hobbit.] I Översättning av Britt G. Hallqvist och med Illustrationer av Tove Jansson. Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren, 1962, FIRST JANSSON EDITION, 10 full-page drawings with numerous smaller drawings throughout text, pp. 308, 8vo, original quarter green cloth with colour-printed Jansson illustration to upper board, a touch of fading almost exclusively to lower board and none affecting Jansson image, backstrip lettered in gilt and a touch faded with gentle rubbing at ends, very good $2,600 An attractive edition - this is an excellent copy of a book whose scarcity can be attributed to both author and illustrator being immensely collectable separately. Given the importance of the Nordic influence on Tolkien’s work, there is something reciprocal about the foremost illustrator of the region turning her hand to one of his most enduring works - and the results are delightful.
92. Amis (Kingsley) One Fat Englishman. A Novel. Victor Gollancz, 1963, FIRST EDITION, pp. 192, crown 8vo, original red boards, backstrip lettered in gilt, top edge a trifle dusty, dustjacket, near fine $330 Inscribed by the author on the flyleaf: ‘John Baxter, from another fat Englishman, Kingsley Amis’. The recipient, an author and bibliophile, recounts the circumstances of his Amis collection being signed in his entertaining memoir ‘A Pound of Paper’.
93. (Dali.) VALETTE (Robert D.) Deux Fatrasies. Ornées par Dalí. Cannes: (Printed at Les Ateliers d’Art,) 1963, ONE OF 70 COPIES on Vélin d’Arches paper, signed by author and artist, this copy out of series and marked ‘un des exemplaires d’auteur’, etched vignette to title-page and 3 full-page etchings all by Dali and tissue-guarded, 8vo, original wrappers with title-page etching repeated to front, loose-bound as issued, tissue jacket, edges untrimmed, near fine $2,080 A very handsome piece of later work by Dali, illustrating this revival of a medieval nonsense verse-form by Robert Dreyfus Valette - the latter more eminent as an editor, of work by Éluard and Proust among others.
INSCRIBED TO A LEONARD COHEN CONNECTION 94. Trocchi (Alexander) Cain's Book. John Calder, 1963, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, a few printing smudges to the title-page, pp. 252, crown 8vo, original red boards, backstrip lettered in silver, crease to knocked top corner of upper board, dustjacket a little nicked and chipped and darkened slightly in a couple of places, very good $3,250 With a lengthy inscription by the author to the flyleaf: ‘For Nancy Bacal – Can I ask you to be careful not to treat this book as “literature”? Whatever else it is, it’s not that. Of course, there is a good deal of “fiction” in it, but… For example, my publisher’s first question when he had read it: “It’s great! But are you working on another novel now?” It was as though he hadn’t read it at all. Alex. London, March 1963’. The recipient was a Canadian who had come to London to study classical theatre at RADA, where she became involved in various counter-cultural activities - including founding the Black Power movement in London alongside her then partner Michael de Freitas (Michael X/Michael Abdul Malik). She had been introduced to Trocchi by Leonard Cohen - a mutual friend that she had known
22 59th New York Antiquarian Book Fair, Stand D22 since childhood, and whose song ‘Seems So Long Ago, Nancy’ was written for her; at the time of her introduction to Trocchi she was working as an interviewer for CBC (in which capacity she also interviewed the first incarnation of Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones) and making a film about drug use. ‘Cain’s Book’ was first published in New York in 1960, and received positive notices but no widespread attention; upon its UK publication, however, it caused a scandal and was prosecuted for obscenity having been seized in Sheffield as a threat to the morals of the young. Trocchi, well-versed in Situationist practice having been integrally involved with the nascent movement whilst in Paris, saw the furore as an opportunity to promote the book and at the Edinburgh Festival 1964 staged a public burning (with added explosives) that was part protest against and part endorsement of the judgement of the book as incendiary material. Cohen’s role in the story goes beyond the merely incidental: between the US and the UK publications of the work, Trocchi had been charged with the capital offence of supplying drugs to a minor in New York - it was Cohen who assisted him in crossing into Canada, from where he made his way back to London, receiving for his trouble an inadvertent overdose from his charge’s largesse.
