Literature
Rare and first edition literature from Peter Harrington. On our shelves you'll discover rare poetry, English, American & modern literature, pre-1900 rare books, plays, world literature and much more.
From the blog: Nightingales and Roses: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Video: [PUTTENHAM, George.] The Arte of English Poesie. 1589.
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CLARE, John. The Rural Muse.London : 1835
First edition, first impression, of Clare's scarce final collection. From the library of Clare's friend, Spencer T. Hall, with his ink ownership inscription to the title page, and annotation to p. 83. A nice working class writer association for John Clare who was one of the few truly working class poets in the front rank of the romantics.
The... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 144015
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PRATCHETT, Terry. The Carpet People.Gerrards Cross : 1971
First edition, first impression, of the author's first novel, inscribed on the title page " To Judith, with best wishes from Terry Pratchett, a very slow writer..! Jan 26, '79", Pratchett's neighbour while he lived in Rowberrow, Somerset, from 1970 to 1993. Rather uncommon inscribed and with the jacket. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 144029
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HUDSON, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago. A History of my Early Life.London : 1918
First edition, first impression, of Hudson's memoir of his life in Argentina. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author to the novelist Violet Hunt on the half-title, "Violet Hunt from her friend W. H. Hudson" and with the recipient's later gift inscription to her partner Ford Madox Ford on the front free endpaper, "Violet Hueffer to F. M. Hueffer".... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 143037
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DE TORRE, Guillermo. Literaturas europeas de vanguardia.Madrid : 1925
First edition, first printing, of de Torre's famous defence of the avant-garde movement, which contains a detailed account of the origins and development of surrealism.
The Spanish writer and Dadaist, Guillermo de Torre (1900-1971), was a member of the group of avant-garde artists, collectively known as the "Generation of '27". Although the... Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 143311
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WODEHOUSE, P. G. Thank You, Jeeves.London : 1934
First edition, first impression, in the 1935 reissue jacket priced 2/6 on the spine (and 7/6 to front flap). Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 143554
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YEATS, W. B. Plays in Prose and Verse.London : 1922
First edition, first impression, a lovely copy, uncommon in the jacket.
This collection contains Yeats's plays: Cathleen ni Houlihan, The Pot of Broth, The King's Threshold, On Baile's Strand, The Shadowy Waters, Deridre, The Unicorn from the Stars (written in collaboration with Lady Gregory), The Green Helmet, The Hour-Glass and The Player... Learn More£950.00Stock Code: 143556
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CHRISTIE, Agatha. Come, Tell Me How You Live.London : 1946
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "Carlo, with love from, Agatha". The recipient was Charlotte ("Carlo") Fisher (1895-1976), with her retrospective book label to the front pastedown. Fisher was Christie's secretary, close friend, and amanuensis, with whom she wrote several major early... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 143028
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HEYER, Georgette. They Found Him DeadLondon : 1937
First edition, first impression, in a bright example of the notably uncommon jacket. They Found Him Dead is the third of Heyer's detective novels to feature Superintendent Hannasyde and Sergeant Hemingway who "as middle-class crime professionals were unusual at a time when writers of detective novels had largely so far used upper-class amateurs... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 143034
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CLARKE, Susanna; ROSENBURG, Portia (illus.) Signed original artwork for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.London : 2004
A pair of original sketches, signed by the illustrator, used for the first edition Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, each depicting one of the title characters. These illustrations are reproduced on page 1 (Mr Norrell) and page 207 (Jonathan Strange). The novel was adapted for a highly successful BBC TV series in 2015, which drew heavily on... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 142571
