Rare books from Peter Harrington

London & New York: Frederick Warne and Co.,, 1912. A lovely copy with the scarce glassine jacket First edition, first or second impression, with the publication year on the title page; the first two impressions are identical. Sextodecimo. Original grey boards, spine and front cover lettered in green, front cover with pictorial label, pictorial endpapers. With the printed glassine jacket. Housed in a custom brown cloth folding box. Frontispiece and 14 colour illustrations by the author. Boards gently bowed, the occasional spot to contents; an excellent copy in the toned jacket with some shallow chips to extremities. Linder, p. 429; Quinby 21.

New York: Larry Clark,, 1971. Titled, dated, and signed in pencil lower middle on the verso by Clark, additionally inscribed with annotations of how the print was made with light box instructions and developing notes. Clark discusses his techniques in the book Darkroom (1977): referring specifically to Tulsa, he says, "I do a lot of burning and dodging when making a print and then use bleach. There's not a straight print in the Tulsa book. When I'm photographing I always try to shoot against the light. The film can't handle this and everything gets burned up, since I'm exposing for the shadows". This is one of two prints Clark made on this size paper; the other, which did not turn out so well, was simply noted "No good" on the verso. This image appears in Clark's book Tulsa, first published in 1971. Gelatin silver print photograph. Image size: 40 x 27 cm. Sheet size: 50 x 40.3 cm. Light horizontal crease across the middle of the image, light indentation to the right side, faint discolouration to the… Read More

1969-76. From Margaret Thatcher's estate A collection of first day covers gathered by Margaret Thatcher, from Thatcher's personal belongings from her home in Chester Square. Thatcher dabbled in stamp collecting, and most of her collection was sold at Christie's in 2015. She had a personal interest in the aesthetics and production of stamps as Prime Minister, as can be seen in her correspondence with Sir Ronald Dearing, Chairman of the Post Office, in 1985. The first day covers were produced and dated by the Royal Mail at the start of the print run and sent to the House of Commons. One envelope addressed to her from Liberia is also included. 1. First day cover, stamped for the House of Commons 28 May 1969, with six stamps featuring British cathedrals. 2. First day cover, stamped for the House of Commons 1 July 1969, commemorating the investiture of the Prince of Wales. 3. First day cover, stamped for the House of Commons 13 August 1969, commemorating the centenary of Gandhi's birth. 4. First day… Read More

Edinburgh: William Paterson,, 1877-79. The most sumptuous yet published"; extra-illustrated First William Scott Douglas edition, here handsomely bound and abundantly extra-illustrated, described by ODNB as a "splendid, six-volume library edition. The poems in this edition are arranged chronologically, and while it was the most sumptuous yet published it was also the most complete and correct regarding both text and notes". Douglas (1815-1883) "worked as a mercantile accountant, like his father before him, but in his leisure time he put much effort into studying the life and works of Burns, acquiring perhaps a more thorough mastery of them than any previous editor of Burns's works" (ibid.). A number of the original illustrations are by William Forrest, who specialized in landscapes, after Samuel Bough, "one of the most influential figures in the development of nineteenth-century Scottish landscape painting... [who] enjoyed tremendous popularity as an artist" (National Galleries Scotland). The… Read More

New York: George P. Putnam,, 1851. Only "surpassed by Uncle Tom's Cabin in sales and popularity" First edition of Susan Bogert Warner's first novel, written under the pseudonym of Elizabeth Wetherell, in bright condition. Warner (1819-1885) began writing The Wide, Wide World in 1848. It was to become one of the most popular American novels of its time, however initially had difficulty finding a publisher. "Even when George P. Putnam accepted the novel for publication in 1850 (largely because his mother was enthusiastic about the manuscript), he initially printed only 750 copies; two years later, the novel was reprinted for the fourteenth time, and for decades to come, only Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin surpassed Warner's first novel in sales and popularity" (ANB). Henry James wrote admiringly of the work in the Nation in 1860, praising Warner's realistic depiction of rural life. This copy is in the third state listed in BAL, without the printer's imprint on the copyright page, and the… Read More

