Clearwater Books

RICHARD ALDINGTON. Death of a Hero. A novel. Chatto & Windus, London 1929. First English edition (preceded by several weeks by the American edition). 8vo. 440pp. Boards a little marked in places, minor slant to binding and publisher’s red stain to top edge quite faded.  A miniscule hint of spotting to preliminary leaves and ghost of former dealer pricing to front endpaper. Quite a bright copy, alas lacking the magnificent Paul Nash dust wrapper. £20

RICHARD ALDINGTON. Death of a Hero. Henri Babou & Jack Kahane. Paris 1930. The first of two volumes that comprise the first unexpurgated (and authorised) edition, de-bowdlerising the versions published in America and the UK the previous year. One of 300 numbered copies. 4to. Newly recased in fabric linen, the original wrappers retained. In very handsome state. £85

RICHARD ALDINGTON. Roads to Glory. Chatto & Windus, London 1930. First edition. 8vo. 278pp + iv publisher’s advertisements. Publisher’s stain to top edge a little patchy. Minor ridge to spine and a hint of wear to cloth at several extremities. Endpapers and half-title browned and a little internal spotting, mostly confined to margins of preliminary leaves. Quite a nice, bright copy but lacking the superb Paul Nash lithographic dust wrapper. Thirteen short stories sharing a Great War theme. £20

HAROLD ASHTON. First From the Front. C.Arthur Pearson Ltd., London [1914]. First edition. 8vo. 167pp. With a portrait frontispiece, one map and one photographic plate. Lower edges rubbed and a little chafed, and with some spotting and browning to the endpapers and the binding just a little tender at one or two gatherings. A nice bright copy of this volume of early Great War observations written by the War Correspondent of The Daily News (primarily concerning events in Northern France). No dust wrapper. This copy from the library of actor and playwright Harold Chapin, with his handsome bookplate (Chapin is regarded as one of the greatest potential dramatic talents to be lost during the war; he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was killed in action at the age of 29 at the Battle of Loos, a year after Ashton’s book was published). £25

PAT BARKER. The Regeneration Trilogy. Complete in three volumes comprising Regeneration, The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road. Viking, London 1991-1995. A first edition set of Barker's award-winning Great War trilogy. Individual volume descriptions as follows: Regeneration (1991). First edition. 8vo. 251pp. A touch of bruising to the spine ends, else a fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, with just a hint of corresponding bruising to the base of the spine panel. The Eye in the Door (1993). First edition. 8vo. 280pp. Spine ends rubbed and with just a touch of marking to the boards at one or two extremities. Former owner name neatly inked to the head of a blank preliminary leaf. A very good copy in rubbed and edgeworn dust wrapper. An uncorrected proof copy of this book is also included, bound in the publisher’s original card wrappers. The Ghost Road (1995). First edition. 8vo. 277pp. A fine copy in very good dust wrapper, lightly faded at the spine panel and with a touch of very light edgewear. Winner of the 1995 Booker Prize. A very good set. £225

W.BEACH THOMAS. With the British on the Somme. Methuen, London 1917. First edition – a presentation copy inscribed: “From the author, with vivid memories of much hospitality. W.Beach Thomas Oct 16 1919”. 8vo. 285pp + xxxi publisher’s catalogue at rear. Cloth considerably marked and a little worn at corners, yet really quite a crisp and bright copy internally (although the paper used for the publisher’s catalogue is of significantly inferior stock to the rest). Beach Thomas’ oddly uncommon account of his wartime experiences: he reported for the Daily Mail and at the outset of the war, when Kitchener was opposed to the presence of journalists at the front, was one of several who managed to reach the front lines in Belgium where he was discovered and imprisoned by the British Army, an episode he described as "the longest walking tour of my life, and the queerest". Following his release he continued to report for the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, his subsequent reportage receiving national recognition. Extremely uncommon, and much more so with the author’s inscription. £150

ARNOLD BENNETT. Over There. War Scenes on the Western Front. Methuen, London 1915. First edition. Small 8vo. 192pp. Stiff paper-covered boards, rubbed, chafed and a little marked, with the paper spine covering chipped and partially defective, the binding a little tender yet sound. A single short tear to the fore edge of the half-title. Quite a bright copy. A series of six Great War essays, written whilst Bennett was Director of Propaganda for France at the Ministry of Information. £35

EDMUND BLUNDEN. Undertones of War. R.Cobden-Sanderson, London 1929. Seventh impression, the year after original publication. 8vo. 317pp + i publisher’s advert for other Blunden publications at rear. A dusty and slightly handled copy, boards a little marked and spine discoloured, but binding perfectly sound and really quite bright internally. No dust wrapper. £25

FRANCIS BRETT YOUNG. Marching on Tanga. (With General Smuts in East Africa). Collins, London 1917. First edition. 8vo. 264pp. With thirty photographic plates and a four-panel, three-colour fold-out map at rear, marred by a single short tear. Top edge dust marked, backstrip faded and spine ends a little rubbed and nicked. Minor slant to binding. Some fox spotting, mostly confined to margins. No dust wrapper. A slightly dusty copy of the author’s personal account of the disastrous East African Campaign. The author served with the Medical Corps (passages censored from this account were subsequently incorporated into his 1930 novel Jim Redlake). £50

R.W.CAMPBELL. The Mixed Division (T). A novel. Hutchinson, London 1916. First edition. 8vo. 320pp + xxxii publisher’s catalogue at rear. Covers a little soiled and marked. Endpapers browned. A good, bright copy. No dust wrapper. “With the Publisher’s Compliments” inkstamp to the title page. A novel based upon experiences with a Lowland Scottish Territorial regiment. £25

BILLY CONGREVE. Armageddon Road. A VC’s Diary 1914-1916. Edited by Terry Norman. William Kimber, London 1982. First edition. 8vo. 223pp. Illustrated with maps and photographs. Edges lightly spotted. A very good copy in virtually fine price-clipped dust wrapper. The diary of staff officer Billy Congreve, who was killed on the Somme in July 1916 at the age of twenty-five after having been awarded the DSO, MC, and the Légion d’Honneur. His gallant acts of the Somme battlefields saw him awarded a posthumous VC. £10

E.E.CUMMINGS. The Enormous Room. A typescript edition with drawings by the author. Edited, with an Afterword, by George James Firmage, and a Foreword by Richard S.Kennedy. Granada Publishing / Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, London 1978. A new ‘authoritative’ edition, based on three corrected copies of the complete manuscript plus Cummings’ original notes and drafts, and reproducing for the first time circa sixty of the author’s on-the-spot drawings. 8vo. 275pp. Decorated endpapers. A virtually fine copy in very good dust wrapper, lightly faded at the spine panel. An autobiographical novel detailing the author’s four-month imprisonment in France during the Great War. £35

CAPTAIN J.C.DUNN. The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919. A Chronicle of Service in France and Belgium with the Second Battalion His Majesty’s Twenty-Third Foot, The Royal Welch Fusiliers: founded on personal records, recollections and reflections, assembled, edited and partly written by one of their Medical Officers. Jane’s Publishing, London 1987. First trade edition (originally published anonymously in 1938 in a limited edition of 500 copies). 8vo. 613pp + xxvii sketched maps. Illustrated with photographs. A touch of tanning to the lesser-quality paperstock. Very good in price-clipped dust wrapper, a little sunned at the spine panel and with some creasing to the upper edge. James Dunn served with in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and compiled this volume of memoirs partly in response to Graves' Goodbye to All That, an account he believed to be fictions and full of half-truths. Siegfried Sassoon contributes a chapter (A Chapter in a Subaltern’s Life), his very first prose writing about the war, which he later expended into a chapter of Memoirs of an Infantry Officer. Dunn himself makes an appearance in Goodbye to All That (“a hard-bitten man…the right-hand man of three or four colonels in succession. When his advice was not taken it was usually afterwards regretted”). £30

WILFRID EWART. Stephen Graham. Life and Last Words of Wilfrid Ewart. G.P.Putnam, London 1924. First Edition. 8vo. 261pp. Tissue-protected portrait frontispiece. Top edge a little dust soiled, and with some spotting to top- and fore edge, and just a little more to several preliminary and concluding leaves. Very good indeed and housed in the most uncommon dust wrapper, a little rubbed at one or two extremities and with a strip of chafing to the backstrip. A super copy of this uncommon biographical celebration of Ewart (author of the celebrated autobiographical Great War book Way of Revelation), written by his friend and fellow Scots Guard, Stephen Graham, whose own wartime experiences were recounted in A Private in the Guards (1919). £150