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ROWLING, J. K. "What was the Name of that Nymph Again?"Exeter : 1998
An notably early article by Rowling recounting her experiences reading Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Exeter, printed in the journal of the Department of Classics and Ancient History. In the article she comments that she had "the unforgettable experience of being lectured by a person best known simply as Z. It was Z I had in mind when... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 140422
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LE CARRÉ, John. The Night Manager.London : 1993
First edition, first impression. Signed by the author on the title page and dated June 1993. Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 136671
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HUGHES, Ted. Crow Wakes.Woodford Green, Essex : 1971
First edition, first printing, signed and numbered by Hughes not once but twice, one of the scarce 100 copies retained by the poet. The title page verso is signed "No. 28, Ted Hughes" and the front free endpaper signed and numbered "Ted Hughes 46/88". The printer Alan Tarling informed the bibliographers Sagar and Tabor that "These poems were excluded... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 125129
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BEACH, Sylvia. Les Années vingt.Paris : 1959
First edition, first printing. Presentation copy, inscribed by Sylvia Beach on the front free endpaper, "Souvenir of Playboy for Mrs Cummins, from Sylvia Beach". The book was created as a companion to an exhibition held between 11 March and 25 April 1959 on the "Lost Generation" of expatriate American writers and artists who gathered at Sylvia Beach's... Learn More£875.00Stock Code: 144023
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MITCHELL, Joseph. The Bottom of the Harbor.New York : 1991
Signed limited edition, number 103 of 250 copies signed by the author. The book collects Mitchell's short stories, which previously appeared in The New Yorker, all relating to the waterfront of New York City; it is illustrated with five photogravures after Berenice Abbott. Learn More£950.00Stock Code: 144027
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HENRY, Prince, first duke of Gloucester - HENLEY, William Ernest. Lyra Heroica.London : 1907
A handsome copy, from the library of Prince Henry, duke of Gloucester (1900-1974), with a gift inscription to binder's blank "H.R.H. Prince Henry, from his godfather, F.M. Lord Roberts, with warmest wish for many happy returns of the day, and that every possible happiness may be his in years to come. 30th March 1913".
The year of the inscription,... Learn More£400.00Stock Code: 143884
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HUGHES, Ted (ed.) By Heart.London : 1997
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy from Ted Hughes to his sister Olwyn Hughes, inscribed on the half-title: "For Olwyn with love from Ted Xmas 1997". With a manuscript correction by Hughes on page xiv, of "Welsh system" to "Welsh poetry", as is known in other copies inscribed by Hughes. Hughes was very close to his sister Olwyn. After... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 143825
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COWARD, Noël. Terribly Intimate Portraits.New York : 1922
First edition, first printing, in an exceptional example of the very scarce jacket, and inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "Noël Coward 1928" and again "for Dennis Wheatley", with Wheatley's bookplate to pastedown. The present book, a collection of sketches satirising archetypes of the English upper classes, is one of Coward's earliest... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 143826
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ORWELL, George. The Lion and the Unicorn.London : 1941
First edition, first impression, in particularly nice condition. Contains the essays England Your England, Shopkeepers at War, and The English Revolution. Learn More£425.00Stock Code: 143812
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ORWELL, George. The Orwell Reader.New York : 1956
First edition, first printing. A beautiful copy of a collection of Orwell's writings, this edition was never published in the UK. Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 143817
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FLEMING, Ian. Thrilling Cities.London : 1963
First edition, first impression. Originally published as two series of articles for the Sunday Times, first from 24 January to 28 February 1960 and then from 31 July to 4 September 1960, Thrilling Cities was the product of a five-week, all-expenses-paid trip to visit the world's most exciting cities. Travelling to 13 cities, from Hong Kong to Monte... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 143819
