Literature & History (all items)
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CRANE, Stephen.
The Red Badge of Courage. An Episode of the American Civil War. 1895
£22,500
First edition, first printing, first issue; exceptionally rare in the dust jacket. The Red Badge of Courage is considered one of the most influential works in American literature....
Octavo. Original tan cloth, titles to spine and coverin red, black, and gold, yellow top-stain, brown endpapers. With the restored dust jacket. In a red quarter... Read more
CONRAD, Joseph.
Under Western Eyes. 1911
£22,500
First edition, presentation copy to John Galsworthy and his wife, Ada, inscribed on the front free endpaper, "To Jack and Ada with love from J. C. 1911". Conrad first met Galsworthy...
Octavo. Original red linen-grain cloth, spine lettered and decorated in gilt. Custom red morocco-backed slipcase and chemise, spine lettered in gilt. Spine lightly... Read more
ELIOT, T. S.
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. 1939
£21,000
First Edition, First Impression, Inscribed by T. S. Eliot on the title page: "Inscribed for W. J. Crawley by Old Possum." The recipient was a director at Faber and Faber, and a...
Octavo. Original yellow cloth, title to spine in red. With the yellow dust jacket printed in black with designs by Eliot. Custom tan morocco-backed folding case by The... Read more
[DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge] CARROLL, Lewis.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 1866
£20,000
First published edition, in the earliest state with pale blue endpapers (rather than the more usual dark green), with inverted "S" in the last line of contents page. Famously, the...
Octavo. Original red cloth, gilt-stamped, spine gilt-lettered, edges gilt, Burn & Co binder's ticket on rear endpaper. Custom quarter red morocco solander box.... Read more
WELLS, H. G.
The War in the Air and Particularly How Mr. Bert Smallways Fared While it Lasted. 1908
£20,000
First edition, first impression, in the first issue binding. Of the utmost scarcity in dust jacket. Only one other example has appeared at auction in the past 30 years. The dust...
Octavo. Original blue cloth, titles to spine and upper board gilt. With the pictorial dust jacket. Housed in a crimson quarter morocco solander box made by The Chelsea... Read more
(COSWAY-STYLE BINDING) SLOANE, William Milligan.
Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. 1896
£18,500
First edition. William Milligan Sloane was professor of history at Princeton University, and editor of both the Political Science Quarterly and the American Historical Review.
4 volumes, large quarto (294 × 207 mm). Finely bound by The Chelsea Bindery in full burgundy morocco; spines gilt in compartments with Napoleonic devices between... Read more
![The Workes. [The second Volume. Containing these Playes, Viz. 1 Bartholomew Fayre. 2 The Staple of the Newes. 3 The Divell is an Asse.]](/content/store/products/4977/2/361.jpg)
JONSON, Benjamin.
The Workes. [The second Volume. Containing these Playes, Viz. 1 Bartholomew Fayre. 2 The Staple of the Newes. 3 The Divell is an Asse.] 1616–40
£18,500
First editions of the three volumes comprising Jonson's collected works. The first volume was published between 6 and 25 November 1616. Jonson took an unusually close interest in its...
3 volumes in 2, folio (287 × 183 mm). Bound uniformly in brown crushed morocco by Rivière & Son, spines lettered and decorated in gilt, five raised bands,... Read more
JOHNSON, Samuel.
A Dictionary of the English Language: 1755
£17,500
First edition of this most famous of English dictionaries. This work has at various times been called "the most important British cultural monument of the eighteenth century"...
2 volumes, folio (415 × 257 mm). Sometime rebound to style in half calf, red and black morocco labels, raised bands, old marbled paper sides. Paper restoration... Read more
FLEMING, Ian.
Complete set of the Bond novels and stories. 1953-66
£17,500
First editions, first impressions. Complete set of all the original Bond novels starting with Casino Royale (1953) and ending with Octopussy (1966).
14 volumes, octavo. Finely bound by The Chelsea Bindery in black morocco, spines and covers blocked in red, silver, gold and blind after the original cloth cover... Read more
FAULKNER, William.
Go Down! Moses. 1942
£17,500
First edition, trade issue, first printing. Presentation copy inscribed by the author to Else Jonsson on the date of his Nobel prize acceptance on the title: "William Faulkner for...
Octavo. Original black cloth. With the dust jacket. In the price-clipped dust jacket with some edgewear and tape repairs to the verso. Read more
HEMINGWAY, Ernest.
Green Hills of Africa. 1935
£17,500
First Edition, First Printing. With the author's signed presentation inscription to the front free endpaper, "To Archie and Ada With love from Pappy", and with the ownership...
Octavo. Original green cloth, titles to spine gilt on a black ground, facsimile signature to upper board gilt. With the supplied dust jacket. Housed in a quarter black... Read more
WHITMAN, Walt.
Leaves of Grass. 1856
£17,500
Second edition, including 20 poems not published in the first edition as well as a new section of correspondence and reviews entitled "Leaves-droppings" that begins with the famous...
Octavo. Original green cloth, titles and Emerson quotation to spine gilt, panelling and floral design to boards blocked in blind, title to upper board gilt. Housed in... Read more
BLACKMORE, R. D.
Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. 1869
£17,500
First edition, presentation copy to his close friend and fellow Devon novelist Mortimer Collins (1827-1876), inscribed by the recipient on the first front free endpaper: "Mortimer...
3 volumes, octavo. Original blue watered cloth lettered in gilt on spines (Carter's A binding), sides blocked in blind with thick one-line rule enclosing two-line... Read more
RAND, Ayn.
The Fountainhead. 1943
£17,500
First edition, first printing. The author's landmark work, published under wartime conditions and by circumstance bearing all the traits likely to ruin its condition: slightly larger...
Octavo. Original red cloth, titles to upper board and spine gilt, top edge stained red, fore edge untrimmed. With the dust jacket. Contents a little browned as usual... Read more
[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
CHURCHILL, Winston S.
The Second World War 1948–54
£17,500
First editions, volume I the Book Society issue (Cohen A240.4(I).c), the rest first impressions. Inscribed by Churchill on the half-title of volume I, "Winston S. Churchill, 1954,"...
6 volumes, octavo. Original black cloth, titles to spines gilt, red top-stain, in dust jackets. Illustrated with maps and diagrams. Cloth a little rubbed, mild foxing... Read more
FAULKNER, William.
The Town. 1957
£17,500
First edition, first printing. With the author's signed presentation inscription to the title page, "To Ruth Ford from Bill Faulkner (See what you can do with this) Oxford 9 October...
Octavo. Original orange cloth, titles to upper board and spine in black, top edge stained green. With the dust jacket. Housed in a burgundy quarter morocco solander... Read more
KIPLING, Rudyard.
The Works. 1937
£17,500
The Sussex Edition, the definitive edition of Kipling's works. One of a limited edition of 525 numbered sets signed by the author on the limitation leaf. During the last years of his...
35 volumes, large octavo. Original full tan niger morocco, titles to spines gilt, raised bands, double line rule to boards gilt, top edges rough gilt, other edges... Read more
FLEMING, Ian.
Thunderball. 1961
£17,500
First edition, first impression. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: "To Leonard. These thunderballs! from Ian." The recipient was Leonard Russell, Fleming's friend...
Octavo. Original dark grey boards, titles to spine in silver, skeletal hand motif on front board blocked in blind. With the dust jacket. Housed in a morocco solander... Read more
(MATISSE, Henri) JOYCE, James.
Ulysses. 1935
£17,500
One of a total edition of 1500 numbered copies signed by the artist from which this is one of about 250 which were also signed by Joyce. Includes etchings depicting the Calypso,...
Folio. Original brown cloth, decoration and titles to upper board and spine gilt from a design by Le Roy Anderson, top edge speckled brown. With the publishers card... Read more
WAUGH, Evelyn.
Vile Bodies. 1930
£17,500
First edition, first impression. Waugh's second novel and one of the hardest to find in dust jacket.
Octavo. Original black and red snakeskin patterned cloth, titles to spine gilt. With the Waugh designed dust jacket. Housed in a crimson quarter morocco solander box... Read more
![[Complete set of the novels, comprising:] Dead Cert, Nerve, For Kicks, Odds Against, Flying Finish, Blood Sport, Forfeit, Enquiry, Rat Race, Bonecrack, Smokescreen, Slay-Ride, Knock Down, High Stakes,](/content/store/products/20904/2/24694.jpg)
FRANCIS, Dick.
[Complete set of the novels, comprising:] Dead Cert, Nerve, For Kicks, Odds Against, Flying Finish, Blood Sport, Forfeit, Enquiry, Rat Race, Bonecrack, Smokescreen, Slay-Ride, Knock Down, High Stakes, 1962–2000
£17,500
First editions, first impressions. All copies with presentation inscriptions in the hand of Dick Francis from Dick and Mary to Susan and Roger [Dicey], apart from Dead Cert and Odds...
39 individual works, octavo. Original boards, titles to spines. With the dust jackets. Some minor browning to page edges of first few volumes, dustjackerts on early... Read more
AUSTEN, Jane.
Emma: A Novel. 1816
£16,500
First edition of perhaps the most perfectly constructed of Jane Austen's novels. She had fallen out with Egerton over publication of Mansfield Park and transferred to Murray, who...
3 volumes, 12mo (168 × 102 mm). Contemporary mottled calf, neatly rebacked to Regency style, covers with gilt scroll borders, marbled endpapers, sprinkled edges,... Read more
RAND, Ayn.
We the Living. 1936
£16,500
First Edition, First Printing. With the author's fine presentation inscription to the front free endpaper, "To Katharine Hepburn of whom I always think as my "Kira" - with great...
Octavo. Original buff cloth, titles to upper board and spine in blue. Housed in a crimson quarter morocco solander box made by The Chelsea Bindery. Endleaves lightly... Read more
CAESAR, Caius Julius.
Commentarii. 1478
£16,000
A handsome early incunable edition of the Commentaries of Caesar, the fifth overall, with contemporary rubrication. The text comprises the seven books of the Gallic War with the...
Folio (326 × 234 mm). 151 leaves (of 152), medial blank fol. 132 (sig. r6) present as a stub only, as often. Collates: a–p8 q6 r6 A8 B8 C4. 42 lines to a... Read more
