Search Results: Modern Firsts from Quair Books

London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd, 1945. Hardback. Very Good. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. viii, 334. Maroon cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Lean to spine, pushing to heel of spine. Else, clean and tidy, especially given the poor post-war paper stock. In the original dust jacket with its apt melodramatic cover vignette (and double cleff-cum-noose spine design): ragged, losses to spines end, corners and bottom of front panel, numerous closed tears with amateur tape-repairs to reverse. Very good/ good-only. A robust copy of Brittain's penultimate novel. A pacifist novel with a biographical (rather than autobiographical) foundation, in Testament of Experience, Brittain recalled its genesis: "In the autumn of 1939, I was summoned to a murder trial as a potential witness for the defense. The prisoner, a sensitive and intelligent professional man, had caused his wife's death and then attempted suicide, but afterwards claimed that he could remember nothing of the tragedy. A team of psychological specialists traced… Read More

London: William Heinemann, 1912. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY AUTHOR. Substantial 8vo, pp. [viii], 640. Original green cloth, spine ruled and lettered in gilt, upper board decorated and lettered in black. Bottom edge untrimmed. Slight lean to spine, gentle pushing to spine ends, bottom corners bruised, rubbed. Signed and dated by Grand in faded sepia ink to front pastedown in the year of publication: "Sarah Grand/ 1912.", below 'Dunecht' book-label. Offsetting and foxing to feps, else, clean and tight. Very good. A pleasing copy of Grand's penultimate novel, unusual signed and tantalising in its connection with the Pearsons of Dunecht. Sarah Grand, the pen name of Frances Elizabeth Bellenden McFall (née Clarke, 1854-1943), was an Irish author and suffragist, who laid claim to coining the term 'the new woman'. Alongside her weighty 'problem' novels, in the early decades of the twentieth century, Grand lectured throughout England and the United States, promoting women's suffrage, rational dress,… Read More

Stocksfield and London: Oriel Press, 1978. Cloth. Very Good. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, amply and gloriously illustrated in colour and halftone. Original green and red mottled cloth, spine lettered in silver. Bruising to extremities, dint to upper board. In the original illustrated dust jacket: toned, light edgeware. Very good/ very good.

London: J. M. Dent/ Travellers' Tales, 1940. Hardback. Very Good. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. 228 + b/w plates. Blue cloth, spine and upper board lettered in dark blue. Top edge blue. Extremities bruised and worn, fine bands of tanning to board edges. Toned, remainder of ex libris to front pastedown, else, clean and tidy. In the original pictorial dust jacket: price-clipped (incl. a section of flap copy), soiled, rubbed and creased, numerous losses and nicks, amateur tape repairs. Very good/ fair

London: Macmillan & Co Ltd, 1960. First edition. Crown 8vo, pp. vi, [376], [2]. Red cloth, gilt lettering to spine. Light wear and pushing to spine ends. Tobacco-tanned edges. Else, clean and square. In Sidney Nolan's dust jacket: small loss to head of spine, wear to edges and joints, closed tear, creasing and some toning. A good+ copy of number eight in the Strangers and Brothers sequence.

London: Cassell, 1966. Hardback. Very Good. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. [236]. Green cloth, boards patterned in red, spine lettered in silver. Fine bands of sunning to spine ends, a few spots to top edge. Else, clean and tidy. In Val Biro's wraparound pictorial dust jacket: spine sunned, creasing and light wear to spine ends,still, the Edinburgh cityscape remains vivid. A pleasing copy. Very good/ very good March Cost was the pen name of Margaret Mackie Morrison (1897-1973). Morrison was a creative shape-shifter: having originally studied at the Glasgow School of Art, she subsequently trained in the theatre and joined Frank Benson's company, with which she performed across the English provinces and at the Royal Court. She retired from the stage to pursue a career as a novelist, initially publishing short stories under Peggy Morrison, before finding international success with her first novel as March Cost, A Man Named Luke (1932). After the Festival moves from Warsaw on the brink of war to England and… Read More

