Literary criticism & biography
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[CAVE, Edward, (ed.)]
The Gentleman's Magazine: or, Monthly Intelligencer. 1731–1814
£17,500
An excellent run from the first volume onwards of the work that gave birth to one of the major publishing forms of the modern era, the magazine. "It began modestly as a digest of...
116 volumes, octavo. Late 18th- and early 19th-century calf, sides ruled with a double gilt fillet, smooth spines with gilt centre-tools, red morocco lettering-pieces,... Read more
![The Common Reader [First &] Second Series.](/content/store/products/2080/2/3338.jpg)
WOOLF, Virginia.
The Common Reader [First &] Second Series. 1925 & 1932
£15,000
First editions, first impressions of both volumes, Nelly Cecil's copies, the First Series with her ownership inscription, the Second Series a presentation copy, with the author's...
2 volumes, octavo. First Series: original cloth backed decorated paper boards; with the cream dust jacket designed by Vanessa Bell supplied from another copy. Second... Read more
MITFORD, Nancy.
Annotated Typescript Draft of Madame de Pompadour. 1953
£15,000
Mitford's hand-corrected draft of her biography Madame de Pompadour. One of the author's best regarded works. She seemed from her background and temperament perfectly suited to...
353 page typed carbon with annotations in the author's hand. Housed in 4 folders with additional preliminary loose, and all housed together in a black cloth folding... Read more
(COSWAY STYLE BINDING) FORSTER, John.
The Life and Adventures of Oliver Goldsmith. A biography: in four books. 1848
£7,500
First edition, a handsome three-decker set in lavish Cosway-style bindings, housed in their original leather-entry slipcase, with portraits of Goldsmith, Johnson and Garrick. After...
3 volumes, octavo (203 × 129 mm). Full blue-green crushed morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe for Brentano's of New York, spines gilt in compartments between five... Read more
(DICKENS, Charles) KNIGHT, Charles, ed.
Half-Hours with The Best Authors. [1848]
£7,500
First edition, presentation copy to Charles Dickens, inscribed by Knight on the first front free endpaper verso: "To Charles Dickens Esq. With the editor's best regards. August 31,...
4 volumes, octavo. Original purple vertical-fine-ribbed cloth, sides blocked in blind with an elaborate design incorporating at centre the monogram of the... Read more
BUSSY, Dorothy & Simon.
A series of letters to art historian and biographer Auguste Bréal. 1919-40
£6,500
Dorothy Bussy (née Strachey) had translated Bréal's book on Velazquez back in 1905 and the present letters have an easy intimacy throughout. In the first she introduces J....
Dorothy Bussy: 15 autograph letters (one incomplete), signed or initialled; 2 pages foolscap, 21 pages small quarto, 9 pages octavo. Simon Bussy: 28 autograph letters,... Read more
WOOLF, Virginia.
On Being Ill. 1930
£5,750
First edition, first impression. One of a limited edition of 250 numbered copies signed by the author on the limitation leaf. Hand printed by the Woolfs insofaras Virginia set the...
Octavo. Original vellum backed green cloth, titles to spine gilt, marbled endpapers. With the dust jacket. Some very faint browning to vellum spine. An excellent copy... Read more
JAMES, Henry.
Typed letter signed to Henry White and his wife Margaret. 1914
£5,500
A lengthy personal letter addressed to "Dearest, dearest Harry and Daisy!", sending word of mutual friends, discussing the horrors brought on by the outbreak of the First World War...
Six and a quarter pages, quarto, on printed letterhead of 21, Carlyle Mansions, Cheyne Walk, S.W. Folds, with a very small strip of browning along one edge of one... Read more
(CRUIKSHANK) BATES, William.
George Cruikshank: 1879
£4,750
Finely bound by Henry Young and Sons of Liverpool, in full red morocco, extra gilt and gilt design to boards. Extra illustrated with 116 original engravings by Cruikshank, Leech,...
Finely bound by Henry Young and Sons of Liverpool, in full red morocco, extra gilt and gilt design to boards. Extra illustrated with 116 original engravings by... Read more
(CHURCHILL, Winston S.) CHURCHILL, Randolph S., & Martin Gilbert.
Winston S. Churchill. 1966–94
£4,500
All First Editions. A complete set comprising eight volumes of the Life with thirteen supplementary volumes and the two pendant volumes of War Papers. The supplementary volumes...
23 volumes, octavo. Original red cloth, titles to spines gilt. All with the dust jackets. Illustrated throughout. Some slight rubbing to jackets and minor wear to... Read more
ELIOT, T. S.
For Lancelot Andrewes. 1929
£4,500
First US edition, first printing. Inscribed one week prior to the official publication, expressing Eliot's apparent dissatisfaction with the jacket design, "Eleanor Hinkley from T....
Octavo. Original purple-brown cloth, star decoration and titles to spine and upper board in silver. With the dust jacket. Spine faded with light damp stain to tail... Read more
(JOHNSON, Samuel) BOSWELL, James.
The Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791
£4,500
First edition, first state with the incorrect spelling "gve" on line 10 of page 135, vol. I. The immense task of compiling the thousands of notes Boswell had recorded on "the great...
