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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FERMOR, Patrick Leigh. Between the Woods and the Water.London : 1986
First edition, first impression, signed by the author on the title page. The second book in Fermor's travel trilogy, Between the Woods and the Water tells of the Budapest to the Iron Gates leg of the author's journey from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul. Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 138579
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BUNYAN, John. The Heavenly Foot-Man:London : 1708
Fourth edition. In 1668 Bunyan "begun to prepare 'The Heavenly Foot-Man', a sermon on the Christian life, for publication. Internal evidence suggests it may have been preached, or at least prepared for the pulpit, late in 1659 or in 1660. Directed to the spiritually indolent, the sermon urges people to repent before the day of grace has passed, a concern... Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 138643
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DICKENS, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.London : 1839
First edition, in the publisher's deluxe binding of half morocco. Following the serialization in parts, Dombey and Son was issued in book-form in cloth, full morocco, and the present half morocco. The deluxe bindings of Dickens have been somewhat marginalized by bibliographers, but it is certainly the case that they are significantly scarcer than the... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 138737
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JOHNSON, Samuel, ed. The Works of the English Poets.London : 1779-1780
A superb set of this vast compendium of English poetry, here uniformly bound in an elegant contemporary French morocco binding. The set is complete in 68 volumes, with the 56 poetry volumes, two volumes of index, and the further ten volumes of Johnson's biographies of the poets, published separately and not always accompanying the set. This was the... Learn More£7,500.00Stock Code: 138778
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RUSHDIE, Salman. The Satanic Verses.London : 1988
First edition, signed limited issue, number 84 of 100 copies signed by the author and bound in quarter morocco (a further 12 signed copies were published in full morocco). Rushdie's fourth novel and a major work in the magical realist canon, The Satanic Verses ignited furious controversy, leading to the book being banned and protested across the world,... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 138780
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PERCEVAL, Richard; & John Minsheu. A Dictionarie in Spanish and English,London : 1599
First edition thus, based on two textbooks of Spanish by Richard Perceval (or Percyvall), entitled Bibliotheca Hispanica (1591), the lexicon of which John Minsheu (1559/601627) considerably augmented. Minsheu "refers to hostility towards his work in certain quarters, but ensured the grant of a licence to print by applying successfully to the archbishop... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 138829
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QUARLES, Francis. Emblems, Divine and Moral;London : 1723
An attractive early 18th-century edition of Francis Quarles's Emblems, the most popular and frequently reprinted English emblem book since its original publication in 1634, here also including his second book, Hieroglyphikes, originally published 1638, "the most notable English version of the theme of the ages of man" (ODNB). Each... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 138863
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(BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.) Eccentric Biography;London : 1801
First edition of this collection of biographies of historical and contemporary eccentrics, here an issue with the stipple engraved plates printed in colour, not known in other copies. Eccentrics vary from Bamfylde Moore Carew, king of the beggars, to various historical figures including Alexander the Great, Aristotle, Joan of Arc, Catherine the Great,... Learn More£975.00Stock Code: 138864
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(POETRY.) The Vision of Hades,London : 1825
First complete edition, publishing the Vision of Noös for the first time, paired with the Vision of Hades, first published in 1820 and here in its second appearance. This copy has various pencilled emendations in the Vision of Noös, all stylistic rather than correcting errata, and consequently almost certainly in the hand... Learn More£625.00Stock Code: 138867
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SPARK, Muriel. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.London : 1961
First edition, first impression. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was first published in the New Yorker on 14 October 1961, in a slightly abridged version. It was published in the same year in book form to wide critical acclaim. In 2005 the novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English language novels from... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 138886
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CHESTERTON, G. K. The Secret of Father Brown.London : 1927
First edition, first impression in the 7/6 dust jacket, of the fourth instalment in Chesterton's Father Brown series. Quayle notes that Chesterton's psychological approach and his nuanced characters give his work a special importance in the genre, but that "Father Brown, whose most 'conspicuous quality was not being conspicuous', will... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 138902
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McCARTHY, Cormac. The Border Trilogy.New York : 1999
First omnibus edition, first printing, inscribed by the author on the half-title "For Van Weir, All the best Cormac McCarthy Santa Fe 2001". The three novels in the trilogy were originally published in 1992, 1994, and 1998 respectively. Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 138918
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WOOLF, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway.London : 1925
First edition, first impression, of Woolf's mould-breaking masterpiece, in the very scarce Vanessa Bell jacket. Only 2,000 copies of the first printing were produced, and the dust jacket is one of the finest Bell ever designed and rare in collectable condition.
