Search Results: Titles starting with C from Fine Editions Ltd

London: William Heinemann, 1930. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Fine. Bright first impression ("First Published 1930") of Maugham's best novel. 8vo: [4],270pp. Publisher's Prussian blue linen-grain cloth, front cover and spine lettered in gold, front cover blocked in black with author's device and back cover with publisher's windmill; cream-colored dust jacket printed in red and black. Near Fine (dust-soiled top edge, spine ends rubbed, gilt on one letter slightly flaked); virtually pristine first-issue jacket, with publisher's "7/6 net" on spine panel. "It is generally assumed that the first issue of the first edition consists of copies with a missing 't' on p. 147, line 14. This, however, is not an issue [point] but a state of the printing. It would appear that the error was rectified at some stage in the run. There is also a misprint on p. 181, line 4, 'in' instead of 'it' and a dropped letter—'I'—on p. 63, line 22. These later misprints appear to be common to the whole of the first… Read More

Boston: Laurens Maynard, 1897. First Edition. Cloth. Fine-. First American Issue of the only edition, with spine imprint Maynard and title page "Published by Laurens Maynard" (later Small, Maynard). Edited, with an introduction, by Richard Maurice Bucke, M.D., one of Whitman's literary executors. Small 8vo: viii,173pp, with two inserted leaves of Japan paper, one (frontispiece) with drawing by H. D. Young of Whitman and Peter Doyle on verso before title page, the other a photograph of a letter on recto after p. 112. Publisher's lime T-like cloth (bold ribbed), cover blind stamped with single rule frame, spine lettered in gilt. Pages marginally toned, frontispiece and facsimile letter browned, else an excellent example. BAL 21446. Myerson A14.I.b1. In the third edition of Leaves of Grass, published in 1860, Whitman's "Calamus" poems, a cluster devoted to male-male affection, make their first appearance (the edition on offer here is the first, 37 years later, in which the poems stand alone). The… Read More

New York: Macmillan, 1916. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. First Printing ("Published October, 1916" on copyright page) of the author's first commercially published book, one of only 1200 copies. Review Copy, with review statement ("Review Copy Not for Sale") punched into title page. Small 8vo: [8],217,[9]pp. Publisher's indigo vellum cloth; upper cover framed in blind with double rule and lettered in gilt, with indigo, green and gold vignette; spine stamped in gilt; tipped-in title leaf on coated stock with cover vignette; top edge gilt; others untrimmed. A superb copy, fresh and bright, virtually without flaw, lacking the scarce dust jacket. Alberts 15. ¶"Una [Call Kuster] was to be the extraordinary love of [Jeffers's] life. But another great and equally profound love overwhelmed him shortly after the couple moved to Carmel in 1914. Una described it as a kind of religious conversion under the influence of the wild and thunderously radiant landscape of the Carmel-Big Sur coast. God shouted to him… Read More

London: Printed for Bernard Lintott at the Cross Keys between the Two Temple Gates in Fleetstreet, 1710. First Edition. Sheep. First Edition in English of this neo-Latin poem on procreation, pregnancy, and the raising of children, the translation of which (from the French) is attributed in subsequent editions to William Oldisworth. Foolscap 8vo (163 x 98mm): [16],72,[8]pp, complete with all five full-page engravings by Elisha Kirkall (the plates apparently were not ready when the book was issued and are often lacking, as with all three copies at the British Library) and four final index and advertisement leaves. Contemporary speckled sheep with handsome patina, boards framed with single gilt fillet, spine in six compartments between raised bands, recent morocco lettering piece gilt. Rubbing and scuffs to boards and spine, joints skillfully repaired, binding now sturdy and secure. Pages generally clean, with the plates in deep, rich impressions. Unsophisticated, and charmingly so. Case 253. Foxon… Read More

New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1922. First Printing. Hardcover. Very Good+/Very Good. First American Edition of this semi-autobiographical novel charting the tensions between a young woman's aims as a writer and the expectation that she conform to the conventional role of a doctor's wife. Crown 8vo (187 x 129mm): [4],319,[1]pp. Publisher's forest green cloth lettered in lime green; illustrated dust jacket (flap corners clipped). Discrete book label to rear paste-down of John K. Martin, founder of Black Sparrow Press, best known as publisher of Charles Bukowski's work. A presentable copy of this scarce edition, complete with nicked and dust-soiled jacket. Recently reprinted in the Virago Modern Classics series, when this gifted Glaswegian writer (author of notorious biographies of Robert Bruns and D. H. Lawrence) was rediscovered as an important feminist novelist. The title is taken from Henry IV, Part I: "The camomile, the more it is trodden on, the faster it grows." N. B. With few exceptions (always… Read More

