Literary criticism & biography
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DOUGLAS, Norman. Together.London : 1923
First edition, first impression. Together is a nostalgic evocation of lost youth and the north as the author revisits his native Austria. Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 88273
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WAUGH, Evelyn. A Little Learning. The First Volume of an Autobiography.London : 1964
First edition, first impression. A fine presentation copy with Waugh's signed inscription to the front free endpaper, "For Bob & Angie with Christmas greetings & love from Evelyn. Tis is a mass of misprints & mistakes which I was ashamed to send before. Please treat it as a Christmas card & don't trouble to acknowledge. 1964". The recipients were the... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 87033
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MELLON, Paul, & John Baskett. Reflections in a Silver Spoon.New York : 1992
First edition, first printing. Presentation copy inscribed by the author on the title page, "To Dr. Joel Guiterman - with all best wishes from Paul Mellon". Learn More£575.00Stock Code: 85945
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AMIS, Kingsley. What Became of Jane Austen and Other Questions.London : 1970
First edition, first impression, of this collection of essays by Kingsley Amis including "literary criticism, of writers as diverse and Hans Christian Andersen and Dylan Thomas and novels from Sorrell and Son to Portnoy's Complaint; articles on such topics as horror films, the use of language, the National Eisteddfod of Wales and fictional detectives;... Learn More£100.00Stock Code: 85374
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ROLFE, Frederick, Baron Corvo. Without Prejudice.[London] : 1963
First edition, first impression. The first publication of this collection of letters from Rolfe to his publisher, John Lane. Published privately as a gift for friends and family by Allen Lane, John's nephew and the founder of Penguin Books. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 84788
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YEATS, W. B. - MASEFIELD, John. Some Memories of W. B. Yeats.Dublin : 1940
First edition and limited edition, number 13 of 370 copies. "A crucial event of these early years was Masefield's meeting with W. B. Yeats in 1900, and through him with J. M. Synge in 1903. With Yeats he found literary companionship and an entry into the literary world. Soon after, in 1901, he became a full-time writer" (ODNB). Learn More£325.00Stock Code: 84853
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PARTRIDGE, Eric. The 'Shaggy Dog' Story.London : 1953
Presentation copy of the first edition, first impression, of this humorous investigation into the phenomenon of the "Shaggy Dog" story, defined by its mischievous unexpectedness, and traced from its Ancient Greek origins ("A pert youth, meeting an old woman, driving a herd, called, 'Good morning, mother of asses!', she replied 'Good morning, my son!'"),... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 84947
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ROTHENSTEIN, William. Twenty-Four Portraits.London : 1920
First edition, first impression of this collection of twenty-four portraits or authors, artists, and intellectuals by William Rothenstein, including Joseph Conrad, John Galsworthy, André Gide, Thomas Hardy, T. E. Lawrence, George Bernard Shaw, and H. G. Wells. Provenance: from the library of Conrad collector Stanley J. Seeger, with his bookplate. Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 84657
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WOOLF, Virginia (contrib.); MAITLAND, Frederic William. The Life and Letters of Leslie Stephen.London : 1906 [1910]
First edition. The book contains Virginia Woolf's first appearance in a book at pp. 474-6, chapter XI, "The Sunset". Learn More£425.00Stock Code: 84698
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GRAVES, Robert. Mrs Fisher.London : 1928
First edition, first impression; from the To-day and To-morrow series. Inscribed by Robert Graves on the front free endpaper, "Damn and blast, said Lars Porsenna! Robert Graves, 1957". This inscription references the opening lines of Macaulay's poem Horatius at the Bridge ("Lars Porsena of Clusium, / By the Nine Gods he swore..."), and to Graves's... Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 84023
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YEATS, W. B. The Cutting of An Agate.London : 1919
First UK edition, first impression. The 1912 New York publication of this title had substantially different contents. An attractive copy and uncommon in the dust jacket. Learn More£875.00Stock Code: 84212
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WHITE, T. H. England Have My Bones.London : 1936
First edition, first impression. Scarce presentation copy inscribed by T. H. White on the title page, "N.H.H-B. / One book as a small token of gratitude for very many fried eggs. T.H.W." Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 83943
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SYNGE, John M. - MASEFIELD, John. John M. Synge: A Few Personal Recollections, With Biographical Notes.Churchtown, Dundrum : 1915
First edition, first impression, of Masefield's recollections of his friend J. M. Synge, who died in 1909; from a numbered limited edition of 350 copies. This copy is from the Garvan Collection on Ireland, with the bookplate and shelfmark annotation to title page verso in pencil. Learn More£225.00Stock Code: 83957
