Search Results: Authors starting with B from Quair Books

Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1985. 8vo. B/w illustrations. Blue cloth, silver lettering. Illustrated endpapers. Pushing to spine ends, else, clean and tight. In original dust jacket: tobacco-toned, especially spine, creasing to edges. A very good copy.

London: Macdonald, 1954. Very Good. FIRST UK EDITION. 8vo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in yellow. Bruising to spine ends, edges dusty with a few spots. Else, clean and tidy. A very good copy of the 23rd Inspector Schmidt novel. The prolific US novelist received the Grand Master Edgar award in 1979 from the Mystery Writers of America.

London: Virago Press Limited, 1987. Paperback. Good. First VMC edition. Trade paperback. Slight lean to spine. Rubbed and creased, edgewear. Edges tanned, a few light spots to top and three light stains to fore. Foxing to p. 1, else, internally, clean. VMC no. 247.

London: Duckworth, 1974. Cloth. Good+. FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. 8vo. Black cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Lean to spine, top corners bruised. Top edge toned (not from tobacco!), edges foxed, occasionally to top margins. Inscribed by Bainbridge in black pen to title page: "To Jeff/ in praise of smoking/ Beryl Bainbridge". Else, clean. In the original chartreuse and black monochrome illustrated dust jacket, lettered in white: a little edgewear, toning to top edge of reverse. Good+/ very 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: Duckworth, 1977. Cloth. Good+. FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. 8vo. Black cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Lean to spine, bruising to extremities, dint to leading edge of bottom board. Edges and text block unevenly browned, a little shaken. Inscribed by Bainbridge in black pen to title page: "To Jeff/ with best wishes/ Beryl Bainbridge". Else, clean. In the original monochrome illustrated dust jacket, lettered in yellow: a little edgewear, gentle creasing to spine ends and top edge, nick to leading edge of bottom board. Good+/ very good

Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, inc., 1963. Cloth. Good+. A pleasing association copy from the library of author V. S. Pritchett, to whom it is inscribed. FIRST US EDITION. 8vo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in red. Blotching to boards, edges tanned. Pritchett's posthumous book label to front pastedown, inscribed by Balakian in blue pen to ffep: "To V. S. Pritchett,/ With highest esteem and warmest regards. Nona Balakian. Dec. 1963." Else, clean. Good+ Nona Balakian (1918-1991) was an Armenian American literary critic, essayist and editor of the New York Times Sunday Book Review. Balakian included an essay about V. S. Pritchett in her later essay collection, Critical Encounters (1978). The book label, which includes a facsimile signature, was added posthumously to books in V. S. Pritchett's library.

London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1925. Very Good. FIRST EDITION. 8vo. Textured brown cloth, gilt stamped lettering and ruling to spine, single blind ruling and gilt-stamped roundel to upper board. Pushing to spine ends, nick to head-cap. A few marks to lower board. Top edge dusty. Toned feps, a few spots to front and rear, 'L.R.W.' in pencil to front pastedown, 'Philip, Son & Nephew, Ltd, Liverpool' label to rear pastedown. Single-page letter addressed to 'Mrs Wilberforce' laid in. Else, clean and tight. A very good copy of Baring's poems and plays, with an interesting scientific provenance. The fond letter (21.12.28) suggests the book was a Christmas gift to Professor and Mrs Margaret Wilberforce (n�e Raynes) from Alfred Weale. L.R.W., Lionel Robert Wilberforce (1861-1944) was the Lyon Jones Professor of Physics at University College, Liverpool (from 1903 the University of Liverpool) from 1900-1935 (succeeding Sir Oliver Lodge), and acting vice-chancellor between 1926-27. Early in his career, he… Read More

The Hogarth Press, 1951. Good. First edition. 8vo. Red cloth, black lettering. Spine slightly cocked, patches of sunning to edges of boards. Spotting to edges, prelims and occasionally into margins. In fair original DJ - price-clipped, soiled, loss to top front edge. This collection of short stories followed Barker's Somerset Maugham Award in 1947 with Innocents.

London: Cassell and Company Limited, 1900. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. viii, [432], 8 catalogue. Black cloth, bevelled edges, spine lettered in gilt. Top edge gilt. Patterned endpapers. Spine gently sunned, rubbed, faint marks and nicking to upper board, especially at leading edges, some foxing to edges and, on occasion, into margins. Annie Pearson's ex libris to front pastedown, featuring her Aberdeenshire house, Dunecht. A good+ copy of the second book in Barrie's Tommy series, with an interesting suffrage provenance. Bradford-born Annie Pearson (1860-1932, née Cass, GBE), from 1917, Viscountess Cowdray, was a suffragist and philanthropist, dubbed the Fairy Godmother of Nursing for her financial support of the Royal College of Nursing and promotion of district nursing. She served in various roles across the Women's Liberal Federation, the Scottish Women's Hospitals and the Liberal Women's Suffrage Union, and was a prominent early member of the Women's Engineering Society (WES). Pearson hosted Mrs… Read More

London; Melbourne: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1986. Very Good. FIRST EDITION. Blue cloth, gilt lettering to spine. Slight slant to spine, light pushing to spine ends. Else, clean and tight. In Kathy Miller's original dust jacket: spine sunned, light creasing to heel of spine. A very good copy.

