Antiquarian and Collectors’ Books

WOOD, Christopher. James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me. London: Jonathan Cape, 1977. First edition, 8vo (183 x 116mm.) (Mild toning, stamp verso title.) Original black cloth (spine ends bumped, slight spine lean, extremities rubbed), dust-jacket (spine ends chipped). Provenance: Harefield Library (labels to front-free endpaper). Note: scarce first edition of the novelisation of the 1977 film of ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’. The plot of Fleming’s novel of 1962 bore no relation to the film, bar the title.

HARTLEY, L.P. The Go-Between. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1953. First edition, 8vo (183 x 119mm.) (Spotting to preliminaries and fore-edge.) Original red cloth, dust-jacket (two repairs verso spine panel, minor chipping, two small closed tears at spine ends). Note: made into a film in 1971 by Joseph Losey from a screenplay by Harold Pinter. Provenance: D.M. (?) (ink name inscribed to ‘Book Society’ bookplate on front-free endpaper).

HUXLEY, Aldous. The Doors of Perception. London: Chatto & Windus, 1954. First edition, first impression, 8vo (187 x 119mm.) (Offsetting to front-free endpaper.) Original blue cloth, dust-jacket designed by John Woodcock (offsetting to inner flap). Note: the first edition was published simultaneously in America and England. ‘One bright May morning’, Huxley wrote, ‘I swallowed four-tenths of a gram of mescaline dissolved in half a glass of water and sat down to wait for the results’.

[ROHMER, Sax.] Little TICH. Little Tich. A Book of Travels (and Wanderings). London: Greening and Co. Ltd., 1911. First edition, first impression, 8vo (183 x 122mm.) Half-title, photographic portrait frontispiece, 16 photographic illustrations on 8 plates, 2pp. advertisements to front and rear, advertisements verso covers. (Light to moderate spotting throughout.) Original pictorial covers (some wear and loss to spine panel, marginal losses and corner creasing to covers). Note: scarce. ‘Little Tich’ [Harry Relph] was a hugely successful music-hall comedian known for his diminutive stature and for his ‘Big-Boot Dance’ for which he wore boots 71cm long.

MILITARY. – Dorothy LAWRENCE. Sapper Dorothy Lawrence. London: John Lane, Bodley Head, 1919. First edition, 8vo (187 x 120mm.) 5 photographic plates. (Spotting to half-title and to fore-edge, toning.) Original green cloth, dust-jacket (chipping to extremities, dust-soiled to lower panel). Note: scarce. An account of the author’s experiences on the front line near Loos where, having elaborately dressed up as a male soldier, she undertook mining work with the Royal Engineers. Fearful of the consequences, arrested and interrogated as a spy, she was eventually deported back to England.

AMIS, Kingsley. A Frame of Mind, Eighteen Poems. Reading: School of Art, Reading University, 1953. Limited edition, this being number 90 of 150 copies only, 4to (241 x 161mm.) 1p. ‘List of Subscribers Before Publication’. (Mild toning.) Original wrappers (browned, chipping to lower edge). Note: the ‘List of Subscribers’ includes a ‘P.A. Larkin Esq.’

AMIS, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1953. First edition, 8vo (182 x 116mm.) (Mild toning.) Original green cloth (some fading to top of spine), dust-jacket (spine browned). Note: first printing of Amis’ first novel.

AMIS, Martin. The Rachel Papers. London: Jonathan Cape, 1973. First edition, first impression, 8vo (196 x 126mm.) (Mild toning, gift inscribed on front-free endpaper.) Original black cloth, dust-jacket (price-clipped, repair verso at top of spine, some marginal creasing, fading to title on spine panel). Note: Amis’ first novel.

KEYNES, John Maynard. How to Pay for the War. London: Macmillan and Co., 1940. First edition, first issue, 8vo (190 x 120mm.) (Mild toning.) Original blue boards (slight fading, minor dust-soiling.) Note: this is the uncorrected first issue. A corrected version in orange boards was published a few months later. The book presents a Keynesian solution to the economic problem of waging a long war against Germany. The first two chapters are an argument for full employment, the third chapter is a manual on how to achieve that. However, Keynes was aware that even at full employment the output would not be enough unless the population reduced their consumption, accept ‘Deferred Pay’, and accept the diversion of resources towards the war effort.