SEBASTIAN FAULKS. Birdsong. Hutchinson, London 1993. First edition. 8vo. 407pp. A bump to the tip of two corners, else in fine state with dust wrapper, lightly rubbed at head and base of spine panel and one corner of front panel. An extremely good copy of Faulk's celebrated Great War novel, and the central volume of his loose trilogy, following The Girl at the Lion d'Or and preceding Charlotte Gray. £250

ARTHUR GIBBONS. A Guest of the Kaiser. The Plain Story of a Lucky Soldier. J.M.Dent, Toronto and Robert McBride, New York 1919. First edition - this copy boldly inscribed by the author to his cousin: "To my Dear Cousin Chrissie, from the author Arthur Gibbons. Toronto April 1st 1919". 8vo. 198pp. With a tissue-protected portrait frontispiece and five photographic plates. Binding lightly cocked and with some marking and staining to boards. Some internal spotting, mostly confined to margins, and several instances of light pencilled marginalia, which could be easily erased. No wrapper, were one required. An account of the Great War experiences of Sergeant Arthur Gibbons who served with the Toronto Regiment, 1st C.E.F. Gibbons was wounded and captured during the Battle of Ypres and subsequently interned at Giessen, a German prison camp. He was included in a prisoner exchange after feigning insanity and retuned to Canada where he became a recruiter, lecturing on his experiences. Most uncommon. £150

F.W.HARVEY. Comrades in Captivity. A Record of Life in Seven German Prison Camps. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1920. First edition. 8vo. 319pp. With a frontispiece map, and various further maps, plus cartoons and illustrations. Spine ends and corner tips rubbed, and with some darkening and tape residue marks to the free endpapers. A nice crisp copy of the uncommon P.O.W. memoirs of Frederick William Harvey, “the Laureate of Gloucestershire” (Harvey served with the 5th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment and was captured in August 1916, spending the remainder of the war as a P.O.W., during which time he composed his second book of verse, Gloucestershire Friends). £125

REGINALD HILL. No Man's Land. A novel of the Great War. Collins, London 1985. First edition. 8vo. A fine copy in dust wrapper. £15

MAJOR PERCIVAL ST. LAWRENCE LLOYD. The Wood of Death and Beyond. First World War Recollections. Edited by R.J.Lloyd. Oakham Books, Surrey [1998]. First edition – this copy inscribed by the editor. 111pp. Publisher’s laminated card wrappers. Light superficial crease to rear wrapper and final few leaves. Very good. The Great War memoirs of a Second Lieutenant with the Royal Fusiliers. He was injured at the Battle of Cambrai, but returned to Belgium for the latter part of the penultimate Allied advance, participating in the 2nd Army’s March to the Rhine and subsequent occupation. £15

FREDERIC MANNING (writing as ‘Private 19022’). The Middle Parts of Fortune. Somme and Ancre, 1916. Complete in two volumes. The Piazza Press – issued to subscribers by Peter Davies, London 1929. First edition, limited to 520 numbered copies printed on hand-made paper (this being #459). 8vo. Full brown buckram, lettered and ruled in gold at spine (with the incorrect date ‘1930’ as required). With marbled endpapers, gilt top edges and silk place markers. Fore- and bottom edges untrimmed. Just a fraction of rubbing to spine ends and the merest hint of chafing to buckram in one or two places. A virtually fine copy of Manning’s equally scarce and celebrated Great War novel, which was subsequently issued as an expurgated trade edition the following year under the title Her Privates We. Lacking the unprinted cellophane paper-flapped wrappers and the slipcase. £750

FREDERIC MANNING (writing as ‘Private 19022’). Her Privates We. Peter Davies, London 1930. First edition. 8vo. 453pp. Oatmeal cloth featuring a striking pictorial design. The top edge lightly dust soiled, and with the faintest trace of spotting to the fore edge. A short superficial crease to the front free endpaper. Very good indeed, with almost none of the cloth darkening or cocking which usually impacts this production. Lacking the original unprinted glassine paper-flapped protector, but with a fresh sheet supplied. A very nicely preserved copy. £95

Originally published as a two-volume private limited edition in 1929 under the title ‘The Middle Parts of Fortune’, this expurgated edition of Manning’s Great War memoirs was commercially published the following year, with the strong language removed. The book was praised by a host of literary luminaries including Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway and T.E.Lawrence, yet Manning wrote no further novels and was not credited with authorship by name until 1943, eight years after his death.

JOHN MASTERS. Loss of Eden trilogy. Complete in three volumes comprising Now, God be Thanked, Heart of War and By the Green of the Spring. Michael Joseph, London 1979-1981. A first edition set of Master's celebrated Great War trilogy. Individual volumes as follows: Now, God be Thanked (1979). First edition. 8vo. 589pp. In fine state with fine price-clipped dust wrapper. Heart of War (1980). First edition. 8vo. 617pp. Spine ends lightly rubbed, else a copy in fine dust wrapper. By the Green of the Spring (1981). 8vo. 599pp. Spine ends lightly rubbed and a small bump to the tip of one corner. A virtually fine copy in fine dust wrapper. £50

C.E.MONTAGUE. Rough Justice. A novel. Chatto & Windus, London 1926. First edition. 8vo. 383pp. One blank flyleaf browned and cloth a fraction faded at spine. Quite a nice, bright copy. No dust wrapper. £15

R.H.MOTTRAM. The Spanish Farm. With a preface by John Galsworthy. Chatto & Windus, London 1924. Third impression, issued six months after the original publication. 8vo. 233pp + iv publisher’s catalogue at rear. A little light spotting to fore edge and several preliminary leaves and some browning to endpapers and half-title. A very bright copy of the first volume of Mottram’s celebrated Great War trilogy. £15

R.H.MOTTRAM. The Crime at Vanderlynden's. The third volume of The Spanish Farm trilogy. Chatto & Windus, London 1926. First edition. 8vo. 219pp. A little spotting to fore edge and three or four preliminary leaves, else a very crisp and bright copy. Lacking the dust wrapper. £20

R.H.MOTTRAM. Ten Years Ago. Armistice & Other Memories, forming a pendant to ‘The Spanish Farm Trilogy’. With a foreword by W.E.Bates. Chatto & Windus, London 1928. First edition. 8vo. 179pp + iv publisher’s catalogue. Spine sunned and with some spotting to fore edge and a single blank preliminary leaf and some occasional margins. Several numerals to front endpaper in stubborn colour pencil. No dust wrapper. Sixteen sketches and stories. £10

R.H.MOTTRAM, JOHN EASTON AND ERIC PARTRIDGE. Three Personal Records of the War. Comprising A Personal Record by Eric Mottram, Broadchalk, a Chronicle by John Easton and Frank Honeywood, Private by Eric Partridge. The Scholartis Press, London 1929. First edition. 8vo. 405pp. With a frontispiece map and one further map. Buckram a little marked, rubbed and chafed in places and with a touch of spotting and a strip of light partial browning to endpapers. Production fault crease to one text leaf. Quite a nice, crisp copy. No dust wrapper. £15

BEVERLEY NICHOLS. Cry Havoc! Jonathan Cape, London 1933. First edition. 8vo. 254pp + a tipped in one-page advertisement for Nichols’ Down the Garden Path, as issued. Publisher’s maroon stain to top edge. Tips of two corners gently knocked, backstrip lettering very slightly defective and with a single miniscule nick to the cloth. An extremely crisp and bright copy in the quite striking octopus dust wrapper, price-clipped, lightly tanned at spine panel, a little dust marked and with a tiny area of loss to the lower edge of the rear panel, another enclosed fraction of loss to the spine panel and a third, slightly larger area to the head of the spine panel, impacting the first word of the title. A very good copy of the author’s equally celebrated and controversial pacifist Great War novel, loathed by Francis Yeats-Brown (who called it “a masterpiece of making drivel sound convincing” and went so far as to publish a repost, Dogs of War!, the following year). £50

