Literary criticism & biography
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ROLFE, Frederick, Baron Corvo; WEEKS, Baron. Frederick William Rolfe, Christchurch, and The Artist.Edinburgh : 1980
First edition, signed limited issue. Number 10 of 120 copies. Learn More£45.00Stock Code: 102681
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BERKELEY, Anthony, as A. B. Cox. Jugged Journalism.London : 1925
First edition, first impression. Anthony Berkeley Cox wrote numerous and particularly highly regarded works of detective fiction under two pen names: as Anthony Berkeley, he took the British Golden Age detective novel to fresh heights, while as Francis Iles, he was a pioneer of psychological suspense fiction with a seasoning of cynical wit. The pieces... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 31316
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WILSON, Colin. Beyond the Outsider.1965
First edition, first impression, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to Sheila Hancox, in the year of publication. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 31339
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LEES-MILNE, James. The Milk of Paradise.2005
First Edition, First Impression. The final volume of the diaries. Learn More£100.00Stock Code: 33708
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MATHEWS, Charles. Memoir of Charles Mathews, comedian.London : 1838-9
First edition, in an extraordinary binding no doubt intended to invoke the traditional motley of the jester. The most famous comedian of his day, Mathews's powerful influence on Charles Dickens's stylistic methods of comic characterization has long been recognized. Mathews's monopolylogues, farces in which the actor played every character, provided... Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 35334
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HELLER, Joseph. Now and Then.New York : 1998
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 life than has been given her here. The family photo in the book is lovely. I hope the book pleases you too. With much love Dad". Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 35884
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DAVIES, W. Robertson. Shakespeare's Boy Actors.1939
First Edition, First Impression of the author's first book. Still a standard in the field. In a letter to a collector written in 1951 Davies reported having no spare copies of this book and that his best guess was that no more than 600 were in existence. Scarce in dust jacket. Learn More£1,875.00Stock Code: 38548
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MILNE, A. A., & E. H. Shepard. Catalogue of The Winnie-the-Pooh Collection of Pat McInally.London : 2011
Catalogue to accompany the exhibition and sale of the most comprehensive collection of Winnie-the-Pooh books and artwork ever assembled. Including more than one hundred items gathered together over twenty years by American football legend Pat McInally, the catalogue describes and illustrates fine examples of all the Pooh books, important inscribed copies,... Learn More£10.00Stock Code: 39598
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VIDOR, King. A Tree is a Tree.New York : 1953
First Edition, First Printing. Signed by Vidor on the front free endpaper. Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 41284
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JACKSON, William Henry. Time Exposure.New York : 1940
First edition, first printing, of the autobiography of William Henry Jackson (1843-1942), the American painter, Civil War veteran, geological survey photographer, and an explorer most famous for his images of the American West. Learn More£220.00Stock Code: 42723
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WOOLF, Virginia. Aurora Leigh. Offprint from1931
First printing of this appreciation of Elizabeth Barret Browning's Aurora Leigh (1856). Woolf's essay was reprinted and slightly revised in TLS on 2 July 1931; The Common Reader: Second Series, 1932; and in the Collected Essays, Vol. I, 1966. In this essay Woolf analyses Browning's work and writing form, and wonders why it has "left no successors",... Learn More£400.00Stock Code: 46203
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PRICE, Reynolds. A Whole New Life.New York : 1994
First edition, first printing. Learn More£20.00Stock Code: 59411
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HARRIS, Frank. Contemporary Portraits.New York : 1915
First edition, first printing. Presentation copy from the author, inscribed on the front free endpaper, "To Margaret Viereck from the author, who admires her grace & beauty, more than any writing. Frank Harris. New York, 3 Washington Square. In this year of DisGrace 1915". A fine association: Margaret "Gretchen" Viereck was the wife of the German-American... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 63174
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DOUGLAS, Norman. Looking Back.London : 1933
First and limited edition, first impression, number 36 of 535 numbered copies signed by the author. "Douglas published Looking Back in 1933, a discursive, leisurely autobiography drawing upon material accumulated over several decades, and brought out as a two-volume limited edition of 535 copies under the guidance of Charles Prentice, his friend and... Learn More£225.00Stock Code: 105292
