Rare books from Fine Editions Ltd

London: Hogarth Press, 1947. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine+/Fine-. Fourth Impression (so stated; only 1,730 copies of the first impression were issued) of Isherwood's "snapshot of a lost world, the antic, cosmopolitan Berlin of the 1930 s." (Time 100) Crown 8vo (186 x 120mm): 280pp. Publisher's citron cloth, spine lettered in brown with matching top stain; cream dust jacket (price-clipped) printed in maroon, designed by John Banning. An excellent example, tightly bound and clean throughout (offsetting to end papers); jacket spine panel lightly tanned and gently rubbed, else about Fine. Wolmer 369. First published in 1935 and often paired for publication with another of Isherwood's short novels as Berlin Stories, Mr. Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin "form one coherent snapshot of a lost world, the antic, cosmopolitan Berlin of the 1930 s, where jolly expatriates dance faster and faster, as if that would save them from the creeping rise of Nazism. One of Isherwood's greatest… Read More

London: André Deutsch, 1959. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine-/Near Fine+. First Impression (no later printings noted) of the author's breakthrough novel, chronicling Jewish life in the 1930s and '40s in the Montreal neighborhood east of Mount Royal Park; filmed in 1974 with Richard Dreyfuss in the title role. Thick crown 8vo (192 x 125mm): 319,[1]pp. Publisher's scarlet cloth, spine stamped in gold; price-clipped dust jacket illustrated by Bernard Blatch. An excellent example, tightly bound (apparently unread) and clean throughout (slightly dusty top-edge); Near Fine or better jacket (crown of spine panel lightly rubbed). Richler's fourth novel, "regarded by critics as technically superior to his earlier novels because of the cinematic rendering of some incidents (indicating the influence of Richler's screenwriting) and the maturation of narrative voice." (Literary Encyclopedia) Following publication of Duddy Kravitz, according to The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature, Richler became "one of… 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: Duckworth, 1946. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine-/Very Good+. First Impression of this omnibus edition, collecting Waugh's best travel dispatches. Demy 8vo (216 x 135mm): 318pp, with color portrait frontispiece of Waugh aged 26 by Henry Lamb and folding map of British Guiana tipped in facing p. 196. Publisher's canary yellow cloth lettered in dark blue, illustrated dust priced 15/-. Near Fine or better (spine ends crimped, dust-soiled edges); Very Good or better jacket (tape remnants along reverse edges). Davis XX. During the 1930s, Waugh traveled widely in Europe, Africa, and South America. In 1930, he attended the coronation of the Haile Selassie in Abyssinia, returning there five years later as a correspondent for the Daily Mail to cover the Italian invasion from a pro-Mussolini standpoint. Between these visits, his sojourns in South America included an arduous trek from British Guiana into Brazil. Throughout this time he had no permanent base in England, staying in hotels and at friends'… Read More

London: printed for A. Churchill, J. Knapton, R. Knaplock, J. Walthoe, E. Horne, B. Tooke, D. Midwinter, B. Cowse, R. Robinson, and T. Ward, 1720. First Edition thus. Full Calf. Fine. First Strype Edition, best and most desirable edition of Stow's magisterial study—the "starting point of all inquiry into the subject of Elizabethan London." Complete in two folio volumes; each of the six 'books,' introduced by a drop-head title, with its own pagination: [4], xii, xlii, [2], 308, 208, 285, [1]; [2], 120, 459, [1], 93, [3], 143, [1], 26, [2]pp, with 70 plates, plans and maps (31 double-page or folding), including those of London, Westminster and Southwark. Title pages in red and black. Superbly bound in handsome contemporary paneled calf sewn on six raised bands, very skillfully rebacked with the original lettering pieces laid down. A crisp, clean, fresh copy, with only occasional minor soiling, the copper-engraved plates in deep, rich impressions. Provenance: On the verso of the title pages, the… Read More

London: printed for T. Durham, at Charing-Cross; and G. Kearsly, at No. 46, in Fleet-Street, 1777. First Edition. Quarter-bound Leather. Near Fine. First Edition, in English, of this novelized first-person account of a young English lord's debauched sojourn—prostitutes, gambling, horse-racing, drink—in the French capitol. Crown 8vo (206 x 121mm): [2],x,222pp. Contemporary leather spine in six compartments between raised bands, recent red morocco lettering piece gilt, marbled sides and end papers. Joints skillfully reinforced, marbled sides heavily rubbed, top of title page (including word 'The') supplied in excellent facsimile. Internally, a Fine, bright copy, pages fresh and free of foxing, browning and stains. ESTC Citation No. N31079 (distinct from ESTC T131522, which Durham and Kearsly brought out the same year in duodecimo and which does not have the following note below the date on the title page present in our copy: "This work may be had of the above booksellers in French, printed from… Read More

