CHURCHILL, Winston S.
First separate edition, first printing, of the speech Churchill made after his conferment of the degree of doctor of philosophy by the University of Oslo. Churchill's speech reflects on the value of education, comments on the irony of his numerous honorary degrees having never entered higher education, and the changes in the world since his youth. He notes the contribution of Norway to the Allied war effort, and his hope of continued friendship between Norway and Britain. Over 1,000 Norwegians were in attendance, including King Haakon. The hall in which the ceremony took place was used by the Germans as a prison for Norwegian officers. The speech was included in the 1948 collection Europe Unite, but with omissions; Richard Langworth identifies this edition as the definitive text ("Churchill in Oslo, 1948", accessible online on his website). The other addresses (the book is in English throughout) celebrate Churchill and his role in the war: "To us you were and always will remain, not only the spokesman, but the personification, the embodiment of your great nation, of its history and its noble traditions" (Mohr's address). Cohen A243.1. Octavo. Original pictorial wrappers. Slight rubbing and nicking at wrapper extremities, faint soiling to wrappers. A very good copy.
LIU, Cixin.
Signed limited editions of the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, each volume number 198 of 250 copies signed by author and translator, also dated by them in the first work, as issued. The first and third instalments were translated by Liu Ken and the second by Joel Martinsen. These are the first British editions of the inspiration for the Netflix series 3 Body Problem (2024). Liu Cixin has sold more copies than all other modern Chinese authors of science fiction combined. The Three-Body Problem was the first work in translation to win the Hugo award, and Death's End received the Locus award. The trilogy "is a deeply inventive exercise in world-building, in which a secret Mao-era project to search for extraterrestrial intelligence makes disastrous first contact with a totalitarian government orbiting Alpha Centauri" (SFE). In his postscript written for the English translation, Liu notes he was inspired at the age of seven upon observing the 1970 launch of China's first satellite, known in the West as China 1. The series was published in Chinese in the years 2008 and 2010, following the serialization of The Three-Body Problem in Kehuan shijie (Science Fiction World) in 2006. These limited British editions are slightly preceded by the trade hardbacks published in America by Tor. Three works, octavo. Original blue, dark red, and red boards, spines lettered in silver, gilt, and white. With dust jackets. Decorative title and chapter pages. Negligible bump to spine ends of first work: a fine set in fine, unclipped jackets.
ALBRIGHT, Madeleine K. - BARROSO, Mario Felix Lleonart.
First edition, first printing, presentation copy to former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, with a lengthy inscription from the author, and her posthumous bookplate to the inner front cover. Barroso's book collects the interviews he conducted with various high-profile figures, including Albright (pp. 53-59), and features a photograph of Albright on the front. Barroso (born 1975) is an American activist for Cuban dissidents. He inscribes on the half-title, "Dear Madeleine, It's an honor to give you this book that compiles 12 interviews published in the magazine of young Cubans 'Nota del Cielo', partnership of the magazine of young Czechs 'Nota Nebe'. Your image with me on the cover was a photo we took the May 17, 2017, in celebration of your birthday. I found your answers to the questions that I could not ask you that night in your autobiography 'Madame Secretary'. Thank you for your love for freedom and also for Cuba. With great admiration and affection, MFLB 2.18.2020". Barroso has additionally inscribed his contact information on the title page. The photograph on the front cover was taken when he met Albright at the Czech Republic Embassy in Washington during the tribute held on her 80th birthday. Octavo. Original pictorial wrappers. In fine condition.
FAR EAST STATION.
Sole edition, signed by the ship's captain, David Seely, at the foot of his introduction. In 1959, Cossack completed a 15-year term of service in East Asia. This celebration of its last commission, during which it was stationed in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan, is unrecorded in institutions. Seely (1920-2011), the godson of Winston Churchill and of the future Edward VIII, fought in the Second World War and later in Malaya, commanding HMS Ajax between 1964 and 1965 and being mentioned in despatches. In 1966, he inherited the title Baron Mottistone and retired from naval service. Between 1992 and 1995, he was governor of the Isle of Wight. The text is split into a pictorial record of the commission and "not too factual departmental reports and sporting activities" (p. 4), enriched by humorous line drawings. Quarto. Original illustrated boards, red cloth backstrip, front cover lettered in black, endpapers renewed. Illustrations, maps, and advertisements throughout. Miniscule blue ink cross in main photo on p. 11. Boards stained and worn, one corner repaired, small losses at foot of first leaf and lower corner of p. 101, text unaffected: a very good copy.
