Clearwater Books

MARY BERENSON. A Self-Portrait from her Letters & Diaries. Edited by Barbara Strachey & Jayne Samuels. Norton, New York 1983. The first American edition. 8vo. 319pp. Some discolouration to boards, and some light marking to endpapers. A very crisp copy in fine dust wrapper. The letters and diaries of Mary Berenson, née Mary Smith, an art historian, now thought to have had a large hand in some of the writings of her second husband Bernard Berenson. £10

MALCOLM BRADBURY. Unsent Letters. Andre Deutsch, London 1988. First edition. 8vo. 218pp. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A collection of eighteen humorous letters to a variety of recipients, which the author composed but never actually wrote or sent. £7.50

RUPERT BROOKE. Letters from America. With a preface by Henry James and a prefatory note by E[dward] M[arsh]. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1916. First English edition (preceded, albeit only just, by the US edition). 8vo. 180pp. Original publisher’s buckram with tanned and a little chipped paper spine label (and a spare tipped-in at rear). Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Tissue-guarded portrait frontispiece. Tips of corners a little rubbed and with some miscellaneous staining to buckram. Small indentation to backstrip. Endpapers and pastedowns lightly browned and with just a trace of spotting to half-title. Quite a crisp and bright copy, missing the scarce dust wrapper. A series of letters by Brooke during his year-long travels in the United States, the first thirteen of which were originally published in the Westminster Gazette and the final two in the New Statesman. 2,800 copies were printed. Keynes 42. £25

BRUCE CHATWIN. Under the Sun. The Letters of Bruce Chatwin. Selected and edited by Elizabeth Chatwin and Nicholas Shakespeare, who also provides a thirteen-page introduction. Viking, New York 2011. First American edition (issued a year earlier in the UK). 8vo. 554pp. Paper-covered boards. Illustrated with nearly forty photographs. Remainder mark to bottom edge and just a trace of wear to spine ends, else a fine copy in correspondingly chafed else fine dust wrapper. A vast collection of Chatwin’s correspondence to Patrick Leigh Fermor, Paul Theroux, Susan Sontag, James Ivory, Colin Thubron and many other recipients. £16

COLETTE. Letters from Colette. Selected and translated by Robert Phelps. Farrar Straus Girous, New York 1980. First English-language edition (originally published in France in five separate volumes between 1958-73). 8vo. 214pp. A little light spotting to top edge, else in fine state with dust wrapper, lightly rubbed at head and base of spine. Neat former owner gift inscription inked to front pastedown (and predominantly obscured by the wrapper flap). £10

JOSEPH CONRAD. Letters to William Blackwood and David S.Meldrum. Edited by William Blackburn. Duke University Press, Durham, NC 1958. First edition. 8vo. Illustrated endpapers. Just the faintest hint of fox spotting to front endpaper, else a very bright copy in fox-spotted and tanned dust wrapper with a single short ragged tear to front panel. Review slip lain-in. £15

NOËL COWARD. The Letters of Noël Coward. Edited with an introduction by Barry Day. Methuen Drama, London 2007. First edition. 8vo. xii + 780pp. Illustrated with photographs and reproductions. Spine ends very lightly rubbed and just a trace of wear to the tip of a single corner. A virtually fine copy in dust wrapper, with just a touch of corresponding wear to the spine panel ends and a single tiny biro mark to the front panel. Neat former owner bookplate to the front pastedown (almost entirely obscured by the wrapper flap) alongside a neatly inked date. A vast chronologically-ordered collection Coward’s correspondence, almost all of it hitherto unpublished. £10

MALCOLM COWLEY. The Long Voyage. Selected Letters of Malcolm Cowley, 1915-1987. Edited by Hans Bak, with a foreword by Robert Cowley. Harvard University Press, Cambridge & London 2014. First edition. 8vo. 800pp. A few light marks to the bottom edge and several miniscule blemishes to the front free endpaper. A virtually fine copy in fractionally dust soiled dust wrapper. £15

R.W.EMERSON & A.H.CLOUGH. Emerson - Clough Letters. Edited by Howard Foster Lowry & Ralph Leslie Rusk. Rowfant Club, Cleveland 1934. First edition, limited to 165 numbered copies, printed in Chicago at the Lakeside Press. Marbled cloth boards, very slightly shelf-worn at bottom edges. An extremely bright copy in plain unprinted dust wrapper with a short open tear to foot of spine panel. £45

WILLIAM FAULKNER. Essays, Speeches & Public Letters. Edited and with a preface by James B.Meriwether. Chatto & Windus, London 1967. The first English edition. 8vo. 233pp. A hint of spotting to top edge and a touch of light partial browning to half title. A virtually fine copy with virtually fine dust wrapper, just very lightly dust marked at rear panel. Comprises twelve essays (including writings on Sherwood Anderson and Albert Camus); fourteen speeches (including his Nobel Prize acceptance speech); three introductions, three book reviews (including one for The Old Man and the Sea); and thirty-one public letters. £25

