WYNDHAM, John
The Day of the Triffids
London Michael Joseph 1951: 1951
- $1,619
First edition. 8vo., original cloth with dust wrapper. A little chipping and rubbing to wrapper, otherwise a very good copy.
More from G. Heywood Hill Ltd
C.B. Fry’s Magazine of Action and Outdoor Life. Vol.1. No.s 1-6 April to September 1904.
FRY, C.B. First edition of the first volume (of two) containing the first six issues of this short lived sporting magazine. The magazine only ran for a year. 8vo., original green cloth lettered in gilt on spine and upper board. A very good copy. With full colour illustrations of various sportsmen to the start of each issue - Lord Lyttelton (cricket), Arthur Winnington Ingram (tennis), Lord Hawke (cricket), Admiral Fisher (boating), "Bobs" (polo), and Oliver Lodge (golf). Contains many varied sports; tennis, cricket, etc, as well as items on Lion Hunting with Ranjitsinhji (better known as a cricketer) and motorcycling. C.B. Fry was an English sportsman, teacher, writer, editor and publisher, who represented England in both cricket and football. Among his his other sporting achievements Fry was also a decent shot putter, long jumper, hammer thrower, and ice skater, as well as being a proficient golfer.- $194
- $194
Victor Cazalet
JAMES, Robert Rhodes First edition, inscribed by the author to Gerald Bowden MP, "To Gerry with all affection and regard Robert." Additionally signed by Robert Rhodes James on the title-page. With Gerry Bowden's bookplate. Loosely inserted is an autograph letter from James to Bowden, "I'm glad you like my book. As his sister was still alive then, I omitted to mention that Victor was homosexual - but a discrete and not over-active one. But he had many fine qualities, and his early death was a national tragedy. Unaccountably he abstained in the May 8th 1940 vote of confidence. As I finished the book in New York I did not check the Division List, so my statement that he very reluctantly supported the Govt is wrong. It was, however, very much a last minute decision, as it was for so many. Thanks God they got Chamberlain out and W.S.C. in! or else none of us would be here today (or probably even alive) Yours Robert" 8vo., original cloth (without dust wrapper). Spine sunned otherwise a very good copy.- $382
- $382
Bells & Grass. A Book of Rhymes
DE LA MARE, Walter First edition. Illustrated by F. Rowland Emett. 8vo., original decorative green cloth with dust wrapper designed by Rowland Emett. A little restoration to spine and front panel of the wrapper, otherwise a very good copy. A seven-page introduction precedes ninety-one rhymes, a long overdue companion piece to 'Peacock Pie'.- $65
- $65
Poems from the Mountain-House.
GARLICK, Raymond First edition of the author's first collection of poems. The author's own copy with his bookplate with typed dated Eebruary 1950. With taped onto the copyright page an autograph letter signed by Walter de la Mare to whom the book is dedicated, "Dear Mr Garlick, after my failure to do what you asked of me - a very reluctant failure - it is generous indeed of you to suggest dedicating your book to me. I shall greatly value this & be delighted if you would. With all good wishes W.J. de la Mare". Also enclosed an autograph letter signed by John Betjeman to Raymond Garlick. On Time and Tide headed paper, Betjeman writes, "Dear Mr Garlick, I like this poem - [ ] which started C of E like I am - but they'll not print it here because its too long for our space. I reluctantly return it as it is full of beauty. Got any more shorter poems of a visual sort like this? Yours sincerely J. Betjeman". Betjeman was literary editor of Time and Tide between 1949 and 1953. He has made a tongue-in-cheek manuscript addition to the masthead on the letter, under the printed "Time and Tide" he has added "Waits for Women". Slim 80., original cloth backed paper covered boards lettered in gilt on spine. With remains of the printed dust wrapper, lacking spine and with chyips and soiling. Cloth spine sunned, some internal foxing, tape stain from where the letter from Walter de la Mare was attached. A good copy but with an excellent provenance and with two letters to the author from eminent contemporary poets.- $324
- $324
Diaries 1939-1975. 1. A Pacifist’s War 1939-1945; 2. Everything to Lose 1945-1960; 3. Hanging On 1960-1963; 4. Other People 1963-1966; 5. Good Company 1967-1970; 6. Life Regained 1970-1972; 7. Ups and Downs 1972-1975.