JAPANESE RAILWAYS.
First edition, recorded in four institutions on WorldCat, showing the results of the large-scale expansion of the Japanese railway network after the Sino-Japanese War. Following its annexation in 1910, Korea is shown as an integrated part of the Japanese polity. Copies are held by Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Colour lithographed map (800 x 700 mm), 2 inset maps, places of interest printed at foot. Folding away into black card wallet (201 x 116 mm), front cover blocked in white, closing with metal popper clasp. Extensive timetable annotations in contemporary hand either side of key, "E.R.C.H." initialled on front cover. Map with light foxing, especially along creases, wallet sunned, lettering on front cover worn: a very good copy.
RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR - STANFORD, Edward.
The 1917 edition of this long-running map, the working copy of Captain Noël Louis St Pierre Bunbury, a member of Major-General Alfred Knox's British Military Mission to Siberia. Bunbury travelled along the Trans-Siberian Railway between April and November 1919, training White Russian officers and soldiers. Important stops along the railway are marked in blue pencil. Appointed by Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, Knox was a logical choice, being fluent in Russian and having served in St Petersburg in diplomatic posts before the First World War. His mission, running parallel to the deployment of British troops, arrived in Omsk in October 1918. Knox was tasked with organizing Russian units to fight the Bolsheviks and strategically advising Admiral Kolchak, who was installed as Supreme Ruler of Russia at Omsk the following month. Bunbury (1890-1971) served in several campaigns in Waziristan, received the DSO in 1937, and earned promotion to brigadier in the Indian Army in 1941. Between 1943 and 1944, he was aide-de-camp to George VI. Colour lithographed map (750 x 1140 mm), laid down in sections on linen as issued, folding away into octavo cloth covers, front board with yellow label lettered in black. Map bright, a little soiling, more so on verso and to boards, spine sunned: a very good example.
GUIMARÃES ROSA, João.
First edition in English, first printing, in the rare jacket. Published in Portuguese as Grande Sertão: Veredas in 1956, this is the book that established Guimarães's international reputation and is considered one of the greatest works of Brazilian literature. Octavo. Original green cloth, spine lettered in pink and gilt, floral design in blind on spine and front cover, pale yellow endpapers, top edge red, others untrimmed. With dust jacket. A few spots of foxing to edges and endpapers; spine panel of unclipped jacket sunned, a few chips and short closed tears at rubbed edges, one longer closed tear at foot of front panel: a fine copy in very good jacket.
FRIEDMAN, Milton.
First edition, first printing, of a foundational work in economics, "what most academic economists would regard as Friedman's greatest work" (New Palgrave II), in which he rejects Keynesian interventionism and resolves several paradoxes regarding the relationship between the wealth and the spending habits of consumers. Although Friedman's essential concept - that individuals adjust their consumption in response to variations in their long-term, expected income - has a long history (appearing in the 18th-century writings of Bernoulli), the Theory stands out for Friedman's "genius for simplicity and for the insights of thinking concretely" (ibid). In the analysis of Hugh Rockoff, "Friedman's study of consumption, while it had many critics, made a deep impression on the economics profession and continued to be a staple of policy discussions in the decades that followed" (ANB). Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered and decorated in gilt. With dust jacket. Tables and graphs in the text. Unclipped jacket with a hint of sunning to spine panel and a couple of tiny splits at fold ends, else fresh. A fine copy in near-fine jacket.
RICARDO, David.
First editions, first impressions: a complete set of the definitive edition, a vast project conceived by John Maynard Keynes in the 1930s and finally completed in the 1970s. Most of the correspondence was unpublished, of which much was only recently discovered. The edition includes all of Ricardo's published works, with scholarly commentary by Sraffa, the founder of the neo-Ricardian school of economics. Eleven volumes, octavo. Original blue cloth, spines lettered in gilt. With the dust jackets. Illustrated with facsimile title pages and manuscripts, plates and folding tables. Contents unmarked; a few jackets price-clipped, spine panels a little sunned: a fine set in near-fine jackets.
SCHUMPETER, Joseph A.
