Literary criticism & biography
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RUNCIMAN, Steven. Medieval History and the Romantic Imagination.Oxford : [1963]
Scarce original offprint inscribed by the author "with best wishes SR" to the front free endpaper. This copy is from the library of John Julius Cooper, 2nd viscount Norwich (1929-2018) a hugely prolific popular historian and television presenter. Runciman and Norwich led very similar careers: both educated at Eton, both dabbling in the Foreign Service,... Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 139947
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![Focus One [together with] Focus Two.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/4/140057.jpg)
PEARSE, Andrew, & Balachandra Rajan. Focus One [together with] Focus Two.London : 1945 & 1946
First editions, first impressions. Focus was a serial miscellany concerned with contemporary writing: Focus One presents a wide selection of poems and essays, while Focus Two is primarily concerned with the realist novel in the 1930s. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 140057
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BRADBURY, Ray (intro.); SKEETERS, Paul W. Sidney H. Sime, Master of Fantasy.Pasadena, CA : 1978
First edition, number 73 of 200 copies signed by Bradbury and Skeeters, additionally number 16 of 50 copies with a copy of Arthur Machen's drawing for Sime's "The Hill of Dreams" loosely inserted, and a dust jacket reproducing "A Beast" by Sime, both numbered in manuscript.
This is the definitive work on the artist noted for illustrating the... Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 139783
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BROWN, Ivor. Shakespeare.London : 1963
First edition, fourth impression, finely bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 136667
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BAILLET, Adrien. Auteurs deguisez sous des noms étrangers;Paris : 1690
First edition of the first work in French devoted to pseudonyms. "Unlike Latin works on pseudonyms of the period, Baillet does not simply unmask authors who have written under assumed names; instead he offers a history of the practices, civil and ecclesiastical, of naming and re-naming, as well as a reflection on and a limited justification for the... Learn More£400.00Stock Code: 128678
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LOWELL, Amy. Poetry and Poets.Boston : 1930
First edition, first printing. A collection of essays on contemporary and historical poets published posthumously, selected from an extensive portfolio of unpublished work found upon her death in 1925. Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 117242
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PINDAR, Paul. Remarkable Biography;London : 1821
First and only edition of this pseudonymously authored series of curious biographical sketches, including chapters on "Charles Mc. Ghie or Mackey", the Milanese Frances Scanagatti known as "the Female Soldier", and the freemason John Coustos. Though some catalogues have identified the author as the antiquary and numismatist John Yonge Akerman (1806-1873)... Learn More£575.00Stock Code: 133534
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HOBSON, John Atkinson. John Ruskin, Social Reformer.London : 1898
Second edition, following the first of 1895. John Ruskin's work and thought were a major influence on Hobson's own beliefs regarding social reform. In the present work, a highly favourable account of Ruskin's sociological ideas, Hobson argues that these beliefs are as important as Ruskin's artistic theories, and are deserving of wider appreciation. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 124616
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NICOLSON, Harold. Paul Verlaine.London : 1921
First edition, first impression, presentation copy of the author's first book, inscribed by the author on the front pastedown, "For William Rothenstein, with all thanks from Harold Nicolson. See p. 213"; with Rothenstein's bookplate to the front free endpaper. On p. 213 is an account of how Rothenstein "saddened by the plight of Paul Verlaine... had... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 139526
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MARSH, Edward. Edward Marsh's Little Book.Eton : 1990
First edition, limited issue, number 417 of 626 copies (26 were deluxe signed copies). This is the first printing, reproducing the original in facsimile, of the notebook presented in 1911 by Lady Diana Cooper to Sir Edward Marsh (1872-1953), who was Winston Churchill's secretary and a great literary impresario in his own right. Marsh determined "to... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 139388
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MACLEAY, Kenneth. Highlanders of Scotland:London : [c. 1874]
First plain lithograph edition, specially bound and personalised for Archibald Fraser Macdonald, jäger (or gillie) to Edward, Prince of Wales, mentioned in that capacity by Queen Victoria in her best-selling Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands (1868). "As a documentary record of contemporary tartan the publication was unrivalled and... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 137270
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STRICKLAND, Agnes - POPE-HENNESSY, Una. Agnes Strickland. Biographer of the Queens of England 1796-1874.London : 1940
First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper in the year of publication to Georgiana Fanny Julia Foster, "To Miss Foster in gratitude from Una Pope-Hennessy April 1940". Foster's ownership inscription, "F. Foster Park Lane Cottage Southwold", appears on the front pastedown.
