FIRST EDITIONS AND FINE BINDINGS AT
ASH RARE BOOKS
43 HURON ROAD
LONDON SW17 8RE
UNITED KINGDOM

London : Victor Gollancz, 1953. First edition. His first novel - and one of the most riveting debuts in English fiction. The basis of the 1957 John Boulting film starring Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, Hugh Griffith, Maureen Connell, etc.
Crown 8vo (182 x 117mm). 256pp. Bound in an elegant recent half green morocco, banded and gilt; top edge gilt; original linson spine preserved at rear; a few tiny marks and spots, but a very good copy.

SOLD

London : Thomas Nelson & Sons, (1910). First edition. Buchan in South Africa with a Haggardesque tale of uprising, myth, fabulous necklace, etc.
Crown 8vo (180 x 116mm). vi,(376),viii pp. Frontispiece map. Bound in an attractive recent half green morocco, banded and gilt; original cloth backstrip preserved at rear; a very good and clean copy. Attached to the verso of the front free endpaper is a contemporary prize label of the North Merchiston Continuation Classes - made out to James B. Campbell for general excellence. Blanchard A21.

£400

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 32761 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : Jonathan Cape, (1946). First edition in English of the banned "Die Blendung" (1935), his first and only novel, translated from the German (under Canetti's personal supervision) by Dame Cicely Veronica Wedgwood (1910-1997). A Head without a World, Headless World and The World in the Head.
Post 8vo (198 x 133mm). 464pp. Bound in a smart recent half black morocco, banded and gilt; marbled sides; a few slight marks and faint creases, but a very good copy.

£250

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 30453 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1940. First edition. "It was a warm day, almost the end of March, and I stood outside the barber shop looking up at the jutting neon sign of a second floor dine and dice emporium ...". His second and most widely celebrated novel - a Haycraft-Queen cornerstone of the genre.
Crown 8vo (182 x 122cm). [viii],276,[iv]pp. Bound in an elegant recent half blue morocco, banded, and lettered in gilt; original cloth upper panel and backstrip preserved at rear; a handful of minor marks, but a very good and attractive copy. Bruccoli II-1a.

£750

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 26784 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London & New York : Harper & Brothers, 1904. First edition : with p.187 misnumbered 871. Conrad's epic masterpiece - wealth, politics and corruption in a fictional Latin American country.
Crown 8vo (186 x 119mm). [viii],480pp. Bound in a smart recent half blue morocco, retaining the original cloth spine and upper panel at rear; first two leaves washed, almost entirely erasing a small school stamp; a few very minor marks and spots, but a very good copy.

£400

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 38978 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : Richard Bentley, 1842. First edition. Cooper's epic and poignant tale of two seamen of complementary abilities, intense lifelong friendship, rivalry, Whig and Tory, culminating at the time of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie, etc. Long considered one of the finest ever maritime novels.
Three volumes. Demy 12mo (194 x 112mm). viii,328; [ii],336; [ii],312pp. Bound in an attractive contemporary half calf, gilt on broad bands and closely worked in blind in compartments; matching marbled sides, endpapers and edges; minor wear and slight rubbing; occasional marks and spots, a couple of trifling nicks and creases, but overall a very good, sound and firm set. With the bookplate of the celebrated book-collector Frances Mary Richardson Currer (1785-1861) of Eshton Hall in each volume - "the head of all female collectors in Europe" (Dibdin).

£400

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 38676 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

Edinburgh & London : William Blackwood & Sons, 1860. First edition.
Three volumes. Post 8vo (192 x 117mm). (vi),(362); (viii),(320); (viii),(314)pp. Bound, with half-titles, but without first fly-title, final blank and advertisements, in a smart twentieth-century half tan calf, banded and blocked in black; black labels; some internal signs of age and use, with fingering, spots, marks, occasional creases and small flaws, but a good set. Sadleir 816a. Wolff 2060.

£500

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 38998 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

Edinburgh & London : William Blackwood & Sons, 1876. First edition, bound from the original eight parts, and with the parts errata slip referring to the misquotation from Tennyson.
Four volumes. Crown 8vo (174 x 112mm). [ii],(368); [ii],364; [ii],(394); [ii],(368)pp. Bound, without half-titles and advertisement leaf, in a pleasant contemporary half green calf, banded and gilt, by MacLaren & MacNiven of Edinburgh; marbled edges and endpapers; a little minor rubbing and wear, but a clean and handsome set. With the ownership inscription of Charles Louis-Camille Sarolea (1870-1953), Professor of French at Edinburgh University, political writer, and a book-collector of such tenacity that he had to buy a second house in Royal Terrace to contain his library. Sadleir 813.