First edition, first printing, of the author's posthumously published magnum opus, still a standard, widely cited text in the field, giving a complete history of economic theory from Ancient Greece to the end of the Second World War. Schumpeter challenges the narrative of British-American dominance of economic history, emphasizing the important of continental thought, not least the often-overlooked Italian contributions. This proved controversial, especially among Anglophone economists, as he criticized traditional greats such as Adam Smith while upholding less well-known thinkers such as Leon Walras. This copy is part of the UK issue of the first edition sheets, which were printed in the US, with George Allen and Unwin's imprint slip tipped-in over the printed New York imprint, and in the UK binding with "Oxford" at the foot of the spine. Swedberg S.019. Octavo. Original green cloth, spine lettered in silver. Trivial rubbing at extremities and faint mark to top edge, square, contents clean and unmarked: a near-fine copy.
POPPER, Karl R.
First edition in English, first impression, of one of the most significant works in the philosophy of science. For the translation, Popper extensively rewrote the text, with new footnotes and 150 pages of new appendices. The work was first published in German in 1934; the English translation was published in the UK in January 1959, preceding the US edition in March. Octavo. Original grey cloth, spine lettered in gilt on red ground, light grey endpapers, top edge red. With dust jacket. Tables, diagrams, and manuscript facsimiles in the text. Unclipped jacket with hint of sunning to spine and a couple of tiny nicks: a fine copy in near-fine jacket.
MARSHALL, Alfred.
First edition, first impression, of the author's collected contributions to public enquiries on economics, including a preface by its editor, John Maynard Keynes. Marshall prepared evidence for various enquiries covering poverty, currencies, tariffs, and international trade. Octavo. Original green cloth, spine lettered and ruled in gilt, covers ruled in blind. Tables in the text. Unclipped jacket with a hint of creasing, else: a fine copy in fine jacket.
First trade edition, first Shanghai printing, association copy, from the library of the archaeologist Cheng Te-Kun (1908-2001), with his decorative bookplate. The author (1887-1946) and Cheng were among the leading archaeologists of their generations, Cheng holding appointments at the University of Cambridge and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Feng's Index catalogues, transliterates, and explains important places on the Silk Road route through Central Asia. His expansive scholarly output included a study of Dunhuang, the strategically important ancient trading centre, and writings on Chinese historical geography. Feng and Cheng also shared an interest in fairy tales, their works appearing side-by-side in Feng Changyi's recent Zhongguo shenhua xue bainian wenlun xuan (2013). The Index was first published in 1930 in the internal magazine of the North-West Scientific Survey (Xibei kexue kaocha tuan), but most copies were lost during the Second World War. Small octavo. Original decorative wrappers, spine lettered in black, front cover with black calligraphic title. Text predominantly in Chinese. Wrappers and contents lightly toned and soiled, spine ends neatly consolidated with adhesive: a very good copy.
First UK edition, third impression, signed by the author on the front free endpaper "Bertrand Russell (Perth. 15/8/50)". Russell was in Australia from June to August 1950, giving a series of public lectures on international affairs. Russell's famously comprehensive philosophical survey, ranging from the Orphism of ancient Greece to the logical positivism of the author's present day, is a triumph of his populist craft and perhaps his most famous book. Russell states in his preface that "there are many histories of philosophy, but none of them, so far as I know, has quite the purpose that I have set myself" (p. 5). His claim to originality was his historical contextualization of the lives and ideas of those who lived decades, centuries, and thousands of years apart, arguing that the course of philosophy is intimately tied to that of wider human civilization. The History was developed from lectures delivered at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia during the Second World War: it was in part conceived to explain to Russell's audience the exact nature of the civilization for which they were fighting. The first impression of the UK edition was published in 1946, following the US edition published in 1945. Blackwell & Ruja A79.2c. Octavo. Original grey cloth, spine lettered in yellow on brown ground. Cloth a little sunned and spotted, hinges with superficial splits. A very good copy.