Foster (1891-1975)... Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 138334
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AGNESI, Maria Gaetana - FRISI, Antonio Francesco. Elogio storico di Da. Maria Gaetana AgnesiMilan : 1799
First edition of "the most valuable source of information" (Mazzotti, p. 658) on the life of the Italian mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi, the first woman to publish a mathematical work. Written by her friend Antonio Frisi and published the year of her death, it is the earliest biographical work about her. Though relatively well represented institutionally... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 138353
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APOLLINAIRE, Guillaume - ROUVEYRE, André. Apollinaire filmé en 1914.Lanzac : 1944
First and only edition, number 93 of 115 copies on papier Vélin Madagascar. The short film, or succession of photographs, were taken on 2 August 1914 as Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) on the left, and his friend the artist André Rouveyre (1879-1962), had just returned to Paris and were on their way to the Comœdia's offices to deliver their work.... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 138667
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STRICKLAND, Agnes [& Elizabeth]. Lives of the Queens of England,London : 1840-48
First edition of the Strickland sisters' best-known work, an important landmark in the development of the biographical genre.
By the early 1830s Agnes (1796-1874) and Elizabeth Strickland (1794-1875), each in their own right enjoying successful literary careers, chose to move towards "a new field of authorship, popular history: they had decided... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 138341
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SOKOLOFF, Boris. Napoleon.New York : 1937
First edition, first printing. Sokoloff was a Russian doctor, author, and cancer researcher who was instrumental in drafting the All-Russian Constitution of the Russian Constituent Assembly, the governing body that would later be overthrown by Lenin. After escaping a death sentence, he moved to Paris before relocating to America at the invitation of... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 138223
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READ, Herbert. André Breton, Hugh Sykes Davies, Paul Éluard, Georges Hugnet. Surrealism.London : 1936
First edition, first impression. The author's scarce monograph on the Surrealist exhibition of June 1936, with essays by André Breton, Hugh Sykes Davies, Paul Éluard, Georges Hugnet. Uncommon in the dust jacket, designed by Roland Penrose, with his now classic photo-montage design of a shell and key over a typographic background. Learn More£625.00Stock Code: 91486
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BERG, Alban - ADORNO, Theodor W. Berg. Der Meister des Kleinsten Übergangs.Wien : 1968
First edition, first impression. Inscribed by the author on the title page to the poet Stephen Spender, "Für Stephen Spender, aller herz lichst von seinem Th. W. Adorno" and re-signed "Th. W. Adorno Frankfurt, 30. V. 69." Learn More£975.00Stock Code: 75441
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CHURCHILL, Winston S. Marlborough: His Life and Times.New York : 1933-38
First American editions, first printings. The UK editions were issued in the same years, with volume 1 published on 6th October by Harrap. The first American edition began publication one month later, ultimately producing six volumes, instead of the UK edition's four, by splitting the first two volumes into two books each. "Marlborough: his Life and... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 137634
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![(Nihon Kokon Meika Zukai.) Short Biographies of Emineni [sic] Japanese in Ancient and Modern Times.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/3/136267.jpg)
MIKI, Teicki [Teiichi]; TAKAHASHI, Goro; KONISHI, Toyonosuke (ed.). (Nihon Kokon Meika Zukai.) Short Biographies of Emineni [sic] Japanese in Ancient and Modern Times.Tokyo : Meiji 20 [1887]
First edition, volume 1, of the biographical instalment of a trilingual publication project celebrating the beautiful land and remarkable people of Japan. The present edition is in English, with a colophon in Japanese.