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WAUGH, Evelyn. Edmund Campion.London : 1947
Second edition, with a new introduction by the author. Inscribed by Waugh on the half-title, "With happy & grateful memories of Dundee, from Evelyn Waugh. Oct 26, 1949". At the outbreak of the Second World War Waugh joined the marine infantry brigade and, after seeing action on the Libyan coast in April 1941, returned to Britain and spent about a year... Learn More£975.00Stock Code: 82521
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ELLIS, Havelock. My Life.Boston, : 1939
First edition, first printing of Ellis's autobiography, the central subject of which is Ellis's marriage and open relationship with the lesbian and women's rights activist Edith Lees. Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 82383
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LEAVIS, F. R. - BEWLEY, Marius. The Complex Fate.London : 1952
First edition, first impression of Bewley's study of classic and modern American literature, taking its title from Henry James's words, "It's a complex fate, being an American, and one of the responsibilities it entails is fighting against a superstitious valuation of Europe". This copy is inscribed on the front free endpaper by the monolithic British... Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 81883
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DOUGLAS, Norman - CUNARD, Nancy. Grand Man. Memories of Norman Douglas.London : 1954
First edition, first impression. Learn More£80.00Stock Code: 81395
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(BURNEY, Fanny.) JOHNSON, R. Brimley. (Ed.) Fanny Burney and the Burneys.London : 1926
First edition, first impression. Additions to Madame d'Arblay's diary, letters by Susan Burney, a journal of the Worcestershire Burneys, and a selection of the works of Dr Burney, his children and grandchildren. Plates, the frontispiece being a photogravure reproduction of an allegorical sketch by Edward Burney. Ownership signature on front pastedown.140492... Learn More£85.00Stock Code: 81598
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DUNCAN, Isadora. My Life.New York : 1927
First edition, limited issue, number 211 of 650 publisher's presentation copies, not for public sale. This copy bears the bookseller's ticket of the renowned Kamin Dance Bookshop and Gallery, New York, owned by the publisher Martin Kamin, to the front pastedown, giving the copy a lovely association to both the Parisian and American dance and literature... Learn More£625.00Stock Code: 81051
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BEERBOHM, Max. A Survey.London : 1921
First edition, first impression. One of a limited edition of 275 numbered copies signed by the author on the limitation leaf. Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 80459
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FRANCE, Anatole. Rabelais.London : 1929
First separate edition of Anatole France's "exact biography of Rabelais and critique of his masterpieces", first published two months previously in France's posthumous collected works. Learn More£50.00Stock Code: 79710
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MURRY, John Middleton. The Wanderer.The Old Rectory, Larling, near Norwich : December 1933 - 1934
First editions, first impressions of all 12 published numbers (the final volume contains two numbers) of The Wanderer, a literary magazine published privately by John Middleton Murray. Learn More£475.00Stock Code: 79254
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THOREAU, Henry David. Letters to Various Persons.Boston : 1865
First edition in the binding variant A, described in BAL as presumably the earliest of a number of styles, and cloth type Z. This volume compiles a large number of letters written by Thoreau to correspondents such as his wife, his sister, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, along with nine poems. An exceptional copy, Thoreau's books are rarely found in such beautiful... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 79534
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POUND, Ezra. The Cantos. Some Testimonies by Ernest Hemingway,New York : 1933
First edition, first impression. Learn More£600.00Stock Code: 78052
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GORDIMER, Nadine. Themes and Attitudes in Modern African Writing.[Ann Arbor, MI] : 1970
An offprint from the Michigan Quarterly Review, Vol. IX, No. 4, Fall, 1970. Learn More£225.00Stock Code: 77452
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BRADY, James Buchanan - MORELL, Parker. Diamond Jim. The Life and Times of James Buchanan Brady.New York : 1934
First edition, first impression. The biography of the larger-then-life figure James "Diamond Jim" Brady, American tycoon, philanthropist, and toast of the New York social scene during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A collector of jewellery and precious stones, he owned 30 sets of diamond jewellery-one for each day of the month. He... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 77480
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[BROWNJOHN, Alan] LUCIE-SMITH, Edward [ed]. British Poetry since 1945.Harmandsworth, Middlesex : 1973
Third printing, originally published in 1970. Inscribed by the poet Alan Brownjohn in the margin above his section of the anthology (p. 263), "Signed for Nicholas Gammage - with all good wishes to you and for your poetry - Alan Brownjohn, 24th January 1974". Brownjohn and Gammage were both friends with Ted Hughes, who also is included in this anthology.... Learn More£65.00Stock Code: 77017
