SITWELL, Edith.
FIRST EDITION. Half title. Orig. blue cloth; a little marked, spine faded. Buff printed d.w., unclipped; a little dusted, spine sl. darkened & split at head. Bookplate of David E. Wickham on leading pastedown, inscribed 'For dearest June with love from Edith' on leading f.e.p. Bookplate of Jonathan and Phillida Gili loosely inserted. Edith Sitwell, 1887-1967, was a more experimental poet than she is sometimes given credit for, indeed The New Statesman said that in 'losing every battle, she won the campaign'. Jonathan Gili was a filmmaker whose credits included the flawed-but-engaging cult movies Gumshoe and Bronco Bullfrog (the latter is certainly worth seeing). Phillida Gili is a book illustrator, best remembered for her wonderful 1992 production of The Nutcracker.
FERLINGHETTI, Lawrence.
Half title. Black & white pictorial wrappers, sewn & glued; rubbed, rear wrapper a little marked, small tear at tail of spine. Ownership signature on half title of 'G. R. Selerie Berkely [sic] California 1968'. Inscribed on half title 'For Gavin Selarie [sic] - in London Lawerence Ferlinghetti July 80'. Wrapper illustration by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Although better known for his poetry, Her is Ferlinghetti's stream-of-consciousness, experimental novel that in true Beat style lacks punctuation and a straightforward narrative, instead being a 'labyrinth-dream'. From the library of Gavin Selerie, 1949-2023, British poet and conductor of the Riverside Interviews for which he interviewed poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The date of his interview with the author coincides with the date of the inscription.
FULLER, Samuel.
FIRST EDITION. 3pp integral cata.; sl. toned. Orig. white pictorial wrappers; a little rubbed & dusted, a couple of small creases, small splits & sl. fading to spine. Inscribed '10-14-66 To Nicholas Garnham - good luck on your projects, Sam Fuller' on titlepage. OCLC lists three copies only: at SUNY, Illinois, and National Library of South Africa. Samuel Fuller, 1912-1997, was a director, screenwriter, and novelist. Known for working largely outside the studio system, his films remain extremely powerful in their ruthless yet sympathetic depiction of confused characters in brutal situations. The Naked Kiss is his own novelisation of one of his greatest movies, about a sex worker who tries to start a new life as a nurse in a small town only to find her life destroyed by male desire anyway. Nicholas Garnham, b. 1937. is a Professor of Media Studies. His book, Samuel Fuller (presumably one of the 'projects' mentioned in the inscription), is among the first to take the director's work seriously, comparing him to Brecht and exploring his influence on Goddard.
FIRST EDITION. Half title, illus. Orig. black cloth. Green & black pictorial d.w., unclipped; edges v. sl. toned & rubbed. Inscribed 'Peter, with much love from Nesta May 8th 1958', ALsS, one from Nesta Pain & one from her daughter Angela to Peter folded & loosely inserted. Illustrations and dustjacket by Rosamund Seymour. Nesta Pain, 1905-1995, was an author and an influential broadcaster for the BBC. Described by Charles Hodgson as 'a scholar of questioning outlook', she worked on a broad range of topics. It is easy to see the appeal of a book on insects, small beings toiling for the greater good, for the left-wing publisher MacGibbon and Kee, but Pain's prose is splendidly idiosyncratic, and her observations (please excuse the pun) enjoyably waspish. She seems particularly impatient with honey bees on the grounds that 'a reputation for virtue is seldom endearing'; she goes on to accuse them of 'loafing about the hive' and declares their 'facade of intelligence is a fraud'. The book is entertaining and informative. Nesta's letter to Peter thanks him profusely for recommending her daughter Angela to the News Chronicle and goes on to bemoan the 'lack of good parts for women in the kind of programmes I produce'. Angela's letter also offers thanks, describing Peter's letter to the paper as 'a huge boost to the Pain prestige'.
FIRST EDITION. Half title, wartime economy paper. E.ps a little spotted. Orig. green cloth. Green & yellow pictorial d.w., unclipped; spine a little chipped at head & tail, edges sl. worn, rear panel a little marked. An unusually good copy of a work generally found in poor condition. The earliest edition listed on Copac is the 1954 Faber & Faber printing but there are copies of this 1946 edition at the BL and NLS. Peter Abrahams, 1919-2017, was a South African novelist and journalist. Mine Boy, his third novel, is widely credited with being the first work to bring the horrors of apartheid to an international readership. It focuses on Xuma, a black miner who is shocked by the treatment of workers by white mine-owners, and involves himself in political activism. It is particularly strong on disease and trauma introduced by colonial rule, and the critic Megan Jones praised Abrahams's acute observations on 'organisation of urban life by racist capitalism' (indeed, Abrahams grew up in the Johannesburg slums in which the novel is set). A seminal novel, with an abiding influence: in Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah's first novel, the narrator encounters a man reading it on a train.
FIRST EDITION. Half title. Orig. blue linen-grained cloth. Orange printed d.w., unclipped; edges worn & sl. chipped. Inscribed to the book collector John Baxter on leading f.e.p. The inscription reads 'Dear John - I honestly can't recall if this is "autiobography" or not. It isn't, I think. This was the bloodiest hard piece I've ever written. It's meant to be a comedy. The Brits never got the joke - They banned it. All best, Clancy'. Clancy Sigal, 1926-2017, was an American writer who moved to the U.K. after being subpoenaed by the House Committee for Un-American Activities. On arrival, he was hugely impressed by R.D. Laing, and was a key member of his Philadelphia Association, based at Kingsley Hall in East London. Sigal eventually became disillusioned with Laing's guru-like behaviour (which is to say infliction of his own pathologies on the group) and the 'acrid and soul-punishing' ' cursed meetings of the inner circle'. Zone of the Interior is a biting roman-a-clef, which did not appear in the U.K. until 2005. Mainstream British publishers feared a libel suit from Laing, and the smaller more subversive presses, while by no means immune to such fears, were also reluctant to criticise Laing, then a darling of the counter culture.
LEWIS, Clive Staples, ed. Walter Hooper.
FIRST EDITION. Half title; sl. offsetting to endpapers. Cream d.w., unclipped; spine & edges sl. darkened, sl. wear to head of spine. Presentation inscription in leading f.e.p. from the editor, '23 February, 1965. Oxford. To Jane Taylor with the good wishes of her friend, Walter Hooper.' Walter Hooper, 1931-2020, was an American writer who made the acquaintance of Lewis after writing him a letter praising his 1947 book Miracles. Hooper visited Oxford in 1963 and became Lewis' correspondence secretary while his health was in decline (he died a few months later). The two men became so close that Hooper edited collections of Lewis's work, became the literary advisor for his estate, and collaborated on a biography with Roger Llancelyn Green. After Lewis's death, Hooper devoted himself to caring for the author's alcoholic brother, Warren. The book was inscribed to Jane Taylor, a student at Oxford who knew Hooper when he was the Chaplain of Wadham College.