London: John Murray, 1971. Hardback. Very Good. FIRST UK EDITION. 8vo. Red cloth, white stamped lettering and decoration. Top edge tanned, bands of offsetting to endpapers, PO to ffep, a few fox spots and stains, else, a clean, square copy. In the Janina Ede illustrated dust jacket, lettered in pink and black: edgewear, chipped at head of spine, creasing, closed tear to rear panel, taped at reverse, but the cover art remains bonny and bright. A lovely copy of Sagan's fourth novel. Very good/ very good.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965. Very Good. FIRST EDITION. Side-stapled pamphlet, pp. 24. Illustrated front wrapper in red, black and white, designed by T. E. Burrill. Toned and a little shelf-soiled, edgewear, nick to heel. Else, clean and tight. Very good Featuring two poems by Plath, originally published (in the same year) in Ariel: 'The Bee Meeting' and Lady Lazarus', plus Anne Sexton's 'Sylvia's Death'.

London: Allison & Busby Limited, 2019. Very Good. FIRST UK EDITION, SIGNED BY AUTHOR. 8vo. Black cloth, spine lettered in gilt (a little rubbed). Bruising to extremities, faint white marks and rubbing to bottom edge of upper board. Signed by Winspear in black pen to title page, a couple of creased pages. Else, clean and bright. In the original dust jacket: edgewear and a little creasing, faint mottling to front panel. Very good/ very good.

London: Micahel Joseph, 1958. Very Good. FIRST UK EDITION. 8vo. Original pink cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Pushing to spine ends, edges toned and gently spotted. Else, clean and tight. In the original turquoise dust jacket: spine ends creased, with small losses and splits at joints. Very good/ good+ Includes 'Babette's Feast'.

London: Bantam Press, 1996. Cloth. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY AUTHOR. 8vo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Red endpapers. Pushing to spine ends, top corner of upper board bumped, edges toned. Signed by Cooper in black biro to title page, else, clean and tight. In the original dust jacket: creased at edges and extremities, especially. Very good/ Good+

London: Duckworth, 1989. Hardback. Near Fine. FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. 8vo. Black cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Gentlest bruising to extremities. Scatter of pinpoint marks to ffep. Signed, flamboyantly, by Bainbridge in black biro to title page. Else, clean, tight and tidy. In the original monochrome illustrated dust jacket: a little edgewear, gentle creasing to spine ends and top edge. A lovely copy. Near fine/ near fine With Brendan King's wonderful photographic portriat of Bainbridge to the rear panel. An Awfully Big Adventure was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1990 (Bainbridge never did win it, despite being shortlisted a record five times) and adapted as a film in 1995. Its seventeen-year-old protagonist Stella Bradshaw, who, "in a typical Bainbridge self-portrait, appears to be stuck in an uncomfortable limbo between childhood and adulthood," was based on the author's time at the Liverpool Playhouse: "With hair shorn she appeared as a boy mathematical genius, and, in… Read More

London: Chatto & Windus, 1996. Hardback. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY AUTHOR. Substantial 8vo. Black cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Spine rolled, gentle pushing to spine ends. Tanned. Signed, "A S Byatt," in black pen to title page. Folded Observer review by Kate Kellaway of Babel Tower laid in. Else, clean and tight. In the original dust jacket: spine sunned, creased, a little wear to extremities. A very good copy of the third novel in Byatt's Frederica Quartet. "The new novel by A. S. Byatt is as heavy as a brick; and a brick, in a way, is what it is � part of the Tower of Babel of which she has appointed herself assistant architect. [...] The tower that Byatt has built is elaborate, imposing and the view from the top vertiginous." (Kellaway, 1996).

