The Flower Beneath the Foot by FIRBANK, RONALD - 1923

316+[6 ad] pages. Small octavo (7 3/4" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's black cloth with silver lettering to spine and cover in original jacket. Has the "A" on the title verso. First edition. Wright wrote as a critic and journalist until 1923, when he became ill from what was given out as overwork, but was in reality a secret drug addiction, according to John Loughery's biography Alias S.S. Van Dine. His doctor confined him to bed (supposedly because of a heart ailment, but actually because of a cocaine addiction) for more than two years. In frustration and boredom, he began collecting and studying thousands of volumes of crime and detection. In 1926 this paid off with the publication of his first S. S. Van Dine novel, The Benson Murder Case. Wright took his pseudonym from the abbreviation of "steamship" and from Van Dine, which he claimed was an old family name. Wright wrote a series of short stories for Warner Brothers film studio in the early 1930s. These stories were used as the basis for a… Read More

London: Whishart & Co., 1933. Book. Very Good. Blue Cloth. First English Edition. 8vo. Revised English edition, preceded by the Contact edition. Some discolouration to cloth along edges, spine slightly cocked, foxing to outside edges of pages; former owner's signature and date to front pastedown. Dust-jacket browning slightly with spine darkened and some foxing to edge rear flap; 4 cm closed tear to bottom edge of front panel, some paper loss at head and heel of spine and corners; light scratch to rear and overall light dust soil..

London: Jonathan Cape, 2005. First Edition. Original Cloth. As New/No Jacket as Issued. Jonathan Cape, London, 2005. Hardback. Book Condition: As New. First Edition. First edition, first printing. Hardback. Book in in MINT/UNREAD condition. No dustjacket, as issued. Complete with promotional bookband which is also in MINT condition. SIGNED by Julian Barnes shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Baltimore: The Hill Press, 1998. quarter cloth with paper-covered boards, paper cover and spine label. Hill Press. large 8vo. quarter cloth with paper-covered boards, paper cover and spine label. (vi), 73+(1) pages. Printed in an edition limited to 125 numbered copies each signed by the printer Stephen Heaver. A fine copy. This is one of the one hundred copies bound in cloth and paper. Finely illustrated with nine wood engravings by Gaylord Schanilec, which were printed from the original blocks. A collection of provocative and philosophical essays from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, written by Francis Bacon, Thomas Fuller, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Paine, Charles Lamb, Henry David Thoreau, John Ruskin, and Thomas Henry Huxley.

New York: Harper & Row, 1979. Signed on the title page by James Welch. First edition / First printing. Blue cloth spine, blue paper-covered boards. Very fine in a dust jacket with minor wear, else fine. The jacket is much more attractive than usual for this book. The scarcest of Welch's novels, especially in nice condition.

316+[6 ad] pages. Small octavo (7 3/4" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's black cloth with silver lettering to spine and cover in original jacket. Has the "A" on the title verso. First edition. Wright wrote as a critic and journalist until 1923, when he became ill from what was given out as overwork, but was in reality a secret drug addiction, according to John Loughery's biography Alias S.S. Van Dine. His doctor confined him to bed (supposedly because of a heart ailment, but actually because of a cocaine addiction) for more than two years. In frustration and boredom, he began collecting and studying thousands of volumes of crime and detection. In 1926 this paid off with the publication of his first S. S. Van Dine novel, The Benson Murder Case. Wright took his pseudonym from the abbreviation of "steamship" and from Van Dine, which he claimed was an old family name. Wright wrote a series of short stories for Warner Brothers film studio in the early 1930s. These stories were used as the basis for a… Read More

London: Whishart & Co., 1933. Book. Very Good. Blue Cloth. First English Edition. 8vo. Revised English edition, preceded by the Contact edition. Some discolouration to cloth along edges, spine slightly cocked, foxing to outside edges of pages; former owner's signature and date to front pastedown. Dust-jacket browning slightly with spine darkened and some foxing to edge rear flap; 4 cm closed tear to bottom edge of front panel, some paper loss at head and heel of spine and corners; light scratch to rear and overall light dust soil..

London: Jonathan Cape, 2005. First Edition. Original Cloth. As New/No Jacket as Issued. Jonathan Cape, London, 2005. Hardback. Book Condition: As New. First Edition. First edition, first printing. Hardback. Book in in MINT/UNREAD condition. No dustjacket, as issued. Complete with promotional bookband which is also in MINT condition. SIGNED by Julian Barnes shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Baltimore: The Hill Press, 1998. quarter cloth with paper-covered boards, paper cover and spine label. Hill Press. large 8vo. quarter cloth with paper-covered boards, paper cover and spine label. (vi), 73+(1) pages. Printed in an edition limited to 125 numbered copies each signed by the printer Stephen Heaver. A fine copy. This is one of the one hundred copies bound in cloth and paper. Finely illustrated with nine wood engravings by Gaylord Schanilec, which were printed from the original blocks. A collection of provocative and philosophical essays from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, written by Francis Bacon, Thomas Fuller, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Paine, Charles Lamb, Henry David Thoreau, John Ruskin, and Thomas Henry Huxley.

New York: Harper & Row, 1979. Signed on the title page by James Welch. First edition / First printing. Blue cloth spine, blue paper-covered boards. Very fine in a dust jacket with minor wear, else fine. The jacket is much more attractive than usual for this book. The scarcest of Welch's novels, especially in nice condition.