95. Winter (Ella) And Not to Yield. An Autobiography. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, [1963,] FIRST EDITION, photographic plates, pp. xii, 308, 8vo, original mid blue cloth, backstrip lettered in green and silver, minor knocking to corners, dustjacket lightly dustsoiled overall, very good $130 Inscribed by the author on the flyleaf: ‘For Dr Gordon Stewart Prince: Well, anyway ------With hope & trust, Ella Winter, Oct 31st 1966’. The recipient was a London psychiatrist. An interesting holograph note from Winter, presumably to the same, is laid in: ‘Of course I’d like to give it to you because I like you, but chiefly (from a professional point of view) I thought it might save some time - I have such a long full life to get through! (Children are simpler - no past - well not so much.) They cut 1000 pages of this for length’. Dustjacket blurb: ‘The candid and entertaining story of an emancipated woman and a rebellious spirit who has participated in many of the most venturesome movements of her time’.
96. (Picasso.) GILOT (Françoise) & Carlton Lake. Life with Picasso. New York: McGraw Hill, [1964,] FIRST EDITION, plates, pp. 373, [1], 8vo, original oatmeal cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, fore- edge roughtrimmed, dustjacket a little rubbed and nicked with some light soiling, good $280 Inscribed by the author on the half-title: ‘For Kit, With all my love, Françoise’. The author was an artist who was Picasso’s partner for almost a decade - the mother of two of his children, Claude and Paloma. The recipient is obscure.
97. (Plath.) LUCAS (Victoria) The Bell Jar. Heinemann Contemporary Fiction, 1964, FIRST BOOK CLUB EDITION, pp. [iv], 258, crown 8vo, original green boards, backstrip lettered in silver, top edge purple with a couple of spots, very minor knock to corners of upper board, dustjacket with backstrip panel faded, a few spots to borders of rear flap, very good $520 The second edition of this important first novel by Sylvia Plath, preserving her anonymity with a stark statement on the dustjacket’s rear panel: ‘we are not in a position to disclose any details of the author’s identity’. The latter would be made plain two years later, with the Faber edition issued under the author’s own name.
98. Burns (Alan) Europe After the Rain. John Calder, 1965, FIRST EDITION, monochrome reproduction of eponymous Ernst painting double-spread to title-page, pp. 128, crown 8vo, original maroon boards, backstrip lettered in gilt, very faint shadow at head of boards, dustjacket again with Ernst painting, minor soiling to this with the odd nick, very good $200 An ekphrastic piece of apocalyptic fiction, the author’s first novel - taking as its reference point the Max Ernst painting of the same name.
THE TOVE JANSSON ‘A LICE ’ 99. Carroll (Lewis) Alice I Underlandet. I Översättning av Åke Runnquist, med Illustrationer av Tove Jansson. Stockholm: Albert Bonniers, 1966, FIRST JANSSON EDITION, illustrations throughout including 4 full-page and 11 with colour- printing, ownership inscription to half-title, pp. 112, 8vo, original brown cloth with Jansson medallion-design stamped in gilt to upper board, backstrip lettered in gilt, dustjacket with
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Jansson design, a very short closed tear at foot of rear panel, a couple of tiny nicks, very mild toning to backstrip panel and borders, very good $1,240 A delightful edition and a lovely copy - Jansson’s illustrations are distinctive and appropriate.
THE SCARCE DELUXE ISSUE 100. Carroll (Lewis) Alices Äventyr I Sagolandet och Bakom Spegeln. Översätt av Gösta Knutsson [Samtliga teckningar utförda av Robert Högfeldt.] Stockholm: Jan Förlag, 1945, FIRST HÖGFELDT EDITION, frontispiece and 9 further colour-printed plates with line drawings to the text, pp. 219, 8vo, original deluxe binding of half red morocco with marbled boards, backstrip lettered in gilt, some minor rubbing to extremities, dustjacket with some internal tape repair, very good $1,170
RUSSIAN SPACE - NIKOLAEV ’S COPY 101. (Vostok 3 & Soyuz 9) Nikolaev (Andrian) [in Russian] We Shall Meet in Orbit. Moscow, 1966, photographic portrait frontispiece, several photographic illustrations, first three chapters with numerous pencil annotations, pp. 228, 8vo, pale green boards, cover lettered in silver, with ascending red star motif, spine lettered in silver and red, dustjacket, clipped, worn at folds, frayed at edges, with short tears at upper edge of front and back covers, very good $1,560 The author’s own copy, with his lengthy annotations and text corrections in pencil in the margins of 21 pages of the first three chapters. [With]: [in Russian] Cosmos: Road Without End. Moscow, 1974, photographic portrait frontispiece, numerous photographic plates, pp. 266, (vi), 8vo, dark blue boards, cover lettered in silver with ascending rocket motif, spangled star endpapers, very good Both books are signed by Nikolaev on the title-pages [in Russian] ‘With Best Wishes, 15.9.97’ and include an autograph signed note by the author, briefly reporting the book’s contents, mounted on the final endpaper of each volume. The first book describes the training, flight and aftermath of the Vostok 3 mission of 1962, in which Nikolaev circled the earth 64 times in 96 hours and appeared on the first television broadcast from space. Besides the traditional images of free fall training and portraits in various types of space suit, Nikolaev is also pictured on a pedalo and with his wife, Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, on their wedding day. The second was written after the 1970 Soyuz 9 mission in which, though he was suffering from a pike bite from a fishing expedition two days before lift-off, Nikolaev set a new endurance record, 18 days in space. Known by Gargarin as ‘the most unflappable man in a crisis I know’ and by Titov as ‘a man of iron endurance and courageous determination’, Nikolaev was inundated with Soviet honours and had a conspicuous lunar crater named after him.