SOLD

London : Jonathan Cape, (1957). First edition. "Will he take the lure - the beautiful lure called Tania, first proffered to Bond wearing nothing but a black velvet ribbon round her throat?"
Crown 8vo (182 x 120mm). (254),[ii]pp. Bound in a stylish recent half black morocco, banded and gilt; the backstrip and upper panel of the original boards, blocked and lettered in silver and metallic red, preserved at rear; a very good, clean and crisp copy.

£350

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 29430 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : Chatto & Windus, 1932. First edition. The most influential utopian novel of the twentieth century, set in the London of AD 2540.
Crown 8vo (190 x 122mm). [viii],306,[ii]pp. Bound in an elegant recent half blue morocco, banded and gilt; top edge grey-blue; some spotting, mainly to edges; a few minor marks, but a good copy, most attractively bound.

SOLD

London : Saunders & Otley, 1836. First edition. Marryat's amiable and abidingly popular tale of the making of a seaman - although as one modern critic has it, "there's something here to offend almost everyone".
Three volumes. Demy 12mo (188 x 112mm). (viii),(292); (viii),306,[ii]; viii,314,[ii]pp. Bound, complete with half-titles and advertisement leaves, in a smart contemporary half plum straight-grain morocco, banded and gilt; marbled sides and edges; some very minor rubbing; some scattered foxing and minor creasing; one endpaper a little creased, but a very good and attractive set. With contemporary blind-stamped armorial ownership stamps - the separate arms of the Talbot and Crosbie familes looped within a garter belt with the motto "Prest d'Accomplir" - presumably those of William Talbot Crosbie (1817-1899) of Ardfert. Sadleir 1585.

£500

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 38782 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : Longmans, Green & Co., (1960). First edition. "Nowhere in Scotland is more evocative of a specific book than Sandaig, near Glenelg, Inverness-shire, which Maxwell disguised as Camusfeàrna ..." (ODNB). Otters, nature and the basis of the 1968 film, with Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, etc.
Demy 8vo. x,(212)pp. Photographs by the author. Illustrations in text by Michael Ayrton, Peter Scott and others. Bound in a smart recent half blue morocco, banded and gilt; original linson backstrip preserved at rear; faint crease to one leaf, but otherwise a very good and clean copy. Neat contemporary ownership inscription of V. Leigh.

£250

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 34386 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : Secker & Warburg, 1949. First edition. One of the major works of the twentieth century - and a novel that is in many ways even more frightening now than it was when first published.
Crown 8vo (183 x 120mm). 312pp. Bound in a smart recent half green morocco, banded and gilt - with the original cloth spine and upper cover preserved at rear; a very good, clean and sound copy. Very faint contemporary ownership stamps of the artist Mary Krishna (1908-1968) partially removed from the title and half-title.

SOLD

London : Editions Poetry London, (1945). First edition. Smart's celebrated fictional account of her love affair with the poet George Barker.
Demy 8vo (211 x 130mm). 54,[ii]pp. Bound in an elegant recent half red morocco, lettered down spine in gilt; top edge gilt; a most attractive copy of the first edition of this scarce modern classic.

£250

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 26007 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

Boston : Little, Brown & Co., 1948. First edition : precedes the 1949 London edition published by Heinemann.
Post 8vo. [vi],(344),[ii]pp. Illustrations by Ruth Steed, based on sketches by the author. Bound in a smart recent half blue morocco, banded and gilt, preserving the original pictorial cloth cover and spine at rear; top edge blue; a few slight edge spots, but a very good and handsome copy.

£400

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 27005 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : Chatto & Windus, 1887. First edition. A celebrated collection of fifty-four poems, thirty-eight in English and the remainder in Scots - the latter including the first appearance in book form of both "A Lowden Sabbath Morn" and "The Scotsman's Return from Abroad".
Foolscap 8vo. [ii],(xvi),[2],(138),[ii]pp. Bound, with the initial blank but without the inserted advertisements, in a delightful near contemporary half tan morocco, banded and gilt in a floral design; top edge gilt; marbled sides and endpapers; mild spotting of binder's blanks and edges, but a very good copy indeed. With the pictorial 1895 bookplate of Albert Harrison.

