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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SCOTT, Sir Walter. Ivanhoe.London : 1900
Handsomely bound copy of Scott's classic historical novel. Learn More£95.00Stock Code: 140675
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DE QUINCEY, Thomas Confessions of an English Opium Eater.London : 1885
Handsomely bound copy of De Quincey's best-known work, originally published in 1821. Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 140249
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CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de. The Life and Adventures of Don Quixote de la Mancha.London : 1820
First Westall-illustrated edition. Richard Westall (1765-1836) was "a significant and innovative figure in the development of the English watercolour, his elegant and precise book illustrations set new standards in that field, and his portraits and historical and religious paintings have deservedly received more scholarly attention recently than hitherto"... Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 140103
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LINDSAY, Charles McDonald. Betrayed!! or, what might come to pass.London : 1928
First edition, first impression, of this dystopian war novel, nowadays rarely found complete with its jacket. Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 139733
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AUDEN, W. H. Poems.London : 1933
Second and enlarged edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author in the month of publication on the front free endpaper, "To Elinor Loring, with best wishes, Wystan Auden. Nov. 1933"; rarely encountered inscribed. First published in 1930, this revised edition contains seven new poems.
This copy also has nice provenance, with... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 139518
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WOOLF, Virginia. Autograph letter signed to Roger L. Scaife.London : [1933]
An unpublished autograph letter signed inviting the managing director of Houghton Mifflin to tea, brusque and insincere in its tone given Woolf's extreme reluctance to discuss business with the Boston publisher.
Houghton Mifflin was Harold Nicolson's American publisher. In March 1933 Woolf reluctantly agreed to meet with Roger Scaife (1875-1951),... Learn More£4,500.00Stock Code: 139458
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HESSE, Hermann. Das Glasperlenspiel.Zurich : [1943]
First edition, first printing, of Hesse's utopian futuristic novel, his final and longest work, and a major contributor to Hesse being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. It was first published in English in 1949 under the title The Glass Bead Game. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 139449
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BAGNOLD, Enid. Diary Without Dates; [together with:] The Happy Foreigner.London : 1918 & 1920
Enid Bagnold's two wartime works, each inscribed by her to Dorothy Heath, her friend and fellow FANY driver, together with three letters and a postcard from Bagnold to Heath: Diary Without Dates is inscribed on the dedication page verso, "To Dorothy Heath (who said 'Did you write this?' and changed my career in France) with love from Enid 1919"; The... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 139421
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KENNEDY, Margaret. The Constant Nymph.London : 1924
First edition, first impression, in the rare jacket, of the author's bestselling and most famous work. The book and jacket are the second issue, as usual, with the cancel half-title and variant adverts on the rear panel of the dust jacket: copies of the first issue with all points are rare, issued only in small quantities to reviewers prior to publication.... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 139346
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JOYCE, James. Anna Livia Plurabelle.New York : 1928
First edition. One of a small number of special copies printed on green Alexandra Japan paper, not signed by Joyce (as the standard issue of 800 is). The number of copies printed on green paper is unspecified, but Crosby Gaige's papers at Princeton suggest fifty copies may have been printed. Slocum & Cahoon speculate that only six of which were sold... Learn More£3,500.00Stock Code: 138348
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(BEARDSLEY, Aubrey.) MALORY, Sir Thomas. The Birth, Life, and Acts of King Arthur,Westminster : 1893-4
First edition, deluxe issue, number 101 of 300 sets printed on large Dutch handmade paper. The classic combination of Aubrey Beardsley's distinctive drawings and the Arthurian legend, and one of the most iconic books of the fin de siècle.