ELIOT AND UNGARETTI TRANSLATE 102. Perse (Saint-John) Anabase. Seguita dalle traduzioni di T.S. Eliot e Giuseppe Ungaretti. Illustrata da Berrocal. Verona: La Rame, 1967, ONE OF 23 LETTERED COPIES (this ‘Z’) from an edition of 122 copies, signed by the artist, printed on Pescia hand-made paper by Giovanni Mardersteig at the Stamperia Valdonega, 9 colour-printed linocuts with 3 of these double-spread, title-page printed in black and blue, pp. 131, 4to, loose as issued in card wrappers, cloth and board chemise with Berrocal design and board slipcase (the latter carrying a few marks), the book itself near fine $1,560 One of the most important modernist long poems - its significance enshrined by the eminence of its translators in the versions included here - in an edition illustrated with striking lino-cuts by the sculptor Berrocal, whose images convey the blend of the modern and the classical that is fundamental to the text.
A TRIBUTE ISSUE , INSCRIBED TO AND SIGNED BY POUND 103. (Pound.) DIALOGUE. Journal des Livres et des Idées, No. 3. Lausanne, September 1967, single folded sheet, portraits of Pound by Gaudier-Brzeska and Jean Cocteau, pp. [4], folio, original self wrappers printed on all sides, light overall toning, quarter-folded with horizontal points starting, from the library of actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. with his loose bookplate in separate envelope, very good condition $650 Inscribed warmly to Pound by Piero Sanavio, an Italian who wrote on Pound and translated him into French: ‘To Ezra for a happy new year. Piero Sanavio’. Pound himself has signed his name, followed by two exclamation marks, at the side of Gaudier-Brzeska’s
24 59th New York Antiquarian Book Fair, Stand D22 portrait of him on the front. The entire issue is dedicated to Pound, with Sanavio contributing as lead article the case for Pound winning the Nobel Prize - further tributes come from George Seferis, Eugenio Montale, Hemingway, Wyndham Lewis, Eliot, Edith Sitwell, as well as Pound himself (a translation of Canto LXXIX by Denis Roche). A scarce item, not recorded in Gallup’s bibliography of Pound, although he does record Eliot’s contribution - ‘Sur Ezra Pound’, a French translation taken from his Literary Essays - in his bibliography of the latter as D163b.
104. Jansson (Tove) Bildhuggarens dotter [Sculptor’s daughter]. Helsinki: Almqvist & Wiksell/Gebers, 1968, FIRST EDITION, pp. 147, [1], crown 8vo, original mustard-yellow cloth, backstrip lettered in black, dustjacket illustrated by the author with some minor toning, small crack in lower half of backstrip panel, very good $780 The author’s memoir of her Finnish childhood.
105. (Baynes.) KRUTCH (Joseph Wood) The Most Wonderful Animals that Never Were. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969, FIRST EDITION, title-page design with further headpiece and full-page illustration to each of the ten chapters, pp. 187, [1], 8vo, original blue cloth, Pauline Baynes decoration stamped in gilt to upper board, backstrip lettered in gilt, a few tiny spots to top edge, dustjacket with colour illustration by Pauline Baynes, very good $260 Signed by the illustrator to the title-page.
