Summer
Our seasonal selection gathers the best new arrivals to our shelves, including charming photographs of Christopher Robin Milne with his grandfather and teddy bear and a specially bound copy of Tales After Tea owned by Enid Blyton.
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SUMNER, Lloyd. Computer Art and Human Response.Charlottesville, Virginia : 1968
First edition, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Pat, Lloyd Sumner, 20 Feb 69", two months after publication. This anthology was the first of its kind, presenting over 60 computer-generated illustrations as art in their own right. The book collects Sumner's most significant works, each of which is accompanied by a meditation... Learn More -
MILNE, A. A. Two vintage photographs of Christopher Robin Milne, his grandfather, and the original Winnie-the-Pooh.c.1927]
The photographs show Christopher Robin Milne (1920-1996) with his grandfather John Vine Milne (1845-1932), together with Christopher's teddy bear. One photo includes some manuscript notes on the reverse by a member of the Crawford family whose forebears attended Milne's school.
John Vine Milne ran Henley House private school in Kilburn. The... Learn More -
BARBIE - HANDLER, Ruth, & Jacqueline Shannon. Dream Doll.Stamford : 1994
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to the American radio host Leonard Lopate on the front free endpaper, "To Leonard - Thanks for the great interview. You really know your business. Warm regards. Ruth Handler 12/2/94".
This memoir by the inventor of the Barbie doll recounts her career, from co-founder of Mattel to... Learn More -
BOCHOŘÁKOVÁ-DITTRICHOVÁ, Helena. Indiáni jindy a dnes. Kniha dřevorytů. (Indians Then and Now. A Book of Woodcuts.)Hranice & Brno : 1934
Signed limited edition, number 48 of 100 copies signed by the artist. It is additionally inscribed by the publisher to the Slovakian gay rights campaigner Imrich Matyas on the limitation page, "Milemu priteli, Imrichu Matyasovi, srdecne, Jozka H. Vanoce 1934" ("To my dear friend, Imrich Matyas, warmly, Joseph Hladky, Christmas 1934").
Based... Learn More -
FUCHI, Arihiro (ed.). Moshi: Riku-shi somoku choju chugyoso zukai ("An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Animals and Plants from the Classic of Poetry").Kyoto : 1779
First edition, featuring over 200 animals and plants. The fifth volume introduces cultural products of the Zhou period (c. 1046-771 BCE) including musical instruments like the zither, clothing such as the Chinese imperial crown, and the fundamentals of astronomy.
This work is based on Maoshi caomu niaoshou chongyu shu, a treatise written by... Learn More -
WHITE, E. B. Charlotte's Web.New York : 1952
First edition. Charlotte's Web is one of the best-selling American children's books of all time. It inspired both the 1973 animated film and the 2006 live-action film.
The first edition has an "I-B" code on the copyright page, and a jacket rear panel that quotes reviews of Stuart Little before concluding with the publisher's name on two... Learn More -
DOYLE, Arthur Conan. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; [together with] -- The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.London : 1892 & 1894
First editions of the first two great collections of Sherlock Holmes stories in their original cloth bindings. These tales were gathered from their original appearances in Strand Magazine by its proprietor George Newnes; the front covers feature a vignette after the Strand's cover design.
The Adventures has the misprint "Miss Violent... Learn More -
LENNON, John. A Spaniard in the Works.London : 1965
First edition, signed by the author on the front free endpaper, and scarce thus, of this collection of humorous and nonsensical stories, poems, and drawings. Of particular interest is the poem "Our Dad" (pp. 83-5), which provides a poignant insight into Lennon's relationship with his father, who left the family when Lennon was a boy only to... Learn More -
QUENEAU, Raymond. L'Instant Fatal.Paris : 1948
First trade edition, service de presse copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title to his longtime friend and collaborator, "A Georges Bataille, cordialement, Queneau". The editor's compliments card is loosely inserted.