The young Beardsley was a regular at London's antiquarian book shops, where he forged a friendship with shop... Learn More£15,000.00Stock Code: 134558
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ORWELL, George. Animal Farm.New York : 1946
Advance review copy of the American edition. The publisher's stamp on the front wrapper announces the publication date as August 26, 1946. Animal Farm was first published in the UK the previous year. It has never since been out of print, with Orwell's allegorical fable, written as a warning against totalitarianism in general and Stalinism in particular,... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 133704
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CHANDLER, Raymond. The Lady in the Lake.New York : 1943
First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author to his sometime lover, Louise Loughner, on the front free endpaper, "For my sweet and lovely Louise who is not at all like any of the ladies in this book. Ray. La Jolla Sept. 30, 1956". Louise Loughner had read in her local newspaper about Chandler's suicide attempt on 22 February 1955 at his home... Learn More£22,500.00Stock Code: 131622
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TROLLOPE, Anthony. The Last Chronicle of Barset.London : 1867
First edition, bound from the original parts; with the following issue points: publisher's rights printed on the verso of both title pages (omitted from verso of title page in vol. 2 for the book form edition), and all plates captions in the first state: no variants in vol. 1, as here; vol. 2 with the plate facing p. 120 captioned "Because of Papa's... Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 128402
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FLEMING, Ian. On Her Majesty's Secret Service.London : 1963
First edition, first impression, of the 11th book in the James Bond series, featuring a reappearance of Blofeld and SPECTRE, linking it to the plot of Thunderball (1961). It was adapted for film in 1969, featuring George Lazenby. Learn More£875.00Stock Code: 120581
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(WAUGH, Evelyn.) SPARE, Austin Osman, & Clifford Bax. The Golden Hind.London : 1923-4
Final four issues of the important literary magazine, with five illustrations by Evelyn Waugh; and 3 others, including 2 works containing Dudley Carew's bookplate designed by Waugh and Circular Saws with the Waugh-designed dust-jacket.
"At Oxford Evelyn had a greater reputation as a graphic artist than a writer, and as such was much in demand, designing... Learn More£600.00Stock Code: 112542
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JOYCE, James. Dubliners.London : 1914
First edition, first impression, first issue, one of 746 sets of sheets bound by Grant Richards and issued in London on 15 June 1914. The remaining 504 sets of the 1,250 printed were shipped to Huebsch in New York, where they were not issued until much later, sometime between 15 December 1916 and 1 January 1917. Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 106591
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DICKENS, Charles. Sketches by Boz.London : 1864
An attractively bound copy of Dickens's classic, first published in book-form in 1839. Sketches by Boz was Dickens's first book, although this reprint follows the revised text of the new edition. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 139194
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BROWNING, Robert. Poems.London : 1912
A handsomely bound copy of the Oxford Edition, first published in 1905. Learn More£95.00Stock Code: 140676
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MILTON, John. The Poetical Works.Oxford : 1900
A handsomely bound copy of Milton's poetry. Learn More£95.00Stock Code: 140677
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TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord. The Works.London : 1907
A handsomely bound copy of Tennyson's poetical works. This is a reprint of the Complete Edition first published in 1894. Learn More£95.00Stock Code: 140678
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JAMESON, Anna. Shakspeare's Heroines.London : 1891
Large paper edition, one of 175 numbered copies of which this is number 127. Jameson's work was originally published in 1832 under the title Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical and Historical. Learn More£225.00Stock Code: 140646
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QUILLER-COUCH, Arthur. The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900.Oxford : 1912
A handsomely bound edition of Quiller-Couch's collection of English poetry, first published in 1900. "This volume soon became the standard anthology of English verse and sold nearly a million volumes during Quiller-Couch's lifetime" (ODNB). Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 140674
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(BAUMANN, Gustave, illust.) BANNING, Kendall. Pirates! or, The Cruise of the Black Revenge.Chicago : 1918
First trade edition, first printing, of this collection of 13 poems and accompanying woodcuts, following the limited edition of 525 copies in a larger format on handmade paper published by the Brothers of the Book in 1916. The publisher, Laurence Woodworth was the scrivener for the Brothers of the Book, a small private press "made up of those who like... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 140322