T.P.O’CONNOR. Epic War Stories of the Mercantile Navy. C.P.S., London [c.1920]. A series of first-hand merchant seamen narratives from the First World War, collected and edited by Thomas Power O'Connor. M.P., and produced to raise funds for The Merchant Seamen's War Memorial Society. Small 8vo. 22pp. Stapled wrappers, the staple rusting and with just a touch of occasional fox spotting. A very good copy of a scarce ephemeral item. Includes personal accounts of the torpedoing of the SS Kariba, the SS Apapa and the Innisfallen. Uncommon. £35

SAPPER [i.e. Cyril McNeile]. Sergeant Michael Cassidy, R.E. Hodder & Stoughton, London 1915. First edition. 8vo. 177pp. Original publisher’s decorated green cloth, backstrip a little darkened, spine ends rubbed and with a minor crease to the spine. Edges and endpapers lightly spotted, and with a little browning to the endpapers. A nice crisp copy, lacking the dust wrapper. The author’s first book, most of which was originally published in the Daily Mail (as serving officers in the British Army were not permitted to publish under their own names, McNeile was dubbed ‘Sapper’ by Daily Mail owner, Lord Northcliffe). £50

SAPPER [i.e. Cyril McNeile]. Mufti. Hodder & Stoughton, London 1919. First edition. 8vo. 295pp. Original publisher’s cloth, lettered in black at spine and upper board. backstrip faded and with several small splashes of miscellaneous staining. Spine ends and corner tips rubbed and chafed. Some browning to endpapers, half-title and final text leaf.  Former owner bookplate to front pastedown. A good copy, really quite crisp internally. No dust wrapper. The author’s first novel, ‘The Breed’ and fore-shadowing the publication of Bull-Dog Drummond a year later. £50

SIEGFRIED SASSOON. Diaries 1915-1918. Edited and with an introduction by Rupert Hart-Davis. Faber, London 1983. First edition. 8vo. 288pp. Portrait frontispiece. A light scattering of spotting to the top edge, else a virtually fine copy in price-clipped dust wrapper, very lightly faded at the spine panel. The first of three volumes of Sassoon’s diaries edited by Hart-Davis, this volume covering his Great War years and subsequently used as material for his celebrated trilogy Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer and Sherston’s Progress. £30

FRIEDRICH SCHILLING. Flieger an allen Fronten. [A Fligher on all Fronts]. Verlag Scherl, Berlin 1936. 8vo. 223pp + i publisher’s advertisement. Cloth backed boards lettered in black and red at spine and with five biplanes depicted on the upper board. Illustrated with forty-four monochrome photographs, several very much of the ‘how not to do it’ school. Covers somewhat marked and handled, with several small areas of staining and a single tiny tear to the rear gutter. Tips of corners rubbed and edges lightly spotted, yet a nice crisp copy internally. Tiny dealer plate to front pastedown. Text in German. An account of Great War aviation experiences with settings including in Galicia, Serbia, Salonica and France. £25

CAPTAIN ALEXANDER STEWART. A Very Unimportant Officer. Life and Death on the Somme and at Passchendaele. Edited by Cameron Stewart. Hodder & Stoughton, London 2008. First edition. 8vo. 318pp. Illustrated with a number of photographs and reproductions in the text. Spine ends rubbed, else in fine state with correspondingly rubbed price-clipped dust wrapper. A detailed account of the experiences of an ordinary Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) officer on the front line in France and Flanders throughout 1916 and 1917, edited from the original manuscript by his grandson. £10 

WILFRED TREMELLEN. The Three Squadrons. Newnes, London [c.1936]. Undated, but probably the cheap edition, with the dust wrapper priced 2’6 net. 8vo. 251pp. A virtually fine copy in the uncommon colour pictorial dust wrapper, lightly soiled and a little chafed at extremities with several tiny fractions of loss. A Great War aviation adventure. The author - whose name is misspelt on the dust wrapper as ‘Wilfrid Tremellin’ - was a regular contributor to the W.E.John’s-edited magazine Air Stories (1935-1940). £95

ALEC WAUGH. The Prisoners of Mainz. With illustrations by Captain R.T.Roussel (P.O.W. Mainz). Chapman & Hall, London 1919. First edition. 8vo. 274pp + ii publisher’s advertisements for Waugh’s The Loom of Youth. Brown cloth with a paper spine label and illustrated with a frontispiece and eleven captioned plates of drawings and photographs. Top edge dust marked. A very crisp and bright copy, lacking the dust wrapper. The author’s record of his incarceration in the German POW camp Citadel Mainz following his capture at Arras. £50

LEON WOLFF. In Flanders Fields. The 1917 Campaign. Illustrated with photographs and maps and with an introduction by Major-General J.F.C.Fuller. Longmans, London 1959. First UK edition, originally published in the US the previous year. 8vo. 310pp. Neat contemporary former owner name and date to front endpaper. A hint of wear to head of spine. A very good copy in slightly dust marked dust wrapper, a little nicked at head of spine panel and lightly rubbed at several extremities. The author’s second book, an account of the tragic 1917 Flanders campaign. £15

CHRISTY CAMPBELL. Band of Brigands. The First Men in Tanks. Harper Press, London 2007. First edition. 8vo. 479pp. Illustrated with forty-three photographs and three maps. A fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, marred by a tiny touch of chafing to spine panel ends. An account of the origins of The Royal Tank Regiment or ‘Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps’ as it was then known, covering the period 1916-18. £15

PETER CHASSEAUD AND PETER DOYLE. Grasping Gallipoli. Terrain, Maps and Failure at the Dardanelles, 1915. Spellmount, Staplehurst 2005. First edition. 8vo. 330pp. Colour map-illustrated endpapers. With sixteen photographs and nine maps. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. £15

COUNT CHARLES DE SOUZA & MAJOR HALDANE MACFALL. Germany in Defeat. A Strategic History of the War: First Phase. With maps. Kegan Paul, London 1915. First edition. A bright copy. Neat name of former owner. £20

JOHN DOS PASSOS. Mr. Wilson’s War. Hamish Hamilton, London 1963. First UK edition. 8vo. 517pp. Map-illustrated endpapers. With a frontispiece and twenty photographs. Several light finger marks to fore edge, else in virtually fine state with price-clipped dust wrapper with a single short closed tear and some dust marking to predominantly white rear panel. A detailed account of the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. £10

PETER DOYLE. The British Soldier of the First World War. Shire Publications, Oxford 2008. First edition – this copy signed by the author. 56pp. Stiff card wrappers. With over seventy-five photographs including many in colour. In virtually fine state. An informative and well illustrated account of the life of the average British ‘Tommy’. £10

WILL ELLSWORTH-JONES. We Will Not Fight. The Untold Story of the First World War’s Conscientious Objectors. Aurum Press, London 2007. First edition. 8vo. 296pp. Illustrated with seventeen photographs and reproductions. A single short score to the top edge, else in fine state with fine dust wrapper. £15

GERALD GLIDDON. When the Barrage Lifts. A Topographical History and Commentary on the Battle of the Somme 1916. With a foreword by Correlli Barnett. Gliddon Books, Norwich 1987. First edition. 8vo. 478pp. Illustrated with maps and photographs. A short crease to the lower corner of the last four leaves. A virtually fine copy in fractionally edgeworn dust wrapper. £10

NEIL HANSON. First Blitz. The Secret German Plan to Raze London to the Ground in 1918. Doubleday, London 2008. First edition. Illustrated with forty photographs. In fine state with fine dust wrapper. £10

ÉMILE HENRIOT. La Bataille de la Marne. 1. Les Combats sur l‘Ourcq. Librairie Payot, Lausanne 1915. 85pp. Pictorial card wrappers. Chipped and repaired at spine with partially defective binding. Some leaves lightly tanned. With eighty-nine plans and figures. Text in French. £10

BRIAN EDWARD HOLLEY. They Went Away to War. Book Guild Publishing, Lewes 2005. First edition. Large 8vo. 631pp. Illustrated with fifteen photographs and fifteen maps. In fine state with dust wrapper, lightly chafed at head and base of spine panel and with a lengthy crease to front flap. An uncommon account of the Great War, based around the experiences of four of the author’s relatives, one of whom spent the war in India, a second died after the second Battle of Ypres, a third was killed in the opening attack of the Battle of Loos and a fourth was taken prisoner during the German advance of April 1918. £15