A late 19th-century instalment of the Grand Hotel's tourist brochure. Besides the usual recommendations for sightseeing and leisure, it offers a 23-page phrase book and many charming period advertisements, including a full-page pitch for business from Hori Chiyo, the tattooist patronized by Lady Churchill, the future King George V, and Czar Nicholas II of Russia. The hotel issued updated guidebooks regularly and these are usually undated. This copy names as manager Louis Eppinger, whose tenure lasted from 1891 to 1905. Provenance: Reverend John Davis (1851-1924), the first professor of ecclesiastical history at St Paul's Theological Seminary, Tokyo, with his purple ink address stamp (318 North Seventh Street, Hannibal, Missouri) on the front pastedown and first page. Proficient in eight languages, Davis was also a keen botanist who collected for the Arnold Arboretum. Duodecimo. Original diagonal-grain grey cloth, front cover lettered in gilt, boards panelled in blind. With 9 folding half-tone plates; folding colour map in end pocket; advertisements in text. Red Japanese ink stamps on front pastedown and p. 1. Cloth lightly rubbed, light discolouring at spine ends, gutter cracked at pp. 2/3, binding still sturdy, map with couple of small losses and spits at folds, pocket with small closed tear expertly repaired with Japanese tissue. A very good copy.
First edition, first impression, of this confidential analysis published following the German surrender but while the war with Japan was ongoing. "The most important overall conclusion of this report is the firm verification of the interdependence of our land, sea, and air forces. This interdependence is tactical as well as strategic" (p. 191). "At the end of World War II, the US Army brass in Europe sang the praises of airpower. For the first time, airpower influenced the design for major campaigns - and made a difference in the tactical outcomes of battles from Normandy to Remagen, Germany. Lost in dense volumes of after-action analyses was one of the most unusual and compelling reports ever written on airpower. The report, titled "Effect of Air Power on Military Operations: Western Europe," was authored by Army ground officers. No wild declarations about airpower were needed; the detailed results spoke for themselves. Through their careful analysis and attention to both tactical and operational implications, 12th Army Group's soldiers gave airpower a resounding cheer" (Grant). Based in London from October 1943, General Omar Nelson Bradley (1893-1981) co-ordinated the planning for Operation Overlord. On Eisenhower's appointment as head, Bradeley was put in charge of all American ground forces. "Bradley's idea of a night landing in the manner of the Sicily invasion was overruled, but at his insistence, a second American beach was added, and the role of airborne troops was greatly enlarged" (ANB). Rebecca Grant, "Omar Bradley's View of Airpower", Air & Space Forces Magazine, available online. Quarto. Original drab boards, drab cloth backstrip, front cover lettered in blue, front endpaper with colour ground operations maps. With 12 charts, graphs, and plans (1 folding), 8 folding appendix maps (7 colour). Binding toned, spine ends fraying, text and illustrations lightly toned, small area of skinning on one plate leaf: a very good copy indeed.
The eight iteration of this long-running guide, updating lists of manufacturers and importers, dealers, and producers of smoking accoutrements such as pipes, cigarette paper, pouches, and cigar ribbons. "This edition has been extended in the Retail section to include some new towns of sufficient importance" (preface). This edition is not held by any institutional library. The Wellcome Collection holds the third edition (1888), while the Museum of London has the eleventh (1922). Loosely inserted is a numbered packet of different cigar ribbons, perhaps distributed as promotional material at a trade event. Octavo. Original brown diagonal-grain cloth over bevelled boards, spine lettered in gilt, red title label lettered in gilt, boards blocked in gilt and blind with advertisements, advertisement on front free endpaper. Advertisements in text. Occasion contemporary pen and ink annotations in text; tickets pasted at head of p. 221. Binding worn and soiled, occasional chipping, contents toned: a very good and much-used copy.
First edition thus, first impression, published in the year of Sir Charles Bell's diplomatic mission to Tibet, which aimed to combat Japanese and Soviet influence in the region. In spring 1917, the Foreign Office established a dedicated historical section under the direction of George Walter Prothero (1848-1922), a former president of the Royal Historical Society. It was tasked with compiling handbooks for British delegates attending post-war peace negotiations. Some 160 studies were prepared for internal circulation in blue wrappers. One year later, "in response to numerous enquiries and requests", the Foreign Office released the guides, largely unaltered, to the public in green wrappers under the HMSO imprint. Octavo. Original green card wrappers, spine and front cover lettered in black. Binding firm and secure, spine and extremities sunned, rust marks at wire-stitching: a very good copy.