London: Printed for J. Rodwell, (successor to Mr. Faulder,) New Bond Street, by S. Hamilton, Weybridge, Surrey, 1815. Half-Calf. Near Fine+. A New Edition, Corrected. In three volumes." Crown 8vo (191 x 127mm): [4],xli,[3],223,[1]; [4],272; [2],304pp, with 52 woodcuts (title-page vignettes, head- and tailpieces) by John and Thomas Bewick, Charlton Nesbit, and Luke Clennell. Bound by Orrock & Son in half-burgundy morocco, marbled sides and end papers; top edges gilt, others untrimmed. Provenance: Signature opposite title page of volume one and half titles of volumes two and three of Robert Pitcairn, dated Dec. 1823. Nineteenth century armorial book plate of Walter King (lion sejant erect ppr., holding between its paws an escallop arg.) and a second book plate (possibly Maurice Harlay's) with motto "Deo et regi." An excellent set (preliminaries lightly spotted), tightly bound and clean throughout with rich impressions of the cuts. Hugo 4279. Tattersfield TB2.167. Reprint of the first edition of… Read More

London: printed for R. Blamire, in the Strand [from 1782], 1792. Early Reprint. Quarter-Bound Calf. Fine. Third Edition (first published 1782) of this picturesque tour, creating an entirely new class of travel. Demy 8vo (214 x 133mm): xvi,152,[2]pp, including final advertisement leaf and 17 full-page oval aquatints (without titles, numbers, signatures, or imprints), "over which is washed with the brush a tint of warm yellow or brown to give tone to the picture." (Hardie). Recent quarter tan calf, smooth spine in five compartments (two with central gilt tools) divided by double gilt rules, red morocco lettering piece gilt, marbled paper-covered boards, plain end papers renewed. An excellent copy, securely bound and clean throughout with only occasional offsetting, in a handsome period-style binding. Bland (History of Book Illustration), p. 247. Abbey (Scenery) 546. Prideaux, p. 337. Hardie, p. 120. Henrey II, p. 531. Barbier, pp. 49-51. Upcott I, p. 330. Lowndes II, 894. Cox, Travel III, p. 30. First… Read More

Bruxellis [Brussels]: Apud Franciscvm Foppens, 1682. Early Reprint. Full Calf. Near Fine+. First of the Brussels Foppens editions of Veen's enduringly popular "Emblems from Horace" (principally from the Odes and Satires), a classic of emblematic literature. 4to: [8],205,[3]pp, with full-page engraved coat-of-arms, portrait of "Octavio Vaenius," and 103 engraved emblems with mottoes in Latin and stanzas in French below each plate and verses in Latin, Italian, Dutch and French on verso of preceding plate. Contemporary sprinkled calf, very skillfully rebacked, spine in six compartments between raised bands with central printer's ornament in blind, recent blue morocco lettering piece gilt, title page in red and black with portrait medallion. Provenance: Crawfurd Antrobus (armorial book plate on front paste-down). An excellent, well-margined copy with several old well-executed paper repairs to short closed tears, mostly marginal; few marginal stains, else clean, fresh, and bright, plates in deep, rich… Read More

London: Nattali and Bond, Bedford Street, Covent Garden [from 1812], 1855. Early Reprint. Paper-Covered Boards. Fine. Ninth Edition, complete in three volumes with 80 hand-colored aquatints by Thomas Rowlandson. (Eighty-one plates are called for on the title pages, but the plate lists contain a total of only 79, with the illustrated title page in Vol. 3 unlisted. Presumably, there was an illustrated title page planned for the Second Tour but never included.) Tall 8vo's: [6],272,[6, catalog of books published by Nattali and Bond]; [4],277,[1]; [6],279,[1]pp. Hand-marbled paper-covered boards, finely woven green cloth spines, matching morocco lettering pieces gilt, recently bound by Fitterer, a truly splendid production. Fine bindings; clean, wide-margined pages with only occasional offsetting; vibrant, deep, rich, fresh coloring. Abbey, Life, 265-67. Tooley 427-29. The three tours of Doctor Syntax, featuring the comic, skin-and-bone cleric at the mercy of all manner of misadventures, were supposedly… Read More