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FLEMING, Ian. On Her Majesty's Secret Service.London : 1963
First edition, signed limited issue. One of 35 unnumbered "presentation" copies signed by the author; a further 250 numbered copies were also released. This was Fleming's only signed limited edition; it was published simultaneously with the first trade edition on 1 April 1963. Over time, the vellum has shown a tendency to yellow, and copies in such... Learn More£13,500.00Stock Code: 131688
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DICKENS, Charles. The Works.London : 1874-6
A most handsome set of Dickens's works in 30 volumes, uniformly bound with a further two volumes of John Forster's biography of Dickens. Learn More£9,750.00Stock Code: 139247
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(BRITISH POETS.) Aldine Edition of the British Poets.London : 1831-1852
A very pretty set of Pickering's Aldine Edition of the British poets, celebrated both for the elegance of the typography and the diligence of its editors. The two-decade long publishing project brings together a vast selection of the works of British writers, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spencer, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Swift and Gray. Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 139248
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DICKENS, Charles. The Nonesuch Dickens.London : 1938-9
The Nonesuch edition, one of 877 sets, this set unnumbered. This peculiar limitation is due to the inclusion with each set of one of the original plates used in Chapman and Hall's first printings of each title. Since they held in their archive 877 such plates - the majority steel but with a number of wood blocks, as here - the limitation was enforced.... Learn More£8,500.00Stock Code: 139227
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GIBRAN, Kahlil. Twenty Drawings.New York : 1919
First edition, first printing, inscribed by Gibran on the front free endpaper, "To Margarrite Marguerite? Harrison Day, with kindest thoughts from Kahlil Gibran, 1923". The recipient has proved unidentifiable, though it is tempting to think her some relation of Gibran's early creative mentor the Boston photographer Fred Holland Day.
Twenty Drawings... Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 137819
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FLEMING, Ian. Moonraker.London : 1955
First edition, first impression, one of two variant states, printed on thicker paper stock and with the word "shoot" on page 10 correctly printed. The entire first impression (containing both "shoot" and "shoo" states) was issued on 7 April 1955. The third book in the James Bond series, Moonraker was adapted into a film of the same name in 1979, starring... Learn More£7,500.00Stock Code: 136616
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FLEMING, Ian. Thunderball.London : 1961
First edition, first impression. The first novel in the Blofeld trilogy, Thunderball introduces the criminal organization SPECTRE and its leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 131905
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ROSSETTI, Christina. Poems.London : 1892
Arthur Edward Waite's copy of this attractive collection of Christina Rossetti's poems, with his bookplate to the front pastedown. This copy has the contemporary ownership inscription of Waite's muse and great love Dora Stuart Menteath to the front free endpaper, "Dora Stuart Menteath, Feb 23rd 1893". Waite met Dora in 1886 and the two fell almost immediately... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 130308
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(WOLLSTONECRAFT, Mary.) HAYS, Mary, and others. The Annual Necrology for 1797-8.London : 1800
First edition, and sole volume, of this ambitious project to record obituaries of notable persons on an annual basis. The most significant memoir recorded here is the 49 page obituary of Mary Wollstonecraft by the feminist biographer Mary Hays (1759-1843). Hays received a copy of Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman upon its publication... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 123651
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YEATS, W. B. The Variorum Edition of the Poems.New York : 1957
Signed limited edition, number 381 of 825 copies signed by Yeats, and issued posthumously. The limitation sheets were signed by the author before his death in 1939, and retained by the publisher until the publication of this edition, which was deferred until after the war. Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 112375
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FLEMING, Ian. Casino Royale.London : 1953
First edition, first impression, first state dust jacket (without the Sunday Times review on the inner front flap). "According to the Cape archives, 4,760 sets of sheets of the first printing were delivered, but only 4,728 copies were bound up. Many of these went to public libraries and we believe that less than half of the first printing was sold to... Learn More£50,000.00Stock Code: 111955