Geneva: Printed for the author by Manget and Cherbuliez, 1820. Three-Quarter Calf. First Edition of this rare, privately printed homage to Cicero, with account of his villas and proposals for a monument in the Amalthea at Arpino and a footbridge in his honor over the Fibrenus (both illustrated). Crown 8vo (201 x 126mm): [4],254,[2]pp, with large folding frontispiece, two maps, and two plates. Period three-quarter leather over marbled boards, spine in six compartments between gilt-ruled bands (red leather lettering piece gilt to second compartment, others with gilt floral device), edges stained red, French blue end papers. Occasional light spotting (blanks more so), but a handsome copy, tightly bound and generally clean throughout. RIBA 1645. Lowndes 1258. Borroni 3357. Not in Pine-Coffin or Coxe. In 1812, Kelsall translated Cicero's The Last Two Pleadings . . . Against Caius Verres. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in… Read More

n.p., n.d.. Fine. A reduced early nineteenth-century copy of BM Satires 9430, lampooning the abnormally bad weather of 1799 and the rising cost of the Napoleonic war. Etching and aquatint on laid paper with original hand coloring: Image: 205 x 165mm; Plate: 222 x 178mm; Sheet: 243 x 191mm. Vertical and horizontal folds as issued, but an excellent impression with rich coloring. BM Satires VII. Gillray Observed, pp. Originally published November 29, 1799, by Hannah Humphrey, 27, St. James's Street. This copy of from volume 5 of London und Paris (Weimar, 1800), the rare satirical journal reprinting reduced copies, mostly unsigned, of English and French caricatures. In the print, a large frothing tankard stands on a cask whose head forms the base of the design. From the froth Pitt emerges as Death on the White Horse, giving the effect of a fantastic equestrian statue on a high pedestal. Pitt is in back view; in his right hand is a flaming sword, his left arm is raised; he turns his head slightly to the… Read More

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958. First Printing. Hardcover. Fine-/Fine-. First Edition (so stated) of the author's first book, a collection of light verse. 8vo: viii,[4],82pp. Publisher's quarter-bound black cloth, spine lettered in gilt; off-white paper-covered boards stamped in gold; first issue price-clipped dust jacket, with "two small children" (later corrected to "four") on rear flap. About Fine (faint offsetting to end papers); about Fine jacket (touch of soiling to back panel; spine ends and corners very lightly rubbed). Roberts A1a. In the mid-Fifties, after work as a "Talk of the Town" reporter at the New Yorker, Updike composed these remarkable poems—intellectual, witty pieces on the absurdities of modern life. The collection's seventh poem, "Why the Telephone Wires Dip and the Poles Are Cracked and Crooked," is carved in full on the reverse of the writer's gravestone. "The old men say / young men in gray / hung this thread across our plains / acres and acres ago. / But we, the… Read More

London / Liverpool: George Philip & Son / Philip, Son & Nephew, 1880. Fine. Rare colored lithographed map of Europe (620 x 691mm), with route to be followed when played as a game. Backed with linen and dissected into 24 sections for folding (as issued) into original case binding of machine-stamped blue cloth covers with elaborately decorated oval paper title label printed in black. At bottom is a comparative chart depicting the relative heights of mountains in various countries, with numbered "Reference to the Mountains" in upper right corner giving elevations of peaks. An excellent example, securely bound, with map coloring fresh and bright. Worldcat Discovery lists only three holdings, all in the United States. Hannas (English Jigsaw Puzzle), p. 85. There are 104 stops on the tour, each a city or town, leading players from London across the channel to Calais and eventually back to London by way of Spain, Italy, Austria, Turkey, Russia, and Iceland. John Betts was a publisher of cartographic games… Read More

1954. First Edition thus. Stiff Wrappers. Near Fine+. Uncommon edition of the world's most famous modern animal fable and political allegory. Oblong 8vo (164 x 240mm): [28]pp, with 52 cartoon strips. Grey illustrated wrappers printed in black, staple-bound. Light stain to top left corner of upper wrapper, else an excellent example, tightly bound and clean throughout. Fenwick (A.10.M1) mentions, in passing, the strip cartoon version serialized by British and American newspapers but not this publication. Shortly after Orwell's death, his widow Sonia was visited in London by representatives of the American producer Louis de Rochemont, seeking movie rights to Orwell's novel. A conventional live-action adaptation was out of the question, of course, given that the book's main characters were farmyard animals, so De Rochemont hired the British husband-and-wife animators John Halas and Joy Batchelor, who had produced propaganda films during the Second World War. Their adaptation of Animal Farm was… Read More