London: for John Murray, Bookseller to the Admiralty and to the Board of Longitude,, 1813. Southey's "Patriotic Manual" First edition, second issue with page 258 of volume II correctly paginated. "Southey constructed an early-nineteenth century hero as a model for the young - in his words, a 'patriotic manual'. He told a friend that he would write 'such a life of Nelson as shall be put into the hands of every youth destined for the Navy'" (Knight, p. 542), as it most assuredly was, coming to dominate the Nelson biography market, and remaining perpetually in print. Two volumes, small octavo. Original drab paper boards, printed paper labels to spines. Engraved portrait frontispiece with tissue-guard to volume 1, frontispiece of volume 2 with five facsimile signatures. Ownership signatures to front free endpapers, pencilled to vol. I; neatly inked to vol. II. Spines rubbed, extremities a little worn, internally clean and crisp. A very good set indeed, with the half-titles and terminal advertisements.… Read More

London: Effingham Wilson & Co., & Argus Printing and Publishing Company, Ltd, Johannesburg,, 1895-96. Goldmann's magnum opus, in the original cloth First edition of Goldmann's magnum opus, one of the most important and substantial studies of South African gold mines. Sydney Goldmann (1868-1958), an uitlander of German-Jewish descent, made his fortune in gold mining; he later served as a Boer War correspondent for The Standard alongside Winston Churchill, before entering the House of Commons as a Unionist MP from 1910 until 1918. He first published a study of South Africa's gold mines in 1892, his history of the Witwatersrand companies, which met with a favourable reaction from the investing public both in Europe and South Africa. He followed this with the present, vastly expanded work; richly illustrated, it offered investors the most detailed study to date of South African mines, at a time when there was a rush of capital to the region in the hope of rapid wealth, and only a few years before the… Read More

New York: The Viking Press,, 1939. Presentation copy, connecting Steinbeck and Hemingway First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author "For Vincent Sheean, John Steinbeck" and additionally inscribed by the recipient, "Although it is signed to me, Mr Steinbeck intended this book to go for the Spanish intellectuals in exile - Vincent Sheean". Vincent Sheean (1899-1975), the American journalist and writer, published Personal History in 1935. A film adaptation, entitled Foreign Correspondent and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, was released in 1940. Working as a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune he covered the Spanish Civil War, hence his note about "Spanish intellectuals in exile". Sheean had been in Spain with Ernest Hemingway in 1938 and was responsible for the only known meeting between Steinbeck and Hemingway. Writing in John Steinbeck and his Contemporaries, Valerie Hemingway notes that Steinbeck had been "a thorn in Hemingway's side". Nevertheless, Hemingway… Read More

New York: Vanguard Press,, 1938. Inscribed by Seuss to his literary agent First edition of Seuss's second book, inscribed by the author to his literary agent, Jed Mattes, on the front free endpaper verso, "For Jed, one extra Hoot! Dr Seuss", with an original pencil drawing of a red hat. Mattes (1953-2003) took over from Seuss's previous long-term agent, Phyllis Jackson in 1977, and was known for his staunch advocacy on behalf of emerging gay writers. This is a later printing, published in the same year as the first, distinguished by the red hat illustrations on the endpapers, which flow right to left in the first printing, and left to right in this printing. Quarto. Original red cloth-backed black boards, spine lettered in black, front board lettered in white, and illustrated in red and white, illustrated endpapers. With dust jacket. Illustrated throughout by the author. Extremities rubbed and corners a little worn, a very good copy indeed, boards and contents bright and sharp, in the price-clipped… Read More

London: Chapman and Hall,, 1859. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times First edition in book form, attractively bound. Dickens's great historical romance, set during the French Revolution, remains one of his best known and most widely read works. "In its tightly organized and highly romantic melodrama and the near-absence of typical 'Dickensian' humour and humorous characters, A Tale of Two Cities certainly stands apart from all his other novels" (ODNB). The novel was also issued in monthly parts from April to November 1859 and serialized in Dickens's weekly journal All the Year Round in the same period, before publication in book form in November that year. Octavo (213 x 131 mm). Modern dark green morocco, spine with raised bands, gilt lettering in compartments, marbled endpapers and edges. Engraved frontispiece, vignette title and 14 plates by Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz). This copy with the earlier states of p. 213 misnumbered "113" and the signature "b" on the list of plates, not… Read More

