Clearwater Books

H.E.BATES. The Last Bread. A play in one act. The Labour Publishing Company Ltd, London 1926. First edition of Bates’ first published work, preceding his first novel by several months. 18pp. Cotton-bound card wrappers with several short tears and three or four small areas of loss from edges. Two-inch tear to dedication leaf. A nice bright copy of quite a fragile production. Eads A2. £35

H.E.BATES. The Seekers. John and Edward Bumpus, London 1926. First edition – a presentations copy, fondly inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper and dated the year of publication. Slim 8vo. 32pp. Paper-covered boards. The backstrip absent, and with some uneven darkening and a little soiling to the boards. Some fox-spotting to the endpapers and to several preliminary and concluding leaves. A pretty rotten copy, made tolerable by the author’s early inscription. No dust wrapper called-for, but a fresh sheet of protective acetate supplied in place of the original unprinted tissue protector. Bates' third published work, a short story for children, apparently sent out as a Christmas greeting by the publishers. Eads A4. £25

H.E.BATES. Day’s End and Other Stories. Jonathan Cape, London 1928. First edition. 8vo. 286pp. Top edge slightly spotted and binding just a little tender at the half-title. A trace of light partial browning to the free endpapers and to the half-title. A very good copy – particularly crisp internally – housed in the dust wrapper exhibiting some staining to the spine panel, and just a little dust soiling and a trace or two of edgewear. The author’s first full-length collection of short fiction, comprising twenty-five stories, with a printed dedication of George William Lucas, Bates’ maternal grandfather. 1,500 copies were printed. Eads A6. £125

H.E.BATES. Charlotte's Row. Jonathan Cape, London 1931. First trade edition. Spine faded and a little chipped at head. Cloth very lightly marked in one or two small areas. Rear gutter just a little tender. About a good copy, very crisp and bright internally, with a neat ink-stamped initial to front and rear pastedowns. No dust wrapper. Eads A11. £20

H.E.BATES. The Fallow Land. A novel. Jonathan Cape, London 1932. First edition. 8vo. 327pp. Edges lightly spotted, and with just a touch of further spotting to the upper margin of the first three or four leaves, and also to a dozen concluding leaves. A very good copy in price-clipped dust wrapper, tanned at the spine panel, very lightly marked and dust soiled, and with a tiny sliver of loss from the head of the spine panel and a second tiny triangular area of loss from the upper edge. A splendidly preserved copy of the author’s fourth novel, of which 2,500 copies were printed. Eads A17. £95

H.E.BATES. Cut and Come Again. Stories. Jonathan Cape, London 1935. First edition. 8vo. 285pp + viii publisher’s catalogue bound in at rear. Original publisher’s blue and brown flecked white cloth. Some patchy tanning to backstrip, edges and several preliminary leaves spotted and some browning to endpaper margins. Tip-Ex erasure to front endpaper and a small Times book club plate to the rear. Quite a bright copy, lacking the uncommon dust wrapper. Fourteen short stories, seven of which were previously issued in periodicals or limited editions with the other seven appearing in print here for the first time. 2,000 copies were printed. Eads A25. £15

“Mr. Bates is supreme among English short-story writers; and the work of most authors beside his appears shoddy, trivial or emotional”- Graham Greene reviewing this collection in The Spectator. 

H.E.BATES. Agnes Miller Parker. Down the River. With eighty-three wood engravings by Agnes Miller Parker. Victor Gollancz, London 1937. First edition. 4to. 150pp. Cloth lifting a fraction at several extremities, and with a little spotting to the fore edge and several instances of tape resides marks to the free endpapers, offset from the wrapper flaps. A very crisp and bright copy in the correct first state dust wrapper (priced at 10/6 net), lightly tanned and spotted with several short closed tears, two small areas of staining and several small slivers of loss from the spine ends. Contemporary former owner gift inscription inked to the front free endpaper. Agnes Miller Parker's delightful wood engravings comprise a title page illustration and vignette, six full-page plates and scores of illustrations and vignettes in the text. The companion piece to Through the Woods (1936). Eads A29. £50

H.E.BATES. The Modern Short Story. A Critical Survey. Nelson, London 1941. First edition. 231pp Cloth-backed boards. Extreme edges of boards lightly spotted and discoloured. Endpapers lightly browned. Neat former owner name to front pastedown. Quite a bright copy in dusty and tanned dust wrapper, a little rubbed at extremities and internally reinforced. Eads A40. £20 

H.E.BATES. The Modern Short Story. A Critical Survey. Nelson, London 1941. First edition. 8vo. Cloth-backed boards, somewhat dusty and faded and just a little sprung. No jacket. Eads A40. £10 

H.E.BATES. The Bride Comes to Evensford. Jonathan Cape, London 1943. First edition. Slim 8vo. 60pp. A tiny sliver of discolouration to cloth at spine ends where the dust wrapper is fractionally defective. A very good copy in Hans Tisdall-designed dust wrapper, a little chafed and dusty with a single short closed tear and a fraction of loss to spine ends and one or two other extremities. Contemporary former owner name inked to front endpaper, alongside a set of inked initials. 3,000 copies were printed. The first printing of this Bates story, not to be confused with the collection of the same name published six years later. Eads A44. £50

