20th Century Literature

London: Chapman & Hall, 1930. First Edition. A fine copy in a very good dust jacket with some small chips, not affecting illustration or lettering and with very minor internal archival mends. An observant bibliographically inclined collector of our acquaintance, in comparing this example with another at hand, discovered subtle differences in the titles listed on the back panel. Both jackets were priced at the first edition’s issued price of 7/6 (in pre-paperback days, English publishers generally reduced prices quickly to 3/6), but one ends with Jeffery’s Second Choice, while this example lists Jeffery’s Miss Vell Intervenes and follows with Winder’s Sin-Offering. His research indicates that this would have logically followed the former. It can then be presumed that this is at least a second state of the dust jacket.

NY, Robert M. McBride, 1929, first edition, dust jacket. Hardcover.. Author's First Book, first issue with top edge stained and with the final black leaf present, with the rare colorful pirate dust jacket illustrated by Mahlon Blaine, one of only 1,537 copies, published when Steinbeck was 27 years old and just two weeks before the 1929 stock market crash, a historical novel about the pirate Henry Morgan rendered in a purple prose manner quite unlike his realistic descriptive storytelling that followed, Goldstone & Payne A1a, Morrow 1. Very good book in a jacket with the usual spine color fade with chipping to top and bottom of spine, jacket with internal tape reinforcement.

n.p. (NY), n.p. (The Viking Press), n.d. (1944), first edition, wrappers. Softcover.. Advance copy, an uncorrected galley proof, bound in plain, unprinted tannish wrappers, printed on rectos only, a very scarce advanced state of this minor, or not so minor, Steinbeck masterpiece whose themes of death and loneliness are masked by its surface layer of humor, all the more rare in that this is an Author Presentation Copy, Inscribed by Steinbeck to the best man at his second marriage, Howard O. Hunter, who was the Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissioner in the early 1940s under the FDR administration, Steinbeck and his second wife, Gwen Conger, were married March 29, 1943, just 11 days after receiving his final divorce decree from his first wife, Carol, Steinbeck has Inscribed the first preliminary as follows, "For Howard/who really/belongs in/Cannery Row/John Steinbeck/last night in New York 1944," this galley lacks all the preliminaries found in the 1945 published version such as half titles,… Read More

Paris: Meynial, 1925. First Edition. George Barbier. A complete and excellent set of the five annual issues illustrated with a total of sixty beautiful pochoir plates, complete with decorated pochoir title pages. 'Falbalas and Franfreluches' (Frippery and Finery: Fashion Diaries) represents a literary and artistic collaboration of unusual elegance and sophistication. French illustrator, George Barbier (1882 - 1932) spared no effort in the making of this beautiful collection, using the finest pigments and up to thirty stencils per print to create images of the highest quality reflecting fashionable themes of the day. The plates portray romance amidst exotic lands and ages past, including a native American idyll on the Missouri, a languid mistress cocooned in a hammock in the tropical Antilles, high baroque debauchery, and, of course, a myriad of lovers depicted in Paris at the height of the chic 1920s. Each annual includes twelve pages of fine writing by Barbier's contemporaries in the Parisian scene… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926. First Edition. Fine/Fine. First edition, first printing with no damage to type on pages 38, 90 and 248; in a first state dust jacket with lips unbattered. Bound in publisher's green cloth with titles in blind on the upper board, and stamped in gilt on the spine. Fine, almost appearing as new, with bright and sharp gilt lettering. Faint wear at corners and bumping to bottom corner of lower board, creating a tiny, corresponding chip to the dust jacket. A breathtaking copy, one would be hard-pressed to find one nicer.

New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1929. First Edition. Near Fine/Very Good. First edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's black and white Art Deco style boards over white cloth spine lettered in black. Near Fine with toning to pages and top and bottom edges of covers. In a Very Good first issue dust jacket with Humanity Uprooted priced at $3.00 on the rear panel; toning to spine with fading to red print there, light edge wear, light soiling, and erased pencil notation to rear flap corner. A fantastic copy in the scarce first issue dust jacket.

LAWRENCE, David Herbert (1885-1930)
Autograph letter signed "DH Lawrence" to George ConwayHôtel Beau Rivage, Bandol, 29th December 1928, 2 p. in-8°, with envelopeSome tiny ink stains, old paperclip mark on top left margin
Great letter from DH Lawrence about his scandalous book Lady Chatterley's Lover
"Dear Conway,I am most distressed to learn that your copies of Lady Chatterley's Lover have not turned up. They were sent by registered book post long ago – and surely the Mexican govt. would not confiscate them, as the U.S.A. customs do! I will ask Orioli to send you the registration counterfoil, to see if you can trace them. If not you must have others, if any remain. Orioli has very few, I know – they may be all ordered. But one at least I'll rescue for you. But we must find out what became of the others. The book is selling at $50. in USA- and anything over £5. here in Europe – so you see it is quite a loss.Your Christmas card came this morning too – and how pretty it is! – and I had a… Read More