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LE CARRÉ, John. The Le Carré Omnibus:London : 1964
First omnibus edition, first impression. The omnibus brings together Le Carré's first two novels, both difficult to obtain in their first editions. Gollancz published the omnibus to capitalize on the great success of Le Carré's third novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Learn More£625.00Stock Code: 143802
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FITZGERALD, F. Scott. Tender is the Night.Vermont : 1982
Signed limited edition, featuring Fred Meyer's art deco style illustrations. Number 642 of 2,000 copies signed by the artist. Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 143804
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ROSS, Alan. The Derelict Day.London : 1947
First edition, first impression of the author's first collection of poetry. Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 143787
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LE CARRÉ, John (contrib.) The Bell House Book.London : 1979
First edition, first impression. A collection of short pieces by 29 authors represented by the Bell House literary agency, including "George Smiley Goes Home" by John le Carré - its first appearance in print - as well as works by David Niven, Edmund Hillary, E.Nesbit, Enid Blyton, and Elizabeth Craig. Learn More£50.00Stock Code: 143793
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FITZGERALD, F. Scott. Flappers and Philosophers.New York : 1920
First edition, first printing. A handsomely bound copy. Learn More£200.00Stock Code: 143647
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DICKENS, Charles. Bleak House.London : 1853
First edition, bound from the original parts as issued between March 1852 and September 1853. "The satire of Bleak House focuses on the obfuscations and delays of the court of chancery which result in widespread human misery and suffering, but the novel's complicated plot and centripetal organization bring into the picture a great cross-section of contemporary... Learn More£875.00Stock Code: 143648
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TWAIN, Mark. Following the Equator.Hartford, Connecticut : 1897
First edition, first issue. This copy with the favoured single Hartford imprint, and the signature mark 11 at p. 161. Having invested heavily in revolutionary but flawed typesetting machinery, by 1894 Twain was practically bankrupt. His solution was to undertake a tour of the British Empire, ensuring an enthusiastic audience for his lectures in every... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 143723
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BRECHT, Bertolt. Kalendergeschichten.Berlin : 1949
First edition, first impression. Inscribed by Brecht's wife Helene Weigel on the front free endpaper, "Dear Mr. Clark, many thanks, Helene Weigel". Tipped-in to the front pastedown is a postcard also inscribed by Weigel to Clark, "Dear Mr. Clark, please accept these as a small token of thanks and friendship for your help during our stay in London. With... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 143767
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ARDIZZONE, Edward (illus.); FORDHAM, Hallam (ed.) Hey Nonny Yes.London : 1947
First edition, first impression. An illustrated pocket anthology of "charming, rude, or delightfully odd" phrases and expressions from the Bard's plays. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 143783
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KEATS, John. The Poetical Works.London : 1854
A lovely copy of the first edition of Keats's poetical works with the memoir by Victorian poet and politician Richard Monckton Milnes, author of "Life and Letters of Keats" (1848). Edward Moxon, himself also a poet, was well known for his scholarly editions of Romantic and Victorian poetry. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 143618
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DICKENS, Charles. Bleak House.London : 1853
First edition, bound from the original parts as issued between March 1852 and September 1853. "The satire of Bleak House focuses on the obfuscations and delays of the court of chancery which result in widespread human misery and suffering, but the novel's complicated plot and centripetal organization bring into the picture a great cross-section of contemporary... Learn More£850.00Stock Code: 143645
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FERMOR, Patrick Leigh. Mani, Travels in the Southern Peloponnese; [together with] Roumeli, Travels in Northern Greece.London : 1958 & 1966
First editions, first impressions, of the author's celebrated travelogue of Greece, described as "two of the best travel books of the century" (Financial Times).