Berlin: S. Fischer,, 1922. A very attractive copy of Hesse's landmark novel of spiritual discovery First edition, first printing, with "Erste bis Sechste Auflage" on the copyright page. The novel's depiction of Buddhism and the struggle for enlightenment was particularly influential in the 1960s and 1970s, and served as the inspiration for Nick Drake's song "River Man". Octavo. Original orange boards, spine and front cover lettered in black. A few light marks and faint damp stains to covers, extremities lightly bumped and rubbed, slight cockling to outer leaves, contents fresh and clean. A very good copy in the fragile boards, often found broken, but here entirely sound.

New York: McClure, Phillips & Co.,, 1903. Shall the home be our world... or the world be our home? First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Frau Adele Gerber, with the compliments of the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Dec. 1903". This superb provenance highlights the strength of the pre-First World War international women's movement, the recipient being a prominent Austrian suffragist and founder of the International Women's Suffrage Alliance. The Home is a development of the author's idea of the "sexuo-economic" relationship between men and women as most famously espoused in Women and Economics (1898). Gilman (1860-1935) is considered one of the most important feminist thinkers in the United States; her key and most enduring argument was that women's economic dependence on men was a core evil that prevented all members of society from reaching their true potential, and that women's political and financial independence was an asset,… Read More

[London:] Charles Dickens & Evans, Crystal Palace Press,, 1877. Collins's own highly annotated dramatisation of his most successful work The author's own copy, extensively annotated by him throughout and with his ownership inscription on the preserved front wrapper. It offers an extraordinary glimpse into Collins's perceptions of his most celebrated and enduring work, as well as an insight into his working process. Such material by one of the major Victorian novelists rarely appears on the market. The Moonstone was originally serialized in Charles Dickens's All the Year Round magazine between 4 January and 8 August 1868 and published in book form in July 1868, just before the final four serial numbers appeared. The first edition was an immediate hit and sold out within two months. The stage version was performed at the Royal Olympic Theatre from 17 September to 17 November 1877. The production failed to match the novel's success, and both Henry Neville (playing Franklin Blake) and Laura Seymour… Read More

Crescent City, Florida: EPOS,, 1962. Inscribed to a poetic comrade-in-arms First edition, one of 500 copies, this copy inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To John William Corrington, More poems. We go on until we stop - one way or the other. Charles Bukowski". The recipient was an American writer, lawyer, and intimate friend of Bukowski. Corrington was an English instructor at Louisiana State University when he first wrote to Bukowski in 1960. Bukowski was twelve years his senior, and neither poet had yet achieved any great success. Their work had been published in small magazines and literary journals, but they were far from established. "Corrington was not shy about expressing his admiration for Bukowski's poetry and viewed Bukowski as an ally in the great battle against the academic poets of their day. Bukowski, who had little formal education, and didn't care much for those who did, was easily enough won over by Corrington's tough jazzy talk (Southern style) and his persistent,… Read More

London: Bradbury and Evans,, 1853. A fresh copy of Dickens's legal satire First edition in book-form, in the original cloth and in exemplary condition. The novel was first published in serial form between March 1852 and September 1853. "Writing at the height of his powers, Dickens adopts a virtuoso form of double narration, and the novel has since the middle of the twentieth century been widely acclaimed as his greatest work" (ODNB). Of note is the inclusion of ten dark plates, a new mode of illustration particularly fitting to the novel: "As Dickens's vision of society darkened, Browne adjusted his techniques, pioneering in the use of 'dark plates', where the plate was machine-ruled in parallel grooves which printed an almost uniform tone either before or after the figures and background were hand drawn. These brooding, atmospheric designs harmonized with the gloomy, foggy world of Bleak House and Little Dorrit" (Schlicke, p. 59). Octavo. Original blind-stamped green cloth, spine lettered in gilt,… Read More