GAY LITERATURE. – [Thomas BURKE.] ‘Paul Pry’. For Your Convenience, A Learned Dialogue Instructive To all Londoners and London Visitors. London: George Routledge & Sons Ltd., 1937. First edition, 8vo (183 x 120mm.) Illustrated title-page and illustrated endpapers by Philip Gough. (Toning, slight spotting to margins of endpapers.) Original green cloth, facsimile dust-jacket. Note: scarce. The first ‘Gay Guide’ to London and written by the author of ‘Limehouse Nights’, Thomas Burke. The work takes the form of a discreet and indirect conversation between two men in the Thélème Club where, by innuendo, they discuss the best public toilets for gaining ‘full satisfaction’. The endpaper maps provide visual assistance in locating the toilets.

SUPERNATURAL. - Elliott O'DONNELL. The Haunted Houses of London. London: Eveleigh Nash, 1909. First edition, 8vo (189 x 120mm.) (Toning.) Original pictorial cloth (extremities lightly rubbed). Note: scarce.

NABOKOV, Vladimir. Lolita. Paris: Olympia Press, 1959. 2 vols., third printing, no. 66 ‘The Traveller’s Companion Series’, 8vo (175 x 111mm.) 2pp. publisher’s advertisements. (Mild toning.) Original green card covers (creases to spines, some abrasion to spine and rear cover of vol. 2). Note: has ‘Not be sold in the U.S.A. or U.K. or Philippines’ printed on rear covers due to the obscenity laws of the time (2).

ORWELL, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. London: Secker & Warburg, 1949. First edition, first impression, 8vo (183 x 118mm.) (Toning, staining to p.8.) Original green cloth, red lettering to spine (some spine lean, finger-mark to upper cover, slight fading to spine). Provenance: Lowenschein (bookplate to front pastedown).

BINDING. – Kenneth GRAHAME. The Wind in the Willows. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1927. Twenty-fifth edition, 8vo (183 x 137mm.) 20 colour plates by William Payne. (Blanks replaced.) Bound by Bayntun-Riviere in green full morocco, gilt lettering to spine, gilt turn-ins, g.e. Note: the first edition with William Payne’s illustrations.

BINDING. – Andrew LANG. The Yellow Fairy Book. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1897. Third edition, 8vo (180 x 116mm.) Half-title, numerous illustrations by H.J. Ford. (Mild toning, slight spotting to half-title, blanks replaced, contemporary ink name to half-title.) Later yellow half morocco, gilt lettering to spine, g.e. (endpapers replaced).

FISHING. – [Richard BOWDEN-SMITH.] Fly-Fishing in Salt and Fresh Water. London: John van Voorst, 1851. First edition, 8vo (222 x 138mm.) Half-title, 5 hand-coloured plates, 1 black and white plate, 2pp. publisher’s advertisements. (Toning, occasional finger-mark, slight marginal loss to p.69.) Original green blind-stamped cloth (faint mark to lower cover). Provenance: Chas F. Humbert (circular bookplate to front pastedown); S.N. Rudge (ink name to front pastedown).

FISHING. – [Michael THEAKSTON.] A List of Natural Flies That Are Taken By Trout, Grayling, & Smelt, In the Streams of Ripon. Ripon: W. Harrison, 1853. First edition, 8vo (167 x 103mm.) 8 black and white lithographic plates printed recto and verso. (Mild toning.) Original green cloth, pink paper label mounted to upper cover (sunned to spine). Provenance: Chas F. Humbert (circular bookplate to front pastedown); S.N. Rudge (ink name to front pastedown).

FISHING. – John JACKSON. The Practical Fly-Fisher; More Particularly for Grayling or Umber. London: Charles Farlow, 1862. Second edition, 8vo (215 x 134mm.) 10 engraved plates of flies, 2pp. subscriber’s names to rear. (Toning.) Original blue blind-stamped cloth, gilt lettering to upper cover (extremities lightly rubbed and bumped). – And a further four volumes related to fishing (including Gottlieb Boccius’ ‘A Treatise on the Management of Fresh-Water Fish’, 1841, 8vo, and Osmund Lambert’s ‘Angling Literature in England’, inscribed by the author, 1881, 8vo, and J. Cheek’s ‘The Young Angler’s Guide’, third edition, 1839, 8vo) (5).

BINDING. – Joseph BENNETT. The Musical Year 1883. London & New York: Novello, Ewer and Co., [1884.] Signed and inscribed by the author, 8vo (214 x 130mm.) (Toning, spotting to endpapers.) Contemporary red full morocco bound by Zaehnsdorf with green morocco petal onlays to spine and to gilt corner-pieces of covers, g.e. (minor rubbing to joints). Note: Joseph Bennett was music critic for the Daily Telegraph from 1870 until 1906. Provenance: Samuel Aitken (gift inscribed to from the author on the front-free endpaper).