Although perhaps best known for his great walk from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul in 1935, Fermor was also a committed Hellenophile who devoted much of his life his adopted country.... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 142883
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GOREY, Edward. Gorey Posters.New York : 1979
First edition, first printing. The posters include some of Gorey's best known characters, with works from The Gashlycrumb Tinies, The Curious Sofa, The Doubtful Guest, and others. Learn More£45.00Stock Code: 143269
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WELSH, Irvine. Filth.London : 1998
First edition, first impression. Signed on the title page by Irvine Welsh and inscribed by Welsh on the pornographic dust jacket "Authorized by me, Irvine Welsh". The pornographic dust jacket is limited to 50 copies hand numbered, and was sold with signed first editions of the book. Blurb on the jacket states that it is not authorized by author or... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 143304
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HOBBES, Thomas (trans.); THUCYDIDES. The History of the Grecian War: in eight books.London : 1676
Second edition of Hobbes's translation, the first made into English directly from the Greek, originally published in 1629. Though Hobbes was then in his early 40s, it was his first printed work. It was reissued twice, in 1634 and 1648, and Hobbes prepared this second edition towards the end of his life. "Forty years later, in Vita Carmine Expressa,... Learn More£5,000.00Stock Code: 128690
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STEADMAN, Ralph (illus.); CARRICKFORD, Richard. This is Television.London : 1967
First edition, third impression, with a postcard laid-in from Steadman, "To whom..... sic This is Television, 1958. I haven't seen this book for over 40 years - 1958. It was a commission I got by accident. I had a small studio space in London, when I worked for Kemsley Newspapers. The office belonged to Alex Harrison, a literary agent. One of his authors... Learn More£200.00Stock Code: 143838
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THOMPSON, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72.San Francisco, CA : 1973
First edition, first printing, in which "Thompson took the increasingly popular journalist-covers-campaign-coverage genre to an extreme in a garishly opinionated, gaudily caustic blast at journalism, politics, and politicians" (ANB). Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 143839
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LOCKER, Frederick. London Lyrics.London : 1881
First edition, large paper issue with frontispiece and illustration (not present in the ordinary issue); "Austin Dobson made the selection for the privately printed edition, and prefixed the prefatory sexain... very few copies were printed" (Murray); the attractive presswork was by the Chiswick Press. London Lyrics was first published in 1857, and went... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 143842
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WHITMAN, Walt. Good-Bye My Fancy.Philadelphia : 1891
First edition, sole printing, in binding variant A, a deep red V cloth, with the frontispiece in style 1 without the caption, one of 1,000 copies printed in May of 1891. An exceptional copy, with the priority varieties, of the separate issue of Whitman's "annex to Leaves of Grass". Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 143843
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SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS: SPENSER, Edmund. The Works.Oxford : 1930
Shakespeare Head Edition, number 183 of 375 sets printed on handmade paper and bound thus, with hand-coloured woodcuts by Hilda Quick. The edition, with the text newly prepared, is one of the Press's crowning achievements, this being a particularly appealing unopened copy. A further eleven copies were issued on vellum.
Hilda Quick (1895-1978)... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 142984
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CHRISTIE, Agatha. Dead Man's Folly.London : 1956
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Carlo, from Agatha, Jun. 1956". The recipient was Charlotte ("Carlo") Fisher (1895-1976), with her retrospective book label to the front pastedown. Fisher was Christie's secretary, close friend, and amanuensis, with whom she wrote several major... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 143027
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CHRISTIE, Agatha. Hercule Poirot's Christmas.London : 1939
First edition, first impression, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "from Agatha Christie". The novel "brings together two of the favourite devices of the thriller writer of the period, the country-house party and the locked-room murder, to stunning effect" (Wagstaff & Poole, p. 153). Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 143563
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LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth. The Poetical Works.London : [c.1890]
A highly attractive copy of Longfellow's poetry, in a superb binding, anonymous though very much in the Sangorski & Sutcliffe style with elaborate use of coloured morocco inlay to a floral pattern. Learn More£475.00Stock Code: 143687
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DIDEROT, Denis. Œuvres philosophiques et dramatiques.Amsterdam : 1772
First edition of Diderot's collected philosophical and theatrical works. It is rare to find a complete set as each volume has both a collective title page and its own, and could have been sold separately.
