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About this catalogue
Welcome to our new catalogue of collected books. More accurately, collections of poems, novels, stories, dialogues, letters, journals and individuals’ complete works; others grouped by genre, nationality, period, conflict; some organising incidental pieces – reviews, translations, essays, talks – into authoritative volumes; outliers: publishers’ marketing strategies; thrillingly among the inhabitants of the remote corners of secondhand bookshops; a handful of one woman’s versions of Englishness; two novellas marking time in between volumes of the John Cromer epic; tracing the history and varieties of political power; as well, singular collections assembled by individuals - either offering comic versions of 20th century Australian history or the work and correspondence of an idiosyncratic contemporary Australian writer; and our first two books set in the Cameroons.
London: Chatto and Windus. First English edition, 2001.
A broad selection from poetry to movies collects journalism, reviews, essays, lectures and stories, some previously unpublished, and the author's first published work of fiction: 141 pieces – reviews of 'Gravity's Rainbow', 'Apocalypse Now', 'Eastenders'; also 'A Manifesto for London', 'California Dreaming – Los Angeles and San Francisco' and 'Out of the Wilderness – Reykjavik'; edited and introduced by Thomas Wright; indexed.
Fine in dustwrapper.
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New York: Viking. First American edition, 1992.
Forty-three literary allsorts, the usual suspects and plenty of surprises, beginning with Jane, then Paul Bowles, on through the 1940s to the 1990s, and not one dud; introduction by Richard Ford.
Fine in dustwrapper with a faint scratch on the front panel.
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New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. First American editions, 2014.
Companion volumes of poetry and prose collecting the moonlighting poet's work in France during the 1950s and '60s.
Prose – authors include Michel Leiris, Georges Bataille, Giorgio de Chirico, Antonin Artaud, Odilon Redon and Alfred Jarry, that volume signed by John Ashbery; Poetry – authors include Baudelaire, Mallarme, Rimbaud, Max Jacob, Rene Char and Paul Eluard, parallel text for the Poetry volume.
Both volumes fine in dustwrappers. The two vols.
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New Haven: Yale University Press. First American editions thus, 1963-1975.
Seven volumes: The political climate of mid 17th through to early 18th century England - civil war, Charles I, Charles II – and other factors produced 'an audience for literature that lampooned, satirised and exposed the activities of public institutions and political players'. Sound familiar? This set collects poems ranging across 'all manner of subjects, including war, religion and party politics, as well as royal mistresses and literary rivalries. Personal attacks were common, and it was as much a prominent man or woman's politics as their personal life that came under fire from satirists '. Or, the opinions of social media with wit, as dagger in most of these, added. Arranged chronologically, notes, illustrations, each volume indexed; c.4,000pp. of English history presented as satire.
Owner's blind stamps in vols.1 and 7, small abrasion to front free endpaper of vol.5, else all fine in dustwrappers as issued. The seven vols.
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London: British Museum Publications and Viking. First English editions, 1983, 1986.
Two volumes: 'Notes from a Mud Hut' and 'a Return to the African Bush': fieldwork, idiosyncratically reported, in the Cameroons; the author's second and third books, both volumes signed by him.
Both volumes fine in dustwrappers. The two vols.
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New York: Calder and Boyars. First English edition. Arcade Publishing. First American edition, 1967, 2006.
Two parties: the subject's sixtieth and his wake. Contributors to the former include: Harold Pinter, Jocelyn Herbert, Hugh Kenner, George Devine, the estimable Jack MacGowran; and for the latter: Beckett interviewed by James Knowlson, his biographer, and contributions by J.M. Coetzee, Billie Whitelaw, Edward Albee, Paul Auster, Jessica Tandy and many others; illustrated.
Both fine in dustwrappers. The two vols.
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London: Chatto and Windus. First English editions, 1990-1991.
Two volumes: six 'unsentimental' novels about Russian emigre life, set mostly in Paris between the two world wars – 'The Resurrection of Mozart', 'The Waiter and the Slut', 'Astashev in Paris', 'The Cloak', 'The Black Pestilence' and 'The Comb' – all complete, and all translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz
Both volumes fine in dustwrappers, The two volumes
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Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. First American edition of this translation, 1982.
Three volumes: Volumes one and two are the complete text of John Payne's translation revised and annotated by Charles S. Singleton, eg Rustico and Alibech's enthusiastic endeavours to put the Devil back in Hell – day three, the tenth story – are now translated in full; volume three contains Singleton's notes and commentary; begun in 1348 during an outbreak of plague in Florence, completed in 1353, and I wonder whether it has always been in print since, even in truncated form.
Original matching grey flecked cloth. Remainder mark on bottom edges, else fine as issued without dustwrappers and in matching slipcase.
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New York: Garland Publishing. Facsimile edition, 1977.
Five volumes by the 18th century political philosopher, Tory leader and supporter of the Jacobite rebellion to overthrow King George I; originating from his time in exile to France and influenced by the French Enlightenment; facsimile made from a copy of the 1754-1777 edition held at Yale University.
Original brown cloth stamped in black on the spine. Fine as issued without dustwrappers. The five vols.
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Oxford: Oxford University Press. Reprint, 1998.
Genuinely browsable, featuring 350,000 words, phrases and definitions; 'text' is still only a noun; word history notes explain the linguistic roots of words and tell the story of how a word's meaning and form have changed over time.