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DICKENS, Charles. Dombey and Son.London : 1848
First edition, first issue, uncorrected, bound from the monthly parts. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 111303
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YEATS, W. B. The Shadowy Waters.London : 1900
First edition, one of 500 copies printed. Yeats's lyrical, visionary play - "a lengthy Wagnerian verse drama" (ODNB) - tells the love story of Forgael, a dreamer-pirate, and Dectora, a proud queen whose ship he captures. Provenance: with the bookplate of Oliver Brett, 3rd Viscount Esher (1881-1963), whose sister Dorothy was friends with Ottoline Morrell... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 108461
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DAHL, Roald. Over to You.London : 1946
First UK edition, first impression, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "Frances, with all good wishes, Roald Dahl, March '47". It is, however, probable that this copy was inscribed but never presented, as it bears the ownership signatures of Dahl's first wife, Patricia Neale: upside down on the rear free endpaper, likely done with the... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 106791
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YOUNG, Filson. A Christmas Card.London : 1914
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author to his old associate Max Beerbohm while on service with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the First World War, "Max from Filson. H.M.S. Lion, North Sea, 5 Jan 1915", together with an original pen-and-ink and watercolour caricature of the author by Beerbohm drawn on the half-title.... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 105008
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BETJEMAN, John. A Nip in the Air.London : 1974
First edition, signed limited edition. Number 130 of 175 copies signed by the author. From the library of Anthony Hobson (1921-2014), the scholar, esteemed bibliophile, and expert on Rensaissance bindings, who was President of the Internationale de Bibliophilie between 1985 and 1999, with his bookplate. Learn More£325.00Stock Code: 102440
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DOYLE, Arthur Conan. A Study in Scarlet.London : 1888 [1889]
First edition in book form of Conan Doyle's first book, marking the first separate publication of any Sherlock Holmes story, preceded only by the story's appearance in Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887. This copy is the second impression of the first edition, with the first and final signatures reset (distinguished by the mis-spelling "youuger" on p. v),... Learn More£25,000.00Stock Code: 137971
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O'NEILL, Eugene. Mourning Becomes Electra.New York : 1931
First edition, first printing. The play, a retelling of the Oresteia by Aeschylus, premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931. Learn More£325.00Stock Code: 140687
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ACKROYD, Peter; Kevin Stratford; Graham Walker. The Works.No place : [c. 1970]-71-73
First editions, first impressions, of these three early Ackroyd publications.
The Works is Ackroyd's first appearance in print, Ouch is his first solo publication, and London Lickpenny, one of 500 copies only, was his second solo publication. All three works come from the library of Martin S. Golding, librarian and director... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 140689
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WHITMAN, Walt. Ode a la France.Paris : 1917
First separate edition, first printing, one of 556 copies only, of this translation of Whitman's poem "O Star of France" dated 1870-71, which was first published in Leaves of Grass. Combet-Descombes's illustrations evoke the landscapes of the war-torn country after the Franco-Prussian War of July 1870 - May 1871, which marked the end of French... Learn More£325.00Stock Code: 140650
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CALVINO, Italo. Prima che tu dica "Pronto".Cottondale : 1985
Signed limited edition, number 73 of 75 copies signed by the artist and the author, of this bilingual publication of Before you say "Hello".
With the printer's change of address humourous slip loosely inserted, explaining that he, Richard-Gabriel Price Rummonds, "has forsaken Cottondale, Alabama, wimpish deans, dragonlady paper decorators,... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 140672
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SACKVILLE-WEST, Vita. The Garden.London : 1946
First edition, signed limited issue, number 20 of 750 copies signed by the author. A long poetical sequence on the author's favourite subject, "which tries to sum up her own horticultural aesthetic and is in some respects superior to its predecessor The Land" (ODNB). Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 139782
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BYRON, George Gordon Noel, Lord. The Works.Paris : 1831
An elegantly bound copy of Byron's poetical works. The French binder Joseph Thouvenin (17901834) was well-known for producing bindings in an "historical" style.