£250

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 31931 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : Cassell & Co., 1888. First British edition. Stevenson with a fine tale of the Wars of the Roses.
Crown 8vo. viii,324,4 + [xvi]pp inserted advertisements dated July 1888. Bound in a smart late twentieth-century full red morocco, banded and gilt, by Bayntun-Riviere, preserving the original pictorial upper cover at rear; all edges gilt; marbled endpapers; two tiny scuffs, a sprinkling of faint spots, but an excellent copy. Prideaux 26.

£350

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 32774 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1847. First edition. Originally published in substantially different form in "Bell's Life in London" as "Sporting Sketches", between October 1846 and June 1847.
Demy 8vo. [viii],(330),[ii]pp + 32pp advertisements dated October 1847. Eight etched plates by "Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne, 1815-1882). Bound, complete with half-title, in a later (mid twentieth-century) full crimson polished calf, banded and gilt with sporting motifs, by Birdsall; contrasting green and tan labels; top edge gilt; inner gilt dentelles; upper and lower panel of the original decorative cloth bound in at rear; a touch sunned; a few minor marks, slight scuffs and small flaws, but overall a very good copy in a handsome binding by the celebrated Northampton bookbinding firm, founded in the eighteenth century and which continued trading until 1961.

£250

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 35125 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : J. M. Dent & Sons, (1954). First edition. With the original preface and musical setting by Daniel Jones.
Crown 8vo. (x),(102)pp. Bound in a smart recent half black morocco, banded and gilt; top edge gilt; original cloth spine and upper cover preserved at rear; a few faint and minor internal marks, but an excellent copy. Rolph B21.

SOLD

London : The Albatross, William Collins Sons & Co., (1933). First British edition. A very handsomely bound copy of this excellent and extensive anthology, arranged chronologically and reaching from early ballads and songs of unknown authorship through the best of the successive centuries to the early years of the twentieth. Edited and introduced by Untermeyer, with collation and revision for the British edition by Ronald H. Boothroyd.
Crown 8vo (180 x 105mm). xxx,(656)pp. Bound (for Sotheran) in a most attractive contemporary full red crushed morocco by Riviere & Son; banded and gilt; top edge gilt; inner gilt dentelles; marbled endpapers; just a faint suggestion of rubbing, but a very good copy indeed. Contemporary gift inscription covered by a blank label.

£250

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 39033 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : Jonathan Cape, (1944). The first edition of this enduringly popular anthology - the best of English poetry - all of which, it is said, Wavell knew by heart.
Crown 8vo (188 x 120mm). 432pp. Bound in a smart recent half blue morocco, banded and gilt; contrasting red label; top edge red; some spotting, mainly of edges, but otherwise a very good copy.

SOLD

London : Leonard Smithers & Co., 1899. First edition : limited to 1,000 copies - this copy not numbered and out of series. Wilde's most famous and most enduring play, published quasi-anonymously after his fall from grace, just eighteen months before he died.
Foolscap 4to. [xvi],(152)pp. Bound in a smart recent full green morocco, banded and gilt; a few minor marks, tiny spots and faint creases, but a very good copy, handsomely bound. Mason 381.

£2,000

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 35679 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : Faber & Faber, (1935). First edition.
Crown 8vo. (320)pp. Title-page and colophon decorations by C.F. Tunnicliffe. Bound in a very attractive later half russet morocco, banded and gilt with salmon, by Bayntun; top edge gilt; a few slight spots; very mild tanning of endpapers, but a very good copy.

£250

To confirm availability and to purchase this book please note the stock number 32090 and go to the database. Enter the number in the stock/order number box - press the search button - and a shopping basket should appear. Or simply call us or e-mail books@ashrare.com.

London : Herbert Jenkins, 1930. First British edition : with the humourous preface not included in the American edition which appeared two weeks earlier. "Jeeves and the Impending Doom", "Jeeves and the Song of Songs" and nine further famous tales - the third Jeeves & Wooster short story collection.
Crown 8vo (178 x 119mm). 312,[viii]pp. Bound in a smart recent full red morocco, banded and gilt; top edge gilt; a few tiny edge-spots, but a very good copy. Faint blind-stamp of Claremont, Ramsey, Huntingdon at head of preface. Connolly 48.(i). Jasen 43a. McIlvaine A42b.

SOLD