RICHARD HOUGH. The Great War at Sea 1914-1918. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1983. First edition. 353pp. Illustrated with maps and photographs. Cloth lightly rubbed at head of spine and tip of front endpaper and half-title clipped. A very good copy in very good pictorial dust wrapper. A reassessment of the naval conflicts of the Great War. £15

STEVE HURST. The Public School Battalion in the Great War. A History of the 16^th (Public Schools) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge’s Own). August 1914 to July 1916. Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley 2007. First edition. Small 4to. 303pp. Illustrated with scores of photographs. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A record of the formation, exploits and destruction of one of the more unique infantry battalions of the Great War – all but whipped out on the first day of the Somme. £10

HENRI ISSELIN. The Battle of the Marne. Translated from the French of La Bataille de la Marne by Charles Connell and with an introduction by John Terraine. Elek Books, London 1965. The first English edition. 8vo. 296pp. Illustrated with forty photographs and three maps in the text, plus a two-panel fold-out map at the rear. A fine copy in slightly dust soiled and chafed dust wrapper, clipped and re-priced by the publisher. “An objective, lucid and breathlessly exciting account of the causes, events, personalities and atmosphere of what was perhaps the decisive battle of the First World War” blurb. £15

EDWARD G.LENGEL. To Conquer Hell. The Battle of Meuse-Argonne, 1918. Aurum Press, London 2008. First edition. 8vo. 491pp. Illustrated with thirty-three photographs and eight maps. A fine copy in fractionally dust soiled dust wrapper. £10

PETER LIDDLE. The Sailor’s War 1914-18 [and] The Airman’s War 1914-18 [and] The Soldier’s War 1914-18. Blandford Press, Poole 1985-1988. First editions of the author’s trilogy of Great War studies based on an extensive archive of personal letters, diaries and reminiscences of sailors, airmen and soldiers of the First World War. 4to. Lavishly illustrated throughout with monochrome photographs. A virtually fine set in virtually fine dust wrapper, one of which is price-clipped. £20

SIDNEY LOW. Italy in the War. Longmans, Green & Co., London 1916. First edition. 8vo. 316pp. With a tissue-protected frontispiece photograph, thirty-one captioned photographic plates and three folding multi-panel maps. Errata slip pasted before the first text leaf, as issued, resulting in some offset browning to the adjacent leaves. Spine ends rubbed and with a three-inch drip of indeterminate white staining to the rear board. Some spotting and browning to the free endpapers, and the half-title and final text leaf also a little browned. No dust wrapper. A nice crisp copy of this first-hand account of Italian efforts during the Great War, penned by the one-time editor of the St. James’s Gazette and literary editor of the Standard. £40

JOHN MASEFIELD.  The Old Front Line, or The Beginning of the Battle of the Somme. Heinemann, London 1917. First edition. 8vo. 128pp + lxiv publisher’s catalogue. Illustrated with sixteen captioned photographs and one multi-panel two-colour fold-out map. Tipped-in errata slip, as issued. Two small indentations to the upper board, and a little spotting to edges, preliminary leaves and occasional leaf margins. A tiny area of loss to the base of the half-title. A nice crisp copy, lacking the dust wrapper. Former owner bookplate to front pastedown. £20

MARTIN & MARY MIDDLEBROOK. The Somme Battlefields. A Comprehensive Guide from Crécy to the Two World Wars. Viking, London 1991.  First edition – this copy signed by both authors on the title page. 8vo. 385pp. With map-illustrated endpapers and various maps and photographs. A virtually fine copy in dust wrapper, lightly rubbed at the head of the spine panel. Former owner name ticket to the head of a blank preliminary leaf. £15

K.W.MITCHINSON. Pioneer Battalions in the Great War. Organized and Intelligent Labour. Leo Cooper, London 1997. First edition. 8vo. 336pp. Illustrated with sixteen photographs. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. An account of the creation and history of the sixty-eight Pioneer Battalions, “the work horses of the Expeditionary Forces”. £15

WILLIAM MOORE. A Wood Called Bourlon. The Cover-Up after Cambrai, 1917. Leo Cooper, London 1988. First edition. 8vo. 270pp. Illustrated with twenty-five photographs and various maps. A hint of spotting to top edge, else a fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper. £10

ALAN MORRIS. First of the Many. The Story of Independent Force, RAF. With a foreword by Air Marshal Sir Robert Saundby. Jarrolds, London 1968. First edition. 8vo. 188pp. With map-illustrated endpapers and seventeen captioned photographs. Fore edge lightly spotted. A very nice copy in very slightly marked dust wrapper. The first full-length account of the formation and early history of the forerunners of R.A.F. Bomber Command. £10

GEORGE HERBERT PERRIS. The Battle of the Marne. Methuen, London 1920. First edition. 8vo. 274pp. With a three-panel folding frontispiece map and eleven other two-colour maps. Some fading to the backstrip cloth, a little wear to the spine ends and corner tips, and some quite light chafing to extremities. Top- and fore edge spotted. A nice bright copy of this account of the Battle of the Marne, written by the Special Correspondent of The Daily Chronicle, who billeted with the French Armies throughout the war. £35

JOSEPH E.PERSICO. 11^th Month, 11^th Day, 11^th Hour. Armistice Day 1918, World War 1 and its Violent Climax. Hutchinson, London 2004. First UK edition. 8vo. 456pp. Illustrated with maps and photographs. A single tiny bump to the base of the upper board, else in fine state with fine dust wrapper. Former owner name sticker and brief inked inscription to front pastedown, obscured by the wrapper flap. An account of the last days of the Great War, based on military archives and public records, as well as the diaries and journals of Lloyd George, Woodrow Wilson, Field Marshall Haig, plus numerous unsung soldiers. £10

M.P.PRICE. The Diplomatic History of the War, including a Diary of Negotiations and Events in the different Capitals, the texts of the Official Documents of the various Governments, the Public Speeches in the European Parliaments, an account of the Military Preparations of the countries concerned and Original Matter. Edited by M.P.Price. George Allen & Unwin, London 1914. First edition. 344pp + a hefty appendix (Great Britain and the European Crisis. Correspondence, and Statements in parliaments, together with an introductory narrative of events). Cloth a little rubbed at head of spine and a small area of water staining to rear pastedown. Some notable sunning to spine and, to a lesser extent, board edges, and spine lettering really quite dulled, yet a lovely bright copy internally. Rear hinge chafed but perfectly sound. £15

DONALD RICHTER. Chemical Soldiers. British Gas Warfare in World War One. Leo Cooper, London 1994. First UK edition. 282pp. Illustrated with thirty-three maps and photographs. Light clue residue mark to upper board else in fine state with fine dust wrapper. A critical account of the British Special Brigade, the ‘comical chemical corporals’. £15

ANTHONY SAUNDERS. Dominating the Enemy. War in the Trenches 1914-1918. Sutton Publishing, Gloucestershire 2000. First edition. 8vo. 182pp. Illustrated with photographs and plans throughout. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A companion piece to the author’s Weapons of the Trench War, this volume describing the development of devices, from the brutal to the bizarre, designed to help the soldier on the Western Front survive the rigours of trench warfare. £10

GARY SHEFFIELD. The Somme. Cassell, London 2003. First edition. 8vo. 192pp. Illustrated with scores of photographs and maps (the wrapper blurb erroneously promises colour maps, but there are none to be found). A small label his been removed from the front free endpaper resulting in a small area of surface abrasion, but this aside, a fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A scholarly analysis of the strategy, course and consequences of the 1916 battle. £15

GARY SHEFFIELD. Command and Morale. The British Army on the Western Front 1914-1918. With a foreword by Peter Simkins. Pen & Sword / Praetorian Press, Barnsley 2014. First edition. 8vo. 249pp. Illustrated with sixteen photographs and reproductions. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. £15