2 volumes, quarto (300 × 220 mm). Twentieth-century brown half morocco, titles to spines gilt, raised bands, marbled sides and endpapers. In a brown cloth... Read more
GREENE, Graham (contr.)
The English Novelists. 1936
£3,750
First US edition, first printing. With Greene's signed presentation inscription to his parents on the front free endpaper, "With love to Momma & D. from Graham. Nov 1936". Greene...
Octavo. Original blue cloth, titles to spine gilt. With the dust jacket. An excellent copy in the somewhat ragged dust jacket. Read more
MAILER, Norman.
Advertisements for Myself. 1959
£3,750
First edition, first printing. With the author's remarkable presentation inscription to the front free endpaper, "To André this piece of evidence this marked-up copy this record...
Octavo. Original red and black cloth, titles to upper board and spine gilt and in red. Contents occasionally marked, cloth a little used, minor wear to the spine.... Read more
ELIOT, T. S.
Draft Review of Lytton Strachey's Elizabeth and Essex. 1928
£3,750
Final typescript copy with a small number of pencil corrections in the author's hand. Eliot's favourable analysis of Elizabeth and Essex was published anonymously in the Times...
7 pages, carbon copy from typescript. Each leaf housed in an acetate sleeve, together in a black folder. Pages lightly toned and creased with some mild offsetting... Read more
VARIOUS AUTHORS.
The British Classics. 1803–12 / 1805 / 1809–10
£3,500
The Tatler I-IV; The Spectator, V-XII; The Guardian XIII-X-XIV; The Rambler XV-XVIII; and The Adventurer XIX-XXII. Without The Idler volumes XXIII-XXIV of the British Classics.
29 volumes, small octavo, Bound in full straight grained morocco, gilt titles and decoration to spine, raised bands, double rule and decorative border to boards, all... Read more
ADAMS, John Quincy.
Memoirs. 1874-1877
£3,500
First editions, first printings. Adams was the son of the second President of the United States of America. He, himself served as Secretary of State before becoming the sixth...
12 volumes, octavo. Recent brown morocco, twin morocco labels burgundy and dark green, decoration to spines, single roll to boards, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt,... Read more
(SALINGER, J. D.) HAMILTON, Ian.
J. D. Salinger. A Writing Life. 1986
£3,500
First edition, unpublished, first state of the uncorrected proofs bound from sheets of the May setting with all suppressed content extant. With the incorrect spelling of the author's...
Octavo. Original yellow wrappers printed in black. Housed in a flat back cloth solander box. Very lightly rubbed, an excellent copy. Read more
DUBOIS, W. E. B.
Dusk of Dawn. 1940
£3,500
First edition, first printing. Signed by the author on the front free endpaper. An important autobiographical account of the way in which contemporary concepts of race had affected...
Octavo. Original red cloth, titles to spine in white, red top-stain. With the dust jacket. A little rubbed at the tips, endpapers toned. An excellent copy in the... Read more
WHARTON, Edith.
The Writing of Fiction. 1925
£3,250
First edition, first printing. Presentation copy inscribed by the author to the French translator of her books on the front free endpaper, "To Monsieur Louis Gillet with regard &...
Octavo. Original red cloth backed grey boards, printed paper label to spine. With the dust jacket. Corners very slightly bumped, endpapers toned, spotting to edges... Read more
HELLER, Joseph.
Now and Then. 1998
£3,250
First Edition, First Impression. With the author's magnificent presentation inscription to the half title page, "For Erica - - Who has played a much larger role in this slice of a...
Octavo. Original yellow and grey boards, titles to spine in black, photographic endpapers. With the dust jacket. Illustrated. Spine lightened but a nice copy in the... Read more
GOLDING, William.
The Ladder and the Tree. 1961
£3,250
First Edition, Sole Printing. One of about 100 copies printed. Laid into this copy is a brief letter from John Randle on Whittington Press letterhead confirming this little pamphlet...
Octavo. Single quire, wire stitched, original blue wrappers printed in black. Housed in a full dark blue morocco solander box. Staples a little rusty as always but... Read more
(BYRON) [D’ISRAELI, Isaac].
The Literary Character, 1818
£3,000
First edition, Byron's copy, with his ownership inscription, of one of his favourite books, by the celebrated literary commentator Isaac D'Israeli (1766–1848), father of the...
Octavo (212 × 128 mm). Contemporary calf, rebacked with upper portion of original spine laid down, and recornered. Board-edges scorched, some foxing to early... Read more
LEWIS, C. S.
Dante's Statius. [1956]
£3,000
Offprint. With the author's signed presentation inscription to the upper wrapper, "Reg Davies from Jack Lewis". Reginald Thorne Davies was the Reader in English at the University of...
Octavo, 8 pp. Original plain blue wrappers, sewn. Housed in a quarter black morocco slipcase. Horizontal crease from folding, contents somewhat browned and tender at... Read more
BATES Alfred (Editor)
The Drama 1903
£3,000
Limited edition printed on japon paper of eight copies only, this one being number 1 called the Aeschylus Copy.
20 volumes, octavo. Bound in full brown leather, simulated elephant hide / tree bark? gilt titles to spine, raised bands, painted and inlaid coat of arms to front... Read more