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CONNOLLY, Cyril. Enemies of Promise.London : 1938
First edition, first impression, uncommon in the dust jacket. "Connolly made a surer reputation than with his debut novel The Rock Pool (1936) with Enemies of Promise (1938). This work is part literary criticism, part general observations on the life of the writer, part childhood autobiography, part astute assessment of the precocity forced on English... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 106756
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CARTLAND, Barbara. I Search for Rainbows.London : 1967
First edition, first impression, of Cartland's autobiography. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author "To darling Denise - the most glamorous writer in the world - with love from her ever admiring Barbara, 1967" on the front free endpaper. The recipient was Cartland's friend and rival romantic novelist Denise Robins. The two authors shared a close... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 106956
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BARTHELME, Donald. Here in the Village.Northridge : 1978
First edition, signed limited issue, accompanied by the author's extensively hand-corrected galley proofs for the preface and the first essay in the book. This is number 7 of 275 copies signed by the author (a further 50 signed copies were also issued, with a collage by the author as a frontispiece). Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 109942
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GOLDING, William (foreword); GEKOSKI, R. A. & P. A. Grogan. William Golding: A Bibliography, 1934-1993.London : 1994
First and limited edition. Number 54 of 900 copies which were supposed to have been numbered by Golding in Roman numerals, but instead were numbered in Arabic. There were also 1,000 copies bound in quarter leather, numbered in Arabic numerals and signed by Golding. This copy is unsigned and comes with an erratum slip tipped-in at the limitation page,... Learn More£225.00Stock Code: 112721
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WHITMAN, Walt - BUCKE, Richard Maurice. Walt Whitman.Philadelphia : 1883
First edition, first printing, of this biography of Whitman by his devotee, physician Dr. Richard Bucke. "An unconventional book, as much anthology of documents about the poet as a biography. It was also a collaboration; Whitman advised throughout, revised Bucke's text, and wrote significant portions of the book himself" (LeMaster: Walt Whitman, An... Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 115095
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LEWIS, Wyndham. Time and Western Man.London : 1927
First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper, "To H. E. Dounce, from Wyndham Lewis, October 1927". Harry Esty Dounce (1889-1947) was an American journalist and book reviewer. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 115120
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![On Translating Homer, Three Lectures Given at Oxford; [together with:] On Translating Homer, Last Words, a Lecture Given at Oxford.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/1/117142.jpg)
HOMER - ARNOLD, Matthew. On Translating Homer, Three Lectures Given at Oxford; [together with:] On Translating Homer, Last Words, a Lecture Given at Oxford.London : 1861 & 1862
First editions of the first published criticism by Matthew Arnold, who was primarily known for his poetry: "Here, taking the translation of the Iliad by F. W. Newman, brother of the theologian, as his main target, Arnold pilloried the tendency of learning to degenerate into antiquarianism and pedantry" (ODNB). From the library of English poet John Drinkwater,... Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 117142
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COWARD, Noël. Present Indicative.London : 1937
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy from the author, inscribed on the front free endpaper, "For Dennis Wheatley, from Nöel Coward"; with Wheatley's bookplate to the front pastedown. Present Indicative is Coward's "entertaining and often revealing memoirs" (Philip Hoare in ODNB). Learn More£900.00Stock Code: 114439
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(SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe.) SHELLEY, Lady Jane (ed.) Shelley Memorials:London : 1859
Second edition, presentation copy inscribed by Lady Jane Shelley, Shelley's daughter-in-law, "The Countess of Malmesbury, from J. Shelley", on the front binder's blank. Jane Shelley was motivated to produce this memoir of her father-in-law as a response to his biography by Thomas Jefferson Hogg, which was published in 1858 to unfavourable reviews. In... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 124955
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VICO, Giambattista. Vita scritta da se medesimo.Venice : 1728
First edition of Vico's autobiography, argued by Croce to be "the application of the Scienza Nuova to the life of its author, the course of his own individual history" (p. 266), printed as pages 145-256 in the first volume of Calogerà's Raccolta d'opusculi scientifici e filologici, a quarterly miscellany.