GENE SMITH. Still Quiet on the Western Front. Fifty Years Later. With drawings by Bill Berry and an introduction by S.L.A.Marshall. William Morrow, New York 1965. First edition. 8vo. 108pp. With map-illustrated endpapers, twenty photographs and various maps and drawings. Edges lightly spotted. A very good copy in dust wrapper, a little rubbed and repaired at several extremities and with a single short enclosed jagged tear. An account of the author’s 1964 pilgrimage to the trenches of the Western Front. £10

TALBOT HOUSE. Bertin Deneire. A Peace of Flanders. Talbot House 1915 - ? A Personal Story. De Klaproos Editions, Belgium 1993. First edition - this copy inscribed by the author on the half-title. 8vo. 78pp. Glossy card wrappers. In fine state. A history of Talbot House, opened by P.B.Clayton during the Great War as an "Every Man's Club" where soldiers of every rank could pause and forget the war. £20

JOHN TERRAINE. The First World War 1914-18. Papermac, London 1987. Paperback reprint – this copy inscribed by the author to an un-named recipient. 8vo. 195pp. card wrappers. A virtually fine copy. £5

RAY WESTLAKE. British Battalions on the Western Front. January to June 1915. Neuve Chapelle, Ypres, Aubers Ridge and Festubert. Leo Cooper, Barnsley 2001. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 270pp. Illustrated with maps and photographs. A fine copy in dust wrapper, just fractionally faded at spine panel. A detailed account of the 291 infantry battalions of the British Army which served in France and Belgium from January-June 1915. £20

FIELD MARSHAL JULIAN BYNG. Jeffery Williams. Byng of Vimy. General and Governor-General. Leo Copper in association with Secker & Warburg, London 1983. First edition – this copy inscribed by the author on the title page, dated and year after publication and with a short handwritten note laid-in. 8vo. 398pp. With map-illustrated endpapers and thirty-seven photographs and thirteen maps. A trace of wear to spine ends, else in virtually fine state with fine dust wrapper. A biography of Julian ‘Bungo’ Byng, whose distinguished Great War record included commanding the Canadian Corps at Vimy Ridge and later commander of the Third Army. £25

DOUGLAS HAIG. Gerard J. De Groot. Douglas Haig 1861-1928. Unwin Hyman, London 1988. First edition. Illustrated with eleven maps and sixteen photographs. Small bump to base of spine, else in fine state with dust wrapper, exhibiting a single tiny enclosed tear to rear panel. A biography of Haig produced “after eight years of painstaking and detailed research into previously neglected sources” – blurb. £15

DOUGLAS HAIG. Denis Winter. Haig's Command. A Reassessment. Viking, London 1991. Second impression. 362pp. Illustrated with nearly fifty photographs and reproductions. Top edge lightly speckled, else virtually fine with dust wrapper, lightly faded at spine panel. £10

GENERAL HENRY SINCLAIR HORNE. Don Farr. The Silent General. Horne of the First Army. A Biography of Haig’s Trusted Great War Comrade-in-Arms. Helion & Co., Ltd., Solihull 2007. First edition. 8vo. 319pp. Illustrated with maps and photographs. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. The first biography of Horne, the “forgotten General of the Western Front”. £15

ADMIRAL GEORG VON MÜLLER. The Kaiser and His Court. The Diaries, Note Books and Letters of Admiral Georg Alexander von Müller, Chief of the Naval Cabinet, 1914-1918. Selected and edited by Walter Görlitz. Macdonald, London 1959. The first English edition, translated from the German of Regierte der Kaiser? by Mervyn Savill. 8vo. 430pp. Illustrated with photographs. Binding just a little tender. A nice crisp copy in dust wrapper, a little edgeworn with several small slivers of loss and just a touch of fading to the publisher’s red spine panel lettering. £20

KEITH WILSON. The Rasp of War. The Letters of H.A.Gwynne to The Countess Bathurst 1914-1918. Selected and edited by Keith Wilson and with a foreword by William Deedes. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1988. First edition. 8vo. 346pp. A shade of very light tanning to pastedowns and a small area of off-set tanning from a publisher’s rear flap sticker to the adjacent free endpaper. Very good indeed in dust wrapper, the publisher’s laminate a little marked, scratched and lifting in places. The Great War correspondence between of the editor of the Morning Post, Howell Gwynne, and its Proprietor, The Countess Bathurst. £10

ST. JOHN ADCOCK. Collected Poems of St. John Adcock. Hodder & Stoughton, London 1929. First edition. 8vo. 303pp. Top edge dust marked and the boards very lightly marked in one or two places. A small smudge to the tip of the front free endpaper, presumably from where previous pricing was partially erased. A very good copy in the uncommon dust wrapper, with some fading to the publisher’s red spine panel colouring, a touch of further fading to the upper edge of the front and rear panels, and just a touch of wear to the spine ends with a single tiny area of loss. A brief forward by the author precedes ninety-two poems, including The Anzac Pilgrim’s Progress and several more of his Great War poems. See Reilly p.37. £25

RICHARD ALDINGTON. War and Love (1915-1918). The Four Seas Company, Boston 1919.  The first edition of this collection of Great War and love poems: the author’s second US publication, which saw no equivalent UK issue. 8vo. 94pp. Patterned paper-covered boards with paper spine and title labels. Head of spine chipped, and base of spine and corner tips a little rubbed. A very good copy with the blurb portion of the uncommon dust wrapper pasted to the front free endpaper. A three-page foreword by the author (in the form of a letter to the Imagist poet F.S.Flint), precedes forty-four Great War poems and eighteen love poems. To Aldington’s disappointment Constable declined to publish the collection in the UK, and the author was forced to split the war and love poems, each eventually being issued separately: Images of War by Allen & Unwin in December 1919 (an edition which omitted some of these poems, and added others) and Images of Desire by Elkin Matthews in June 1919. £75

EDMUND BLUNDEN. Retreat. Richard Cobden-Sanderson, London 1928. First edition. 8vo. 70pp. Cloth with a slightly chipped paper spine label, but a fine spare tipped-in at rear. A very slightly dusty copy with a tiny bump to the tip of a single corner and a single miniscule snag to the cloth. Endpapers spotted and with some further very minor spotting to several preliminary leaves. Very good but lacking the dust wrapper. Twenty-one poems followed by twenty-three sonnets and occasional stanzas. Reilly p. 60. £15

RUPERT BROOKE. The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke. With a memoir [by Edward Marsh].  Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1918. First edition of this oft-reprinted collection of Brooke’s verse. 8vo. 160pp. Brown buckram with a paper spine label (and a spare tipped-in at the rear). With a tissue-protected portrait frontispiece and one further protected plate. Some light soiling to the buckram, and with some spotting to top- and fore edge, and to half a dozen preliminary and concluding leaves. A hint of browning to the endpapers and with a former owner name plate to the front pastedown. A nice bright copy. No dust wrapper. Ninety-one poems. Reilly p. 70. £65

RUPERT BROOKE. Arthur Stringer. Red Wine of Youth. A Life of Rupert Brooke. With illustrations. Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis & New York 1948. First edition (never issued in the UK). 8vo. 287pp. Spine ends lightly rubbed and with just a trace of discolouration to the board edges. The text ‘Rupert Brooke’ has been neatly inked to the backstrip. Former owner name and colour sticker to the front free endpaper, and a quotation from Michel de Montaigne inked to the front pastedown. A nice bright copy in dust wrapper, slightly nicked, chipped and dust soiled. £25

RUPERT BROOKE. Michael Hastings. The Handsomest Young Man in England: Rupert Brooke. Michael Joseph, London 1967. First edition. 4to. 235pp. A very good copy in price-clipped dust wrapper, a little sunned and dust soiled. Former owner bookplate to the front free endpaper, and the signature of a second owner inked to the front pastedown (and almost entirely obscured by the wrapper flap). A study of the life and work of Rupert Brooke, illustrated with nearly 250 photographs and letter & manuscript reproductions. £25

RUPERT BROOKE. Rupert Brooke: Four Poems. Drafts and fair copies in the author’s hand. With a foreword and introductions by Geoffrey Keynes. The Scolar Press, Ilkley 1974. First edition, of which 400 copies were printed (plus an additional 100 deluxe issue copies). A cloth-bound portfolio with facsimiles of draft and fair copies of Brooke’s poems The Fish, Grantchester, The Dead and The Soldier, presented in separate folders housed in an inner pocket of the upper board. With a tipped-in photograph of the poet by Sherril Schell. Some light discoloration to cloth at spine and extremities, else in virtually fine state. Also laid-in is a copy of the original prospectus, one corner a little creased and with the original printed pricing obscured. £150 

