Search Results: Titles starting with S from Christopher de Lotbiniere Rare Books

When the much-beloved Douglas Adams died unexpectedly in 2001, his computers were found to contain many unpublished pieces, the most interesting of which are gathered here. This book is not only marvellous for lovers of his wit, but a fascinating history of computer technology; Adams was regarded as a guru in this area and was always the first to test new devices and write about them in the Press. We see him struggling with every aspect of the web, suggesting improvements and predicting trends that are only now coming true, years later. Hardcover.

New York: Knopf, 1978. First paperback edition. Paperback. Near Fine. This large format paperback accompanied a major retrospective of Steinberg's drawings and collages at the Whitney Museum. 256pp. with hundreds of black and white illustrations and 64 color plates with some fold-outs, including variations of his famous New Yorker covers. 

Nine comic stories about the confusing world of British diplomacy, as her Empire is becoming a thing of the past.
A brilliant writer and linguist, Lawrence Durrell worked for the UK government as his day job for several years and these tales of departmental bungling were his revenge.
Illustrated by Nicolas Bentley. Hardcover

London: Doubleday, 2004. First UK edition. Hardcover. Very Good/near fine. Phiplip Pullman delights in a traditional children's story and has created a splendid tale of talking scarecrows, the King of the Birds and their battle with the evil Buffaloni Corporation. Book has atouch of foxing to edges, otherwise fine.

London: John Murray, 1978. First printing. As New/as new. A grab-bag of different observations from the mighty pen of the Master. The decline and fall of the great Houses in literature, Afternoons with Baedeker and an inspired sequence of English national costumes celebrating the Englishman's horror of ostentation, (except for ceremonial purposes, when he goes mad).

New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1949. First printing. Hardcover. Near Fine/fine. This is an immaculate copy of the first edition of a minor work by Evelyn Waugh, describing the chaos that overcomes a pedantic schoolmaster, who has been invited to take part in a literary ceremony in the Central European country of Neutralia. The nightmare of totalitarian hospitality allows Waugh to mock the modern age and mourn the decline of the old ways.

New York: The Penguin Press, 1984. First printing. Hardcover. As New/as new. Fuller's raw, previous portrait of her African childhood, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, is continued here to a degree, as she travels with the war-scarred survivors who make up members of the continent's displaced white population. Brilliant, violent and deeply adrift, she attempts to understand these men who still need to find a place in modern Africa.

New York: Universe Books, 1987. First printing. Hardcover. Near Fine/near fine. Covering the 42 years from the War to 1987, this authoritative survey by a poet, critic and broadcaster covers the major figures and ideologies in sculpture, on both sides of the Atlantic. Pop, Kinetic, Minimal and Conceptual as well as Salvage Art and a return to Figurative Imagery are referenced in this highly illustrated overview.

New York: Persea Books, 1984. First printing. Hardcover. As New/near fine. Thirty of Cyril Connolly's most influential essays, selected from his previously published works: The Condemned Playground (1945), Ideas and Places (1953) and Previous Convictions (1963). With an introduction by Peter Quennell, we have travel pieces, thoughts on life and literature and some parodies of his contemporaries' styles. Slight fading to jacket spine, else as new.

New York: William Morrow, 1991. First printing. Hardcover. As New/as new. de Bernière's second novel, in perfect condition. "Set in a world where the supernatural is perfectly routine, where wit and affection can blossom in a sump of corruption, where ancient deities walk the streets while the drug trade warps an entire society". A "magic realist"-influenced early work from the creator of Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

A perfect copy of Woody Allen's third collection of occasional humour, most of which had appeared in The New Yorker.
Hardcover.

New York: Summit Books, 1990. Stated First printing. Hardcover. Near Fine/near fine. This is the first american publication of Bennett's two one-act plays about duty and betrayal, as exemplified by the careers of Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt. They appear with the first six of the absurdly funny Talking Heads monologues, first performed on the BBC. Enough to make you cringe.

New York: Bantam Books, 1990. First printing. Hardcover. As New/near fine. Very slight fading to jacket spine, otherwise immaculate copy of one of Tom Robbins' more brilliant novels, with animated sacred vessels from Solomon's Temple attempting to return to the Holy Land. Their journey takes them to New York, where a restaurant run by an Arab and a Jew features belly dancing that will heal all rifts; meanwhile, Southern Baptists and Zionists are trying to provoke Jesus' second coming with a well-placed bomb...

The fourth book in the Hitch-Hiker trilogy. : London: Pan Books. . First UK edition. . Hardcover.. Fine in near fine dust-jacket. . With full numberline, book is in fine condition, jacket has one closed tear to top front. Cover has holographic label depicting a dinosaur or a walrus, depending on how you look at it. Just before the end of the world, all the dolphins mysteriously vanish, but they leave a message...

Second printing.
First appearing in 1961, this continues the nightmare started in Naked Lunch and further developed in Nova Express.
Burroughs blends drug hallucination, satire against the State and a science fiction vision of alternative universes into a grim cocktail, that could be described as coming from the brain of Kurt Vonnegut's much more evil twin.

Very good book in slightly worn jacket.

First edition, fourth printing.
This is a perfect copy of Chatwin's most famous book, brilliantly discussing the enormous questions of how mankind can achieve happiness in a post-industrial world.
From many sources, including the Australian Aboriginies, he suggests, "it is solved by walking".
Hardcover

New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988. First edition thus. Hardcover. Near Fine/near fine. This is a charming large-format re-issue of an earlier work by Jan Morris, consisting of her classic descriptions of Spain, with many new illustrations by Cecilia Eaves and a selection of Spanish paintings to illustrate the national characteristics.

London: Jonathan Cape, 1974. First UK edition. Hardcover. Very Good/very good. An early spy adventure from Len Deighton, with a lighter, somewhat tongue-in-cheek touch than some of his contemporaries. Jacket has a few small closed tears and book has a coffee stain to one page internally, otherwise a good copy of this classic thriller.

Brattleboro: The Stephen Greene Press, 1968. . First American edition. . Hardcover.. Fine in fair dust-jacket. . The beginnings of Searle's familiar menagerie with birds, cats and grumpy inadequates of all species in attendance. A rare, early collection, in a very good example of the book, although jacket shows dirt and some damage around edges, with a small missing piece to back.

London: Harvill Press, 1962. First UK edition. Hardcover. Fine/fine. At Spencer's death, he left a huge volume of almost unintelligible correspondence and autobiographical writings, which Maurice Collis has painstakingly deciphered and transformed into a very moving biography. Driven by personal visions and obsessions, Spencer could be nevertheless a charming and beloved figure, who created some of the strangest and finest paintings of his time.