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JORDEN-SMITH, Paul. On Strange Altars.New York : 1924
First edition, first impression. An idiosyncratic anthology of critical and personal responses to a range of writers, by the man (known pseudonymously as Pavel Jerdanowich) who founded the hoax art movement, Disumbrationism. Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 77098
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UNWIN, Sir Stanley. The Truth About A Publisher.London : 1960
First edition, first impression. With the author's signed presentation inscription to Storer Lunt, head of the New York publishing house W. W. Norton & Co., on the front free endpaper, "To Storer Lunt, Colleague of my best friend among american publishers, the late W. W. Norton, from Stanley Unwin, 31st March 1960". Includes, clipped from the New York... Learn More£425.00Stock Code: 77300
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WELTY, Eudora. Henry Green. A Novelist of the Imagination.[Austin : 1961
Offprint from the Texas Quarterly. Inscribed by the author on the verso of the upper wrapper, "With love to Bill and Barbara and so many wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Eudora, 1961". The recipients were poets William Jay Smith, sometime American Poet Laureate, and his wife, also a poet, Barbara Howes. Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 76436
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HEMINGWAY, Ernest - BRUCCOLI, Matthew J. Ernest Hemingway's Apprenticeship. Oak Park, 1916-1917.Washington : 1971
First edition, first printing. An account of Hemingway's schooldays, drawing together much of his schoolboy juvenilia. Learn More£65.00Stock Code: 76529
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BRADY, James Buchanan - MORELL, Parker. Diamond Jim. The Life and Times of James Buchanan Brady.New York : 1934
First edition, first impression. The biography of the larger-then-life figure James "Diamond Jim" Brady, American tycoon, philanthropist, and toast of the New York social scene during the late 19th and early 20th century. A collector of jewellery and precious stones, he owned 30 sets of diamond jewellery - one for each day of the month. He was also... Learn More£575.00Stock Code: 74752
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WYNDHAM, Horace. Society Sensations.London : 1938
First edition, first impression, of this collection of tales, including "the liaison of a poet and a "literary" lady; the suspect "mediumship" of a feminine spiritualist; the exploits of a "gold-digger" who overreached herself; and the story of a girl who began in the chorus, and who, by courage and personality, finished up in the peerage." Learn More£225.00Stock Code: 74609
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![Preface [to Three Plays by Brieux].](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/7/3/73705.jpg)
SHAW, George Bernard. Preface [to Three Plays by Brieux].[London : 1910]
Page proofs, first state, hand-corrected by Shaw. The rare first state page proofs of Shaw's Preface to Three Plays by Brieux, which was published in 1911 by A. C. Fifield. Laurence located only 8 copies and notes "Shaw used copies of this proof state (and of the revised proof which followed) for purposes of translation and copyright deposit." It appears... Learn More£1,560.00Stock Code: 73705
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WAUGH, Evelyn. Edmund Campion.London : 1935
First edition, first impression. A very tricky book to find in genuinely nice condition, this copy with an appropriately catholic association: a gift inscription from the Countess Idina Brassey to the Priory of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Haywards Heath, to the front free endpaper, and with the Priory's bookplate on the front pastedown. Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 72381
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COOK, James - KIPPIS, Andrew. The Life of Captain James Cook.London : 1788
First edition of the "first English biography of Cook intended to give a well-balanced account of his life from birth to death, including his family and early years, and the capacities in which he was engaged prior to the famous voyages The Newfoundland and Labrador surveys are discussed, and the three voyages are dealt with in great narrative depth.... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 70808
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BAIRNSFATHER, Bruce - HOLT, Tonie & Valmai. In Search of the Better 'Ole.1985
First edition, first impression. Learn More£45.00Stock Code: 69406
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THORNDIKE, Sybil - SPRIGGE, Elizabeth. Sybil Thorndike Casson.London : 1971
First edition, first impression, presentation copy to Laurence Oliver and Joan Plowright, inscribed by Thorndike on the front free endpaper, "To my darlings Larry & Joan with much love, Sybil", and below that by the author, "and warm thanks from Elizabeth Sprigge, October 1971". Learn More£975.00Stock Code: 68779
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POUND, Ezra. The Cantos. Some Testimonies by Ernest Hemingway,New York : 1933
First edition, first impression. Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 66251
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RIVIÈRE, Jules. My Musical Life and Recollections.London : 1893
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the verso of the title page, "Anno 1898-99, to Mrs. Baker with compliments and best wishes from the author Rivière. P. S. as a musical conductor I have been beating the time for the last fifty years, but alas! Now, in my 80th year time beats me unmercifully".
Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 63632
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WELTY, Eudora. The Eye of the Story.New York : 1977
First edition, first printing. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper "To Nash and Marjorie - with longtime appreciation and highest respects & best wishes, from Eudora, June 1978". Nash Burger was a high school classmate of Welty's who became an editor at the New York Times Book Review. Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 63062
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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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BATES, H. E. Edward Garnett.1950
First edition, first impression. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 62417
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MCLUHAN, Herbert Marshall. The Mechanical Bride.New York : 1951
First edition, first impression. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper "For Mr. Fred Allan from Marshall McLuhan". Learn More£975.00Stock Code: 61401
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JOYCE, James - MCLUHAN, Marshall. James Joyce: Trivial and Quadrivial.New York : spring 1953
Offprint with the ownership inscription of poet and academic Ronald Bates to the front wrapper and his pencilled notes to the contents. Ronald Gordon Nudell Bates (1924-1995) earned his PhD from the University of Toronto, the subject of his doctoral thesis being James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. His teaching career was spent at the universities of Upsala,... Learn More£520.00Stock Code: 60922
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KOESTLER, Arthur. Janus.London : 1978
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, " To Tony, hopefully, from Arthur". Koestler had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in early 1976, the effects of which are evident here. Learn More£120.00Stock Code: 61022
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FORSTER, E. M. Goldsworthy Lower Dickinson.London : 1934
First edition, first impression. Learn More£260.00Stock Code: 60122
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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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HAYAKAWA, S. I. Language In Action.1939
An early typescript of a fundamental work on language. The author was inspired by the work of groundbreaking semanticist Alfred Korzybski, applying his theories to sociology and politics in reaction to the fascist use of language to oppress. Hayakawa was a lecturer at the Armour Institute of Technology in 1939 and this copy is likely from an edition... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 52003
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WISTER, Mrs O. J. [Sarah Butler], & Miss Agnes Irwin (eds.) Worthy women of our first century.Philadelphia : 1877
First edition. This copy with the bookplate of Butler Place to the front pastedown, and the publishers' presentation inscription; "Mrs. Owen J. Wister with respects of the Publishers" to the first blank. As well as co-editing, Mrs Wister contributes a piece on Deborah Logan. Sarah Butler Wister was the eldest daughter of Fanny Kemble and Pierce Butler,... Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 52144
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GINSBERG, Allen. Best Minds. A Tribute to Allen Ginsberg.New York : 1986
First edition, first impression. One of 500 specially-bound contributor's copies out of a limited edition of 726 copies. From the library of Alan Ansen. Learn More£120.00Stock Code: 51415
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CONRAD, Joseph - MÉGROZ, R. L. Joseph Conrad's Mind and Method.1931
First edition, first impression. Learn More£50.00Stock Code: 50706
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GORDON, Max; with Lewis Funke. Presents.New York : 1963
First edition, first printing, of the autobiography of the successful theatre and film producer. Inscribed by the author on two stickers: one to the verso of the half-title, "To Maurice Chevalier who understands the business of acting and the show business. There are few like you. Best always, Max Gordon"; and to the contents page, "To Maurice Chevalier... Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 49985
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CONRAD, Joseph. On Stephen Crane.1932
One of an edition of 31 copies privately printed 27 July 1932 for the friends of Vincent Starrett and Edwin B. Hill. Starrett (1886-1974) was a Chicago reporter, bibliographer, author, and Sherlock Holmes expert. Hill was a Texas tax-assessor whose hobby was printing by hand. In 1939, on its 55th anniversary, his was the oldest private press in America.... Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 48957
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HAPGOOD, Hutchins. A Victorian in the Modern World.New York : 1939
First edition, first printing. Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 47039
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BURKE, Thomas (ed.) The Ecstasies of Thomas de Quincey.London : 1928
First edition, first impression. Learn More£100.00Stock Code: 46435
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LEES-MILNE, James. Another Self.1998
First published in 1970 and then re-issued in hardback in 1998. Learn More£35.00Stock Code: 46846
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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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WOOLF, Virginia. Memories of a Working Women's Guild. Offprint from.1930
First printing of this essay, reprinted (revised) as the introduction to Life as We Have Known It, Margaret Llewelyn Davies (ed), Hogarth Press 1931; collected in The Captain's Death Bed, 1950; Selections from Her Essays, 1966; Collected Essays, Vol. 4, 1967. Woolf had an active interest in the Labour Party and Co-operative Movement and regularly held... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 46212
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FITZGERALD, F. Scott. Typed letter signed ("Scott" in pencil) to Gilbert Seldes in New York.1934
A fine and longish letter in which Fitzgerald discusses Seldes's edition of Ring Lardner, a possible evening of one-act plays, and reviews of Tender Is the Night: "Just read the Lardner collection First and Last. At first I was disappointed because I had expected there would be enough stuff for an omnibus and I still feel that it could have stood more... Learn More£10,000.00Stock Code: 44748