Fine in dustwrapper.
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New York: Random House. Reprint, 2004.
Twenty stories – in the form that Capote called his great love – written between 1943 and 1982.
Fine in dustwrapper reproducing Cartier-Bresson's portrait of Capote.
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London: Routledge. First English edition, 1994.
Latin Literature from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD, from Augustus to Justinian; organised chronologically into seven sections; bibliography, indexed.
Fine in dustwrapper.
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New York: Library of America. First American editions, 1998, 2002.
Two volumes: Monumental anthologies collecting writings about the two cities from their formative years to their ascendancy as cities that dominate American life.
Almost 200 Americans, expatriates, and visitors contribute fiction, non-fiction, memoir, poetry, essays, journalism and diaries to both volumes.
New York – from Washington Irving to Vivian Gornick; Los Angeles – from Helen Hunt Jackson to David Thomson; writing about riots, the oil boom, beat culture, jazz scene, architecture, art, race and social divide.
Both volumes fine in dustwrappers. Los Angeles is a review copy with promotional material laid in. The two volumes
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London: J.M. Dent. Reprints, 1947-1960.
Twenty volumes: The collected edition of 1947, containing the author's prefaces to the original or earlier collected editions. Novels, tales, reviews, reminiscences, seat-of-pants compelling great yarns: a complete world of alienated loners, psychologically complex figures, disenchanted voices – exposing 'The Horror! The Horror!' of the dark heart said to lie within us all.
Original blue cloth. A couple with the same owner's signature. General wear, 'The Secret Agent' volume has some edgewear, the remainder are very good or better. No dustwrappers. The twenty vols.
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London: John Murray, 1823.
Five volumes: A complete set of the poet and minister's work, 'Nature's sternest painter, yet the best', according to Byron; as well as portrayer of the commonplace realities and downside of human life; and the man Jane Austen dreamed of marrying (did nobody inform her of the author's opium addiction?)
Calf and marbled boards. Bookplate and small abrasion to front free endpaper vol.1, corners scuffed and light wear. Very good. The five vols.
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London: Peter Davies. The Bradenham edition, 1927.
Inventor of the English political novel, Disraeli famously said, 'When I want to read a novel, I write one.' And he did – twelve of them from the age of 22 – about poverty, wealth, love across the social and political divide, religious doubt, discovery of the Orient, and the politics of 'Tory democracy' – his other career stream.
Twelve volumes, a complete set: 'Sybil' (or 'The Two Nations') – perhaps the most important Victorian condition-of-England novel of its time, 'Vivian Grey', 'The Young Duke', 'Popanilla and Other Tales', 'Contarini Fleming', Alroy', 'Henrietta Temple', 'Venetia', 'Coningsby', 'Tancred', 'Lothair', and 'Endymion' – his last novel, published in 1880.
Egocentricity aside, the author should also be remembered for observing, 'We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end'.
Original cloth, spines stamped in gold with title and decoration. Top edge gilt, foredges untrimmed. Some edgewear, foxing to bottom edges and foredges, else very good in wonderful illustrated dustwrappers, see adjacent image, chipped at edges and darkened on the spines. The twelve vols.
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London: The Nonesuch Press. First English edition, 1931.
Six volumes from the pen of the founder of the heroic couplet, 'Glorious John' to Sir Walter Scott, and the first person to posit that English sentences should not end in prepositions: England, on stage, during the Restoration, complete texts of thirty plays and dialogues; edited by Montague Summers with notes, introduction, chronology; #583/750 numbered copies (total edition 800).
Original cloth and marbled boards. Foxing to foredges, covers rubbed, spines sunned. Very good. The six vols.
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London: Eyre and Spottiswoode. Revised and Enlarged edition, 1938.
Three volumes, six sections: 'Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Reformation, Reason', and 'The Liberal Experiment''; appendices, maps, genealogical tables, indexed; first published in 1935 and ending with 'New Dictatorships and Old Democracies'.
Original red cloth stamped in gold. The same bookplate in all three volumes and brief gift inscription in volume 1. Spines sunned, else fine. No dustwrappers. The three volumes
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New York: Scribners. First American edition, 1989.
Forty-two stories, 'a new collection' – 'whoring to pay the debts' according to the author.
Stories include 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', 'Babylon Revisited', 'The Swimmers'.
Fine in very good dustwrapper with a short closed tear at the bottom of the front panel.
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New York: Alfred A. Knopf. First American edition, 1993.
Fourteen novellas, selected from four collections, written between 1936 ('Me, I am going to Spain with the boys') and 1978 ('We cannot fail to help the wounded Vietnamese children as we would help our own') with settings ranging from Depression-era America to the great cities of Europe, and the highlands of East Africa.
Review copy with publisher's embargo slip laid in. Fine in dustwrapper.
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London: The Folio Society. Reprint, 1998.
Eight volumes tracing Western civilisation from the height of the Roman Empire to the fall of Byzantium; perhaps the greatest and one of the most influential history books in the English language, by an author who considered history 'little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind'. Written with wit and irony in stylish prose, peppered with salacious footnotes, and brimming with relevance to our own age of bread and circuses. The complete text of the 1910 Everyman edition; edited and introduced by Betty Radice, illustrated throughout, each volume indexed.