FORD MADOX FORD. Letters of Ford Madox Ford. Edited by Richard M.Ludwig. Princeton University Press 1965. First edition. 8vo. 335pp. A fine copy in slightly nicked and chafed dust wrapper. £35

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH. The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough. Edited by Mary Woodall. With frontispiece and 26 collotytpe plates. Lion and Unicorn Press, Royal College of Art, London 1961. First edition, limited to 400 numbered copies. 4to. Quarter morocco, patterned boards with embossed facsimile seal. Spine quite badly worn, else a crisp, sound copy. No dust wrapper, as issued. £25

MARTHA GELLHORN. The Letters of Martha Gellhorn. Selected and edited by Caroline Moorehead. Chatto & Windus, London 2006. First edition. 8vo. 531pp. Illustrated with nineteen photographs. Spine ends and tips of several corners lightly worn, and with a two inch tear and some accompanying creasing to one of the plate leaves. A very bright copy in dust wrapper. A hefty selection of Gellhorn’s correspondence with Hemingway, Eleanor Roosevelt, H.G.Wells, Leonard Bernstein, Diana Cooper, Rosamond Lehmann, William Walter, Charles Scribner and others. £15

TED HUGHES. Letters of Ted Hughes. Selected and edited by Christopher Reid. Faber, London 2007. First edition. 8vo. xxiv, 756pp. Illustrated with photographs and manuscript reproductions. A touch of bruising to the backstrip ends, else a fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A hefty selection of Hughes' correspondence. £15

JACK KEROUAC. Door Wide Open. A Beat Love Affair in Letters, 1957-58. With an introduction and commentary by Joyce Johnson. Viking, New York 2000. First edition. 8vo. xxvi, 182pp. Backstrip ends gently bruised and with the merest tiny of spotting to the top edge. A virtually fine copy in dust wrapper, lightly faded and dust soiled and with a tiny hint of wear to one or two extremities.  The letters of Jack Kerouac and Joyce Johnson, who met during an Allen Ginsberg-organised blind date in January 1957, nine months before the publication of On the Road. £15

JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES. Lydia and Maynard. The Letters of Lydia Lopokova and John Maynard Keynes. Edited by Polly Hill & Richard Keynes. Scribner, New York 1989. The first American edition. 8vo. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. Publisher's review slip laid-in. £20

CHARLES LAMB. The Letters of Charles Lamb. Edited with notes by George Woodcock. Grey Walls Press, London 1950. First edition. 8vo. A bright copy in slightly nicked and dusty, price-clipped dust wrapper. £15

PHILIP LARKIN. Selected Letters of Philip Larkin 1940-1985. Edited, with an introduction by Anthony Thwaite. Faber, London 1992. First edition. 8vo. xxxvi, 791pp. Illustrated with photographs and endpaper decorations by Larkin. Former owner gift inscription neatly inked to a blank flyleaf, else in fine state with dust wrapper, fractionally rubbed at the upper edge and with a single tiny area of surface abrasion. A hefty selection of Larkin’s correspondence, the recipients including Kingsley Amis, Julian Barnes, John Betjeman, C Day-Lewis, Douglas Dunn, Gavin Ewart, Roger McGough, Harold Pinter, Barbara Pym, Vernon Watkins and the editor. £10

JAMES LEES-MILNE. Midway on the Waves. Faber, London 1985. First edition. 8vo. 248pp. A light scattering of spotting to the top edge, else a fine copy with dust wrapper, a little dust-soiled. The fourth volume of Lees-Milne celebrated series of diaries, and the only one of the twelve issued by Faber. £40

PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR. Dashing for the Post. The Letters of Patrick Leigh Fermor. Selected, edited and with an introduction by Adam Sisman. John Murray, London 2016. First edition. 8vo. 469pp. Illustrated with thirty captioned photographs. A fine unopened copy in fine dust wrapper. A hefty collection of Paddy Fermor’s correspondence, most of which is hitherto unpublished. £20

ALUN LEWIS. Letters from India. Edited by Gweno Lewis and Gwyn Jones. With a Note by Mrs. Alun Lewis [i.e. Gweno Lewis] and a preface by A.L.Rowse. Penmark Press Ltd., Cardiff 1946. First edition, limited to 500 numbered copies (this being #127). 8vo. 97pp. With a manuscript reproduction frontispiece and one plate. Former owner name inked to the head of the front free endpaper. A tiny area of wear to the head of the backstrip where the dust wrapper is defective, else a virtually fine copy in dust wrapper, lightly tanned and dust marked and with a centimetre of loss from the head of the spine panel, just impacting the lettering. Forty-two wartime letters from Lewis to his wife and parents, penned between November 1942 and March 1944. £35

NELSON MANDELA. The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela. Edited by Sahm Zenter. Liveright Publishing Corporation, New York 2018. First edition. 8vo. xv, 620pp. With pictorial endpapers, eleven photographs and manuscript reproductions, and with some further reproductions of the letters in the text. The backstrip ends very gently bruised, else a fine copy in dust wrapper with a little light corresponding creasing to the backstrip ends and a tiny hint of dust soiling. Over two hundred and fifty letters penned my Mandela during his twenty-seven year incarceration, the bulk of which are hitherto unpublished. £25