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971. FIRST US EDITION. 8vo. Blue cloth, silver lettering to spine. Wear to extremities, gentle pushing to spine ends. In the original dust jacket: shelf-soiled, chipped and creased, a couple of closed tears, small loss to bottom corner of rear panel. Very good/ good+

London: Heinemann, 1988. Very Good. FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Red cloth, spine lettered in black. Slight lean to spine, gentle pushing and wear to spine ends. PO gift inscription in blue pen to ffep: "July 26 1988/ For your birthday./ My love, Doreen". Else, clean and tight. In the original dust jacket: a little creasing to edges. Very good/ very good. From the library of Doreen and Walter Newlyn. The British economist and educator, Walter Newlyn (1915-2002), was known for his work on monetary theory and with African nations. From 1967 (until his retirement in 1978) he was Professor of Developmental Economics at the University of Leeds and in 1964 founded its African Studies Unit, now LUCAS. Both Doreen and Walter were passionate about theatre; in the late 1950s they set up the Uganda Pilgrim Players, the country's first multi-racial theatre group. Back in the UK, Doreen was key to the foundation of the West Yorkshire (now Leeds) Playhouse in 1968.

London: Macmillan & Co., 1947. Cloth. Very Good. FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Original maroon cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Slight lean to spine, top edge spotted. Lengthy POI and scatter of spots to ffep, else clean and tight. In the original red, black and white typographical dust jacket by Jack Matthew: toned, spine sunned, extremities chipped, edgewear. A pleasing copy. Very good/ very good

Paris: Mercure de France, 1948. FIRST EDITION, LIMITED EDITION, 1 of 100: out of sequence, unnumbered. In French. 8vo, pp. 222. Buff wrappers, lettered in red and black. Edges untrimmed. Tanned, losses to spine ends, edges and text block tanned, pages friable, short closed tear to leading edge of first page with attendant dirty finger print. POI to ffep, occasional pen scoring to Monnier's preface and first page, front hinge tender, spine starting in a couple of places. A good+ copy of Bryher's wartime novel. Unusual. Jisc LHD lists three copies (BL, Bodleian and NLS). Although originally written in English, the French edition is the first edition. Indeed, Beowulf didn't appear in English until 1956, when it was published in North America by Pantheon Books (see our copy below). A paperback edition was issued in 2020 by Schaffner Press. This edition, like the French edition of Paris 1900 (see above), unites Bryher and Monnier, two significant, if often less visible, queer modernists, who were close… Read More

New York: Pantheon Books, 1956. Hardback. Very Good. FIRST US EDITION. 8vo. Original quarter black cloth, lettered in silver, patterned paper boards. Pushing to spine ends, top corners bruised. Scatter of spots to top edge, endpapers toned, Warren F. Johnson's studious ex libris to to front pastedown. Else, clean and tight. In Anne Marie Jauss' original pictorial dust jacket, featuring a grumpy statue of an English bulldog in charcoal: price-clipped, spine sunned, gentle wear to extremities. A lovely copy of Bryher's WWII novel. Very good/ very good With a printed dedication to Sylvia Beach "and the memory of Adrienne Monnier". Monnier had translated Beowulf into French and written the introduction for the first French edition, published in a limited edition of 100 copies by Mercure de Paris in 1948 (see our copy, ref. 2459). Monnier described Beowulf as "un petit classique". Set in London during the Blitz, it centres on the lives that intersect through the Warming Pan tearoom, run by Selina and… Read More

London: Starhaven, 2005. Very Good. FIRST EDITION, WITH AUTHORIAL INSCRIPTION. Trade paperback. Illustrated wrappers. Gently rubbed at joints and edges, creasing and a few faint marks to fore-edges. Inscribed by Tucker in black pen to title page: "To Liz from Eva/ Christmas 2009". Else, clean and tight. Very good. Tucker's third novel, coming 40 years after Contact (1966) and Drowning (1969), draws on her early life and that of her maternal family, offering a vivid evocation of a German Jewish world destroyed through the rise of National Socialism. Tucker served for many years on the Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of English PEN and was especially vocal on behalf of the Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.

London: Chatto & Windus, 1996. Third impression, INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR. 8vo. Red cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Lean to spine, gentle pushing to head of spine, corners bruised. Inscribed by Byatt to title page: "For Anne/ from/ A S Byatt," in black pen to title page. Ilkley Literature Festival 2000 bookmark, plus two ticket-stubs for Byatt's reading, laid in. Else, clean and tight. In the original dust jacket: gentle sunning to spine, creasing to edges, red stain (from upper board) to reverse of front panel. Still, a very good copy of Byatt's "Borges-like" novel.