H.E.BATES. Derriere les Communiques. Cape, Londres 1944. 8vo. Card wrappers, a little creased and rubbed at overlapping edges. The Greatest People in the World in a French translation, here published for the first time under his own name, rather than his 'Flying Officer X' pseudonym. Published in London, probably for French circulation. £35

H.E.BATES (Published anonymously). There's Freedom in the Air. The Official Story of the Allied Air Forces from the Occupied Countries. Illustrated with photographs. H.M.S.O., London 1944. First edition. 35pp. Stapled pictorial wrappers, a little dust marked and edge-creased with a small area of chafing to the upper edge. The staples rusted and partially defective. Quite a bright copy. Prepared by Bates whilst serving at the Directorate of Public Relations at the Air Ministry. Eads A49. £5

H.E.BATES contributes Give them their Life (the first appearance in print of this fourteen-line poem) to the anthology Air Force Poetry. Edited by John Pudney and Henry Treece. Joan Lane, The Bodley Head, London 1944. First edition. 8vo. 90pp.  Some discolouration to the board extremities where the dust wrapper is defective, but thereafter a nice crisp copy, albeit printed on slightly substandard wartime economy paperstock, in torn, creased and marked dust wrapper with several tiny portions of edge-loss. A brief foreword by the editors precedes a selection of eighty-four poems contributed by thirty-three serving RAF and FAA poets including Vernon Watkins, John Bayliss, Geoffrey Parsons, and the editors. Eads D16. £10

H.E.BATES. The Day of Glory. A play. Michael Joseph, Lonson 1945. First edition. 8vo. 78pp. Covers a little marked in places with a little spotting to endpapers. Quite a bright copy, albeit printed on cheap wartime paperstock. No jacket. The author’s only significant play, an RAF story that was produced in Salisbury in October 1945, broadcast by the BBC and later toured by the Arts Council.  Eads A54. £10

H.E.BATES contributes his short novel The Cruise of the Breadwinner to an issue of the periodical The Cornhill No. 967, April 1946. Card wrappers, a little dust marked. This appearance of Breadwinner precedes the book publication by three months, although its very first outing was one month earlier in The Saturday Evening Post. Bates' novel occupies the first 38 pages of this issue. eads B182.2. £15

H.E.BATES. The Scarlet Sword. Michael Joseph, London 1950. First edition. 248pp. Endpapers browned and front hinge just a fraction tender. A very crisp and bright copy in Broom Lynne dust wrapper, lightly chafed at edges, internally reinforced and with a small area of loss to top edge of front panel. Rear panel a little dust marked. Eads A67. £10

H.E.BATES. The Scarlet Sword. Little Brown, Boston 1951. The first American edition. 8vo. Covers very slightly faded here and there. A bright copy in frayed dust wrapper. eads A67b. £15

H.E.BATES. The Nature of Love. Three short novels. Michael Joseph, London 1953. First edition. 8vo. 240pp. A little browning and spotting to endpapers. Quite a bright copy in dusty, nicked, chipped and internally repaired dust wrapper with two or three fairly small areas of loss. Three novellas, two of which had been previously printed in periodicals (The Grass God in a 1951 Cornhill Magazine supplement and The Delicate Nature in a July 1952 issue of Argosy), with the first, Dulcima, appearing in print here for the first time. Eads A79. £10

H.E.BATES. The Sleepless Moon. A novel. Michael Joseph, London 1956. First edition. 8vo. 383pp. A small area of staining to the top edge and a strip of browning to endpapers. A very good copy in dust wrapper, just fractionally soiled, chafed and spotted. Eads A82. £20

H.E.BATES. The Vanished World. Autobiography. With illustrations by John Ward. Michael Joseph, London 1969. First edition. 8vo. 189pp. With endpaper decorations and various full-page drawings and further drawings in the text. A virtually fine copy in very good pictorial dust wrapper, with some fading to the publisher’s red spine panel lettering, as is so often the case. The first of Bates’ three volumes of memoirs. £15

H.E.BATES. A Love of Flowers. With illustrations by Pauline Ellison. Michael Joseph, London 1971. First edition of Bates’ “very personal gardening book”. 8vo. 160pp. A single inked correction to a typo in the author’s preface, else a fine copy in price-clipped and slightly chafed and dust marked dust wrapper. Former owner bookplate to front pastedown. Eads A112. £5

H.E.BATES. The Song of the Wren. Michael Joseph, London 1972. First edition. 8vo. 168pp. Some spotting to top edge and upper board lifting a fraction. A very good copy in pictorial dust wrapper, very lightly faded at spine panel. eads A113. £10

H.E.BATES. Give Them Their Life. The Poetry of H.E.Bates. Edited, with an introduction by Peter Eads, a foreword by Richard Bates and calligraphy and illustrations by Lynne Evans. Evensford, London 1990. First edition, one of a special limited edition of 1000 numbered copies, signed by all three contributors (this being #511). This copy with an additional presentation inscription by Peter Eads. Landscape 4to. 72pp. In fine state with dust wrapper, with several tiny edge-tears and a little chafing to the natural folds. Nineteen poems including four composed for Christmas cards, plus a brief prose piece on John Clare and the text of Bates’ four-page review of The Poems of John Clare. £35