[Leicester]: Privately Published; Leiciester Printers Ltd, 1963. Stiff card wrappers. Very Good. FIRST EDITION. Side-stapled booklet (21.6 x 14cm), pp. 48. Cream card wrappers, front wrapper lettered and striped in black. Toned, soiled, crumpled and dented, edgewear. Occasional scatters of spots, staples rusty, else, clean. Good+ Scarce. OCLC finds 5 holdings (British & Irish legal deposit libraries only). A brief, but dense and sprawling, treatise on love, extracted from Bates' unfinished novel, which "was for a long time entitled Sons Without Mothers, which is how Proust once described homosexuals," but which grew "to be about so many more things than homosexuality" (Foreword). Bates touches on Shakespeare, jazz, Christianity, Communism and contemporary race relations. With a printed dedications: "For E. M Forster and John Osbourne with affection and admiration [...] And, for I. with love". Not the actor, Alan Bates (1929-) was a Leicester-based poet and Chairman of the Leicester Poetry Society… Read More

London: Jonathan Cape, 1985. Very Good. 'Reissued in this edition'. 8vo. Black cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Illustrated with nearly fifty drawings by Edward Ardizzone. Light wear to spine ends, remains of stickers to both pastedowns, else, clean and bright. In the Ardizzone-illustrated dust jacket: a little creased at edges. Very good/ very good. A nice copy of a later edition.

�ditions Garnier Fr�res, 1961. Good. In French. Trade paperback. With b/w frontis and illustrations. Illustrated yellow wrappers. Spine faded, edgewear, top corner (and into text block) bumped. Else, clean and tight.

London: Macmillan, 1976. Paperback. Very Good. Uncorrected proof copy. Cream paper wrappers, black lettering. Tanned, lightly shelf soiled, creasing to spine. Else, clean and bright.

London: George Newnes, 1904. Cloth. Very Good. FIRST UK EDITION. 8vo. Original blue and mustard pictorial cloth, lettered in green (faded). 8vo, pp. xii, 357, [1] + b/w plates and illustrations. All edges gilt. Rubbed, faint staining to front board, extremities bumped. Endpapers and adjacent pages toned, evidence of handling use (including, rather charmingly, one PO's 'little pig' finger-play cut-out laid-in), creasing and short closed tears to heels of hinges of numerous gatherings. Else, clean and tidy. A robust copy of an unusual title by the Beard sisters. The Beard sisters, Adelia Belle (1857-1920) and Lina, co-founded the first American girls' scouting group, The Girl Scout Society, known subsequently as The Girl Pioneers, and finally as The Camp Fire Girls. The sisters co-authored numerous books, including The American Girls Handy Book (1887) and Mother Nature's Toy Shop, all of which Adelia illustrated (their father was the artist James Henry Beard). N.B. This is a weighty book and will… Read More

The Folio Society, 1993. Very Good. The fourth printing. Large 8vo. With b/w illustrations. Light blue cloth with gilt and black titles and decoration to spine and boards. Top edge maroon. Brown endpapers. Light sunning to spine, light bruising to heel. Else, clean and tidy. In good gilt slipcase - light scuffing, light edgewear. Still, a smart copy.

The Folio Society, 1995. Good. First Folio edition. Large 8vo. With b/w illustrations throughout. Green pictorial cloth with gilt and black lettering to spine and decoration to boards. Top edge green. Green endpapers. Spine faded and rubbed. Else, crisp and clean. No slipcase.

The Folio Society, 1992. Very Good. First Folio edition. Large 8vo. With b/w illustrations throughout. Grey pictorial cloth with black and gilt lettering to spine and decoration to boards. Red top edge. Maroon endpapers. Light bruising to heel of spine, light crease. Else, crisp and clean. In good gold slip case - rubbed and lightly scuffed.

Faber and Faber/ Ariel Books on the Arts, 1946. Good. First edition. 8vo, pp. 72 (including 50 b/w plates) + colour frontis. Drab beige cloth boards with grey lettering to spine and upper board. Slight bend and crease to upper board. Spine starting between plates 22 & 23, o/w binding robust. Ownership inscription to ffep, back pastedown creased. Else, clean and bright, in particular the plates of Hurry's designs. A visual treat.