Original cream boards. Fine as issued without dustwrappers. And without the original two slipcases. The eight vols.
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Boston: Little Brown and Co. First American edition, 2000.
Thirty-five stories: recurring characters, at various ages, in the modern American South.
Fine in dustwrapper.
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Edinburgh: MacLean Dubois Limited, 1982-2007.
Seven volumes, one story per volume: 'The Monastrey of Sant'Annetta Dei Giardini' (#121/200 copies, illustrated by James Hutcheson), 'The Principles of Tennis' (#221/300, Iain McIntosh), 'Little Piggish' (#169/350, Iain McIntosh), 'Life Amongst the Lion Tamers' (#187/400, Iain McIntosh), 'The Finer Points of Sausages' (#203/400, Iain McIntosh), 'The Great Hat Thief' (600 copies, Iain McIntosh), and 'La's Orchestra Saves the World' (1,000 copies, Iain McIntosh); all either signed or inscribed by Alexander McCall Smith.
Plain wrappers, stapled. All with a printed label, some illustrated, and all fine. The seven volumes
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London: Little, Brown. First English editions, 2004-2006.
Three volumes: 'The Sunday Philosophy Club' (#1), 'Friends, Lovers, Chocolate' (#2) and 'The Right Attitude to Rain' (#3), in the series that has now reached sixteen volumes. Isabel Dalhousie, her informal talking group, the city of Edinburgh, and a mystery in each, are the series' subjects; the three volumes signed by the author.
All fine in dustwrappers. The three volumes
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Edinburgh: Polygon. First English editions, 2005-2007.
The first four volumes (of fourteen to date) in the author's sequence about the residents of 44 Scotland Street and its environs. Alexander McCall Smith has noted a meeting with Armistead Maupin in California and his own fondness for serialised novels in newspapers as the inspirations for the series. All four volumes signed by the author.
All fine in dustwrappers. The four volumes
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New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. First American edition, 1997.
Fifty-five stories about Jewish immigrant life, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of the novels 'The Natural' and 'The Fixer'.
Fine in dustwrapper.
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London: Fitzcarraldo Editions. Second English editions, 2020-2021.
Two volumes: Two versions of Englishness: Colin – "short and fat and tired of being bullied" – in London beginning in 1975, and Barry – exploring masculinity, class and identity as part of a British army peacekeeping mission in ruined Pristina, Kosovo in 1999.
Printed wrappers. A little wear, else fine. The two vols.
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London: Werner Laurie. Reprint, 1949.
Nine volumes: 'Mont Oriol', 'The Master Passion', 'Bel-Ami', 'The House of Madame Tellier and Other Stories' , 'Yvette', 'A Life', ''Notre Coeur', 'Pierre and Jean', 'Tales of Day and Night', all complete; nineteenth century France, missing the 'Boule de Suif' volume; the Marjorie Laurie translations.
An owner signature in one volume, a couple with offsetting and sports of foxing to prelims., else all very good or better in matching dustwrappers. The nine volumes
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Oxford: Oxford University Press. Second English edition, 1957.
Organised by centuries, European countries, then poets, traditions and styles; indexed; first published in 1934.
Fine in very good dustwrappers darkened on the spine and worn at edges. The two vols.
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New York: Alfred A. Knopf. First American edition, 1996.
Twenty eight stories by 'The Great One', or 'Canada's Chekhov': the small-town lives of men and women living in 'Munro's Country' – Huron County in Southern Ontario. Like Munro herself, many characters leave only to return home.
Stories include 'Carried Away', 'A Wilderness Station', 'Ottawa Valley', 'Royal Beatings', 'Dance of the Happy Shades', 'The Moons of Jupiter', 'The Beggar Maid', 'The Progress of Love','Postcard', 'Friend of My Youth', 'Vandals'.
Fine in dustwrapper.
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1975-2019.
A collection of Gerald Murnane books – Australian, American and English editions – many inscribed by the author to John Baxter, together with correspondence between the two writers, copies of other letters from Gerald Murnane's fabled personal archive, plus related documents and printed ephemera about him, as well as two of John Baxter’s books where he details their friendship.
The two writers were born in the suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney in 1939. John Baxter has noted, “My interest in Gerald Murnane and his work began after 'The Plains' was published by Norstrilia [1982], the Melbourne science fiction press operated by, among others, Bruce Gillespie, whom I knew from my s-f writing. 'The Plains' was the first modern novel to resonate both with the new visionary writing of the eighties, and with my love of the American cinema. Gerald, though neither a science fiction writer nor a screenwriter, created a world where an author like Russell Hoban and a filmmaker such as Andrei Tarkovsky might find common ground.”
John Baxter began collecting Gerald Murnane’s books, the two writers exchanged books, and a correspondence developed, “I have always disliked wine and spirits. Perhaps this is because I was born without a sense of smell. The pages about food in your autobiographical books made no sense to me. All food tastes the same to me, which is to say that no food tastes at all. I live on a breakfast of grains and nuts and pulses then two salads for lunch – the first of vegies and the second of fruits. For my evening meal, I eat either cheese and tomato on toast or sardines and tomato on toast. I prepare all my own meals. I sometimes allow my wife to steam a few vegetables for my evening meal, but in general I hate to have another person prepare my food.” (Gerald Murnane to John Baxter, 29 November 2006).