"Woolf maintained that her generation had to break the mould of the novel in order to... Learn More£27,500.00Stock Code: 138396
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(DOVES BINDERY.) SHAKESPEARE, William. The Tragedie of Julius Caesar.Hammersmith : [1913]
First Doves Press edition, one of 200 unnumbered copies on paper (a further 12 were printed on vellum), here bound by the Doves Bindery (executed the year following publication), in a fine example of their understated elegance, complementing the design and typography of the text. Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 138499
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O'BRIAN, Patrick. The Surgeon's Mate.London : 1980
First edition, first impression, of the seventh book in the Aubrey-Maturin series. Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 138544
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GILL, Eric. The Four Gospels of Lord Jesus Christ according to the Authorized Version of King James I.Waltham St Lawrence : 1931
Limited edition, number 412 of 500 copies on paper (12 copies were also issued on vellum), of one of the great private press books of the century, and perhaps Gill's greatest achievement.
"Conceived in the fruitful mind of Robert Gibbings, this is the Golden Cockerel book usually compared with the Doves Bible and the Kelmscott Chaucer. A flower among... Learn More£17,500.00Stock Code: 138545
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(MATISSE, Henri.) JOYCE, James. Ulysses.New York : 1935
First illustrated edition, number 868 of 1,500 copies signed by Matisse.
Within weeks of the lifting of the US ban on the book (6 December 1933), Limited Editions Club impresario George Macy approached Joyce about a special edition of Ulysses and by February 1934 he was en route to Paris to speak to Matisse about illustration. The artist... Learn More£5,750.00Stock Code: 138549
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HUGHES, Ted. Gaudete.London : 1977
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "For Stephanie and Jimmy, and Michael in good time, with love, from Ted, July 1977". The recipients, Stephanie Bennett and James Mervis, hosted Ted Hughes during the New York blackout in July of that year, which resulted in city-wide looting. Stephanie... Learn More£475.00Stock Code: 119994
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DICKENS, Charles. Our Mutual Friend.London : [c.1870]
An attractively bound copy of Dickens's classic, first published in book form in 1865. Our Mutual Friend was Dickens's last completed novel. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 122718
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HUGHES, Ted. Tales From Ovid.London : 1998
First edition, signed limited issue, number 155 of 300 copies signed by Ted Hughes on the limitation leaf. This work was the winner of the 1997 Whitbread Book of the Year award. Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 135386
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(MOORE, Henry.) GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von, & André Gide (trans.) Prométhée.Paris : 1950-51
First edition of Henry Moore's first illustrated book, number 60 of 183 copies only. "During a visit to Paris in 1949 Moore met French typographer and publisher Henri Jonquières, who suggested an illustrated book based on Goethe's Prometheus, an adaptation of Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus. Moore made a total of eight lithographs for Prométhée,... Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 139173
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ELIOT, George. The Mill on the Floss.Edinburgh and London : 1860
First edition of George Eliot's second full-length novel, an uncommon publisher's presentation copy, inscribed in a secretarial hand to the title page of volume I, "from the publishers".