Galignani's Paris editions of the English poets were piracies (he also pirated Crabbe, Hazlitt, Washington Irving, Thomas Moore, Walter Scott, and Southey among others), but carefully done.... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 140256
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FAULKS, Sebastian. Birdsong.London : 1993
First edition, first impression, signed by the author on the title page. The novel was listed as the 13th favourite book in Britain in the BBC's Big Read survey, conducted in 2003. Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 140381
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(GREEK VERSE.) LUCAS, F. L. The Golden Cockerel Greek Anthology. A Selection of the Poems, Edited, with Translations into English Verse and an Introduction, by F. L. Lucas.London : 1937
First edition, first printing, number 190 of 206 copies printed on hand-made paper. A beautiful edition, edited and translated by F. L. Lucas, one of the finest Greek scholars of his generation - described by Virginia Woolf as "pure Cambridge: clean as a breadknife and as sharp" - gathering selections from fifty poets in a small compass. The illustrations... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 139717
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TENNYSON, Alfred, Lord. Poetical Works.London : 1899
The Globe edition; a particularly handsome copy of Tennyson's poetry. Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 139195
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TOLSTOY, Leo. War and Peace.New York : 1886
First editions in English, first printings (with all title pages dated 1886 and the corrected Gottsberger imprint to versos), translated into English by Clara Bell (1835-1927). Gottsberger published Tolstoy's masterpiece as a trilogy of individual two volume novels, issued separately in uniform cloth at 1.75, which together form the complete work. A... Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 112666
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SMITH, Edward E. The Vortex Blaster.Hicksville, NY : 1960
First edition, first printing. Presentation copy inscribed by the author to the publisher on the front free endpaper, "To my friend Marty Greenberg - with the hope that this new relationship of publisher and writer will make even deeper the friendship that has lasted so long, Edward E. Smith, PhD". Smith originally worked as a food scientist, and became... Learn More£875.00Stock Code: 82267
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DICKEY, James. The Zodiac.Bloomfield Hills, MI : 1976
First edition, number 39 of 61 copies signed by the author with a single leaf of the typescript working draft bound in, Dickey's manuscript corrections in ink. A trade issue was released by Doubleday later in the same year. Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 140558
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[WILDE, Oscar.] An Ideal Husband.London : 1899
First edition, first impression, one of 1,000 copies printed. Oscar Wilde's third comedy, An Ideal Husband premiered at the Haymarket on 3 January 1895, before Wilde's trial, but was not published until after his release from prison. Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 140565
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(DOYLE, Richard, illus.) PLANCHÉ, James Robinson. The Sleeping Beauty.London : 1868
An Old Fairy Tale Told Anew 1865
Brothers Dalziel "For these 'fine art' books, often issued in the name of other firms, the Dalziels made all arrangements and undertook the financial risk, commissioning artists on their own responsibility to design the woodcuts, contributing part of the designs themselves, and engraving the blocks by their... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 139828
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BURTON, Robert. The Anatomy of Melancholy,London : 1836
A handsomely bound copy of Burton's great book, first published in 1621. "The Anatomy, as its publishing history shows, was one of the most popular books of the seventeenth century. All the learning of the age as well as its humour - and its pedantry - are there. It has something in common with Brant's Ship of Fools, Erasmus's Praise of Folly, and More's... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 140146
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JOYCE, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.London : 1916
First edition, UK issue. Inscribed on the front free endpaper to the author Frederick Britten Austin, with Austin's note "signed for me F. Britten Austin" followed, in Joyce's hand, "by James Joyce Paris 1.1.39". The English writer Austin (1885-1941) published various short story collections, chiefly on military, maritime, and supernatural themes. Austin... Learn More£100,000.00Stock Code: 140235
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JOYCE, James. Chamber Music.London : 1907
First edition, first impression, in the first issue binding, presentation copy with Joyce's inscribed card inserted. The inscription reads: "Dear Mr Simson, As you were kind enough to write me often about my book."
Theodore Spicer-Simson was an American medallist, painter, sculptor and illustrator. Born in Le Havre, he first met Joyce in Paris in... Learn More£15,000.00Stock Code: 140266
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(KELMSCOTT PRESS.) SWINBURNE, Algernon Charles. Atalanta in Calydon:Hammersmith : 1894
First Kelmscott edition, one of 250 copies on paper; a further 8 copies printed on vellum were also issued. Swinburne was a warm admirer of the Kelmscott Press books, and "when Atalanta (which was first published in 1865) was reprinted by Morris, Swinburne wrote to him that it was 'certainly one of the loveliest examples of even your incomparable press'"... Learn More£4,000.00Stock Code: 140418
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BOSWELL, James. The Life of Samuel Johnson.London : 1835
An attractive set of Boswell's great biography, first published in 1791. "This version contains both the original texts, augmented by the additional writings of the biographer and his subject, and the very valuable new and related material which Croker introduced in his 1831 edition" (Pottle). "Boswell's Life of Johnson remains the most famous biography... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 140500
