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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GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, Gabriel. El amor en los tiempos del cólera.Bogotá : 1985
First edition, signed limited issue, one of 1,000 unnumbered copies signed by the author and notarised below by a Bogota official, dated 27 November 1985, this a particularly nice example.
This signed issue was released in advance of the trade issue to benefit the victims of the Armero tragedy, in which over 20,000 Colombians lost their lives... Learn More£5,000.00Stock Code: 147664
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LARKIN, Philip. Aubade.Madison, Wisconsin : 1980
First edition, first printing, number 175 of 250 copies, initialled by the author and the printer on the limitation leaf. "Aubade" was the final major poem published in Larkin's lifetime, having originally appeared in the Times Literary Supplement in 1977. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 147561
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HARDY, Thomas. Poems of the Past and the Present.London & New York : 1902 [but 1901]
First edition, first impression, one of 500 copies, this copy in the rare presentation binding. Hardy's second volume of verse was published in November 1901, when this binding was advertised as "a Special Edition, suitable for presentation, bound in white and gold."
It is unknown how many copies were specially bound but it is likely to be a... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 147566
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LE CARRÉ, John. The Russia House.London : 1989
First edition, first impression. The Russia House was adapted into a film in 1990, starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 147373
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FRASER, George MacDonald. Black Ajax.London : 1997
First edition, first impression, inscribed by the author on the title page: "George M. Fraser July 1, '97". Learn More£50.00Stock Code: 147401
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FLEMING, Ian. The Man with the Golden Gun.London : 1965
First edition, first impression. The Man with the Golden Gun was Fleming's final full-length Bond novel, published eight months after his death. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1974, starring Roger Moore.
This copy is in the second state binding as usual, without the gun design blocked in gilt on the front cover, which proved... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 147035
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FIELDING, Henry. Tom Jones:London : 1809
An attractively bound set of Fielding's masterpiece and one of the great novels of the 18th century, which, along with Joseph Andrews, "established the tradition of the comic novel in English" (ODNB). It was first published in 1749. Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 145851
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PLATH, Sylvia. The Colossus & Other Poems.New York : 1962
First US edition, first printing, in exceptionally nice condition, of Plath's first and only collection of poetry issued during her lifetime. It was first published in the UK in 1960. Learn More£1,100.00Stock Code: 145549
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HEMINGWAY, Ernest. Across the River and into the Trees.New York : 1950
First US edition, first printing. It was preceded by the UK edition, published the same year. Learn More£200.00Stock Code: 147714
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EMBIRICOS, Andreas. Amour Amour: writings or personal mythology.London : 1966
First edition, first impression, remarkably uncommon, apparently the first appearance in English, translation by Nikos Stangos and Alan Ross, of the premier Greek surrealist, Andreas Embiricos (1901-1975).
"In this book of twenty-four stories His characters, defying all convention, behave like the ancient gods in their murderous or pleasure-seeking... Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 145301
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SNOW, C. P. Strangers and Brothers.London : 1940
First edition, first printing. Inscribed by the author on the title page, "To Philip Murray, with warm greetings from C. P. Snow, Jan 29/80." From the library of Dr Philip Murray, Irish book collector and author of The Adventures of a Book Collector (2011). Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 113504
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STEIN, Gertrude. Américains d'Amérique.Paris : 1933
First edition in French, first printing, inscribed on the first blank to the art dealer "George Maratier who was the first to want it into French and had the courage to toy with all my affection and gratitude. Gertrude Stein". This is a superb association copy.
This is one of 200 press review copies, with "S.P." (service de presse) on the spine... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 147549
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SITWELL, Edith. The Shadow of Cain.London : 1947
First edition, first impression. Learn More£35.00Stock Code: 147552
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SITWELL, Sacheverell. The Octogenarian.[Brackley : 1977
First edition thus, inscribed on the first page to the literary agent "A birthday celebration to David Higham with all best wishes from Sacheverell 12 November 1977". Learn More£50.00Stock Code: 147553
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BYRON, George Gordon Noel, Lord. Childe Harold.Venice : [1906]
A finely bound copy of Byron's classic, in an elaborate Venetian binding produced for the Grand Tourist at the start of the 20th century. The text used is a rare Venetian imprint with wide margins, with only one copy listed in British institutions.