This set is in Carter's first state without the inserted ad leaf in volume I and with Adam Bede listed as a "seventh edition" on p. 6 of the 16pp. publisher's... Learn More£1,600.00Stock Code: 139602
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DICKENS, Charles. The Personal History of David Copperfield.London : 1850
First edition in book form, following publication in parts from May 1849 to November 1850. In the preface to a later edition (1867), Dickens would call the novel his "favourite child". It is generally considered among his masterpieces, and it is his first first-person novel. Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 141101
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WILLIAMS, Tennessee. A Street Car Named Desire.New York : 1947
First edition, first printing, a remarkable copy, unusually inscribed by almost the entire cast, together with a loosely inserted slip signed by the author, contemporaneous with the production and publication of the first edition. Peg Hillias presented this copy to her daughter and has inscribed the half-title, "For my darling daughter on her 16th birthday".... Learn More£15,000.00Stock Code: 141444
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DICKENS, Charles. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.London : 1837
First edition in book form. This copy has the following textual states: the engraved frontispiece has the stool with six stripes and the signature undivided at left of shield; the vignette title page has "Weller" and is signed "Phiz fect"; the plates are in early states, with page locations but without captions or imprint, and the two Buss plates are... Learn More£9,750.00Stock Code: 125669
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DOYLE, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles.London : 1902
First edition in book-form, first impression. The Hound of the Baskervilles was Sherlock Holmes's comeback after his shocking demise on the Reichenbach Falls stunned his loyal Victorian readership. When first serialized in the Strand Magazine in 1901 it was a great success, with queues at the publisher's office and throughout the country.... Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 137416
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FREEMAN, Kathleen. The Work and Life of Solon.Cardiff : 1926
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy of the author's first book, inscribed by the author to her long-term partner, at the very start of their acquaintance, on the front free endpaper, "Lilian M.C. Clopet, from Kathleen Freeman July 14th, 1926". This work, "considered essential reading", is uncommonly found in the jacket or inscribed, this... Learn More£500.00Stock Code: 142281
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GREENE, Graham. The Comedians.London : 1966
First UK edition, first impression. The Comedians, first published in the US the same year, was the basis for the 1967 film of the same name, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Learn More£45.00Stock Code: 141537
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GREENE, Graham. Our Man in Havana.London : 1958
First edition, first impression. Greene's thriller was adapted the year following publication into a film of the same name, directed by Carol Reed and starring Alec Guinness. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 141329
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BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. The Decameron,London : 1822
First edition thus, which prints for the first time in an English edition two previously censored sections: Day III novella 10 and Day IX novella 10, which are included in their full form, part of a "dynamic trend towards greater sexual explicitness in the English publications" of Boccaccio's masterpiece (Armstrong, p. 243). The translation is that... Learn More£400.00Stock Code: 140144
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WOOLF, Virginia. The Years.London : 1937
First edition, first impression, rare with the jacket in such good condition. This is Woolf's penultimate novel, also the most popular during her lifetime. She began writing it in the early 1930s as a novel-essay titled The Pargiters, and subsequently divided it into two parts: the fiction portion became The Years and the essay portion... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 141987
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[SHELLEY, Mary.] The Last Man.London : 1826
First edition of Mary Shelley's great apocalyptic novel, set at the end of the 21st century among the last survivors of a global pandemic. Perhaps the first to explore the theme was Byron in his desolate poem "Darkness" (written at the Villa Diodati in 1816); and Thomas Campbell in 1823 published a poem entitled "The Last Man" (which was widely discussed... Learn More£25,000.00Stock Code: 138435
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(FLEMING, Ian.) GILBERT, Jon. Ian Fleming: The Bibliography.London : 2017
Second edition, first printing, one of 500 copies. Gilbert's bibliography was first published in 2012, and serves as a comprehensive guide to the work of Ian Fleming, covering everything from the first draft of Casino Royale in 1952 to editions still in print today. Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 122758
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HELLER, Joseph. Catch-22.London : 1962
Scarce prepublication proof review copy of the first UK edition of Heller's masterpiece, this copy from the library (though without ownership inscription) of Sunday Times reviewer Philip Oakes (1925-2008), who began his journalistic career as a conscript in the Second World War, working on the troop newsletter. It is offered with four scarce postcards... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 123116