The collection contains:
• 'Tamarisk Row'. William Heinemann Australia, 1975. First Australian edition. Inscribed by the author to John Baxter. Edgewear, front free endpaper clipped, else very good in dust wrapper.
• 'Tamarisk Row'. William Heinemann Australia, 1975. First Australian edition. Fine in dustwrapper.
• 'A Lifetime on Clouds'. William Heinemann Australia, 1976. First Australian edition. Inscribed by the author to John Baxter. Fine in very good dust wrapper with a couple of nicks.
• 'Tamarisk Row'. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1977. First Australian paperback edition. Pictorial wrappers. Very good.
• 'The Plains'. Norstrilia. 1982. First Australian edition. Inscribed by the author to John Baxter. The first issue dust wrapper, reputedly 50 copies published. “As soon as the distributor saw it, he rejected all copies of 'The Plains' until we produced a cover that could be put in a bookshop. I forget who Carey got to do the grey/plain lettering cover, but it was done and the replacement covers printed within a week. From then on, every time we sent out more copies, we had to pick off the old covers and put on the new ones.” Tipped in is a printout of an email, 21 December 2003, from Bruce Gillespie, the publisher, to John Baxter, continuing the story of 'The Plains' and on through Gerald Murnane’s early literary career. Fine in first issue dust wrapper designed by Josephine Brick.
• 'The Plains'. Norstrilia. 1982. First Australian edition. The first issue dust wrapper designed by Josephine Brick. Fine in dustwrapper.
• 'The Plains'. Norstrilia, 1982. First Australian edition. Inscribed by the author to John Baxter. Fine in second issue dust wrapper.
• 'Landscape with Landscape'. Norstrilia, 1985. First Australian edition. Inscribed by the author to John Baxter. Fine in dust wrapper.
• 'The Plains'. George Brazillier, 1985. First American edition. Inscribed by the author to John Baxter. Review copy with publisher’s promotional material laid in. Fine in dust wrapper.
• “Why I Write What I Write” and “Stone Quarry”. Meanjin, Volume 45, No.4, December 1986. Pictorial wrappers. Very good.
• 'Landscape with Landscape'. Ringwood, Vic: Penguin, 1987. First Australian paperback edition. Pictorial wrappers. Fine.
• 'Inland'. William Heinemann Australia, 1988. First Australian edition. Inscribed by the author to John Baxter. Fine in dust wrapper.
• 'Inland'. Faber and Faber, 1988. First English edition. Fine in dust wrapper.
• 'Inland'. Picador, 1989. First Australian paperback edition. Pictorial wrappers. Extremities tanned. Very good.
• 'The Plains'. McPhee Gribble, 1990. Second Australian edition, revised. Tipped in is an autograph note, signed from Gerald Murnane to John Baxter, 24 July 2007, “I’ve included a bonus. Note that the text of the 1990 edition has been amended. That is to say, the early typos have been corrected. 'The Plains' has been published in seven (7) editions in Aust. the USA and Sweden.” Pictorial wrappers. Fine.
• 'Velvet Waters'. Ringwood, Vic: McPhee Gribble, 1990. First Australian edition. Edgwear. Very good in fine dust wrapper.
• Imre Salusinszky, 'Gerald Murnane'. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1993. First Australian edition. From the publisher's series of 'Australian Writers'. Pictorial wrappers. Fine.
• 'Emerald Blue'. Ringwood, Vic: McPhee Gribble, 1995. First Australian edition. Pictorial wrappers. Spots of foxing to extremities. Very good.
• 'Incredible Yet Enduring Lilacs'. Artarmon, NSW: Giramondo, 2005. First Australian edition. Inscribed by the author to John Baxter in 2006. Pictorial wrappers. Fine.
• 'Barley Patch'. Artarmon, NSW: Giramondo, 2009. First Australian edition. Pictorial wrappers. Very good.
• 'Barley Patch'. Champaign, Illinois: Dalkey Archive Press 2011. First American edition. Pictorial wrappers. Fine.
• 'A History of Books'. Artarmon, NSW: Giramondo, 2012. First Australian edition. Pictorial wrappers. Fine.
• 'Words and Silk'. Melbourne: privately produced, nd. DVD. Autobiographical film by Murnane detailing his preoccupation with horse racing.
• John Baxter, 'A Pound of Paper'. London: Transworld, 2002. First English edition. Colour photograph, 9 x 11.5cms., of Gerald Murnane tipped-in to front free endpaper, signed by the author. Fine in dust wrapper with John Baxter’s bookplate.
• John Baxter, 'Paris Men’s Salon'. Paris: the author, 2019. Third edition. #70/100 numbered copies signed by the author. Printout of a passage from the book and relevant to Gerald Murnane tipped into front free endpaper. Pictorial wrappers. Fine.
Correspondence and related items:
• Gerald Murnane, tls, 31 January 2004, to John Baxter, photocopy, 2pp. Annotated by hand by Gerald Murnane, also photocopied. ‘Your book [A Pound of Paper] was a pleasant surprise. I’ve read it already, which in itself is a tribute since I read hardly any books in the English language nowadays. I’ve reconciled myself to dying with at least half of my library unread. The cause of this is my having decided ten years ago, when I took early retirement from a hateful and oppressive university teaching job, to devote the rest of my life to learning to read and write and speak the Hungarian language. … I believe that I’ll be remembered a hundred years from now not for my eight books but as the compiler of a remarkable archive. I go on a lot nowadays about my filing-cabinets and their contents.”