This copy with the bookplate of Francis R. Wyllie on the front free endpaper verso. The plate was... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 147624
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BARKER, Pat. [The Regeneration trilogy:] Regeneration; The Eye in the Door; The Ghost Road.London : 1991-93-95
First editions, first impressions, all signed by the author on the title page. The novels explore the history of the First World War by focusing on the aftermath of trauma and are based on the writings of First World War poets. In 1995 the final book in the trilogy, The Ghost Road, won the Booker-McConnell Prize. Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 147635
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MITFORD, Nancy. Love in a Cold Climate.London : 1949
First edition, first impression, of Nancy Mitford's most successful novel, which was chosen as book of the month three times over and topped the best-seller lists on both sides of the Atlantic. The novel satirizes the most precious and affected among the aesthete set, as well as the ways of her own terrifying mother-in-law, Lady Rennell. Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 147468
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CORTAZAR, Julio. Rayuela.Buenos Aires : 1963
First edition, first printing, of Cortazar's post-modern masterpiece, a rare survival in the original wrappers not rebound or restored, for a book already very scarce in commerce. Written while Cortazar was in Paris, this stream-of-consciousness anti-novel is one of the centrepieces of the Latin American Boom.
The book's publication in English... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 147474
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TROCCHI, Alexander. Young Adam.London : 1961
First hardback edition, first impression, inscribed on the front free endpaper "Best wishes. Edinburgh 1964 Alexander Trocchi". Young Adam was first published in 1954 by The Olympia Press, Paris, in wrappers and under the pseudonym of "Frances Lengel". This key Beat novel is uncommonly found in such good condition, and is rarer still inscribed.
"Young... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 147478
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SAPPHO - CARMAN, Bliss. Sappho, One Hundred Lyrics.London : 1906
First De La More Press edition, first impression. Sappho, One Hundred Lyrics was the first comprehensive and fully imagined rendering into English of the fragmentary poems of Sappho.
In 1902 Mitchell Kennerley gave Carman a copy of H. T. Wharton's Sappho (1885) and suggested that he poeticise Wharton's more literal translations. Inspired by... Learn More£275.00Stock Code: 147542
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LARKIN, Philip, & others. Oxford Poetry 1942-43.Oxford : 1943
First edition, first impression, of this early appearance of Larkin in print, who graduated from Oxford the following summer with a first in English.
Larkin contributes three poems to the volume, "Stone Church Damaged by a Bomb" (p. 41), "Mythological Introduction" (p. 42), and "Poem" (p. 43). This copy has an appealing literary provenance, from... Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 146803
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EROTICA. Japanese Pillow Book.No place : [c.1860]
A well-preserved example of Japanese pillow book from the Meiji period. Erotic publications of the time were not sanctioned by the Shogunate, and artists, wood block carvers, and printers risked severe punishment if caught, resulting in a pseudonymous or anonymous (as here) publication issued in small numbers and distributed secretly. This is a very... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 146236
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TWAIN, Mark. The Innocents Abroad, or the New Pilgrims' Progress;Hartford : 1869
First edition, first printing, with all necessary issue points. An attractive unrepaired example of Twain's humorous account of his time aboard the steamer Quaker City on its five-and-a-half-month "pleasure excursion" to Europe and the Middle East in 1867 as a roving reporter for the San Francisco Daily Alta.
This copy has the following issue... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 142586
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DOYLE, Sir Arthur Conan. The Lost World.London : [1912]
First edition in book form, first impression, of Conan Doyle's classic prehistoric adventure novel, following its serialization in the Strand Magazine earlier that year. "His sense of the glory and nonsense of scientific advance found happy resolution in The Lost World (1912), where academic vendetta at its most ludicrous continually punctuates a thrilling... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 138994
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PENGUIN CLASSICS - DOSTOEVSKY, Fydor. Crime and Punishment.London : 2006
Limited edition, number 508 of 1,000 copies designed by FUEL and published to mark the sixtieth anniversary of Penguin Classics. The artistic duo FUEL consists of Stephen Sorrell and Damon Murray. Dostoyevsky's novel was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly instalments during 1866, and was first translated... Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 134835
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MARTIAL, Marcus Valerius Martialis. Epigrammata.Venice : December 1501
First Aldine edition, one of the earliest books to be produced in pocket format and in Aldus's beautiful italic type. Aldus starting issuing his groundbreaking "Libelli Portatiles" - or "Portable Library" - in April 1501 with an edition of Virgil, followed by Horace in May, Petrarch in July, Juvenal and Perseus in August, and this edition of Martial... Learn More£7,500.00Stock Code: 118784
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WILDE, Oscar. The Writings.New York : 1925
The handsomely produced "Large Paper Edition", this being number 254 of 575 sets, put out by the celebrated New York bookseller Gabriel Wells who, during the 1920s, competed in the sale rooms with the great Rosenbach. This edition, with introductory material by W. B. Yeats, Padraic Colum, John Drinkwater, Arthur Symons, and Wilde's one-time lover Richard... Learn More£8,750.00Stock Code: 116018