New York / Boston: Anderson Galleries / Merrymount Press, 1921. Limited Edition. Paper-Covered Boards. Near Fine+. One of 125 copies printed on heavy cream (handmade?) paper by D. B. Updike at the Merrymount Press. Demy 8vo (221 x 160mm): 14,[1]pp, with color title-page vignette, full-page wood engraving in black and two colors signed by Ruzicka in a tiny hand below the plate ("An East River Night; In Memoriam F.R.S."), and two smaller vignettes printed in black. Original peach paper-covered boards, upper cover lettered in black. Light soiling to boards, contents clean, a handsome copy of this scarce exhibition catalog. The catalog lists 68 titled works, comprising 41 wood engravings, six etchings (one marked "Aquatint"), and 21 drawings and watercolors. Ruzicka was an American graphic designer, born in Bohemia, whose work featured prominently in publications of Daniel Berkeley Updike's Merrymount Press. This exhibition was organized by Walter Monroe Grant and Mollie Higgins Smith at The Anderson… Read More

London: Sotheby & Co / William Heinemann, 1962. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Catalogue for the sale of Maugham's art collection at Sotheby's on April 10, 1962, offered with Maugham's final book, Purely My Pleasure, describing his lifelong interest in collecting art. Catalogue: Royal 8vo (280 x 275mm): 63,[1]pp, with frontispiece portrait of Maugham by Marie Laurencin, 16 color plates (including rarely reproduced images of paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec, Leger, Monet, Matisse, Picasso, Pissarro, Renoir, Rouault, Sisley, and Utrillo), and 15 halftone plates. Original sea-green paper-covered boards superimposed with Maugham's Mauresque seal. Purely for Pleasure: Royal 8vo (286 x 220): viii,28pp, with frontispiece and 37 numbered color plates. Publisher's black buckram, front cover stamped in gold with Maugham's Mauresque seal, spine lettered in gold; sage-green pictorial dust jacket printed in black, front cover with color reproduction of Renoir's nude "Gabrielle" (price-clipped). Excellent examples,… Read More

London: Ernest Brown & Phillips, The Leicester Galleries, Leicester Square, 1927. First Edition. Card Covers. Fine. A superb copy of the rare First Printing of this catalog of art works (later printings are noted at top of front wrapper) accompanying Lawrence's account of his legendary part in the Arab rebellion against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Foolscap 8vo (144 x 110mm): 28pp, with 2 full-page photographs on coated paper (Eric Kennington's bust of Lawrence and Augustus John's portrait of "H. M. King Feysal of Irak"). Wire-stitched in original dark beige card wrappers. Trivial nick to leading edge of upper wrapper, else pristine. O'Brien A099. Catalogue of an exhibition of 81 items. The preface Lawrence contributed to the 1921 exhibition catalogue of Arab Portraits by Kennington, with the first three paragraphs omitted, was repurposed for this 1927 catalogue. George Bernard Shaw also contributed a preface "saying more about Lawrence than he did about the exhibition." (O'Brien)… Read More

London: Holland Press, 1962. First Edition thus. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. Deluxe reprints of this "bibliographical monument of lasting importance," complete in four volumes. (Ricci) Thick royal 8vo (277 x 207mm): [14],599,[4],601-1,096,lxix,[1]; [4],xviii,[4],462,[2],465-818,[1],lxiipp, lavishly illustrated with full-page plates and numerous text woodcuts. French Books: Publisher's green cloth-covered boards (first binding), spines stamped in gold; cream pictorial dust jackets (price-clipped) printed in black. Parts I and II continously paginated in two volumes. A superb set, virtually pristine (probably unread). German Books: Publisher's quarter white vegetable parchment over red cloth-covered boards, spines stamped in gold, top edges stained red; slate blue pictorial dust jackets printed in black and priced 48 gns. Volumes I and II continously paginated. From the private reference library of antiquarian bookseller Dorothy Sloan, with commemorative book plate loosely inserted. Board edges lightly… Read More

Oxford: printed by Leonard Lichfield, 1642. First Edition. Half-Calf. Near Fine. First Edition one of the most curious and fascinating books of the seventeenth century, Potter's treatise on the Number of the Beast. 4to: [16],214,[2]pp, with copper-engraved title page by W. Marshall, showing numerical manifestations of ‘666' and their supposed connections to the Catholic Church, full-page plate, and woodcut initials, headpieces, numerological illustrations, and diagrams in the text. Leaf X4 is a cancel; final leaf is blank. Book plate from the North Library of the Earls of Macclesfield and binder's ticket (Hatton of Manchester) to front paste-down. Nineteenth-century half-calf, spine gilt in six compartments, red morocco lettering piece gilt, brown medium diaper cloth-covered boards, all edges speckled red, sea-green end papers. Complete in all respects and in excellent condition throughout, with clean pages, clear print, and ample margins. Engraved title is a rich, deep impression. A superb… Read More