RUPERT BROOKE. John Lehmann. Rupert Brooke. His Life and His Legend. Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1980. First edition. 178pp. Illustrated with twenty-three photographs and reproductions. A sliver of discolouration to extreme top edge of spine, else in fine state with virtually fine dust wrapper. £20

RUPERT BROOKE (interest). Leonard Sellers. The Hood Battalion. Royal Naval Division: Antwerp, Gallipoli, France 1914-1918. Leo Cooper, London 1995. First edition. 8vo. Illustrated with over fifty maps and photographs. In fine state with virtually fine dust wrapper, just fractionally rubbed at top edge. A history of the Hood Battalion (“Winston’s Little Army”), which was raised at the beginning of the First World War and went on to see some of the fiercest fighting of the war. Includes numerous index references to Rupert Brooke who was commissioned into the Hood Battalion as a temporary Sub-Lieutenant, taking part in the Antwerp expedition. £15

T.W.H.CROSLAND. War Poems by “X”. Martin Secker, London 1916. First edition of this anonymous collection of Great War poems by Thomas William Hodgson Crosland, author and journalist more widely known now for the small role in played in events following Oscar Wilde’s trial and imprisonment (with Lord Alfred Douglas he persecuted Robbie Ross in the civil courts in a variety of actions and the two unsuccessfully sued Arthur Ransome for libelling Douglas in his 1912 book on Wilde). Small 8vo. 95pp. Cloth with tanned and just a little chipped paper spine label. Cloth chafed, dust marked and a little soiled, but, bar some tanning to the half-title and final text leaf, a nice crisp copy internally. Forty-two poems, several of which originally appeared in newspapers and periodicals with the remainder printed here for the first time. Reilly p.100. £25

GEOFFREY DEARMER. A Pilgrim's Song. Selected Poems to Mark the Poet's 100th Birthday. Compiled by Laurence Cotterell and with a foreword by Jon Stallworthy. John Murray, London 1993. First edition. With a portrait frontispiece. Forty-six of Dearmer's poems, primarily drawn from his war poetry and later peace-time verse (he fought at Gallipoli, where his brother was killed, and later severed in the trenches of the Western Front). Top edge lightly dust marked and paperstock lightly tanned. A very good copy in dust wrapper, lightly faded at spine panel. £10

LOUIS GOLDING. Sorrow of War. Poems. Methuen, London 1919. First edition of the author’s uncommon first book. 8vo. 114pp. Paper-covered boards with a paper spine label. Spine ends rubbed and a little chipped, and with a touch of light spotting to preliminary leaves. A very good copy in the remnants of the dust wrapper, the front panel and flap only. Eighty poems, including many with a Great War theme (Golding was rejected from Officer’s Training Corps on medical grounds and volunteered to work overseas with the YMCA, thereby spending much of the war in Salonica). Reilly p.142. £50

ROBERT GRAVES. Over the Brazier. Poems. The Poetry Bookshop, London 1920. A new revised edition of the author’s first book, and the first hardback issue (originally issued in wrappers four years earlier). Slim 8vo. 32pp. Cloth-backed decorated boards featuring a Menin Gate design by Claud Lovat Fraser. Top edge dusty. Endpapers browned. Head and tail of spine and corner tips bumped and a little rubbed. Covers very slightly marked and one binding string to the first gathering snapped. A very good copy in nicked, rubbed and marked, slightly creased, chipped and dusty dust wrapper which repeats the Lovat Fraser design, browned at the spine and at some edges and with the publisher’s price sticker to the front panel. Twenty-four poems, divided into two parts: Poems Mostly Written at Charterhouse – 1910-1914 and Poems Written Before La Bassée – 1915. 1,000 copies were printed. Higginson A1b / Reilly pp 146-7. £300

“When these poems, written between the ages of fourteen and twenty, first appeared, I was serving in France and had no leisure for getting the final proofs altogether as I wanted them. The same year, but too late, I decided on several alterations in the text, including the suppression of two small poems, inexcusable even as early work. These amendations appear in this new edition, but I have left the bulk of the book as it stood” – the author’s Foreword to New Edition.

JULIAN GRENFELL. Nicholas Mosley. Julian Grenfell. His Life and the Times of his Death 1988-1915. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1976. First edition. 8vo. 275pp. With a portrait frontispiece and thirty-seven photographs and reproductions. Top edge lightly spotted. Two inked former owner gift inscriptions, one to the head of the front pastedown (obscured by the wrapper flap) and the second to the head of the front free endpaper. A very good copy in dust wrapper, a little edgeworn and with one lengthy internally repaired tear. £10

THOMAS HARDY. Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses. Macmillan, London 1917. First edition. 8vo. 256pp + iv publisher’s advertisements. Front hinge just a little tender, and the rear hinge cracked, but the binding still sound. Half-title and title page lightly spotted, with some very infrequent pinpricks of spotting to the lower margins of occasional text leaves. A very good copy in the scarce dust wrapper, quite tanned at the spine panel, and chipped with a little loss to the spine ends, and with a touch of light dust soiling. Over one-hundred and sixty poems including sixteen Great War and patriotic verses. See Reilly p.159. £95

ROBERT NICHOLS. Ardours and Endurances. Also a Faun’s Holiday and Poems and Phantasies. Chatto & Windus, London 1917. First edition. 8vo. 207pp. Brown cloth with very slightly chafed and marked paper spine label. Tissue-protected portrait frontispiece. Cloth lightly rubbed at the head of the spine and the tips of several corners. Endpapers browned and with evidence of some offset damp marking from the cloth to the pastedowns. Former owner bookplate to front pastedown and an embossed ‘Presentation Copy’ stamp to the head of the title page. Quite a nice, crisp copy. The author’s second book, written whilst on active service with the Royal Artillery (Nichols fought at both Loos and the Somme before being invalided out of the army in 916 suffering from shell shock. He is amongst the sixteen Great War poets commemorated on the slate stone in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner). Reilly p. 236. £25

WILFRED OWEN. Jon Stallworthy. Wilfred Owen. A Biography. Extensively illustrated with photographs and manuscript reproductions. Oxford University Press and Chatto & Windus, London 1974. First edition, a review copy, with the publisher’s review slip laid-in, plus a two page Oxford University Press promotional press release, and several neatly inked leaves of the reviewer’s notes (in this instance the reviewer was the poet and critic Jeremy Hooker). 8vo. 333pp. Map-illustrated endpapers. Top edge lightly spotted and dust soiled, and with a little fading to the publisher’s orange stain. A very good copy in slightly chafed, rubbed and quite lightly dust soiled dust wrapper. £20

EDGELL RICKWORD. Behind the Eyes. Poems. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1921. First edition of the author’s uncommon first book. Slim 8vo. 56pp. Decorated paper-covered boards with a paper title label. Spine ends chipped, the backstrip darkened, with some further uneven darkening to the margins of the upper and lower boards. Some browning to the free endpapers. A nice bright copy, particularly crisp internally. Thirty-six poems, included a number of Great War verses. Edgell served on the Western Front with the Artists’ Rifles and was awarded the Military Cross. See Reilly p.274. £95

MARY KENT RIVERS. Folk Rhymes of the Great War. Arthur H.Stockwell, London [no date]. First edition. Slim 8vo. 31pp. Textured purple cloth with gilt lettering and a blind-stamped border to the upper board. The backstrip ends a little rubbed and worn, and the cloth there faded with a little further uneven fading to the margins of the boards. Some light spotting to the endpapers and title leaf, and the binding a little tender at one gathering. Quite a nice, bright copy of a most uncommon book, which comprises fifteen chronologically ordered poems spanning 1914-1919, split into three sections: Portents 1914, Home, and France and Flanders. Rather than folk rhymes, I believe these to be original poems, but the work is not noted by Reilly and I can find only a single reference to either the author or the book: a passing reference in an article in the December 1928 issue of The Musical Times. £250