There were two editions of published in Amsterdam that year, the other being the octavo-format edition of Marc Michel Rey, though the present... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 141232
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BRONTË, Charlotte. The Professor, a Tale.London : 1857
First edition. This is one of 719 copies noted by Smith as being thus bound up "on or before 30 June 1859" (p. 162). The Professor was written before Jane Eyre (1847) and originally submitted to publishers along with both Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, then independently, and rejected many times; eventually it... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 139007
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BRONTË, Charlotte, Emily, & Anne. The Works.London : 1949
The Heather edition, handsomely bound by Baytun Riviere. The Heather edition was arranged and introduced by Phyllis Bentley (1894-1977), novelist and expert on the Brontë family. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 136650
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TWAIN, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.Hartford : 1876
First US edition, first printing, printed on wove paper, versos of half-title and preface blank. "The irresponsibility, the love of odd adventure, and the sense of natural justice as opposed to the village code, which characterize the heroes of this book and its sequel Huckleberry Finn, presented a sharp contrast to the Sunday School or rags-to-riches... Learn More£8,750.00Stock Code: 132079
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DULAC, Edmund (illus.); Edward FitzGerald (trans.) Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.London : [1909]
First Dulac edition, first impression. Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 132279
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HUXLEY, Aldous. Brave New World.London : 1932
First edition, first impression. A fantastic example of the Chelsea Bindery's work. Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 132469
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KAZANTZAKIS, Nikos. The Odyssey. A Modern Sequel.London : [1958]
First edition, first impression. Kazantzakis is best known for his critically acclaimed novels, Zorba The Greek, The Greek Passion, and Freedom or Death but it is his version of The Odyssey which is considered his crowning achievement. Learn More£1,375.00Stock Code: 131936
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PASTERNAK, Boris. Doctor Zhivago.London : 1958
First English-language edition, first impression, of Pasternak's classic novel. First published in Italy in 1957, the original manuscript had been smuggled out of the Soviet Union in the same year. It was an immediate success and has been adapted to screen a number of times, most famously in the 1965 film adaptation staring Omar Sharif, Julie Christie,... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 131737
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DOYLE, Richard In Fairyland. A Series of Pictures from the Elf-World.London : 1870
First edition of one of the masterpieces of Victorian colour printing. As Percy Muir describes it in his Victorian Illustrated Books (1971), In Fairyland "has 16 colour plates many with more than one subject to a page, and there is not one bad one among them... Edmund Evans surpassed himself in the printing of the blocks... it is now considered as a... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 130950
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HILTON, James. Lost Horizon.London : 1933
First edition, first impression, of the book that introduced Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamasery located high in the mountains of Tibet. Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 131008
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SAINT-EXUPÉRY, Antoine de. Night Flight.London : 1932
First UK edition, first impression. Saint-Exupéry is most famous for his landmark children's book Le Petit Prince (1943), but Night Flight, first published as Vol de Nuit (1931), is his greatest literary work, a remarkable modernist treatment of the new age, man's position in it and the relationship of technology and humanity, selected by Connolly... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 129419
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BRONTË, Patrick. Cottage Poems.Halifax : 1811
First edition, sole impression, of this scarce debut collection of poems by the father of the Brontë sisters, this copy in an unrestored contemporary binding and with the contemporary ownership inscription "Apley Castle", of the Charlton family in Shropshire. Bronte had, from 1809 to 1811, been an assistant curate at Wellington, Shropshire, scarcely... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 130435
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KIPLING, Rudyard. Kim.London : 1901
First edition, first impression. Learn More£1,375.00Stock Code: 128694
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FORSTER, E. M. Howards End.London : 1910
First edition, first impression. Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 127775
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ROBINSON, W. Heath (illus.); KIPLING, Rudyard. Collected Verse.New York : 1910
First and only edition in this form, with illustrations by the cartoonist, illustrator and author W. Heath Robinson. Learn More£1,575.00Stock Code: 127295
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![A Shropshire Lad [together with] Last Poems.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/2/126238.jpg)
HOUSMAN, A. E. A Shropshire Lad [together with] Last Poems.Chipping Campden : 1929
First Alcuin Press edition, number 134 of 325 copies in total. First published in 1896 and 1922 respectively, this work collected together in two volumes what was then understood to be the entire corpus of Housman's published poetry. This book was handsomely printed in the private press manner on Batchelor handmade paper for the publishers by the Alcuin... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 126238
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CLARKE, Harry (illus.); GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von. Faust.London : 1927
Signed limited edition, number 910 of 1,000 copies signed by the artist. Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 125665