Milano: Tipografia e libreria Pirotta e C., 1838. Wrappers. Fine. First and only edition, extremely rare, of this celebration of the memorial in honor of Gabrio Maria Nava, bishop of Brescia, with a splendid full-page lithograph illustrating the proposed monument. Royal 4to (320 x 240mm): 8pp, with frontispiece. Uncut in original blue wrappers printed in black. Provenance: book label (Biblioteca del Mottarello, Velate di Varese, Italy) and book plate (Virginio Bianchi-Valentini ["Fortes fortuna adiuvat"]) of two distinguished collectors to inner front cover. A spectacular copy. First Search identifies only one copy worldwide, in Lugano, at the Sistema bibliotecario ticinese. OCLC adds a second copy, at the University of Illinois. Despite being a close friend of Eugène de Beauharnais, Viceroy of Italy (who recommended Nava for the post of bishop), and personal confessor to his wife, Princess Augusta Amalia of Bavaria, Nava was steadfast to the cause of Pope Pius VII (who Napoleon's prisoner in… Read More

London: Hogarth Press, 1958. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine+/Fine+. First Impression of the author's fifth novel. Small 8vo: 221,[1]pp. Publisher's forest green cloth, spine lettered in gilt; dust jacked, priced 13s/6d, strikingly illustrated by Charles Mozley. Very Fine and unread. "William Sansom was once described as London's closest equivalent to Franz Kafka. He wrote in hallucinatory detail, bringing every image into pin-sharp focus. . . . He fell from favour, but now there is a movement to rediscover his finest works." (The Independent) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Chicago: Caxton Club, 1972. Limited Edition. Hardcover. As New. Tall, slim 8vo: [4],12,[6]pp, including full-page reproductions from photographs, plus the Bewick wood-block print. Decorated gold-and-tan paper-backed boards, black linen spine, printed paper label, medium-brown laid end papers. Pristine. One of five variant bindings (collect them all!) deposited in the Newberry Library. Limited to 500 unnumbered copies, designed by Greer Allen, composed in Monotype Bell, letterpress printed at Press of A. Colish, Mount Vernon, NY; binding by Publishers Book Binding, Long Island City, NY; text on Curtis Rag of the Curtis Paper Co. of Newark, Delaware; paper by the John A. Manning Co. of Troy, NY; decorated cover papers by Birgitte Cramer of Copenhagen, Denmark; end papers are Miliani Ingres from Fabriano, Italy. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and… Read More

Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1849. Decorative Cloth. Fine. First Edition of this scarce triple-decker, which pioneered the "domestic" school of fiction. Crown (195 x 119mm): 8vo: [4],iii,[1],viii,327,[1]; [4],346; [4],308,32pp. Publisher's chocolate brown ribbed cloth blocked in blind and lettered in gold, fore- and bottom edges rough-trimmed, pale yellow end papers. Contemporary armorial (ormerod) book plate of Jonathan Hargreaves (1840-1893) to front paste-downs (Franks Bequest 13772). End sheets spotted, else a fine, bright set, tightly bound and clean throughout. Sadleir 392. Wolff 924. First of three Caxton novels, "discursive treatments of upper middle-class life, quite different from his other fiction." (Wolff) Bulwer-Lytton loomed large on the literary scene for several decades ("In his day, no British writer rose faster or stood higher . . . and his day spanned several literary eras, from late Georgian to high Victorian," according to John Sutherland). He wrote in an… Read More

London: Jonathan Cape, 1978. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Impression of McEwan's first novel (preceded by two short story collections: First Love, Last Rites and In Between the Sheets). 8vo: 138pp. Publisher's forest green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, grey end papers, illustrated dust jacket priced £3.50. Signed by the author without inscription on the title page. A superlative copy (apparently unread), virtually pristine. Filmed by Andrew Birkin in 1993, with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Andrew Robertson. The story "concerns a family of abandoned children coming to terms with life without their parents. It is about their simultaneous growth into adults and regression as children . . . [and] brings to mind many other novels concerned with children isolated from adults, most notably The Lord of the Flies. But where Golding's children run wild, and the reader is reminded of how the adult world provides checks on their natural aggression, McEwan's grow closer, and the reader is reminded of… Read More