The editor planned on publishing two works of ten volumes each, in a style similar to each other, each containing ten illustrations.... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 136267
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SUETONIUS. The History of the Twelve Caesars, Emperors of Rome.London : 1672
First edition of this translation, the second edition in English overall, following the first of 1606 translated by Philêmon Holland. The translator has never been firmly identified. It was published by John Starkey, a well-known Whig and Dissenting bookseller, and some have perceived an anti-royalist tone in the translation, although the book does... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 136176
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STEIN, Gertrude. Everybody's Autobiography.London : [1937]
First UK edition, first impression. Learn More£475.00Stock Code: 96832
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NAPOLEON - IRELAND, William Henry, & George Cruikshank. Life of Napoleon Bonaparte,London : 1823-8
First edition, first issue with all required points where visible. Originally issued in 64 parts, the first 48 being issued by Fairburn, "the publication was then taken over by Cumberland, who issued 16 more parts" (Tooley). Abbey remarks that the "Fairburn venture must have been unsuccessful, for sets carrying his imprints are very unusual, and examples... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 128967
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CHURCHILL, Winston S. - CHURCHILL, Randolph S., & Martin Gilbert. Winston S. Churchill.London : 1966-88
First editions, first impressions, in handsome Bayntun-Riviere bindings. This set was collected by and bound for Alan Keith McMillan, with his armorial bookplate to each front pastedown. Over 22 years, McMillan purchased each volume new and had them uniformly bound by Bayntun-Riviere, neatly recording the purchase price, binding cost, and his acquisition... Learn More£15,000.00Stock Code: 137897
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GREENE, Graham. Ways of Escape.London : 1980
First edition, first impression. A sequel to the autobiographical A Sort of Life (1971). Learn More£45.00Stock Code: 104414
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LEWIS, Wyndham. Blasting and Bombarding.London : 1937
First edition, first impression, second issue in the slightly limp boards. The first of two mainly autobiographical works, followed by Rude Assignment (1950). Blasting and Bombarding covers the period from 1914 to 1926. Learn More£65.00Stock Code: 91698
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YEATS, W. B. The Death of Synge, and other passages from an old diary.Dublin : 1928
First edition, first impression; 400 copies printed. Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 84001
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BEERBOHM, Max. Cartoons:London : [1911]
First and only edition. "The series of fifteen cartoons called 'The Second Childhood of John Bull' was exhibited in 1901 as part of Max's first one-man show, at the Carfax Gallery, operated by friend Robert Ross. In 1911 Stephen Swift & Co. published the drawings... While allegorical subjects are not considered Max's forte, the John Bull drawings have... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 81571
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DICKENS, Charles - SMITH, F. Hopkinson. In Dickens's London.New York : 1914
First edition. One of a limited edition of 150 numbered sets, each signed on the limitation leaf by the artist and the publisher. Additionally signed by Smith on the print "Coffee-Room, George Inn". Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 75760
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HUDSON, W. H. Letters to Edward Garnett.1925
First edition, first impression. Learn More£225.00Stock Code: 50675
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GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, Gabriel. Vivir para contarla.Mexico : October 2002
First Mexican edition, first printing, a lovely presentation copy of García Márquez's first (and the only completed) volume of autobiography, inscribed to his close friend the writer and actress María Luisa Elío Bernal (1926-2009), who was the dedicatee of Cien Años de Soledad. The inscription, on the dedication page, reads, "Por María Luisa otra... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 128476
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MARLOWE, Christopher. The Complete Plays.New York : 1963
First edition thus, an attractively printed work, handsomely bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe. The editor of this edition, Irving Ribner, was an American scholar whose works included The English History Play in the Age of Shakespeare (1957), Patterns in Shakespearean Tragedy (1960) and Jacobean Tragedy (1962). Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 136658
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DOUGLAS, Norman. Looking Back.London : 1933
First one-volume edition, first impression. Looking back was first published as a signed limited edition of two volumes in 1933. Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 88777
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KEROUAC, Jack. Visions of Cody.New York : 1972 [1973]
First collected edition, first printing, of Kerouac's novel written between 1951 and 1952, and first published (albeit incompletely) in 1960 as Excerpts from Visions of Cody. This edition was issued on 8 JAnuray 1973, the first UK edition was published later the same year. Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 136577
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BOSWELL, James. The Life of Samuel Johnson.London : 1793
First octavo edition, the second overall, of "the most famous biography in any language, one of Western literature's most germinal achievements: unprecedented in its time in its depth of research and its extensive use of private correspondence and recorded conversation" (ODNB). Boswell set about compiling his many thousands of notes after Johnson's... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 136108
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HASTINGS, Elizabeth - BARNARD, Thomas. An Historical Character relating to The holy and exemplary Life of the Right Honourable the Lady Elisabeth Hastings:Leeds : 1742
First edition of the principal biography of the celebrated Lady Elizabeth Hastings, known as "Lady Betty" (1682-1739). Extremely well known in her lifetime, Hastings "became notable for her intelligence, her pious character, and her support of charitable causes. She was commemorated in no. 42 of The Tatler (16 July 1709) as 'Aspasia', a 'female philosopher',... Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 135086
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CHURCHILL, Winston S. - CHURCHILL, Randolph S., & Martin Gilbert. Winston S. Churchill.London : 1966-94
First editions, first impressions. A complete set comprising eight volumes of the Life, plus 13 supplementary volumes, which form a unique and extensive source of previously unpublished Churchill material. Learn More£4,500.00Stock Code: 103055
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BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. A New and General Biographical Dictionary;London : 1798
First edition thus, published under the editorship of writer and translator William Tooke (c.1744-1820). The General Biographical Dictionary was originally published in 1761 in 11 volumes, with a supplement released in 1767, "though the work is apparently extended only by the addition of three volumes, the actual augmentation is much greater" (preface).... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 120440
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HAMILTON, Anthony, Count, & Mr. [Abel] Boyer, (trans.) Memoirs of the Life of Count de Grammont:London : 1714
First edition in English of this anonymously published account of Anthony Hamilton's brother-in-law, French nobleman Philibert, Count de Gramont (1621-1707), and the intrigues of the Restoration court. This first edition is commercially uncommon, particularly in such an attractive binding.