PARTRIDGE, Frances First editions. Original hardcovers, gilt. Jacket illustration on the first two volumes by Angelica Garnett. Top edges a little spotted. Ownership label of John Fuggles to each front pastedown (hidden under the jacket flap). Near fine in near fine d/ws. "Now recognised as one of the great British diarists of the century, Partridge was born in Bedford Square, Bloomsbury in 1900, the daughter of a progressive mother and architect father whose friends included Henry James and Arthur Conan Doyle. After studying Moral Sciences and English at Cambridge, she worked in David Garnett's bookshop and became part of the Bloomsbury Group, meeting Woolf, the Bells, Roger Fry and Keynes. She met and fell in love with Ralph Partridge who was at the time married to Dora Carrington. After the death of Lytton Strachey, with whom she was in love, Carrington committed suicide. Ralph and Frances married in 1933. During the war they were both committed pacifists and opened their house, Ham Spray, to numerous waifs and strays of war. After it was over they enjoyed the happiest time of their life together, entertaining friends such as E M Forster, Robert Kee and Duncan Grant. This life of great warmth and friendship ended abruptly when Ralph died in 1960. Three years later another tragedy struck when their only son, Burgo, died at the age of 28 from a brain haemorrhage. 'I have utterly lost heart: I want no more of this cruel life,' Frances wrote and yet she made a decision 'to live in the present' and 'to get a better seat on my bicycle'. Despite such enormous suffering, she maintained an astonishing appetite for life, whether for her friends, travelling, botany, or music. Her diaries, written without thought of publication, chronicle a remarkable life. Beautifully written, full of an infectious enthusiasm and unending curiosity, they are utterly riveting and rank amongst the greatest diaries of the century."- $641
- $641
English Romantic Poets and Landscape Painting.
CLARK, Kenneth An offprint from volume 85 of The Memoirs & Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society Session 1941-43. Inscribed by Kenneth Clark to John and Myfanwy Piper, "John and Myfanwy with love from the embarrassed author." With the Piper's bookplate on the rear free endpaper. 8vo., original printed grey wrappers. Wrappers a little sunned and soiled, ink stain on inner front wrapper, otherwise a very good copy.- $123
- $123
Buildings and Prospects
PIPER, John First edition. From the library of Rosamund and Elliott Viney with their bookplate designed by Reynolds Stone. 4to., original buckram lettered in brown on spine. A very good copy (without dust wrapper). A collection of Piper's writings on English architecture written during the war years and originally published in the Architectural Review and other publications. The range is eclectic (nautical architecture, gin palaces and pubs, the concept of 'pleasing decay', and a house by Pugin, among others) but Piper's nervous worry about a disappearing England and his admiration for everyday architecture run through each of the articles, which are illustrated with Piper's own drawings, engravings and photographs.- $58
- $58
Poems
BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett The second, or New Edition, of Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, published in 1850, containing the first appearance of "Sonnets From the Portuguese." Imprint in second state as usual (193 Piccadilly, as opposed to 186 Strand). 8vo., 2 volumes in original blue cloth. Spines a little sunned, some rubbing to cloth and wear to extremities, otherwise a very good copy, increasingly rare in original cloth. The 44 celebrated love poems which Elizabeth Browning wrote for her husband Robert, composed in 1845-6. After the first edition of her "Poems" was published in 1844, Robert Browning wrote in admiration to Elizabeth and their subsequent courtship inspired these sonnets, which he insisted she include in this Second Edition of her collected verse. Wise states in his bibliography '.the Second, but greatly enlarged, Edition of Mrs Browning's 'Poems' is of considerable interest and importance, and its claim to rank as a princeps is fully justified'. Thomas J. Wise; A Bibliography of the Writings in Prose and Verse of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, pp., 61-66.- $6,477
- $6,477
Elizabethan Love Songs. Edited by John Hadfield with lithographs by John Piper