• Gerald Murnane, tls, 29 September 2006, to Ivor, annotated by hand by Gerald Murnane “Indyk my publisher”, the remainder photocopied, 12pp. Single spaced literary adventures – talks, launches, modest travels – “I told my audience at Melbourne University also that the place where I did some of my best writing during the early 1990s was an ironing board in a corner of my wife’s and my bedroom. I extolled the benefits of the ironing board for a certain sort of writer.”
• Gerald Murnane, tls, 2 November 2006, to John Baxter, photocopy, 1p. “I’ve seen one film since I wrote the earlier letter. It was a good film about a man who fled a flock of parrots on a hill in San Francisco” [The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, 2003] Annotated by hand on the reverse, “John, read first the other letter, which I sent to you in Jan. 2004. This page I wrote on 2 Nov 06 as sort of update of the earlier.” And, by hand, in a stick on note, “The handwriting was not on the original of course. I annotate much of what I put into my archives. I do it for the benefit of future scholars, voyeurs, whatever.”
• John Baxter, tls, 9 November 2006, to Gerald Murnane, 3pp.
• Gerald Murnane, tls, 29 November 2006, to John Baxter, 7pp. single spaced and 1p. handwritten. The most detailed tour of the Gerald Murnane’s archive that I’ve read. And ending, “Finally, my archives include at least a hundred letters even longer than this letter to you. Many of these letters, I would hope, are even more than interesting than this.” See the letter above to Ivor Indyk.
• John Baxter, tls, 4 June 2007, to Gerald Murnane, 1p.
• Gerald Murnane, als, 14 June 2007, to John Baxter, 2pp.” I travelled by train to Sydney recently to receive an award. (I thought of you while we passed through Junee!) At many points along the way, the train would cause a mob of animals to gallop away from it. These animals were afraid of the train in the same way that I’m afraid of technology. Those animals know as much about trains, the people who travel in them, the books or the mobile phones in the hands of the people, as I know about computers or the internet. Those animals want only to have their green paddocks, left undisturbed by machines just as I want only not to have to try to grasp the complexities of technology but to stay in this quiet room and to tap away at my 1960s and 1970s typewriters and to stuff pages into my filing cabinets.” …. “I’m trying to arrange for my stuff to be valued by an independent valuer so that my sons will have some bargaining power when they negotiate with institutions after my death. (My stuff is so carefully catalogued and sign-posted that it could be put into a library just as it is.)”
• John Baxter, tls, 14 July 2007, to Gerald Murnane, 1p.
• Gerald Murnane, Untitled, typed, photocopy, 4pp. Annotated by hand, top of p.1, “John, This is the second part of my speech for the launching of 'Inland'.”
• Gerald Murnane, “Text of speech by Gerald Murnane at the launch of the new, amended edition of 'Tamarisk Row' in Adelaide on Thursday 6 March 2008” 6pp., photocopied annotation at top of p.1, “Nice (Nasty Later)”.
• Gerald Murnane, “On the Road to Bendigo – Kerouac’s Australian Life”. The Age Monthly Review, May 1986. Photocopied A3 sheets, 3pp.
• Jason Steger, “Murnane 33/1 for Nobel” The Age, 12 October 2006. Photocopied A4 sheet. [Orhan Pamuk received the prize for 2006].
All very good to fine in dustwrappers as issued, or pictorial wrappers in fine condition. See above for the condition of the individual titles.
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New York: Random House. First American edition, 1984.
Thirty-six stories, selected from more than 400 written in his lifetime, about small-town life, the broken dreams of people in the '30s and '40s, and the social status and class differences of America. 'This is fiction, but it has for me, the clang of truth,' John Updike.
Fine in dustwrapper.
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London: The Folio Society. Reprint, 2001.
Eight volumes, a complete set: 'The Visigothic Invasion', 'The Huns and the Vandals', 'The Ostrogoths', 'The Imperial Restoration', 'The Lombard Invasion', 'The Lombard Kingdom', 'The Frankish Invasion' and 'The Frankish Empire'; first published between 1880 and 1899, this edition combines the later editions of the early volumes and the original editions of the later volumes; introductions by Peter Heather to all eight volumes; indexes, tables, timelines and publisher's traditional production values.
Matching purple cloth and pictorial boards. Fine as issued without dustwrappers and without the original slipcase. The eight volumes
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New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux. First American edition, 1994.
Collects 'The Little Disturbances of Man', 'Enormous Changes at the Last Minute' and 'Later the Same Day' – forty-four stories on class, gender, racism, Jewish identity, and relationships.
Fine in dustwrapper.
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New York and London: Aperture and Gordon Fraser. First American and first English editions, 1976-1981.
Sixteen volumes: A complete set of the publisher's monographs of 19th and 20th century photographers; each volume contains an introductory essay followed by between 40-50 reproductions; captions for the photographs and chronology of the photographers' lives at the rear; Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Walker Evans, August Sander, Dorothea Lange, Erich Salomon and others, and their contribution to the difficult to dispute adage that 'life is in colour but black and white is more real.'
Matching pictorial boards. All very good or better and without dustwrappers as issued. The sixteen volumes
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Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Reprint, 1971.