Original exceedingly rare Russian Language 1st (Pirate) Edition of Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. Meets all the issue points for the true 1st Edition - "Roman" to title page, 634 pages, publishers imprint in cyrillic, and 2 page introduction (lacking from later Russian editions). Unusually tight, bright, Very Good condition, with no inscriptions and only light toning to closed page edges. Several gatherings are unevenly browned as usual, due to differing paper stocks used in printing. Issued without a dust-jacket.The publication of the Russian text of Doctor Zhivago was attended by odd circumstances. It first appeared in a 'pirated' (or possibly semi-authorised) edition, a short time before Feltrinelli's official edition came out in Milan. The 'pirated' version, however, bore Feltrinelli's imprint and were produced by Mouton, the reputable firm of Dutch printers with whom he was negotiating, and to whom he had sent the manuscript. Declassified documents reveal that the CIA sought to embarrass the… Read More

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943. First edition / First printing. Green cloth. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. No restoration, a remarkable copy. Chandler's fourth book. $2.00 Net Price present on front jacket flap.

First American edition, first state with a bowing hobbit on the title page, and Chapter VII mistakenly titled Chapter VI. Bound in publisher's original buff cloth (slight staining) stamped in blue and red; lacking the dust jacket. Good + with light foxing to cloth and loosening on the interior spine, corners rubbed; former owner labels. More photos available upon request.

Churchtown, Dundrum: Cuala Press, 1920. First edition, first printing. One of only 400 printed. Octavo. Original blue paper boards with buff linen spine. All edges untrimmed. In the original plain tan dust jacket, preserved in glassine wrap, with chipping to dust jacket (particularly to spine). Preserved in a custom clamshell box. A brilliant first printing of this monumental work in the exceedingly rare original dust jacket.. A remarkably bright first printing-in the scarce original dust jacket-of one of W.B. Yeats's (1865-1939) most important poetry collections. One of only 400 printed. Michael Robartes and the Dancer includes the first book printing of some of Yeats's most famous poems, including "The Second Coming," "Easter, 1916," and "A Prayer for My Daughter." The book was printed and published by Yeats's sister, Elizabeth Corbet Yeats, and, according to its colophon, was completed on All Soul's Day (November 1st) 1920-although Wade (a Yeats editor and bibliographer) claims the book was not… Read More

Amsterdam: Uitgeveij Contact, 25 juni 1947. Anne.Frank; 'Het Achterhuis, Dagboekbrieven van 14 Juni 1942 - 1 Augustus 1944'. Hard cover, pp 253. FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINT, no dust jacket. First edition of the diary of Anne Frank in the original Dutch language. Small Octavo. One of 3000 booklets printed 75 YEARS AGO ON JUNE 25th 1947. Original white and red paper-covered boards. Illustration with 3 photo's of the hiding place ('Het Achterhuis'), 1 groundfloor-plan and 2 examples (facsimile) of the handwriting of Anne Frank. Introduction by Annie Romein-Verschoor.Title on the front board and the spine. A very good copy, some wear to the frontboard. Pages are slightly tanned after 75 years. No inscriptions.Anne began her diary on her 13th birthday, 12 June 1942 during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The diary was found in the hiding place by Miep Gies, after Anne Frank, her Jewish family and other Jews were taken away to the concentration-camps. Miep Gies was one of the helpers during their time… Read More

London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1937, 1937. FIRST EDITION FIRST PRINTING. 1 vol., 7-11/16" x 5-5/8", Frontispiece & 8 B&W plates and one vignette by Tolkien, advertisement leaf at end, top edge of textblock tinted green, bound in the publisher's original stamped green cloth, map pastedowns and endpapers, internally clean and bright, no foxing, no lean to the spine, inner and outer hinges fine, head and foot of spine fine, back corners square, lower rear corner of the foot of the spine rubbed with some slight loss, completely unsophisticated without any repairs, neat ownership signature of Betty Jean Orton dated Xmas 1937 to front blank endleaf, A NEAR FINE COPY. Provenance: Betty Jean Orton is the daughter of Harold Orton (1898-1975), English dialectologist and lexicographer remembered for his monumental Survey of English Dialects (1962-72). Tolkien began writing The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, as a Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford University.… Read More

First edition of this important early dada publication, Tzara's second collection of poetry and the first to be accompanied by Arp's illustrations. Unpaginated (52 pp.), publisher's plain boards with printed title on cover, protected in a recent custom made slipcase with gilt titles on spine. 10 woodcuts printed directly on the pages, 2 of them repeated (the title vignette and the "cul the lampe" after the impressum).
Inscribed by Tzara on the presentation page: "Très cordial hommage ... Zurich - Hotel Seehof, Schifflände".
Near very good, cover darkened, the last page (impressum) is fragile at its glued union with the rear board. Some foxing to the dedication page. Contents are fine. We're happy to provide more pictures. Free upgrade to expedite shipping with insurance, by DHL, UPS or FedEx

Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. First Printing. AsNew Hardcover. Fine DJ protected by Foldon Adjustable Cover, (unclipped). 7.75"x5.5"x1.8". be20.