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VIDAL, Gore. Rocking the Boat.London : 1963
First UK edition, first impression. Rocking the Boat was first published in Boston in 1962. Vidal examines the American political and literary scene since the Second World War in a collection of essays and commentaries. Learn More£65.00Stock Code: 142076
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CHRISTIE, Agatha. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.London : 1926
First edition, first impression, of Christie's first book published by Collins. It is Christie's third novel to feature Hercule Poirot as the lead detective. Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 141976
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KEROUAC, John [Jack]. The Town and The City.New York : 1950
First edition, first printing, of the first major work published by Jack Kerouac, who became famous for his second novel On the Road (1957). Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 141991
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[POLIDORI, John William.] The Vampyre; A Tale.London : 1819
First edition, in the second and earliest realistically obtainable issue, of this seminal vampire novella. This attractive, untrimmed, copy is beautifully presented in a 20th-century morocco binding signed "J. G. 81" to the rear turn-in. It additionally, and highly unusually, has two sets of integral publisher's advertisements bound to the rear, dating... Learn More£8,500.00Stock Code: 141658
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DICKENS, Charles. Autograph letter signed.1842
Autograph letter signed from Charles Dickens to Thomas C. Grattan (1792-1864), Irish novelist and British consul in Boston, upon Dickens's return from his first trip to America, in total around 200 words in his hand. A bitter Dickens reflects upon his trip, generally seen as unsuccessful following controversies over copyright, and has come back to find... Learn More£15,000.00Stock Code: 137058
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LE CARRÉ, John. A Delicate Truth.London : 2013
First edition, signed limited issue, signed by the author on the edition page. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 142389
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[STERNE, Laurence.] The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.York & London : 1760-67
First edition, first state throughout, with Sterne's signature in ink in vols. V, VII and IX as called for. Sterne signed those volumes to protect his book from piracy. The episodic nature of its publication means that Tristram Shandy is rare in first edition throughout.
Sets in uniform bindings were necessarily bound after completion of the entire... Learn More£17,500.00Stock Code: 139638
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LE GUIN, Ursula K. Rocannon's World.New York : 1966
First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author on the title page "To John Baxter Ursula K. Le Guin", the recipient likely the fellow sci-fi writer. This title was Le Guin's literary debut, in which she coined the word "ansible" for a faster-than-light communicator, a since staple term in sci-fi literature. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 141567
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MORRIS, William. Some Hints on Pattern-Designing.London : 1899
First edition, this copy in an attractive "Glasgow Style" art nouveau binding likely by Mary E. Sim, the rear turn-in stamped "M.S. 1905". The "Glasgow Style" was influenced by the arts and crafts movement, including many of the tenets set out by Morris in this work. Sim worked in Glasgow, her designs published in both The Studio and The... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 139750
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BALLARD, J. G. The Drowned World.London : 1962
Rare proof copy, signed by the author on the title page, with the trial dust jacket (priced 0/0). The first UK edition was the first in hardback and is preferred to the US paperback that preceded it earlier in the same year. A seminal climate change science fiction novel, The Drowned World depicts the year 2145, where global warming has left... Learn More£6,750.00Stock Code: 138843
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DANTE ALIGHIERI. A Translation of the Inferno, in English Verse.Dublin : 1785
First edition, rare, of the first appearance of Boyd's translation of Dante, considered superior to the blank verse translation of 1782 by Charles Rogers, and preceding by 17 years Boyd's own completion of the Divine Comedy (1802), which would be the first published completion in English. This Dublin edition is the true first, preceding the London edition... Learn More£5,000.00Stock Code: 136911
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(CLASSICAL GEOGRAPHY). Pomponius Mela. Iulius Solinus. Itinerarium Antonini Aug. Vibius Sequester.Florence : 1526
An early edition of this collection of classical geographical texts, including Pomponius Mela and Julius Solinus, and a translation into Latin of the Greek 1st-century world geography of Dinoysius Periegetes. The text is based on the first edition of the collection, printed by the Aldine press in 1518. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 137339
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WHITMAN, Walt. Leaves of Grass.Brooklyn : 1855
First edition of one of the central works of American poetry. Much has been written of the significance of this first edition"America's second Declaration of Independence" to quote PMM. "The slender volume introduced the poet who, celebrating the nation by celebrating himself, has since remained at the heart of America's cultural memory because in the... Learn More£60,000.00Stock Code: 135889