PIPER, John (Illustrator) HADFIELD, John (Editor) First edition, limited edition of 660 numbered copies signed by John Piper. With an autograph letter from John Piper loosely inserted. The autograph letter from Piper is addressed to his friend the sculptor, academic, writer and Anglican priest William Moelwyn Merchant, enclosing this book as a Christmas present for him: "The enclosed comes with love, for Christmas. It has I think some flies on it, as it were - I don't wholly approve of all that bordering, nor of the paper entirely, but I quite enjoyed doing it, and I liked Hadfield more than I expected." 8vo., original green cloth backed Douglas Cockerel & Son hand-marbled boards, gilt titles to spine, top edge gilt, others uncut. Spine slightly sunned otherwise a very good copy.- $382
- $382
The Mediterranean Cruise. An Up-to-date and Concise Handbook for Travelers
JENKINS, Rolland First edition with 40 illustrations and 9 maps. 8vo., original cloth lettered in gilt on spine and upper board, with colour illustrated label on upper board, with dust wrapper. Wrapper with some splits and a little chipping, otherwise a very good copy. The handbook covers the whole of the Mediterranean from Spain, Algeria, the French and Italian Rivieras, Italy, Greece, Constantinople, Palestine, Jerusalem, Egypt, ending at the Tomb of Tutankhamun.- $194
- $194
After All
DE WOLFE, Elsie First edition of De Wolfe's vivacious autobiography, inscribed to Gertrude Stein, with a fascinating later chain of ownership recorded on the endpapers. 8vo., original red cloth (without dust wrapper). Spine slightly darkened otherwise a very good copy. Elsie de Wolfe (1859-1950) was an actress and socialite and the first prominent women interior designer. Her collaborations with Anne Morgan, Anne Vanderbilt and the Frick sisters dragged the fashionable interiors of New York out of the Victorian era and opened up a new field of employment for women. "Her success as a career woman led the way for the acceptance of American women in the professional world." (ANB) She lived openly with the pioneering theatrical agent and producer Elisabeth Marbury for 27 years. Marbury's clients ranged from the French Academy of Letters to playwrights Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw; to the dance team of Vernon and Irene Castle. Her 1923 autobiography My Crystal Ball; Reminiscences includes a chapter The Last Days of Oscar Wilde. In 1938, at the time of the inscription, De Wolfe styling herself as Lady Elsie Mendl (as she was through her marriage of convenience to an eccentric British diplomat), was living with Marbury at their home in Versailles throwing extravagant parties as the Nazis marched closer. The inscription reads "To [a] great woman from a new friend, Elsie Mendl. Versailles June 6th 1938." A pencil note underneath identifies the 'great woman' as Gertrude Stein. There are photos and known details of a luncheon hosted by De Wolfe and Marbury in honour of Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas in May 1938. The story is continued on the facing endpaper where a pencil annotation in French notes that this was one of a number of books from Gertude Stein's wartime residence in Burgey which she gave to Nicole Llewellyn Picot in August 1941. (The note is written in the third person but signed with Nicole's "N".) The books were given to help Nicole learn English and there are indeed numerous instances of French words being pencilled above the English throughout the book. In April 1943 Nicole divorced M. Picot and in July 1943 married Bernard de Vesian and as Nicole de Vesian she went on to have a brilliant career as a fashion designer, notably for Hermes scarves, and later as a garden designer. The story does not end there, however: It appears that as a lieutenant in the French army Bernard was captured whilst he had this book in his possession as it also contains the censor's ink stamps from Oflag II D, a POW camp in northeast Poland, as well as his name pencilled above "Bl. IV BC" perhaps indicating that he was held in block four. Somehow the book made it back to Nicole as the book was gifted one last time "To a great boy with love and admiration, Nicole." This final inscription, which plays on the first inscription to Stein, has been dated in a different, green pen, "1988." Nicole died in 1996. Her garden "La Louvre" in Provence is still visited and admired. A remarkable association copy linking three influential women of the arts and one unfortunate French prisoner of war.- $3,821
- $3,821
Ann at Highwood Hall. Poems for Children.
GRAVES, Robert; ARDIZZONE, Edward illustrator First edition. Illustrations by Ardizzone. A "short collection of new poems for young people" 8vo., Original cloth with Ardizzone designed price-clipped dust wrapper. Neat ink presentation inscription, a couple of nicks to the head of spine of wrapper, otherwise a very good copy.- $97
- $97
Royal Flash.