"A Proposal to the Scholars of Italy",... Learn More£4,750.00Stock Code: 123878
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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![A Middle English Vocabulary [in] Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/3/136543.jpg)
TOLKIEN, J. R. R. - SISAM, Kenneth (ed.) A Middle English Vocabulary [in] Fourteenth Century Verse & Prose.Oxford : 1923
First edition of Tolkien first book, in its secondary issue as the latter part of Kenneth Sisam's Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose. The first edition of A Middle English Vocabulary was printed in 2,000 copies and was issued in May 1922 as a stand-alone volume in wrappers; the following year unsold sheets of the edition were issued bound into a new... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 136543
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MACLEAN, Norman. A River Runs Through It,Chicago : 1976
First edition, first printing, with the first printing issue points: a digit missing to the ISBN on the copyright page, "adways" for "always" on line 15, p. 27, and the ISBN complete on the dust jacket rear flap. A River Runs Through It is Maclean's autobiographical collection of short stories, collecting "A River Runs Through It", "Logging and Pimping... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 137199
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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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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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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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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 - 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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(JOHNSON, Samuel.) BOSWELL, James; George Birkbeck Hill (ed.) Boswell's Life of Johnson.Oxford : 1887
First Hill edition. By 1887 Hill was an established commentator of both Johnson and Boswell's works, having published Dr Johnson, his Friends and his Critics (1878) and an edition of Boswell's correspondence (1879). The Clarendon Press accepted Hill's proposal for a new edition of Boswell's Life in 1881, and the six volume text - the product of almost... Learn More£3,250.00Stock Code: 139100
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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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DAHL, Roald. Going Solo.London : 1986
First edition, first impression. Inscribed by the author on the half-title, "To Jenny with love, Roald Dahl, 1988". Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 112116
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WAUGH, Evelyn. Edmund Campion.London : 1935
First edition, signed limited issue, number 45 of 50 copies signed by Waugh "for private distribution". Learn More£4,000.00Stock Code: 112493
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JOYCE, James - PRESCOTT, Joseph. James Joyce: A Study in Words.New York : March 1939
The truly rare original offprint, with only two copies listed by WorldCat worldwide (Harvard and National Library of Israel), of this groundbreaking early article on James Joyce, published two months before the final release of Finnegans Wake. Joseph Prescott would go on to become a major voice in Joycean studies, in particular through his book Exploring... Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 140930
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HORNBY, Nick. Fever Pitch.London : 1992
First edition, first impression, inscribed on the title page "Best wishes, Nick Hornby". Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 142960
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FRAZER, R. W. A Literary History of India.London : 1898
First edition, presentation copy from the author, with a full-page inscription on the front free endpaper: "I wrote this book in six months time and have repented ever since that I wrote it. It is however a pleasure to know that it has found an honoured home in the Library of Mr. J. Carleton Young. I now sign it in token of kindest regards and sincerest... Learn More£295.00Stock Code: 141343
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SCHOFF, Wilfred H. (trans.) The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.New York : 1912
First edition, first printing, of this translation of "the first record of organized trading with the nations of the East, in vessels built and commanded by subjects of the Western World, comparable to the journals of Marco Polo and Columbus and Vespucci" (introduction). Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 143761
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LEWIS, Wyndham. Blasting and Bombarding.London : 1937
First edition, first impression, first issue (in stiff boards). Blasting and Bombarding was the first of two autobiographical books written by Lewis (followed by Rude Assignment, 1950), and covers the period from 1914 to 1926, tracking Lewis's progress through the First World War and the literary and artistic upheavals of Modernism. Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 143803
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STRACHEY, Lytton. Pope.Cambridge : 1925
First edition, first impression, presentation copy inscribed on the front free endpaper "To H.T.J.N. with love from the Author". The recipient was Harry Norton, a fellow Cambridge Apostle and close friend of Strachey's, he was also the dedicatee of Strachey's Eminent Victorians (1918). This is a lovely association copy. Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 146014