First edition in English, first impression, inscribed from one big-game hunter to another on the front free endpaper, "To Mrs H. Lerner, the slayer of Lions, from a Boer - Wm P. Steenkamp Jr. Capetown 14/4/37". A South African MP from 1929, Steenkamp was known as the "Lion of the North-West" for his fiery oratory. Together with her husband, Michael, Lerner (1902-1979) hunted across the globe in the 1930s and 1940s. Friends of Ernest Hemingway, they shared with him an interest not only in big-game but also fishing, and they founded the International Game Fish Association in 1939. According to the association's website, Helen, "this trailblazing angler and marine scientist, made history as the first woman to reel in a bluefin tuna off the European continent, the inaugural angler to catch nine tuna in a single year, and the pioneer in catching a broadbill in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans". Photographs of their 1936-37 Africa safari, including images of Lerner with her lion trophies, are held by the University of Calgary. By the time he died, Willem Petrus Steenkamp (1879-1956) "had been many things: a spell-binding preacher who was invited no less than 58 times to minister elsewhere surely still a record an equally spell-binding political orator; a respected naturalist; a best-selling author; an expert on Arabian horses; twice a political prisoner; a big-game hunter and world traveller; such a foe of Nazism that he was willing to sacrifice his political career to combat it, [and] a fighter for the Afrikaans language who nevertheless spoke, wrote and enjoyed fluent English" ("The Lion"). The author (1898-1967), a Hungarian nobleman, hunted elephant in Kenya in the Kitui Forest and along the course of the Tiva River. "He also hunted bongo near Mt. Kenya, kudu along the northern reaches of Lake Rudolf, leopard on the northern Guaso Nyiro and lion on the Serengeti Plain. Széchenyi wrote other African hunting books which still await translation" (Czech). This account was published in Hungarian in 1934. "The Lion of the North-West", Ancestors Research South Africa, available online. Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Half-tone frontispiece after photograph of author, 94 half-tone plates, map in text. Extremities rubbed, spine ends beginning to split, edges foxed, plates clean: a very good copy.
First and only contemporary edition of this scathing indictment of the failure of the military establishment to match the development of technology with advancement in doctrine."The work was written before the 'mechanization' of the Army had advanced very far, but it does not suffer from this fact, so long as that is borne in mind. It is indeed, ahead of its time" (Falls). As Fuller told the Royal United Service Institution in the year of publication, "If we do not step forward today we shall be marking time, and if we mark time now. believe me, we shall be marking time in our own graves" (quoted in Reid, p. 64). Falls, * p. 31. Brian Holden Reid, J. F. C. Fuller: Military Thinker, 1987 Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, gilt emblem of tank corps on front cover. Half-tone frontispiece, 7 half-tone plates, 9 full-page sketch maps, folding map at rear, diagrams in text. Spine sunned, front inner hinge just starting, large abrasion on front free endpaper where label sometime removed, mark at head of frontispiece: a very good copy.
Fourth edition, including three plates conceptualizing the trace italienne in a 19th-century context. The author "was highly thought of and was a technical scholar who had great influence over the many young men he taught for a period of nearly thirty-eight years" (ODNB). All editions are uncommon in commerce: in the last two decades, one copy of the fourth and one copy of the second have appeared at auction. Landmann (1741-1826) lectured for many years at the École Royale Militaire in Paris, before his appointment in 1777 as Professor of Fortification and Artillery at the Royal Military Academy: "A letter from the Board of Ordnance to the lieutenant-governor of the academy introduced him as a gentleman who 'has seen a great deal of service, and acted as ADC to Marshal Broglie in the last war'" (ODNB). First published in 1796, Principles went through seven editions, the last (1853) revised by Landmann's son, George. This edition, like its predecessors, is advertised on the title page as containing "many additions", although this is in the main a marketing ploy. Octavo (205 x 123 mm), pp. [iv], 72, [12] (index and explanation of plates). Contemporary calf, recently rebacked with brown leatherette. With 3 folding engraved diagrammatic plates. Contemporary annotation "B71 Morris" on front pastedown. Boards rubbed, contents generally clean, occasional faint staining to plates: a very good copy.
First edition, first impression, sole contemporary printing, of this comprehensive history, beginning with the pre-Christian era, which is still cited as an authority. The author was a surgeon, liturgical scholar, and active participant in the Alcuin Club, an organization for promoting Anglican orthodoxy. Provenance: from the library of Prinknash Abbey, a Benedictine Monastery in Gloucestershire, with its bookplate. Octavo (250 x 155 mm). Mid-20th century deep orange half leatherette, spine lettered in gilt, orange cloth sides, grey textured endpapers. Frontispiece, 50 plates (2 double-page). Spine a little rubbed, black mark at head, toning and occasional spotting: a very good copy.
