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A bounty of Alexander McCall Smith: The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (#1-16), 44 Scotland Street (#1-4), Limited edition pamphlets (7 vols.), Sunday Philosophy Club (#1-3), all first editions and all signed by the author; complete for Christmas: Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe, Tom Ripley and Gerald Semper; Robert Byron and Wilkie Collins’ two best books; Lewis Carroll’s letters and photographs; Cambodian and Lao erotica reaches Europe; the outliers and followers of Frederick Rolfe; Primo Levi, and Elmore Leonard’s westerns, both complete; from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople and later in Greece with Patrick Leigh Fermor; Matthew Hervey's career in the British 6th Light Dragoons (#1-12, all first editions and all signed by Allan Mallinson); trilogies by Miklos Banffy, Robert Musil, Patrick Modiano and Marina Warner; and 26 Christmas Crackers.
London: The author. First English editions, 1980-2018.
Thirty-nine volumes: A complete run from 1980 to 2018; 'John Julius Norwich (1929-2018), produced his first Cracker in 1970, as a little Christmas gift for his friends. The Cracker format never changed: twenty-four pieces, selected from the ever-expanding collections in his commonplace books, each with a different, mostly patterned, cover. As a fresh Cracker appeared every year, friends and strangers began sending him their own literary plums. He welcomed these additions with typical enthusiasm, generously crediting the contributor, starting little threads and themes and conversations – so that over the years, the Christmas cracker grew into an unofficial club, open to anyone who wanted to join.' (The introduction to the final volume.)
The crackers are an eclectic, modest, alternative record of individuals' activities, reading and listening for almost forty years, gleaned from signs for tourists, reports, obituaries, letters, dinner exchanges, titles, Shakespeare, opening sentences of books, the Bible, lists; shorter crackers: 'Sixteen kisses are mentioned in Jane Austen's novels, not one exchanged by a pair of lovers. Sex never intrudes.' (2017); 'And all dishevelled wandering stars' (John Keats, 2002); 'Our wines leave you nothing to hope for' (Swiss menu, 2006); 'How can one be sure / If true love will endure? / My thoughts this morning are / As tangled as my hair' (The Lady Horikawa, 12th century, 2009).
The last volume, the forty-ninth, was issued in 2018, the proofs corrected by the author from his hospital bed before his death in June.
'I am old. Nothing interests me now,
Moreover I am not very intelligent,
And my ideas have travelled no further
Than my feet. You ask me
What is the greatest happiness on earth?
It is to hear a young girl
Singing along the road.
After she has asked you the way.'
Wang Wei (thirteenth century), the last entry in the final volume.
Pictorial wrappers, stapled. Four vols. inscribed by the author. All fine.The thirty-nine volumes
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London: Granta and Faber and Faber, 2004-2010.
Five volumes: 'The Smoking Diaries' (second impression), 'The Year of the Jouncer', 'The Last Cigarette and Coda' (all first English editions), 'The Early Diaries' (first collected edition) – droll, acerbic, obsessive entries, 'Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who was given six months to live, and here they are, only just dead, eight years later.'
Spots of foxing to extremities in the set, else four volumes fine in dustwrappers and one volume pictorial wrappers, also fine. The five volumes
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London: Faber and Faber. Two First English paperback editions, 2004-2008.
An Englishman abroad. Three volumes, the Gerald Semper novels complete, to date: 'Cooking With Fernet Branca' (this copy with a note from the publisher sending the book to Barry Humphries), 'Amazing Disgrace' and 'Rancid Pansies'.
'Anyone who does not add this hilarious divertimento to their summer reading list should be put on a forced diet of Gerald's inimitable Alien Pie, consuming which, he tells us, is 'one of those experiences poised exquisitely between sorrow and oblivion. I cannot reveal all the ingredients without spoiling the end of the book - not to mention your appetite - but smoked cat and paraffin are among them.' Michael Dibdin on the appearance of 'Cooking with Fernet Branca'.
Pictorial wrappers. 'Cooking with Fernet Branca' is Barry Humphries' copy with his bookplate. All very good or better. The three volumes
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New York: Coward McCann, Alfred A. Knopf, Doubleday, Lippincott and Crowell. All first American editions, 1955-1992.
Tom Ripley – a likeable sociopath, heroic and demonic, energetic and amoral, overcivilised and undersensitised, – was a not untypical protagonist for the second half of the twentieth century and a likely candidate for elected office two generations into the twenty-first. Patricia Highsmith constructed him so exactly that “Reading the book[s] becomes exquisitely uncomfortable. [They are] perfectly engineered to make us give our sympathies to the wrong man. To rejoice, even, when luck is on his side ... we get so deep inside his head”. Tom Ripley is a kindred spirit to Rick Pym, Magnus' father, in John Le Carre's A Perfect Spy, albeit without that character’s reluctance to kill. Twenty-seven years after the last Ripley and twenty-three years after his creator’s death, his appeal shows no signs of fading. He has been played in movies, television and radio, to date, by Alain Delon, Jonathan Kent, Matt Damon, Dennis Hopper, John Malkovich, Barry Pepper, Ian Hart and, I suspect, more to follow. Ripley’s Game is inscribed by the author in 1976; laid in are three aerogrammes from Patricia Highsmith to the same recipient, all typed, letters signed, 1976-1977, literary news, her work, plans to meet, “Yes, I no sooner struck ------ with a little buckshot, than I was whammed in the Observer 20 Nov. With an awful photo and a not very sympathetic article. So much for 8 hours of my time.”