106. Baynes (Pauline) [Original drawing:] ‘Unicorn’, for 'The Most Wonderful Animals that Never Were' by Joseph Wood Krutch. circa 1969, black ink with some heightening in white, some pencil marks visible, 16 x 10.5 cm approx (image size, framed size 44 x 34.5 cm) mounted and framed in English oak under museum glass using high-grade acid-free materials, very good condition $2,600 Signed by the artist in pencil and with her note as to the book and section for which it was intended. A striking image, showing the unicorn taking comfort in the company of flower-bearing maidens whilst a hunter with dagger drawn lurks behind a tree. Baynes’s later work demonstrates a growing repertoire of technique; here the mottled effect that softens the borders of the image works in the service of her established ability in composition - a quality reflected in the printed version, but considerably clearer in this original.
107. Greenlee (Sam) The Spook Who Sat by the Door. A novel. Allison & Busby, 1969, FIRST EDITION, pp. 182, 8vo, original green boards, backstrip lettered in gilt with slight lean to spine, small patch of drink-staining carrying from top edge to fore-edge, this also affecting head of dustjacket’s front panel, dustjacket otherwise a little toned in places, very good $130 A scarce novel about a black CIA officer, based on the author’s own experiences - an examination of tokenism, gang culture, and civil rights; published first in the UK, with a US edition following in the same year, and subsequently the basis for a movie.
108. Raudive (Konstantin) Breakthrough. An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead. Translated by Nadia Fowler. Edited by Joyce Morton. With a Preface by Peter Blander. Colin Smythe, 1971, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, 2 plates of photographs, a few technical illustrations of equipment or circuits, squiggle in blue ink to inner margin of title-page, pp. xxxi, 391, 8vo, original black boards, backstrip lettered in gilt, a little dust-spotting to top edge, dustjacket price- clipped, very good $390 [With:] Raudive (Konstantin) [Cover title:] Breakthrough. An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead. Examples of original voices received during experiments. Produced, edited & introduced by Michael Smythe [Vinyl Recording, 33 1/3 rpm]. Vista, 1971, playing surface in excellent condition, errata slip laid in, 7 inch record, sleeve a little pushed at corners, very good Expanded from the original German edition, the Latvian parapsychologist’s exploration of Electronic Voice Phenomena is an absorbing peculiarity - not least in the form of the accompanying audio recording, which includes the ‘voices’ of Winston Churchill and James Joyce.
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109. Tate (Allen) [Typescript poems:] 'More Sonnets at Christmas' Washington DC: Nov. 9 1972, typed to rectos of 2 leaves of vellum-paper, the first headed with Christmas postage stamp franked with place and date with statement ‘First Day of Issue’, pp. [2], 4to, fine condition $260 Signed by the author at the foot of the second sheet, beneath his printed name. This sonnet-sequence was originally published in 1942 - here the only variance is in the dedication, now posthumous ‘To the memory of Denis Devlin’.
WITH A SIGNED PRINT 110. O'Brien (Flann) The Poor Mouth (An Béal Bocht). A bad story about the hard life. Edited by Myles na Gopaleen. Translated by Patrick C. Power and Illustrated by Ralph Steadman. Bernard Jacobson, in association with Hart-Davis, Macgibbon, 1973, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, 128/130 COPIES signed and numbered by the illustrator with the signed Steadman print (numbered 128/150) laid in, title-page design and numerous monochrome illustrations by Steadman with a few further decorations by the same, pp. 128, royal 8vo, original hessian cloth with lettering by Ralph Steadman to upper board, a little browned around the backstrip, the cloth to lower joint a little rubbed, edges roughtrimmed, endpaper maps by Steadman, very good $1,300 Originally published in Irish in 1941, this is a gloriously amusing response to the country staple of misery-laden Gaeltacht memoirs. [With:] A signed, numbered (as the book) print of one of the illustrations, framed and glazed with a hint of sunning to margins.
111. Owens (Iris) After Claude. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, [1973,] FIRST EDITION pp. [viii], 206, 8vo, original red cloth, backstrip lettered in black, top edge red, dustjacket, fine $390 Signed by the author on the half-title. The author’s first novel under her own name, following work for the Olympia Press under the pseudonym Harriet Daimler; here the strident anti-heroine shares that first name, offering a form of continuation.