Twenty-six dialogues, various translators, 'Epinomis', 'Greater Hippias' as appendixes, and Plato's letters – all his writings in the only complete one-volume Plato available in English; including notes and an introductory essay.
Fine in very good dustwrapper with a little edgewear.
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Oxford: Oxford University Press. First English edition, 1956.
Five volumes, 1704-1744, plus, in volume 5, additional letters, alphabetical list of correspondents, and index for the set; edited by George Sherburn who begins his introduction, ' In his own country no man did more to further the art of letter-writing than Pope, and no man had a higher reputation as a letter-writer.'
Vol.4 is an ex-library copy with two small stamps and a repair to the bottom third of the spine of the dustwrapper, the remaining four volumes are all fine in dustwrappers. The five volumes
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New York: Delacorte Press. First American edition, 1970.
Seventy-five plus pieces, subjects include: Willa Cather, Christopher Sykes, E.M.Forster, Sylvia Beach, Communism in Hollywood, Flannery O'Connor, Ford Madox Ford; the pull of Mexico (ten pieces), on writing (six), and eight poems.
Fine in very good dustwrapper with some creases at edges.
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New York: Barnes and Noble. Reprints, [c.1964].
Six volumes, complete. Power in the medieval world, organised chronologically, from the 2nd century to 1600; first published between 1903 and 1936, R.W. Carlyle for volumes 1-4, both brothers for volume 5, and the final volume by A.J.
The same owner's signature in all six volumes. Top edges evenly tanned, else fine in dustwrappers. The six vols.
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London: Chatto and Windus. First English edition, 1990.
Eighty-two stories, written between 1938 and 1989, published in the year of V. S. Pritchett's ninetieth birthday: an alternative history of England in the twentieth century.
A little edgewear, else fine in dustwrapper.
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Oxford: Oxford University Press. First English edition, 1829.
Eight volumes: a complete set, the only extant 'complete works'. There was an OUP project in the '60s, under the auspices of Pierre Lefranc, but it dwindled away.
Title continues, 'Now First Collected to Which are Prefixed the Lives of the Author by Oldys and Birch', and containing: 'The Lives' (volume 1); 'The History of the World' (volumes 2-7) – and 'Miscellaneous Works' (volume 8).
Queen Elizabeth's favourite statesman, as well as soldier, spy, explorer and landed gentleman, Sir Walter Raleigh wrote his 'History of the World' in the Tower of London during his long imprisonment for treason (1603-16).
It is usually believed that Raleigh did not write all of the work himself, but was aided by others. He designed his project as a universal history, that is, a history of the world from the creation to the present day. It is hardly surprising that his grand aim was not completed. King James I, who executed Raleigh in order to placate the Spanish, suppressed the work upon its appearance in public. One reason for the book's suppression may well be its ironical treatment of kingship.
'Tis a sharp remedy, but a sure one for all ills' – last words before his execution from the man who famously made history while he wrote history.
Full calf, gilt raised bands. Professional repairs and missing part of spine label to vol.1, printed paper labels on spines frail; owner's small printed label in each volume, spots of foxing to prelims. A very good set. The eight volumes
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London: Chatto and Windus. Reprint and first English edition. Oxford University Press. First English edition, 1994-2006.
Three volumes, subtitled respectively: 'On Fairy Tales and their Tellers' – discussing the female origin of fairytales (for centuries Anonymous was a woman and stepmothers were framed); 'Scaring, Lulling and Making Muck' – primal fears and things that go bump; and 'Spirit Visions, Metaphors and Media into the Twenty-first Century' – what it means to have a soul, the hidden world of the mind, and the impact of media; illustrated, indexed.
All fine in dustwrappers. The three volumes
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London: The Folio Society. Reprint, 2001.
Five volumes, containing: 'Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance' by Boies Penrose (revised second edition 1955), 'The Renaissance in Europe' by J.R. Hale (revised second edition 2000), 'The Florentine Renaissance' by Vincent Cronin (first published 1967), 'The Flowering of the Renaissance' by Vincent Cronin (first published 1969), and 'Europe from Renaissance to Reformation' by G.R. Elton (revised second edition 1999); all illustrated and indexed.
Original matching blue and maroon cloth, stamped in gold. Fine as issued without dustwrappers and in matching slipcase. The set
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London: Thames and Hudson. First English editions, 1961-1972.
Eight volumes: 'The Dawn of Civilization', The Birth of Western Civilization', 'The Age of the Renaissance', 'The Age of Expansion', 'The Eighteenth Century', 'The Nineteenth Century', 'The Twentieth Century' and 'American Civilisation'; monumental Cold War version of history where progress is mapped from the Stone Age, via the Middle East, the Classical World through the European centuries and on to America; each volume has a separate editor, between nine and 14 contributors, overall 90 contributors, with, for a distinctly different experience to an online search, 5,400 illustrations, 1,520 in colour, 3,800 photographs, engravings, drawings and maps, and, for volume 1, 110 original reconstructions.
Original blue cloth stamped in gold. All fine. No dustwrappers. The eight volumes
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London and Edinburgh: Chatto and Windus and Scotland Street Press. First English editions, 2014-2015.
Two volumes: C.K. Scott Moncrieff's seven short stories, including the controversial 'Evensonge and Morwesong', war serials and his poetry - early, World War One, love and dedicatory, and satirical; edited by Jean Findlay, his biographer. Together with her biography of her great great uncle through the numerous discrete areas of his life.