While Queneau met and briefly joined the Surrealists, his friendship with Bataille developed later, when he... Learn More -
AUSTEN, Jane; BROCK, C. E. (illus.). Sense and Sensibility.London : 1908
First revised Charles Brock edition, a lovely, bright copy in the deluxe vellum binding. The artist first produced illustrations for Dent's Austen novels in 1898, in collaboration with his brother Henry. A decade later, he alone was commissioned by Dent to produce fresh illustrations for their new editions, as part of their "Series of English... Learn More -
WORLD WAR I; MEDICAL. A photo album recording the First British Red Cross Serbian Mission during the First World War.[Various places : c. 1915]
An interesting record of British involvement in the south-eastern front, with photographs captured in the field. The British Red Cross arrived in Uskub (now Skopje in North Macedonia) in 1914 and spent the following year treating the wounded and typhus sufferers. The photographs show their journey, the hospitals, doctors, and patients, and the... Learn More -
SOLT, Mary Ellen (ed.). Concrete Poetry: A World View.Bloomington : 1963
First edition of this collection of international concrete poetry, "considered one of the major anthologies of the form" (New York Times). This volume explores the origins of concrete poetry in the work of experimental writers from Europe and Brazil.
Mary Ellen Solt pens the comprehensive introduction in which she explores the origins of... Learn More -
FROST, Robert. New Hampshire. A Poem.Hanover, New Hampshire : 1955
Signed limited edition, number 281 of 750 copies signed by the poet. This copy is additionally inscribed by Frost on the front free endpaper, "To George Cohn, from his old old friend in memory of good talks, Robert Frost, Cambridge Mass., 13 Jan 1956". This is the first separate edition of his celebrated poem, first published in 1923.
The... Learn More -
BULGAKOV, Mikhail. The Master and Margarita.Moscow : [1966 & 1967]
A samizdat copy, formed of tear sheets from the first appearance in print of The Master and Margarita, which was serialized in two issues of the journal Moskow in November 1966 and January 1967 in censored form. Bound at the end of this copy is the uncensored material, which was not published in Russian until 1969.
The text has many... Learn More -
DAHL, Roald. George's Marvellous Medicine.London : 1981
First edition, inscribed on the front free endpaper in black, "for David, with all my regards & appreciation. Quentin. 2011", and additionally signed by the illustrator on the title page.
The book "owes something to a circus act or a Punch and Judy show", and Quentin Blake "lightens things by visually reminding the reader both how small... Learn More -
BOOK DESIGN - DES ROSIERS, Leon Louis. Archive of artwork for dust jackets and cover art.[1930s]
Sixty-two artist proof prints, many signed by the artist on the reverse in pencil, and one original watercolour for a Lafayette poster. This archive of des Rosiers's cover artwork published by Dodd, Mead and Company in the 1930s includes Agatha Christie's Death in the Air and The Tuesday Club Murders, Evangline Adams's classic work Astrology for... Learn More -
BECKETT, Samuel. En attendant Godot.Paris : 1952
First edition, trade issue. The play premiered at the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris on 5 January 1953. Its extraordinary success "was responsible for Beckett's rise to worldwide fame, as the play rapidly became an object of intense international interest and controversy" (ODNB).
The trade issue was preceded only by a limited issue of 35... Learn More -
WAUGH, Evelyn. Decline and Fall.London : 1928
First edition of the author's remarkable debut, "surely the wittiest and most original of first novels" (Connolly). Waugh illustrated the book himself and designed the dust jacket.
After the book was rejected for indecency by Duckworth's, who published Waugh's biography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Waugh offered the manuscript to Chapman &... Learn More -
AUSTEN, Jane. Pride and Prejudice.London : 1894
First fully illustrated edition, known as the "peacock edition" for its exquisite cover design, here in notably bright condition.
This celebrated example of late-Victorian pictorial cloth is also the first edition to have illustrations accompanying the text. The 1813 first edition was unillustrated, and Bentley's 1833 edition and subsequent... Learn More -
WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE. A collection of 21 photographic postcards showing suffrage activism.[London : 1908-14]
A group of postcards showing women's fight for the vote in England from 1908 to 1914. Three show burnt-out buildings that were the target of suffragette arson attacks and are a poignant reminder of the campaign's violence. One was posted by the suffrage activist Joseph Clayton from Clacton-on-Sea, where there was an energetic branch of the WSPU.... Learn More