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![Iliados... Odysseias... [in Greek].](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/1/115338_1.jpg)
HOMER. Iliados... Odysseias... [in Greek].Glasguae : 1756-8
First edition of the Foulis Press Homer, described by Edward Harwood as "One of the most splendid editions of Homer ever delivered to the world its accuracy is equal to its magnificence" (Harwood, 4-5). The text was carefully edited by the Glasgow professors James Moor and George Muirhead (Moor was Robert Foulis's brother-in-law) and the book was printed... Learn More£5,000.00Stock Code: 115338
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RACKHAM, Arthur (illus.); WALTON, Izaak. The Compleat Angler.1931
Signed limited edition, one of 775 copies of which this is number 662 signed by Rackham. Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 47610
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CLARKE, Susanna. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.London : 2004
First UK edition, first impression, signed by the author on the half-title. It was first published in the US three weeks prior, and issued in the UK in both black boards and jacket, and white boards and jacket. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 147600
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LE CARRÉ, John. Our Game.London : 1995
First edition, second impression, signed by the author on the title page. The scarce first impression was not for sale in the UK: its print run was halted during production as le Carré was unhappy with the original dust jacket design. Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 147608
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LE CARRÉ, John. The Mission Song.London : 2006
First edition, first impression, signed by the author on the title page. The Mission Song was le Carré's twentieth novel. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 147594
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BENSON, Raymond. Die Another Day.London : 2002
First edition, first impression, signed by the author on the title page. The novelization of the 2002 film starring Pierce Brosnan, based on the screenplay by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade. Learn More£150.00Stock Code: 147212
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DEAVER, Jeffery. Carte Blanche.London : 2011
First edition, signed limited issue, one of 750 copies signed by the author and issued in a special box, here never opened. Learn More£175.00Stock Code: 147217
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FLEMING, Ian. Quantum of Solace.May, 1959
The first appearance of the James Bond story "Quantum of Solace", in the May 1959 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine; the name was used for the 2008 film starring Daniel Craig, albeit with an entirely different plot. The story was subsequently gathered, with others, for the 1960 collection For Your Eyes Only. This was the first publication of any James... Learn More£850.00Stock Code: 147320
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FRASER, George MacDonald McAuslan in the Rough.London : 1974
First edition, first impression, of the author's second collection of short stories. Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 147398
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DEIGHTON, Len - MILWARD-OLIVER, Edward. The Len Deighton Companion.London : 1987
First edition, first impression. Learn More£20.00Stock Code: 147406
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DEIGHTON, Len. Bomber.London : 1970
First edition, first impression, signed by the author on the title page. Bomber was Deighton's seventh novel. Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 147413
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GARDNER, John. Licence to Kill.New York : 1990
First hardback edition, first printing, following publication as a paperback the previous year; the novelization of the 1989 James Bond film of the same name. Learn More£350.00Stock Code: 147182
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GARDNER, John. Seafire.London : 1994
First edition, first impression, signed by the author on the title page; the fourteenth of Gardner's James Bond books. Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 147183
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GARDNER, John. Death is Forever.London : 1992
First UK edition, first impression, preceded by the US edition a month before; Gardner's twelfth bond novel. Learn More£50.00Stock Code: 147184
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YEATS, W. B. October Blast.Dublin : 1927
First edition, first impression, one of 350 copies. October Blast was published in August 1927; it contains the first appearance of "Sailing to Byzantium" in print. Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 147185
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POUND, Ezra; ELIOT, T. S. (intro.) Selected Poems.London : 1928
First edition, signed limited issue, number 18 of 100 copies printed on handmade paper and signed by the author. This edition was published on 10 December 1928, following the trade issue of 1,000 copies, published on 23 November the same year.
In his introduction to this important edition of Pound's poetry, T. S. Eliot gives an extended commentary... Learn More£4,000.00Stock Code: 147191
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GARDNER, John. The Man from Barbarossa.London : 1991
First edition, first impression, signed by the author on the title page; the eleventh of Gardner's James Bond books. Learn More£650.00Stock Code: 147196
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GARDNER, John. Death is Forever.London : 1992
First UK edition, first impression, signed by the author on the title page. Gardner's twelfth Bond novel; preceded by the US edition a month before. Learn More£300.00Stock Code: 147200
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LARKIN, Philip. The Less Deceived:Hessle : 1955
First edition, first impression, one of 300 copies in the first issue binding, with the relevant issue point for the first impression: the misprint "floor" for "sea" in the first line of "Absences" (p. 38). The Less Deceived was Larkin's second book of poems, and contains some of his most popular verses, including "Church Going" (pp. 26-27).
This... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 147210
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HUXLEY, Aldous. Brave New World.London : 1932
First UK edition, signed limited issue, pre-publication presentation copy, one of ten copies not for sale; number 320 of 324 copies signed by the author and specially bound. The publisher's presentation slip, typed "With Mr Aldous Huxley's compliments" and dated a week before publication, is loosely inserted.
The UK edition was split into signed... Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 147211
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KING, Stephen. The Shining.Garden City, NY : 1977
First edition, first printing, of one of King's masterpieces, the basis for Stanley Kubrick's classic film. Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 146819
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AUDEN, W. H. Poems.Cincinnati : 1964
Limited edition, number 41 of 500 copies of this facsimile of the author's first published book (a great rarity in the original 1928 edition), familiarly inscribed by him using his first name reserved for friends, "Bill Gray from Wystan Auden", his printed name struck through.
Dr William ("Woods") Shelton Gray, Jr (1926-1993) fostered friendships... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 146820
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DOYLE, Arthur Conan. The Works.New York : [1903]
The Author's edition, limited to 1,000 numbered copies of which this is number 241 with an autograph letter signed by Doyle and dated 4.2.04 tipped to the binder's front blank in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. A rare US issue which, unlike the UK edition, includes The Hound of the Baskervilles. A handsome set.
The author wanted a set that... Learn More£6,000.00Stock Code: 147024
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GARDNER, John. Goldeneye.London : 1996
First Hodder edition, first impression; the rarest of the Gardner Bond books, the book having a small print run chiefly aimed at the library market (preceded by a larger book club edition published a few months earlier in 1995, distinguished by the absence of the publisher's imprint on the jacket spine panel and a variant title page). Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 147181
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WOOLF, Virginia. Orlando.London : 1928
First trade edition, first impression. Woolf's Orlando is widely recognized as a masterpiece of modernist and feminist literature, and remains among her best-known works. Dedicated to Vita Sackville-West, whose androgynous personality inspired the character, the book was described by her son Nigel Nicholson as "the longest love letter in history". This... Learn More£975.00Stock Code: 146424
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FLINT, William Russell (illus.) The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antonius.London : 1909
First Flint edition, number 17 of 17 copies printed on vellum, one of two copies not for sale and marked "presentation" on the limitation page; a lovely, fresh copy of this beautiful publication, issued by Philip Lee Warner's Riccardi Press, which was well known for fine editions of Chaucer, Malory, Shakespeare, Tennyson and Browning.
It is illustrated... Learn More£6,000.00Stock Code: 146611
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AUSTEN, Jane. Sense and Sensibility: A Novel.London : 1833
First Bentley edition, the third edition overall, and the first edition to be illustrated.
Sense and Sensibility was first published in 1811, with the second edition in 1813. In 1832-3 Richard Bentley bought the copyright to all Austen's novels, none of which had been republished since 1818, to include them in his Standard Novels series, of which... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 146679
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PLATO. The Republic.London : 1898
First Humphreys edition. This is an elegant copy of Plato's Republic. Davies and Vaughan's "easy flowing" translation was originally published in 1852, and "was the most popular English rendering of the Republic until the appearance of Benjamin Jowett's translations of Plato's complete works" (Tschemplik). Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 146060
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WORDSWORTH, William. The Poetical Works.Edinburgh : [1890s]
An attractive copy of Wordsworth's poetry in the publisher's deluxe binding. It was published as part of Gall & Inglis's Landscape Edition of the Poets series with decorative landscape engravings framing each page of text. Learn More£250.00Stock Code: 146065
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STERNE, Laurence. The Works.London : 1793
Early edition of Sterne's collected major works, which were first published from 1760, in an attractive Morrell binding to style. Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 146201
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ISHIGURO, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go.London : 2005
First edition, signed limited issue. This is number 497 of 1,000 copies signed by the author on the title page. Shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2005, Never Let Me Go was the basis for the 2010 film directed by Mark Romanek and starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, and Andrew Garfield. Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 146395
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WELLS, H. G. The Works.New York : 1924-7
The Atlantic Edition, number 130 of 1,050 sets signed by the author on the limitation leaf of volume I and released for distribution in America, very handsomely bound. A further 620 sets were issued in Great Britain and Ireland. Wells contributed new prefaces especially for this edition. Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 146413
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DOYLE, Arthur Conan. The Works.New York : 1930
First complete collected edition, number 268 of 760 numbered sets signed by the author in volume I, very handsomely bound.
The Crowborough Edition - named after the Sussex town where Doyle's home, Windlesham, was located - has double the number of volumes of the Author's Edition of 1903. Doyle had already signed sheets for it but his illness... Learn More£9,500.00Stock Code: 146414