Top edge of the biography a little dusty, else both volumes fine in dustwrappers. The two vols.
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London: The Fortune Press., 1927.
Five volumes: The complete works of the seventeenth century poet and dramatist.; edited by Montague Summers #139/1200 numbered sets (1290 complete edition) on machine-made paper; with colour frontispieces by Paul Rotha in volumes 3-5. Timothy d'Arch Smith 495.
Half leather and marbled boards. Bookplate of Stanley William Sykes. Some foxing to prelims and extremities, internally clean. Very good. The five vols.
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Oxford: Oxford University Press. First English edition thus, 1986.
Everything – plays and poems: the complete world; glossary (15pp.), index of first lines to the sonnets, timeline of Shakespeare's life, 17 illustrations, 1,400+pp.
Fine in dustwrapper.
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London: Michael Joseph. Reprint and First English edition, 1965, 1967.
The author's first two novels and first two volumes of an uncompleted trilogy 'The Apple Pickers', abandoned when Sharp left Scotland for Hollywood.
Extremities darkened, annotation to inside front flap of The Wind Shifts, else both very good in dustwrappers. The two volumes
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London: The Folio Society. Reprint,
A collection of classics: 'The Turn of the Screw'(Henry James), 'The Call of the Wild' (Jack London), 'Death in Venice' (Thomas Mann), 'The Virgin and the Gipsy' (D H Lawrence) and 'Gigi' (Colette), all complete; illustrations by Sara Fanelli.
Pictorial boards. Fine, as issued, without dustwrapper and in slipcase.
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New York: E.P. Dutton. First American edition, 1985.
Twenty-seven stories, nine originally published in The New Yorker.
Fine in dustwrapper a little sunned on the spine.
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London: Faber and Faber. First English editions, 2002.
Three volumes: 'Voyage', 'Shipwreck' and 'Salvage', the complete trilogy. Politics, love, betrayal, life under Nicholas I in Russia, 1833-1866. Michael Bakunin, Ivan Turgenev, Vissarion Belinsky, Alexander Herzen, Alexander Pushkin and other artists, agitators and thinkers appear as characters, hoping to change an imperfect world, debating abstract ideas like liberty, democracy, censorship, and revolution, or leading their daily lives, including love triangles, family tensions, and personal tragedy such as Herzen's real life loss of his child Kolya in a shipwreck, aka mature Stoppard territory.
The trilogy has more than 70 characters, performed by around 40 actors, and, to date, has been produced in London, New York, Moscow and Tokyo between 2002 and 2009.
Fine in matching dustwrappers. The three volumes
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Bangkok: Thai Modern Classics. First Thai editions, 1994-1996.
Eleven volumes: The introductory volume, 'The 20 Best Novels of Thailand' by Marcel Barang, containing the background and general history of the novel in Thailand, biographical pieces re the selected authors and extracts from the novels; together with the first ten volumes of the series:
'The Path of the Tiger' by Sila Khoamchai (first published 1989)
'The Circus of Life' by Arkartdamkeung Rapheephat (1929)
'The Story of Jan Darra' by Utsana Phleungtham (1966)
'The Judgment' by Chart Korpjitti (1981)
'An Elephant Named Maliwan' by Thanorm Maha Paoraya (1946)
'Of Time and Tide' by Atsiri Thammachoat (1985)
'The Field of the Great' by Marlai Choophinit (1954)
'Snakes' by Wimon Sainimnuan (1984)
'Wanlaya's Love' by Seinee Saowaphong (1952)
'Time in a Bottle' by Praphatsorn Seiwikun (1985)
Volumes 1-5 and 8 translated into English by Phongdeit Jiangphatthanarkit, volumes 6-7 and 9 by Marcel Barang, volume 10 by Barang and Jiangphatthanarkit, introductions and notes to all ten volumes by Marcel Barang. As far as I can see, the series reached ten of the proposed twenty volumes.
All fine in dustwrappers with the bookmarks, glossaries and wraparound bands as issued. The eleven vols.
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London: Collector's Library. Reprint, 2004.
Three volumes, complete. Pocket size. Considered by many to be the greatest novel ever written. Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, introduction by the latter, afterword by Stella Baty Landis.
All edges gilt. Fine in dustwrappers in slipcase as issued.
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London: Faber and Faber. Three first English editions and two reprints, 1993-2017.
Five volumes: 'Elizabeth Gaskell - a Habit of Stories' (1993, second impression), 'The Lunar Men – the Friends Who Made the Future' (2002), 'Nature's Engraver – a Life of Thomas Bewick' (2006, signed by the author), 'The Pinecone – the Story of Sarah Losh, Forgotten Romantic Heroine – Antiquarian, Architect and Visionary' (2012, second impression), and 'Mr. Lear – a Life of Art and Nonsense' (2017). Two men, two women, and a group history by the wonderful biographer and historian, who recaptures lost ways of life and makes you feel the life behind the facts.
'Mr Lear' is cloth spine and publisher's pictorial boards. Fine as issued without dustwrapper. 'The Lunar Men' has some light foxing along the top edge, else the remaining four volumes are all fine in dustwrappers. The five vols.