The Talented Mr. Ripley has some edgewear, label of the Jaffe Literary Agency, otherwise fine in first issue dustwrapper evenly faded on the spine. The Boy Who Followed Ripley is a review copy with promotional material, including a photograph of the author, laid in. Ripley's Game is near fine in a fine dustwrapper. Ripley Under Water is fine in dustwrapper. The five vols. and three aerogrammes
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London: GMP. First English editions, 1986-1999.
Eight volumes: A complete set of the stubbornly pseudonymous author's series of historical novels featuring gay themes and characters. Titles are 'Sweet Lavender' (1986), 'Mignon' (1987), 'Thornapple' (1989), 'N for Narcissus' (1990), 'Gaveston' (1992), 'The Bisley Boy' (1995), 'Duval's Gold' (1997) and 'The Honey and the Sting' (1999), all published by the now defunct Gay Men's Press.
All pictorial wrappers. One or two with spots of foxing to the bottom edge, else all fine. The eight vols.
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London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. First English edition, 2006.
Thirty stories collected from the Western pulps and slightly more august journals; the author's first assault on an established genre, though not quite as radical as his subsequent work on the crime novel; 500+pp.
Spots of foxing to foredge, else 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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New York: Anchor Books and Pantheon. First American editions, 2002-2015.
Sixteen volumes. The first sixteen cases of Precious Ramotswe (currently at 19), the author's first and most popular series. Each book carries on from the end of the previous volume, a murder is solved, characters and themes are accumulated, all sitting within a vivid picture of contemporary Botswana and Gaborone, its capitol. All sixteen volumes are signed by the author.
The first three volumes are all pictorial wrappers, all fine in slipcase as issued. The slipcase also contains 'Milkbird', an African folktale retold by McCall Smith, printed wrappers, fine and signed by him. Volumes four to sixteen are all fine in dustwrappers. The sixteen 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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London: Bantam Press. First English editions, 1999-2015.
Volumes 1-12 in the series: Matthew Hervey of the British 6th Light Dragoons and his career from before the Battle of Waterloo, through adventures in India, Canada, Burma, Portugal, Southern Africa, Belgium Russia, between 1815 and 1831; all signed by the author; with Allan Mallinson's business card, inscribed by him, from his position as military attache at the British Embassy in Rome.
The twelve volumes all fine in dustwrappers. The twelve volumes
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New York and London: Paperback Library Inc., First American edition and William Heinemann. First English revised edition, 1967, 1970.
Two volumes: the first American edition of the author's Tangier novel, published pseudonymously on the advice of his uncle, and the first English, revised, edition, introduced by Cyril Connolly who details the setting, background and controversial areas of the two editions.
The American edition is pictorial wrappers, fine. The English, spots of foxing to top edge, else fine in dustwrapper. The two vols.
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London: Fitzroy Dearborn. First omnibus edition, 2003.
Two volumes. The first 50 titles from the British Film Institute's Film Classics series of monographs on individual movies. A difficult list to summarise: Brief Encounter, The Big Heat, The Birds, Boudu Saved from Drowning, Bride of Frankenstein and Blackmail represent 'B'; 1,248pp., list of titles available.
Pictorial boards. A couple of corners bumped and tear to prelims in vol.1, else both very good, as issued without dustwrappers. The two vols.
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San Diego and London: Harcourt, Weidenfeld, Penguin. All first editions., 1979-2014.
Three volumes: The Nabokov-Wilson Letters 1940-1971 (Weidenfeld, 1979), Selected Letters 1940-1977 (Harcourt, 1989), edited by Dmitri Nabokov and Matthew J. Bruccoli, and Letters to Vera (Penguin, 2014); 264 between Nabokov and Wilson before Eugene Onegin got in the way; 400+ in the Selected most re his work; and hundreds to Vera, dedicatee of many of his books, counsel, confidante and wife.
The three volumes all fine in dustwrappers. The three volumes
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London: Headline. Five first English paperback editions and one reprint, 2010-2015.
Six volumes: The complete set of historical novels set in India, beginning at the end of the 15th century and continuing through the Moghul Empire – 'Raiders from the North', 'Brothers at War', 'Ruler of the World', 'The Tainted Throne', 'The Serpent's Tooth' and 'Traitors in the Shadows'; the titles give a clue to the archetypal relationships and situations covered.
Pictorial wrappers. All fine. The six volumes
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New York: Audience Magazine, 1971-1972.
Seven issues: Vol.1, Nos.1-2 and Vol.2, Nos.1-5. Art directors for these issues: Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast, and it looks it; editorial advisors -someone from most disciplines - Saul Bellow, Gordon Parks, John Cassavetes, Anne Sexton; contributors include Dennis Stock (California - a Photographic Portfolio), Nelson Algren, "Poets' Country - Across Russia with Yevtushenko" by Geoffrey Dutton, "The Comedians" re Lenny Bruce, Milton Berle, Jack E. Leonard, Kenny Youngman, Mort Sahl, "Signs of Route 66" - photographs by Mike Salisbury, Thomas Berger on the movie version of Little Big Man, Arthur Miller on the same for The Crucible ...
Pictorial boards. A couple of corners bumped, all very good or better. The seven issues.
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New York: Donald D I Fine. First American editions thus, 1986-1987.
Two vols., six novels, complete: The Kill-Off, The Nothing Man, Bad Boy, The Ripoff, The Golden Gizmo and Roughneck.
Both vols. fine in dustwrapper. The two vols.
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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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