ISAAC ROSENBERG. Joseph Cohen. Journey to the Trenches. The Life of Isaac Rosenberg 1890-1918. Robson Books, London 1975. First edition. Large 8vo. 224pp. With a self-portrait frontispiece and sixteen photographs and reproductions of Rosenberg's artworks and manuscripts. A trace of discolouration to board edges. Very good in fractionally rubbed dust wrapper. £15

SIEGFRIED SASSOON. John Stuart Roberts. Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967). A biography. Richard Cohen Books, London 1999. First edition. 8vo. 354pp. Illustrated with forty-two photographs and reproductions. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. £10

SIEGFRIED SASSOON. Max Egremont. Siegfried Sassoon. A biography. Picador, London 2005. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 639pp. Illustrated with over fifty photographs. A virtually fine copy in fine dust wrapper. £25

OWEN SEAMAN. War-Time. Verses. Constable, London 1915. First edition. 8vo. 55pp + [vi] publisher's advertisements. Card wrappers with an integral dust wrapper. slightly rubbed, marked and faded. Twenty-four poems reprinted from Punch. Reilly p. 289. £20

JOHN DE LUZE SIMONDS (writing as ‘J. de L.S’.). Verses. Privately published [1917]. First edition. Slim 8vo. 32pp. Contemporary binding of full green crushed polished morocco, gilt lettered at the spine and upper board, with five raised bands, and with gilt ruling to the board edges and turn-ins. All edges gilt. Pale green endpapers, with very slight foxing and some offset browning to the margins. Mild wear to corners, board edges, and to spine ends. Hatchard's binder's stamp. Very light spotting to preliminary and concluding leaves. Very good indeed. A loose laid-in note reads: “E.O.Tanwick's copy, with note: This volume of verses was given to me by the author in March 1917 when he spent a month with 184 Siege Battery in the Bois de Bonvigny. He left 184 to take command of 136 Siege Battery. He had been senior scholar of his year at Winchester, and had served I think in India and Malta. He received the DSO in recognition of his services at liaison officer with the RFC. I should think he was killed in April 1917. He was a powerful man in body and mind”. The factual information here seems to be correct; certainly, Simonds (known as Jack to his family) was killed in action on 22 April 1917, at the age of 32. These verses, some written during wartime, were privately published by his family and originally issued in wrappers (which are retained here within the binding). Twenty-eight poems including a verse tribute to William Henry Johnston V.C., who was killed in action at Ypres in June 1915. A most uncommon item, and not noted by Reilly. (Jack Simonds’ most famous poem, If I should die, be very full of pride, was found on his body after his death but is of course not included here, but I understand it was included as a loose one-page insert added to unsold copies after his death). £250

PAUL GOUGH. A collection of Paul Gough’s Great War-inspired exhibition catalogues and flyers. Includes the illustrated catalogues for his 1999 solo exhibition Sixty Images of Venerated Sites and the 2001 solo exhibition Loci Memoriae, flyers for three additional exhibitions (and two duplicates), plus a catalogue for the 1995 New Terrain joint exhibition of map, chart and political landscape reinterpretations. All in very good state. £10

GREAT WAR ARTISTS. War Pictures. Issued by Authority of the Imperial War Museum. (cover title: Pictures & Sculpture in the Imperial War Museum). Walter Judd Ltd., London 1919. First edition. 4to. Internally stapled card wrappers. Forty-seven pages of advertisements bookend nearly 200 monochrome reproductions of works by Kennington, Meninsky, Nash, Schwabe, Nevinson, Orprn, Bone, Maxwell, &c., many of them presented full-page. The tip of the first (advertisement) leaf has been clipped. A very good copy. £20

KEITH HENDERSON. Letters to Helen. Impressions of an Artist on the Western Front. Chatto & Windus, London 1917. First edition. 8vo. 111pp + vii publisher’s catalogue at rear. Cloth-backed boards with a tanned and chipped paper spine label. With a frontispiece and eleven colour plates reproducing Henderson's drawings, each with a captioned tissue protector. Boards discoloured, dust soiled and a little chafed at edges. Hinges just a little tender. Half-title and rear free endpaper browned but otherwise a nice crisp copy internally, albeit lacking the uncommon dust wrapper. £25

BARBARA JONES AND BILL HOWELL. Popular Arts of the First World War. Studio Vista, London 1972. First edition. Small 4to. 175pp. Lavishly illustrated throughout, occasionally in colour, with hundreds of examples of both trench art and postcards, toys and souvenirs of every kind from the home front. A virtually fine copy in nicked and repaired dust wrapper, the publisher’s red spine panel colouring really quite faded and with some creasing to the wrapper flaps. £10

ERIC NEWTON. War Through Artists’ Eyes. Paintings and Drawings by British War Artists. Selected and introduced by Eric Newton. John Murray, London 1945. First edition - printed at the Curwen Press. Small 4to. 96pp. An excellent selection of nearly 125 works by the likes of Sutherland, Piper, Spencer, Bawden, Ardizzone, Ravilious, Nash, Gross &c, many presented full-page and in colour. Top edge lightly spotted. A very good copy in price-clipped dust wrapper, a little dust marked and with half a dozen tiny slivers of loss. £60

ROSALIND ORMISTON. First World War Posters. With a foreword by Gary Sheffield. Flame Tree Publishing, London 2013. First edition. Large square 8vo. 144pp. Original laminated pictorial boards. A lengthy introductory essay precedes one hundred full-page colour reproductions. A single miniscule blemish to the front free endpaper aside, a fine copy in fine dust wrapper. £10

JOSEPH PENNELL. Pictures of War Work in England. Over fifty full-page reproductions of his drawings and lithographs of munition works. With an introduction by H.G.Wells. Lippincott, Philadelphia 1917.  The American issue of the first edition (printed from the UK sheets). Small 4to. Unlettered brown cloth with a pictorial plate to upper board, as issued. Slightly spotted and dusty. A good, bright copy. £20

STUART SILLARS. Art and Survival in First World War Britain. St. Martin’s Press, New York 1987. First edition. 8vo. 192pp. With twenty-one monochrome reproductions. Board edges lightly rubbed. A very good copy in just fractionally dust marked dust wrapper. A study of the psychological impact of popular and fine art through an analysis of the various portrayals of the major events of 1916. £20

ROSE E.B.COOMBS. Before Endeavours Fade. A Guide to the Battlefields of the First World War. Battle of Britain Prints International Ltd., London 1976. First edition of this important Great War battlefield guide, oft reprinted yet rarely seen in this first edition state. 4to. 136pp. Pictorial card wrappers. Illustrated throughout with maps and hundreds of black and white photographs, predominantly taken by the author. A small bump to the head of the spine, and a little light miscellaneous soiling to the rear wrapper. A very good copy of this exhaustive study of the battlefields of France, Belgium and Flanders, written by the Special Collections Officer of the Imperial War Museum. £40

JOHN GILES. The Western Front Then and Now. From Mons to the Marne and Back. After the Battle / Battle of Britain Prints International, London 1992. First edition – this copy inscribed by the author’s wife and dated the year of publication (the author, founder of The Western Front Association, died just prior to publication). Landscape 4to. 272pp. Illustrated throughout with several hundred monochrome photographs, taken both during the war, and afterwards by the author. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A pictorial record of the Western Front, issued as a companion volume to the author’s two previous books: The Somme Then and Now and Flanders Then and Now. £20

V.A.NEATHERWAY. Return to the Battlefields. Paceprint, Leicestershire 1978. First edition, number 344 of an unspecified limited edition. 30pp. Stapled card wrappers, a little dusty and stained and with some finger marks to occasional leaf margins. Illustrated with six photographs. A brief and informative account of the author’s annual pilgrimages to the Great War battlefields. £15

REGIMENTAL HISTORY. V.E.Inglefield. The History of the Twentieth (Light) Division. With an Introduction by Lieut.-General the Earl of Cavan.  Nisbet & Co. 1921.  First edition. 8vo. 319pp.With twelve illustrations and  four folding maps. Original stiff card boards worn and spine torn and tanned. A little foxing. Good. £15