MacDONALD FRASER, George. First edition. 8vo., in original red cloth with dust wrapper. Wrapper with a chip to the head of the spine of wrapper, affecting a couple of letters, a little edge wear, otherwise a very good copy with only a little fading to the spine of wrapper. The second, most elusive Flashman novel, and the only one to be set in a fictional location, Royal Flash mixes Flashman with the intrigue and court politics surrounding the Schleswig-Holstein question. From London gaming-halls and English hunting-fields to European dungeons and throne-rooms, Flashman is involved in a desperate succession of escapes, disguises, amours, and, when he can not avoid them, hand-to-hand combats, while the destiny of a continent rests on his broad and failing shoulders- $253
- $253
The Economic Consequences of the Peace
KEYNES, John Maynard. Early reprint, first "Cheap" edition. 8vo. Original paper covered boards. Rebacked preserving some of original spine, some rubbing and soiling. a good copy only. J.M. Keynes (1883-1946) wrote this book as a result of his attendance at the Treaty of Versailles. It made the arguments for a fairer peace settlement and went on to become a bestseller of its time. There was an immediate clamour for Keynes to publish a "cheaper" edition. Keynes eventually worked with G.D.H. Cole of the Labour Research Department to release a special cheaper edition of 10,000 copies. By September 1st of 1920, there remained only 170 copies of the 10,000.- $65
- $65
Desiderata. “Go Placidly Amid the Noise and Haste” Engraved brass plaque.
EHRMANN, Max Vintage brass wall plaque containing the full text of Ehrmann's 'timeless masterpiece' which has become associated with St Paul's Church Baltimore. (20 x 28.5cm) brass plaque with felt to the back; lightly marked and slightly scratched front. Desiderata was written in 1927 by Max Ehrmann, a poet and lawyer from Indiana. The poem became widely known in the 1960s and 1970s when various broadside printings became hugely popular. Ehrmann wrote the poem "because it counsels those virtues I felt most in need of."- $1,289
- $1,289
Dans Les Nuages. Impressions d’une Chaise. Illustré par Georges Clairin.
BERNHARDT, Sarah First edition inscribed by Sarah Bernhardt to the sculptor Mathieu Meunier. Sarah Bernhardt was passionate about sculpture which she took up in the early 1870s. She studied under the sculptors Mathieu Meunier and Franceschi and exhibited for the first time at the French Artists' Salon in 1876. Also with 6 small notelets from Bernhardt to Meunier tipped throughout the book. The cards, of various sizes, are headed with the actress's monogram are signed "Sarah" or "Sarah Bernhardt" With an original full length pencil portrait of Bernhardt by Georges Clairin tipped in. Georges Clairin, the illustrator of this book, was Bernhardt's lover and loyal friend. He remained the official portraitist of his illustrious muse for fifty years. His 1876 portrait of her hangs in the Petit Palais. Loosely inserted are three more autograph letters signed to Mathieu Meunier. The letters are from Georges Clairin, the actress Gabrielle Réjane, and the soprano Caroline Miolan Carvalho. Narrated by a chair in a hot-air balloon, Dans Les Nuages, is a light-hearted, humorous tale that follows a character reminiscent of Bernhardt herself through the skies above Paris.- $7,772
- $7,772
Poems in the Porch
BETJEMAN, John & PIPER, John (Illustrator) First edition. With a short autograph letter from John Piper loosely inserted. "Dear Mr Emery, I'm sorry I can't send you a sketch. "Quick" sketches are not easy to do. But here is my autograph. Yours with good wishes John Piper." 8vo. Original oversize wrappers, a touch worn to extremities but overall a very good copy. The poems were written for a BBC Western Region radio programme but there were so many requests for copies that a book was published by S.P.C.K.- $194
- $194
To John Piper on his Eightieth Birthday. Essays Presented by His Friends
PIPER, John. ELBORN, Geoffrey (Editor) First edition, limited edition of 900 copies. John Piper's own copy with his and Myfanwy's bookplate on front paste-down. 8vo., original decorative cloth. A fine copy. Contributors include: Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Myfanwy Piper, J. M. Richards, R. M. Healey, Henry Moore, Stuart Piggott, Rigby Graham, John Betjeman, Stephen Spender, Quentin Bell, Peter Pear and others.- $512
- $512
New Bats in Old Belfries.
BETJEMAN, John. Second printing the same month as the first, December 1945. Signed twice by Betjeman on the title-page. The first signature is formed by an ink line through the printed bellringing changes attached to a long initial "J". The neatly calligraphed signature includes a heart and the cryptic date "MCMX". Below this is a later inscription "this is your [?] John Betjeman" Small 8vo., original red cloth with paper label on upper board. A very good copy (without dust wrapper). An early collection of twenty-four poems, including "Henley-on-Thames", "A Subaltern's Love-Song", "Parliament Hill Fields", "South London Sketch, 1944", "May-Day Song for North Oxford", "In a Bath Teashop", etc.- $324
- $324