Boston: Ticknor, Reed, And Fields, 1852. First Edition. Decorative Cloth. Near Fine+. First Printing, one of 3,067 copies, with "lifed" for "lifted," line 3, p. 21; first issue (one of only 3067 copies printed and published November,1851), without the inserted publisher's catalogue at rear. Small 8vo: vi,[7]-256pp, with frontispiece and 6 woodcut plates, protected by tissue guards, "gracefully executed" by Hammat Billings, "add[ing] materially to the charm of the little volume." (Grolier) Publisher's original T cloth (faded to an even brown tone), spine lettered and stamped with floral decorations in gilt, covers elaborately paneled in blind, pale yellow endpapers. An exemplary copy, the binding tight and secure, spine relaid professionally and almost imperceptibly, with all lettering intact; light, scattered foxing and the odd, occasional stain. BAL 7606. Grolier Hawthorne 25. Peter Parley to Penrod, p.6. Clark A18.1.a. Stories for girls and boys based on classical myths (Pandora's box, Hercules,… Read More

London: Jonathan Cape, 1935. First Edition thus. Near Fine+. First Trade Edition (hand-numbered limited issue, no. 363 of 750 copies) of one of the indisputable classics of twentieth century English literature. Thick, square 8vo: 672pp, with 54 plates (many in color and including 3 not in in the 1926 subscriber's edition and a number not in the cheaper ordinary trade edition bound in cloth) by Kennington, Rothenstein, Roberts, and others and 4 folding maps. Publisher's original quarter tan pigskin over brown buckram boards, spine stamped in gilt, top edge gilt with others uncut, Cockerell marbled endpapers; with gilt-stamped motto on upper board: "The sword also means cleanness & death." Without the card slipcase and the plain-paper dust jacket, usually discarded. An excellent copy, top grain rubbed at spine ends, light fading and occasional spotting to cloth, otherwise virtually pristine and apparently unread (many pages unopened). O'Brien A041. National Geographic 100, 24. Third (but second… Read More

London: HarperCollins [Harper Collins], 1999. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine-. First Impression (no further printings noted), in first state dust jacket, with 'earing' misspelled on back panel. Small 8vo: [6],248,[2]pp. Publisher's French blue cloth, spine stamped in gilt (still brilliant); pictorial dust jacket, priced £9.99. Signed by Chevalier on title page. Laid in is a ticket from the literature festival in Derby where the book was autographed. Fine (small decorative book plate to front fly-leaf) in about Fine jacket (tiny nick to base of spine panel). The author's second novel, which sold more than five million copies worldwide and was translated into 36 languages. Supposedly, a poster of Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring," hanging on Chevalier's bedroom wall for some 15 years, inspired this novel set in 17th century Delft. Chevalier was lying in bed gazing absent-mindedly at the poster when she fixed on the mysterious girl's expression (her half open mouth and expectant gaze) and… Read More

London: Dean & Son, Limited / 29 King Street / W.C. 2, 1927. Early Reprint. Original Cloth. Fine. Fourth Edition (so stated), giving recipes for more than 300 cocktails, including Angel's Kiss (creme de cacao and fresh cream), Brooklyn (picon, maraschino, rye whisky, vermouth), Monkey's Gland (absinthe, grenadine, orange juice, gin—"Invented by the Author and deriving its name from Voronoff's experiments in rejuvenation," and the Morning Cocktail (curacao, maraschino, orange bitters, absinthe, brandy, vermouth). Small, slim 8vo: 109,[1]pp, including portrait frontispiece and 20 full-page advertisements. Publisher's red cloth, upper board titled and ruled in black. Fine, virtually pristine (one page edge creased) example. Covers are clean and unfaded, pages fresh and unmarked, binding square and secure. All early editions are scarce, especially in such exemplary condition. Noling, pp. 192, 269. McElhone was a Scottish-born bartender, famous for his cocktails. His compendium of recipes, arranged… Read More

New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1948. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine-. First Printing (so stated) of this best-selling semi-autobiographical novel, which inspired the classic 1950 film starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy, remade in 2003 starring Steve Martin. 8vo: [12],237,[1] pp, with full-page illustrations by Donald McKay. Publisher's bright orange cloth, spine stamped in navy blue, top edge stained French blue; dust jacket, illustrated by McKay, priced $3.00. Holmes Book Co. ticket to rear paste-down. A very pleasing, lightly read (if at all) copy, fresh and bright throughout. The authors's parents, Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth, were "efficiency experts," whose house in Montclair, N.J., doubled as a real-world laboratory for time and motion studies. The book was adapted (more than once) for stage and film. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene… Read More