Books
Browse our collection of rare books, first editions, signed editions and valuable printed books, written by the world's greatest authors, in a wide range of subjects.
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TRETIAKOV, Sergei. Roar China.London : 1931
First edition in English, in the attractive jacket, of this revolutionary play based on the execution of three innocent Chinese fishermen near Wanhsien in 1924 - a flashpoint that exposed the tensions and contradictions of the Western semi-colonial presence in China. Performed in theatres from New York to Canton, "it is a fascinating period piece.... Learn More -
CAVAFY, C. P. The Poems.London : 1951
First edition of the first translation of Cavafy's collected poems into English. Almost unknown during his lifetime, Cavafy lived in Alexandria where he met and impressed E. M. Forster, who described "a Greek gentleman in a straw hat, standing absolutely motionless at a slight angle to the universe" (Pharos and Pharillon, p. 91).
John... Learn More -
BORDEN, Spencer. The Arab Horse.New York : 1906
First edition, in the dust jacket, including photographs and discussion of famous Arabians, among them Rose of Sharon, Mesaoud, Rataplan, and others connected to the Crabbett Stud of the Blunts. The author (1849-1921) was an American industrialist who bred Arabians and became a pre-eminent authority on the breed.
The penultimate chapter... Learn More -
WILDE, Oscar. The Works.London : 1908
First collected edition, one of 1,000 sets on handmade paper, edited by Wilde's most constant friend and literary executor, Robert Ross (1869-1918). It prints previously unpublished material, including the uncompleted play A Florentine Tragedy, a fragment of another (La Sainte Courtisane), and various lectures. Learn More -
DOYLE, Arthur Conan. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; [together with] -- The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.London : 1892 & 1894
First editions, first impressions, of the first two great collections of Sherlock Holmes stories. These tales were gathered from their appearances in The Strand Magazine by its proprietor George Newnes; the front covers feature a vignette after the Strand's cover design.
As called for in the first issue, Adventures has the misprint "Miss... Learn More -
HESSE, Hermann. Der Steppenwolf.Berlin : 1927
First edition. A classic of international literature, Der Steppenwolf was castigated by the Nazis as corrupting. It later became totemic to the international freethinking generation that came of age in the 1960s.
The first printing is distinguished by "1 bis 15 auflage" on the copyright page and on the front panel of the jacket, as well as... Learn More -
DE QUINCEY, Thomas. Confessions of an English Opium Eater.London : 1822
First edition, unrestored in the original boards, of the first book in English to deal in detail with drug addiction, presenting an account of the author's opium-induced hallucinations, ecstasies, and torments.
The work became a widespread sensation ever since it was serialized in the London Magazine from September to October 1821.... Learn More -
DOVES PRESS: BIBLE; English; Authorized. The English Bible containing the Old Testament & the New.Hammersmith : 1903-05
The Doves Bible, the finest output of the press and among the finest achievements of typography, one of 500 sets on handmade paper. This is the Hearst Castle copy, the residence satirized as Xanadu in Citizen Kane (1941). Its owner, the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, provided Orson Welles with the model for Charles Foster... Learn More -
DOYLE, Arthur Conan. His Last Bow.London : 1917
First edition of this anthology of eight Sherlock Holmes stories published in The Strand Magazine and Collier's between 1893 and 1917.
The preface, by "John H. Watson, M.D.", reveals that Holmes has long retired from his profession of detective, but is alive and well, living in a small farm five miles from Eastbourne. However, "the approach... Learn More -
BALLINGALL, George. Practical Observations on Fever, Dysentery, and Liver Complaints, as they occur amongst the European troops in India;Edinburgh : 1823
Second edition but including the essay on syphilis for the first time; presentation copy, inscribed on a preliminary blank, "For the Court of Directors of the Honble. East India Company, From the Author", and with the bookplate and library label of Elphinstone, Carberry Tower; possibly William Elphinstone (1740-1834), Company ship's captain and... Learn More -
O'HARA, Frank. Love Poems (Tentative Title).New York : 1965
First edition, one of 500 copies only, of the author's last lifetime poetry collection, published the year before his death. The work includes "Having a Coke With You" and other verses inspired by the poet's love for the young ballet dancer Vincent Warren, whom he met in 1959.
O'Hara, whose posthumous volume of collected verse won a... Learn More -
AUSTEN, Jane. Pride and Prejudice.London : 1907
First deluxe Brock edition, in the publisher's vellum. Charles Brock and his brother Henry were the first to illustrate Austen's world with colour plates, producing an edition together in 1898. Almost a decade later, Dent commissioned Charles alone to produce fresh illustrations for their "Series of English Idylls", which introduced this deluxe... Learn More -
AUSTEN, Jane. Sense and Sensibility; Pride & Prejudice; Mansfield Park; Emma; Northanger Abbey; Persuasion.London : 1907-09
First deluxe Brock editions of the complete novels of Jane Austen, exquisitely illustrated with over 100 colour plates and in the publisher's vellum bindings.
Charles Edmund Brock (1870-1938) and his brother Henry Matthew Brock (1875-1960) were the first to illustrate Austen's world with colour plates, producing an edition together in 1898.... Learn More -
MIDDLE EAST ARCHITECTURE. Sunley.Beckenham : 1979
First and only edition, untraced among institutional libraries. This stylish brochure showcases the principal work undertaken by Sunley, a major British construction and civil engineering company, responsible for some of the most important building projects in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar during the 1960s and 1970s.
Company operations in the... Learn More -
SHAW, George Bernard. Collected Plays with their Prefaces.London : 1970
First edition thus, gathering all the final and definitive revised versions of Shaw's complete plays, attractively bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. The publishers additionally took heed of Shaw's original editorial choices by conforming to his particular uses of punctuation. Learn More -
DANTE ALIGHIERI; ROSSETTI, Dante Gabriel (illus.). La Vita Nuova.Turin : 1903
Second edition thus, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti's illustrations, this copy beautifully bound in contemporary vellum.
Vita Nova was the first of two verse collections Dante wrote during his lifetime. Published in 1294, the work combines poetry and prose to address the themes of courtly love. Rossetti translated it into English in 1848... Learn More -
DAHL, Roald. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.New York : 1972
First edition of the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964). It was published in the UK the following year. Learn More -
BLIXEN, Karen, as Isak Dinesen. Seven Gothic Tales.London : 1934
First British edition, inscribed by the author on the front blank, "Hr Ove Skancke. Med venlige hilsner fra Karen Blixen Finecke" ("Mr Ove Skancke. With kind regards from Karen Blixen Finecke"). Skancke's bookplate is pasted to the half-title. Published in America a few months earlier, this collection of short stories became instantly... Learn More -
MORRISON, Toni. Jazz.New York : 1992
First edition, inscribed by the author on the title page. Following the Pulitzer Prize winning Beloved (1987), this novel continued Morrison's trilogy exploring African-American history and experience. The author went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 for novels "characterised by visionary force and poetic import, [giving] life to an... Learn More -
TOLKIEN, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings.London : 1954-55
First editions. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the most popular and influential works of literature in the 20th century, containing richly rendered detail of a new mythological world, not yet surpassed.
C. S. Lewis wrote that "no imaginary world has been projected which is at once as multifarious and so true to its own inner laws;... Learn More