REGIMENTAL HISTORY. Short History of the London Rifle Brigade. Compiled Regimentally. With drawings and photographs. Gale & Polden (printers), Aldershot 1916. First edition. Slim 8vo. 48pp. Original publisher’s cloth with regimental motif to upper board. With a frontispiece, eighteen plates and a three sheet fold-out map with some fairly minor creasing to one leaf. A very good copy. No dust wrapper, as issued. £20

WAR MEMORIALS. The Golden Book. Port Sunlight War Memorial 1914-1919. [Lever Brothers, Cheshire 1921]. First edition (a replica of the original copy, deposited within the Port Sunlight War Memorial). Small 4to. 59pp. Original publisher's paper-covered boards, a little chafed and soiled and with several short tears to the backstrip. A slightly handled copy, but very crisp internally. No dust wrapper, as issued. A Roll of Honour of over 4,000 Port Sunlight residents and Lever Brothers employees who served during the Great War, with a two-panel fold-out analysis table of Casualties and Decorations. Laid-in is a letter from Lever Brothers indicating that this copy was presented to the next of kin of one included in the Roll of Honour. Uncommon. £95 

WAR MEMORIALS. War Graves of the Empire. Reprinted from the Special Numbers of The Times November 10, 1928. The Times Publishing Company, London [1928?]. First edition, a reproduction of the Special Number of The Times published on the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Armistice, as a tribute to the Million British Dead, and as a record of their burial places.  4to. 80pp. With a frontispiece, eight captioned photographic plates, and scores of photographs in the text. A little wear to gutters, a small splash of staining to the base of the upper board and a touch of fading to the backstrip cloth. Some very light spotting to the free endpapers. Former owner gift inscription inked to the front free endpaper. Includes an account of the work of the Imperial War Graves Commission, with subsequent sections on Distant Theatres of War (The Holy Land, Egypt, Gallipoli, Macedonia, Mesopotamia and East Africa), the War at Sea and The Royal Air Force, plus Maurice Baring’s poem Per Ardua, 1914-1918. £50

WAR MEMORIALS. The Scottish National War Memorial. With an introduction by Sir Ian Hamilton. Grant & Murray Ltd., Edinburgh 1932. Second impression (issued one month after the first). 4to. 64pp. Card wrappers, chipped at spine ends and a little rubbed and chafed at yapped edges, but a nice crisp copy internally. Hamilton's eleven-page introduction precedes forty-five pages of photographs by Francis Caird Inglis detailing the memorial and its decorative flourishes, many of which are colour-tinted. A slip of paper bearing the volume’s title has been pasted to the otherwise blank backstrip. £10

WAR MEMORIALS. John Garfield. The Fallen. A Photographic Journey Through the War Cemeteries and Memorials of the Great War, 1914-18. With an introduction by Gavin Stamp. Leo Cooper, London 1990. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the half-title, and dated the year after publication. Landscape 4to. 162pp. Lavishly illustrated with monochrome photographs throughout. The binding slightly cocked, and with just a touch of rubbing to the spine ends. A very good copy in price-clipped photographic dust wrapper, a little rubbed at the head of the spine panel with two tiny areas of surface abrasion, and a little creasing in places to the publisher’s laminate. Stamp’s three-page introduction precedes a hefty selection of war cemetery photographs from Flanders, the Marne and the Aisne, Artois, Ypres, Gallipoli, Verdun, the Somme, Italy and Macedonia. £50

WAR MEMORIALS. G.Kingsley Ward & Major Edwin Gibson. Courage Remembered. The Story Behind the Construction and Maintenance of the Commonwealth's Military Cemeteries and Memorials of the Wars of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945. McClelland & Stewart, Toronto 1989. First edition - the Canadian issue, published simultaneously with the UK edition. 8vo 282pp. Illustrated with twelve colour and monochrome photographs. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. £15

ANONYMOUS. The Absolute Truth. 30 photographs (many "U.S.Official"). [no place, no date]. Card wrappers, slightly creased. (Stark images of wounded soldiers and shattered corpses). £25

JOHN BROPHY AND ERIC PARTRIDGE. The Long Trail. What the British Soldier Sung and Said in 1914-1918. Andre Deutsch, London 1965. A new edition, revised and rearranged from the originally issue of 1930). 8vo. 239pp. With sixteen pages of photographs and reproductions. Edges spotted. A tiny scuff to tip of the front free endpaper. A nice, crisp copy in very good dust wrapper. Former owner name plate to front pastedown, partially obscured by the wrapper flap. £20

EPHEMERA. Three 1915 Overseas Club Empire Day certificates. “This is to certify that [name] has helped to send some Comfort and Happiness to the brave Sailors and Soldiers of the British Empire, fighting to uphold Liberty, Justice, Honour and Freedom in the Great War” A short tear to the margin of one certificate and a minor crease to the corner of another. Very good. £35

EPHEMERA. Sir John French’s Despatches. First and second series. The Graphic, London [circa 1915]. First Editions. Landscape 8vo. Sewn wrappers, creased, nicked and occasionally torn and chipped. Some spotting. The first issue provides the ‘official story’ of Mons, The Marne and The Aisne and the second issue the Battle around Ypres, Armentières and the Defence of Antwerp, all illustrated with specially drawn war maps. Somewhat handled copies. £30

EPHEMERA. Military Law in Tables. With Notes. By A Military Lawyer. Hugh Rees, London 1917. 18pp. Wrappers. Previous dealer neat inkstamp to inner-front wrapper and some unsightly creasing and staining throughout.  Seven tables outlining The Sequence of Steps in Dealing with an Offence, Taking a Summary of Evidence, Scale of Punishment, Schedule of Crimes, Automatic Forfeiture of Pay, Constitution, etc, of Court-Marshal, and Procedure at Field General Court-Martial, plus various notes and an index of offences. A good working copy of a most uncommon item. £20

EPHEMERA. The Ruins of Ypres-Poelcapelle 1914-1918. J.Revyn, Ostend & Brussels [circa 1918]. A booklet of ten photographic postcards, all bar one with a tissue protector. Internally stapled paper wrappers, just a little creased at yapped edges. Very good. £25

EPHEMERA. Arras Avant et Apres le Bombardment. Fernand Benoit [no date]. Landscape 8vo. A series of thirty-five captioned tissue-protected photographs depicting Arras before and after the Great War (which saw roughly three-quarters of it destroyed). Stiff card leaves bound in paper wrappers, rubbed and chafed at extremities. A brief history of the city, in French and English, is printed to the front and rear endpapers (“Whole parts of the City have been whipped out: devastation is to be seen everywhere. Arras is not to be recognised. The town, however, has kept is [sic] outlines of past times. She shall rise again, out of the ruins, more beautiful than ever, for she was the inviolated Capital of the province of Artois, and must not desappear [sic]”). Uncommon. £25

ROBERT GREGORY. Robert Gregory 1881-1918. A Centenary Tribute. Edited by Colin Smythe. Privately printed, London 1981. First edition, limited to 1,000 copies. 8vo. 40pp. Card wrappers. Illustrated with photographs and reproductions of Gregory’s artworks. Very good indeed with very lightly spotted, marked and chafed dust wrapper A tribute to Robert Gregory, noted artist, book illustrator and stage designer (including Abbey Theatre productions of Douglas Hyde, J.M.Synge and W.B.Yeats [Yeats wrote a number of poems about him]). Gregory joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1916, was awarded the Légion d’Honneur and the Military Cross and died after being shot down on the Italian front in January 1918. £15

KING GEORGE V. The King Inspects Troops at Aldershot, 1917 (A photograph album). Seven original photographs, 8.5 x 6.5". Landscape 8vo. Suede leather covers, quite marked. Top edge gilt. Decorated endpapers. King George V features in each of the photographs, either mounted and on foot, as he inspects the camp and the troops. £300

OLD CONTEMPTIBLES. Honours and Awards of the Old Contemptibles. The Officers and Men of the British Army and Navy Mentioned in Despatches 1914-1915. Arms & Armour Press, London 1971. Reprint (originally published in 1915 by the Army and Navy Gazette). Small 4to. 58pp. A lengthy yet entirely superficial crease to the front endpaper and half title, else a fine copy in slightly nicked and internally repaired dust wrapper. A detailed reference work listing the names of those honoured at Mons, The Marne, The Aisne and Ypres; and also including those of the Royal Navy, Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service, the Indian Army and Colonial Forces. £10