"The book was greeted with considerable critical acclaim... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 133350
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MASSON, Fredéric. Napoléon et Son Fils.Paris : 1904
First edition, first impression, number 783 of 800 copies. Frederic Masson (1847-1923) was a French historian who specialised in Napoleonic history and produced a series of biographical works about Napoleon and his family, including the present title.
Learn More£575.00Stock Code: 125547
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WASHINGTON, George - MARSHALL, John. The Life of George Washington,London : 1804-7
First English and the best edition overall, in the preferred quarto format, originally published in Philadelphia in the same years (5 volumes, octavo). "Apart from freeing his slaves after Martha Washington's death, Washington's long and detailed will left his public and private papers to his favourite nephew, Associate Justice Bushrod Washington. Bushrod,... Learn More£7,250.00Stock Code: 122506
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FLEMING, Ian. Address Given at the Memorial Service for Ian Fleming. St Bartholomew the Great.Westerham : 1964
First edition, wrappered issue. The South African poet and novelist William Plomer had been publisher's reader for Jonathan Cape from 1937. He was instrumental in the publication of Fleming's work and the dedicatee of Goldfinger. A limited hardcover issue was also produced. Learn More£400.00Stock Code: 118708
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BORGES, Jorge Luis. Evaristo Carriego.Buenos Aires : 1930
First edition, first printing, of the publication that ensured longevity to Carriego's fame. This is a collection of essays on the life and times of Evaristo Carriego (1883-1912), a poet, friend and neighbour of the Borges family. Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 135475
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![[Review of Frankenstein in] The Quartely Review. October 1817, & May 1818.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/3/132158.jpg)
SHELLEY, Mary - CROKER, John Wilson, et al. [Review of Frankenstein in] The Quartely Review. October 1817, & May 1818.London : 1818
First edition of this notoriously scathing review of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, appearing in this volume of The Quarterly Review and penned by John Wilson Croker (1780-1857), a serial foe to all young Romantics and Jacobins, who only a few month later savaged, no less notoriously, Keats's Endymion, and would go on to do the same for a budding Tennyson.... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 132158
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FORSTER, E. M. The Development of English Prose Between 1918 and 1939Glasgow : 1945
First edition, inscribed by Forster on the half title: "Monroe Wheeler, with E. M. Forster's best wishes. May 1946." Forster has made one correction to the text (page 10); laid in is part of the original stamped envelope hand-addressed by Forster to Wheeler at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Wheeler (1899-1988) became the inaugural Director... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 128015
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BECKETT, Samuel - HAYMAN, David. Ulysses: The Mechanics of Meaning.Englewood Cliffs, NJ : 1970
First edition, first impression. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "For Sam Beckett, from whose first letter to me I quote: 'in Joyce the form of judgement more and more devoured its gist and the saying of all the saying of anything, in a way more consistent with Bruno's identification of contraries than with the intellectualism of... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 75895
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BECKETT, Samuel - HAYMAN, David. Tristan and Isolde in Finnegans Wake:[University Park, PA] : 1964
Offprint from the journal of Comparative Literature Studies. Inscribed by the author above the title, "For Sam Beckett with warm regards, David". Hayman is a literary critic and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who participated in the publication of Joyce's complete manuscripts, and has also written a number of essays on Beckett's works.... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 75881
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MARBLE, Alice. The Road to Wimbledon.New York & London : 1946
First edition, first printing, signed by the author on the front free endpaper. Uncommon signed, this is the first memoir by Alice Marble (1913-1990), ranked World No. 1 from 1936 to 1940. She became Wimbledon champion in 1939, winning not only the women's singles, but also the doubles and mixed doubles titles. Billie Jean King recalled: "Alice Marble... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 134406
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STEIN, Gertrude. An Acquaintance with Description.London : 1929
First edition, no. 199 of 225 copies signed by the author. Stein signed the limitation slips in Paris and returned them to London to be tipped-in opposite the title page. This is the second work published by the press, found by Robert Graves with his literary partner Laura Riding in 1927. An Acquaintance with Description is part of Stein's explanatory... Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 133140
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BORTIN, Virginia. Elinor Remick Warren: her life and music.Metuchen, New Jersey : 1987