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PEEL, Constance Dorothy Evelyn. The Hat Shop.London : 1914
First edition, first and only impression, of this "vivid picture of one side of the world of fashion and of the cost to those who serve it" (Pall Mall Gazette), written by the acclaimed journalist and writer on household management. It is uncommon institutionally and commercially; we have seen one other copy in a cheap "popular edition" binding... Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 130287
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HARTNELL, Norman. Silver and Gold.London : 1955
First edition, first impression, presentation copy inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to Princess Mary, "To Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal. With respect, gratitude and humble best wishes at Christmastime. Norman Hartnell, Christmas 1955." In this work, this copy of which is in an attractive presentation binding, Hartnell provides... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 130515
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[WALTON, Izaak.] The Compleat Angler or the Contemplative Man's Recreation,London : 1653
First edition. "A first Walton confers distinction upon its owner" (Westwood & Satchell). There are various typesetting errors in the first edition, although corrected and uncorrected sheets seem to have been issued indiscriminately, with little significance to the priority of issue. In the present copy "contention" (a mistake for "contentment") is... Learn More£75,000.00Stock Code: 80090
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ECO, Umberto. Serendipities.New York : [1998]
First edition in English, first printing, inscribed by the author on the half-title "For Monika & Craig, Umberto Eco". The recipients are Monika and Craig Anderson, who was a New York bookseller, the son of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Maxwell Anderson. Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 142135
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ECO, Umberto. Foucault's Pendulum.San Diego, New York, & London : 1989
First US edition, first impression, inscribed on the half-title "To Maggie Haferd, Umberto Eco". The recipient, Margaret H. Haferd, was the American Embassy librarian in London in the late 1950s and 1960s. She also worked with the U.S. Information Service. Both positions lead her to meet with anglophone, primarily literary, celebrities.
Originally... Learn More£400.00Stock Code: 142137
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STEVENS, Wallace. Notes toward a Supreme Fiction.Cummington, MA : 1942
First edition, number 111 of 190 numbered copies on Dutch Charcoal paper (a further 83 copies were issued signed and lettered), of "the central poem of the middle period, 'Notes toward a Supreme Fiction', dedicated to his closest friend, Henry Church. The three sections of 'Notes' - 'It must be abstract', 'It must change', and 'It must give pleasure'... Learn More£600.00Stock Code: 142340
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ECO, Umberto. Il pendolo di Foucault.Milan : 1988
First edition, first printing, of Eco's classic Italian novel which was translated into English by William Weaver the following year. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 142109
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ECO, Umberto. Il pendolo di Foucault.Milan : 1988
First edition, first printing, signed by Eco on the title page, and thus scarce. His classic Italian novel was translated into English by William Weaver the following year. Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 142112
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SPENSER, Edmund. Epithalamion.[New York] : 1902
The Saint Dunstan edition, number 9 of 30 copies, all printed on vellum, signed by the illuminator Ross Turner on the title page, and again alongside the publisher George Sproul on the limitation leaf. An extraordinarily fine book, beautifully printed and bound.
A lavish Gilded Age production, the "Saint Dunstan Volumes" were the brainchild of the... Learn More£7,500.00Stock Code: 141703
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FERLINGHETTI, Lawrence, & Nancy J. Peters. Literary San Francisco.San Francisco : 1980
First edition, 84th printing, presentation copy inscribed to Beat icon, Carolyn Cassady, "For Carolyn in San Francisco on 'Literary San Francisco Day' 22 Sept 80", signed by both authors on the front free endpapers, and Cassady's annotations, on p. 179, correcting the text in her own entry, about her book Off the Road (1990).
The recipient,... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 141947
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PAUL, Eden & Cedar. The Appreciation of Poetry.London : 1920
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy inscribed to the publisher Stanley Unwin on the front free endpaper: "To Stanley Unwin with the writers' kind wishes. October 30th, 1920." Learn More£65.00Stock Code: 140810
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CARROLL, Lewis. Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There.New York : 1935
Signed limited edition, number 599 of 1,500 copies signed by Alice Hargreaves, née Liddell, the original Alice. Learn More£950.00Stock Code: 139136
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FLEMING, Ian. You Only Live Twice.London : 1964
First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to his proof-reader for this title: "To Alan To reread! from, Ian." Alan Ross, a former naval officer, was a literary friend of Ann Fleming. Ross was one of the first to review Casino Royale favourably, in the Times Literary Supplement, a review which Fleming kept on his desk... Learn More£18,750.00Stock Code: 122645