112. Mitford (Jessica) A Fine Old Conflict. Michael Joseph, 1977, FIRST EDITION, pp. 270, 8vo, original blue boards, backstrip lettered in gilt, top edge a little dust-speckled, a couple of very faint spots to flyleaf, dustjacket, near fine $100 Inscribed by the author on the title-page: ‘To John, from Jessica Mitford’. The recipient was the author and bibliophile John Baxter. A memoir of her time in the American Communist Party.
113. (Graphic novel.) EISNER (Will) A Contract with God, and Other Tenement Stories. New York: Baronet, 1978, FIRST EDITION, text and illustrations printed in brown, crown 8vo, original wrappers, light reading crease to spine and a little corner creasing, slit at foot of fore-margin of front cover, transcript of obituary notice laid in, good $140 Inscribed by the author on the title-page: ‘To John Baxter, from Will Eisner’ - the recipient’s bookplate faces on the inside cover. A pioneering work, the first to be marketed as a ‘Graphic Novel’ (classified as such on the cover); the interlocking stories are based on the author’s childhood in the Jewish community located in the Bronx.
114. Norse (Harold) Beat Hotel. [Foreword by William S. Burroughs.] Sani Diego, CA: Atticus Press, 1983, FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, frontispiece photograph of the author and a few further photographs, pp. [xiv], 76, [2], foolscap 8vo, original wrappers, near fine $98 Signed by the author on the half-title. A ‘cut-up’ novella, composed in 1960 whilst resident at the eponymous (although this was only its nickname, being otherwise anonymous) establishment in Paris, this edition (of 2,000 copies) preceded by one in German in 1975.
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115. Ballard (J.G.) Empire of the Sun. A Novel. Gollancz, 1984, FIRST EDITION, full-page map, margins browned, pp. [viii], 278, 8vo, original black boards, backstrip gilt lettered, a few tiny spots to top edges, a couple of faint stains to other edges and a sliver of waterstaining to bottom corner of free endpapers, contemporary ownership inscription to flyleaf, first issue dustjacket with only Greene and Carter reviews on rear panel, very good $260 Signed by the author on the title-page.
116. Gaddis (William) Carpenter's Gothic. André Deutsch, 1986, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, pp. 262, crown 8vo, original red boards, backstrip lettered in gilt, top edge a trifle dust-spotted, dustjacket, near fine $260 Inscribed by the author on the half-title: ‘for John Baxter, with warm regards, William Gaddis, Canberra, March 1989’ - the recipient an author and bibliophile.
117. Wolfe (Tom) The Bonfire of the Vanities. Jonathan Cape, 1988, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, pp. [viii], 659, 8vo, original black boards, backstrip lettered in gilt, dustjacket price-clipped by publisher, fine $160 Signed by the author on the half-title.
118. Oe (Kenzaburo) Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids. Translated and Introduced by Paul St Mackintosh and Maki Sugiyama. London and New York: Marion Boyars, 1995, FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, pp. 189, crown 8vo, original red boards, backstrip lettered in gilt, newspaper clipping laid in, dustjacket, near fine $130 Signed by the author to the title-page. The first novel (published in his native Japan in 1958) by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1994.
119. Paley (Grace) Two signed typescript poems, manuscript notes. circa 1985- 2000, pp. [1]; [1]; [2]; various sizes and formats, the poem sheets sometime folded, very good condition overall $330 The two poems, each signed by the author in green ink at the foot of the page, are here untitled, but are ‘Alive’ and ‘Right Now’ in her ‘Collected Poems’. The manuscript notes are for a talk given at the Village Voice bookshop in Paris circa 2000 - they refer to her time in Algiers (on one side), and then, on its reverse, a passage regarding Catherine Karolyi, which includes the memorable note ‘I suspect that Genghis Khan still lurks somewhere in the deepest part of her subconscious’.
DESIGN BY PAUL SMITH 120. Lawrence (D.H.) Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Penguin, 2006, 348/1,000 COPIES, printed in purple, pp. xxxvi, 364, 8vo, original purple cloth, white cotton dustjacket with an overall sewn design of flowers and lettering by Paul Smith, stripe-design page- marker, clear perspex slipcase with limitation label, shrinkwrapped, fine $650 One of five titles selected by Penguin, each with a dustjacket design by a notable modern artist or designer, issued to celebrate the house’s sixtieth anniversary.
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