Abel, E. Lawrence: Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2000. First edition. 8vo., pp. xviii, 398. Hardback: red cloth backed blue boards, gilt-lettered to spine, fine. Dust-jacket, price-sticker removed from lower corner of front cover leaving a faint trace of adhesive only, still very good. An unused copy. Foreword by Bobby Horton. Ref: 53939
Allen, James Lane: A Kentucky Cardinal and Aftermath. London: Macmillan & Co., 1901 First English editions. 8vo, pp. xxxii, 286, [2, advertisements], with 48 (including frontispiece) wood-engraved plates. Frontispiece, title and last verso slightly foxed. Original publisher's cloth, richly gilt. The first English editions of these two interesting works by the American novelist James Lane Allen (1849-1925), here handsomely illustrated by Hugh Thomson. First published separately in 1894 and 1895 respectively, they are two parts of the same narrative, concerning Lane Allen's own childhood in Lexington, Kentucky, before and during the American Civil War, and in the Reconstruction period. Ref: 53776
Amis, Martin: House of Meetings. London: Jonathan Cape, 2006. First edition, first printing. Author's signature to title-page. 8vo., pp.[vi], 198. Black cloth, silver title to spine, deep red endpapers, fine. Dust jacket with a few tiny marks to rear, price intact, very good indeed. Printed paper 'Signed copy' band around the dust jacket a little creased. Amis's eleventh novel, of fifteen. Ref: 54672
[Anon]: Dissertationum Ludicrarum et Amoenitatum Scriptores Varii. Lugduni Batavorum [Leiden]: apud Franciscum Hegerum, 1644. 12mo., pp.[viii], 648, 651-666. Usual mispagination. Engraved title-page, woodcut endpiecesand initials. Text in Latin with some Greek. Title-page repaired at bottom edge and loosening, light dampstaining near gutter, occasional light spotting. Contemporary vellum, title inked to spine, edges sprinkled red and blue. Vellum a little yellowed with some smudgy marks, one snapped cord at upper hinge but holding firm, very good. Large bookplate of Brian S. Donaghey to front pastedown. To ffep, ownership inscription of Percy Lousada of Merton College, Oxford, dated 1843. First published in 1623 as 'Argumentorum Ludicrorum et Amoenitatum', this collection of entertaining writings by 18 authors includes swimming, pies and donkeys among its subjects. Ref: 54657show full image..
Anouilh, Jean: (Fry, Christopher, trans.:) Ring Round The Moon. A Charade with Music London: Methuen and Co., 1950. First edition. Signed by cast members of the first UK production. 12mo., pp.104. A couple of very tiny marks to pp.26-7. Blue cloth, gilt title to spine. Head and tail of spine very slightly rubbed, gilt a little faded, very good indeed. Dust jacket mostly white and so showing a few smudgy marks, spine faded and a little chipped at head and tail, very good overall. Signed on the cast list by seven of the cast members from the play's first London performance, which took place at the Globe Theatre on January 26th, 1950. They include Margaret Rutherford, Paul Schofield and Claire Bloom. Christopher Fry's 1950 adaptation of Jean Anouilh's satirical play L'Invitation au ch?teau. The original French play was first performed on 5th November 1947 at the Th??tre de l'Atelier, Paris, directed by Peter Brook.. 1950 saw productions of Fry's adaptation in London and on Broadway, the latter starring Denholm Elliott in his Broadway debut. Ref: 54974
Armstrong, Elizabeth: Ronsard and the Age of Gold. Cambridge at the University Press, 1968. First edition. 8vo., pp. xiv, 213 + plates. Hardback: light brown cloth with spine gilt-titled on dark green label. Top edge green, a little dusting to each edge. Dust-jacket, price-clipped, a few words of flap-blurb made faint by removal of price-sticker, light creasing to edges. Still, a very good copy. Ref: 53568
Atwood, Margaret: The Testaments. London: Chatto and Windus, 2019. First edition, first printing. 8vo., pp.[x], 419, [i]. Black cloth, white title to spine, fine. Dust jacket with small pen mark to white area, price intact, near fine. Sequel to The Handmaid's Tale (1985), and joint winner of the 2019 Booker Prize. Ref: 54685
Barrie, J. M.: The Plays of J.M. Barrie: Peter Pan or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1928. First edition. 8vo., pp. xxxiii, [i], 160. A little toned, outer edges lightly foxed. Blue publisher's cloth, paper title labels to spine and upper board. Slightly rubbed, spine sunned, upper board mildly curved, cloth a little lifted at upper joint but sound, free endpapers a bit toned, tiny biro numbers to ffep, very good. First edition of the play script of Peter Pan, issued as part of The Uniform Edition of The Plays of J.M. Barrie series and found here in the publisher's cloth binding. After its debut at the Duke of York's Theatre, London in December of 1904, Barrie continued to make revisions to the text right up until the publication of this edition. The novel version, titled Peter and Wendy, had appeared in 1911. . Ref: 54887
Beckett, Samuel: Waiting for Godot. A Tragicomedy in Two Acts. London: Faber and Faber, 1956. First UK edition. 8vo., pp.94, small printed slip with a note from the publisher tipped in after title-page. Clean and bright within. Yellow cloth, red title to spine. Top edge a little dusty, a little very faint toning and a few pencilled booksellers' notes to ffep, rear pastedown not properly glued down resulting in a little cockling at the hinge, very good indeed. Dust jacket a little tattered at head and tail of spine, a bit rubbed along top edge but also very good indeed. This first UK edition marks the third appearance of the play in text form. First came En Attendant Godot, Beckett's initial, subtly different French-language version. It was published by Les ?ditions de Minuit in Paris in 1952 in advance of the first theatrical performance, with only 2500 copies being printed. Next, the first English-language edition was published in New York by the Grove Press in 1954, ahead of the its debut performance at the Arts Theatre, London, on 3rd August 1955. The Faber edition of 1956 here marks the first publication of the play in the UK, and contains the censored text as performed in a slightly later production at the Criterion Theatre. A tipped-in slip added by the publisher notes that when the play transferred from the Arts Theatre to the Criterion, 'a small number of textual deletions were made to satisfy the requirements of the Lord Chamberlain.' It would be nearly a decade before the unexpurgated text had its first performance in England, at the Royal Court Theatre on 30 December 1964. Ref: 54977show full image..
Beckett, Samuel: Watt. Paris: The Traveller's Companion Series, The Olympia Press, 1958. First trade edition, 8vo., pp.278, [ii]. Light green textured cloth, black, white and gold title labels to upper board and spine, red endpapers. Slightly cocked, cloth a little toned around head edge, head edge dusty, very good indeed. Dust jacket, a little tattered at head and tail of spine, spine itself a little darkened, very good indeed. Beckett's second published novel in English, Watt first appeared as a limited edition of 1125 copies produced by The Olympia Press in Paris in 1953. It is found here in its first trade edition, issued by the same publisher in 1958. In 2009 Faber and Faber published a new edition edited by C. J. Ackerley, in which Ackerley corrected the many errors and omissions that had frustrated Beckett since the novel's first appearance in print. Ref: 54978show full image..