First edition, first printing. Presentation copy, warmly inscribed by Remick Warren, "To Patsy, with all loving good wishes and happy memories of neighborhood days, from Elinor Remick Warren Griffins" on the front free endpaper. Works signed by Remick Warren are uncommon. Warren's "neo-Romantic style which was accessible to audiences and characterized... Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 134308
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HOMER - WOLF, Friedrich August. Prolegomena ad HomerumHalle : 1795
First edition of one of the most important books in the history of classical studies, in which Wolf applied recognizably modern philological methods to the "Homeric Question", the long-standing debate about the authorship and composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey. The subjects Wolf addressed dominated Homeric scholarship for almost two centuries,... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 132587
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MURDOCH, Iris. Sartre. Romantic Rationalist.Cambridge : 1953
First edition of the first monograph study on Sartre in English and Murdoch's first book, first impression, signed by the author on the title page. This exploration of Sartre "reveals a novelist's capacity to sink and merge her personality within the mind of another, and criticizes Sartre's ideas and novels accessibly". Murdoch first met Sartre in 1944.... Learn More£600.00Stock Code: 132556
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POUND, Ezra, & W. B. Yeats (eds.); FENOLLOSA, Ernest. Certain Noble Plays of Japan: From the Manuscripts of Ernest Fenollosa.Churchtown, Dundrum : 1916
First edition, first impression, number 277 of 350 copies printed by Elizabeth Yeats in September 1916. Fenollosa (1853-1908) was an American academic who became Curator of the Imperial Museum of Japan in 1888 and Curator of Oriental Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1890. He was instrumental in promoting the study of Asian art in the west, and... Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 131792
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YEATS, W. B. The Trembling of the Veil.London : 1922
First edition, signed limited issue, number 844 of 1,000 subscribers copies signed by the author and printed on handmade paper. The Trembling of the Veil was the second of Yeats's seven autobiographical works, and was described by Arthur Symons as "an absolute masterpiece: far & away the best thing Yeats has ever done" (Ross, p. 559). The following... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 131699
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ELIOT, T. S. Religious Drama: Mediaeval and Modern.New York : 1954
First edition, first impression, number 49 of 300 copies signed by the author. This work presents the text of an address Eliot gave to the Friends of Rochester Cathedral in 1937. This copy is from the library of author William Vincent Sieller, with his bookplate on the front pastedown. Learn More£600.00Stock Code: 131428
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KNIGHT, Samuel. The Life of Erasmus.Cambridge : 1726
First edition of Knight's biography of the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus, who first visited England in 1498, later spending a number of years Cambridge. Samuel Knight was an English clergyman and antiquary, who served as chaplain to King George II from 1730 to 1746 and as Archdeacon of Berkshire from 1735 to 1746. John Jortin, a subsequent biographer... Learn More£900.00Stock Code: 131300
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BORGES, Jorge Luis. El "Martín Fierro"Buenos Aires : 1953
First edition, first printing, presentation copy inscribed by Borges and his co-author on the half-title, "Augosto 1953, A Gilda, profetizándole mucha felicidad, Jorge Luis Borges" and "A Gilda con carino autentico y eterno agradecimiento, Margot Guerrero." We have not been able to identify the recipient, but the double presentation and warm wording... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 130217
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BORGES, Jorge Luis. Leopoldo Lugones.Buenos Aires : 1955
First edition, first printing, presentation copy inscribed by Borges on the title page, "Para Vicente Barbieri, afectos y un abrazo, Jorge Luis Borges". Barbieri (1903-1956) was a notable Argentine poet, posthumously awarded the National Prize for Poetry after his early death from tuberculosis. In this work Borges addresses the legacy of another Argentine... Learn More£5,000.00Stock Code: 129522
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STEPHEN, Mrs Leslie [Julia]. Notes From Sick Rooms.London : 1883
First edition of Julia Stephen's discussion of good nursing practice. The work demonstrates "a fine attention to detail - and to language: it includes an eloquent and witty passage on the torment of crumbs in bed" (ODNB). Stephen (1846-1895) was Virginia Woolf's mother, and an active philanthropist who "travelled round London by bus visiting hospitals... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 129359
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ALLEN, Bernard M. The Rt. Hon. Sir Ernest Satow G.C.M.G. A Memoir.London : 1933
First edition, first impression, of this biography of eminent diplomat Ernest Satow (1843-1929). Satow was recruited by the Foreign Office straight out of university as a student interpreter in the British Japan Consular Service, at the age of 19. Satow had "an almost unprecedented proficiency" for Japanese amongst British diplomats, allowing him to... Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 129203