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New York, London: Alfred A. Knopf, Andre Deutsch, Hamish Hamilton. First American and English editions, 1965-2007.
Seven volumes: 'Assorted Prose' (1965), 'Pick-Up Pieces' (1976), 'Hugging the Shore' (1983), 'Just Looking – Essays on Art' (1989), 'Odd Jobs' (1991, signed by the author), 'More Matter' (1999) and 'Due Considerations' (2007).
John Updike's collected non-fiction: essays, criticism, reviews, articles, parodies, speeches, travel pieces, obituaries, interviews, prefaces, notes, introductions, letters to and from, memoirs and profiles; twentieth century literature, art, obsessions and moments, all covered, along with many nods back to the artists and authors of earlier centuries.
The image from the rear panel of 'Hugging the Shore', adjacent, gives some idea of one of the author's nets.
All very good or better in dustwrappers. The seven volumes
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London: Andre Deutsch. First English edition, 1993.
One hundred and fourteen essays, subjects include: satire, the novel, Norman Mailer, Paul Bowles, prettiness, Italo Calvino, Paul Bowles, pieces on Abraham Lincoln, 'Ronnie and Nancy', patriotism, monotheism and its discontents: the second half of the 20th century covered; 1,295pp., including index.
Fine in dustwrapper.
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New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux. First American edition, 1986.
Walcott, who identified as 'absolutely a Caribbean writer', explores the legacy of deep colonial damage in this selection from 10 earlier books of verse, including his autobiographical poem 'Another Life'; inscribed by the author in 1987.
Top edge dusty, else fine in dustwrapper.
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Caulfield, Vic: The Herald and Weekly Times. First Australian editions, 1942-1959.
Eighteen volumes: A complete set of the annual adventures of the main characters from 'Tidley Winks & Wally' after their enlistment in the Home Front Army for World War Two, transformation into Major Winks, Private Pudden Benson (the major’s batman), Private Wally Higgins and Australian comic history immortality.
The trio, along with a rich supporting cast, shirk official duties, really any form of work, and, as soon as the War is over, head to a North Queensland sugarcane plantation, ‘the frontiers of civilisation’, according to the 1947 issue. Their distaste for work continues as their fondness for local intrigue intensifies. The subjects for their adventures, and targets for their prejudices, become American servicemen, farmers, indigenous people, women, marriage, even the Melbourne Olympics cops a serve, before they are lured indoors and sedated, like the rest of us, on the cover of the last issue, by the arrival of television.
Pictorial wrappers, stapled. Some of the staples to the early volumes have rusted, otherwise all very good or better. The eighteen volumes
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New York: Harcourt Brace and Jovanovich. Reprint, 1980.
Collects all 41 stories of 'A Curtain of Green', 'The Wide Net', 'The Golden Apples', 'The Bride of Innisfallen' plus 'Where is the Voice Coming From?' and 'The Demonstrators', both previously unpublished and spanning three decades; preface by the author – a lover of tall tales as well as a truth teller.
Set during the pre-Civil Rights US and mostly about a white Mississippi adjusting to a new South, the stories of racial injustice and polarised societies resonate with events in the US today; Welty's writing defying pigeon holing as it shifts from high comedy and whimsy, poignant desolation and socialist realism, to folklore and fairytale.
Very good in dustwrapper.
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New York: Farrar Straus and Cudahy. Reprint, 1957.
'Miss Lonelyhearts', 'The Day of the Locust', 'The Dream Life of Balso Snell' and 'A Cool Million', all complete, but not the complete works of the author. 'Miss Lonelyhearts' and 'The Day of the Locust', set in the newspaper and Hollywood film industries, are dark satires of the corrupt American dream.
Faint spotting to to top edge, else fine in dustwrapper
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London: Secker and Warburg. First English edition, 1957.
'Miss Lonelyhearts', 'The Day of the Locust', 'The Dream Life of Balso Snell' and 'A Cool Million', all complete but not the author's complete works; pulled into a neat summary by Lew Archer in 'The Drowning Pool', 'There was nothing wrong with Southern California that a rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure.'
Very good in dustwrapper sunned on the spine.
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London: Secker and Warburg. First English edition, 1986.
Forty-nine stories, from four collections and those previously uncollected; preface by the author; introduction by Gore Vidal, who expresses the view that these stories form the real autobiography of Williams's 'art and inner life'.
Very good in dustwrapper with spots of foxing on the inside folds and featuring Andy Warhol's portrait of the author.
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New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. First American editions, 1975-1993.
Five volumes: The complete set – the historical and cultural events and dominant individuals from half the 20th century dissected through the journals of the writer and literary critic – beginning with him as managing editor of 'Vanity Fair' in 1920-1921 and ending, 3,000pp. later, with 'June 11, 1972: The Stone House' written the day before his death. Volumes 1-4 edited and introduced by Leon Edel, volume 5 by Lewis M.Dabney.
All fine in dust wrappers. The Sixties is a review copy with publisher's promotional material laid in. The five vols.
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New York: Prometheus Books. Reprint and First American edition, 2012-2014.
The notion of 'wisdom' in Greek Classical Literature, that gave us tragedy, comedy, poetry, history, philosophy and democracy, as well as advances in science, medicine and mathematics; and the manner in which Roman Literature was first intimidated by it and then forged its own versions and examples.
Fine in dustwrappers. The two volumes
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