ELIZABETH MYERS. The Letters of Elizabeth Myers. Edited with notes and a biographical introduction by her husband, Littleton C.Powys. Chapman & Hall, London 1951. First edition. 8vo. 338pp. Portrait frontispiece. Covers faded at edges. A good, quite bright copy in chafed, faded and dusty dust wrapper. Neat inscription of former owner pencilled to front endpaper. £15

PETER NICHOLS. Diaries 1969-1977. Nick Hern, London 2000. First edition. 8vo. 440pp. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. £12

HAROLD NICOLSON. Diaries and Letters 1930-1964. Edited and condensed by Stanley Olson, and with an introduction by Nigel Nicolson. Atheneum, New York 1980. The American issue of the condensed and first single-volume edition (originally issued as a hefty triple-decker between 1966-68). 8vo. 436pp. The backstrip ends lightly rubbed. A very good copy dust wrapper, dust marked, rubbed and a little chipped at the head of the spine panel. £8.50

ANAÏS NIN. Journal of a Wife. The Early Diary of Anaïs Nin 1923-1927. With a preface by Joaquin Nin-Culmell. Peter Owen, London 1984. First edition. 8vo. 297pp. Illustrated with photographs. In fine state with virtually fine price-clipped dust wrapper. Issued posthumously, this selection of Nin’s diaries covers the period 1923-27, beginning with her marriage to Hugh Guiler and predating the series of diaries issued during her lifetime. £15

GORONWY OWEN. The Letters of Goronwy Owen (1723-1769). Newly translated, edited and with an introduction by J.H.Davies. William Lewis (Publishers) Ltd., Cardiff 1924. The first edition of this new translation: seventy-eight letters, almost all bar the examples to William Morris, most of which no longer exist, translated from the original documents (the three prior editions of Owen’s correspondence, published in 1860, 1876 and 1895, were created from transcripts, or transcripts of transcripts). 8vo. x, 214pp. Buckram-backed paper-covered boards, with a gilt lettered leather spine label. With a gilt top edge and a small title page decoration. Some bruising to the spine ends, and rubbing to the corner tips. Former owner name neatly inked to the head of the front free endpaper, alongside an inscription in Welsh in another hand. Occasional pencilled notes in the text (which could be easily erased if desired). A very good copy in the uncommon dust wrapper, lightly toned and chipped at the spine panel. Letters from the noted eighteenth century Welsh poet to Richard Morris (thirty-seven), William Morris (twenty-nine), and Lewis Morris (three), plus nine further letters to other correspondents, presented in English and Welsh, the translations created by John Humphries Davies, principal of Aberystwyth University. Davies died two years after this edition was published. £125

D.G.ROSSETTI. The Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti to his Publisher, F.S.Ellis. Edited with notes by Oswald Doughty. Scholartis Press, London 1928. First edition, limited to 560 copies, this copy unnumbered. Small 4to. Blue buckram covers, finger-marked and slightly spotted in places. A bright, unopened copy. No jacket. £100

BERNARD SHAW. Bernard Shaw and Alfred Douglas. A Correspondence. Edited by Mary Hyde. John Murray, London 1982. The English issue of the first edition. 8vo. 237pp. Boards lifting a little, else a very bright copy in very good dust wrapper, fractionally faded at spine panel. £15

JAMES STEPHENS. Letters of James Stephens. Edited by Richard J.Finneran, with a bibliographical checklist. Macmillan, London 1974. The first English edition. 8vo. A near fine copy in slightly rubbed, price-clipped dust wrapper. Former owner bookplate to front pastedown. £15

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE. The Letters of Algernon Charles Swinburne. Edited by Edmund Gosse and Thomas J.Wise. William Heinemann, London 1918. First edition, complete in two volumes. 8vo. xiv, 304pp and 296pp. A narrow strip of light browning to the free endpapers. Many gatherings uncut at the upper edge. A lovely crisp set in the uncommon dust wrappers, a little toned at the spine panels, rubbed and snagged at the upper edges with several small areas of loss. £65

DYLAN THOMAS. Constantine Fitzgibbon. Selected Letters of Dylan Thomas. J.M.Dent, London 1966. First edition. 8vo. 420pp. A touch of very light bruising to the base of the backstrip, else a fine copy in lightly dust soiled dust wrapper, with a tiny hint of chafing to the spine ends and corner tips. A three-page introduction and chronology precedes hundreds of Thomas' letters, including his earliest surviving correspondence, the recipients including Graham Greene, Lawrence Durrell, Pamela Hansford Johnson, Edward Marsh, Stephen Spender, John Davenport, Henry Treece and others. Supplied together with an uncorrected proof copy of the first edition bound in the publisher’s original card wrappers. Top edge spotted. Very good in the original over-sized proof dust wrapper, rubbed and creased at the overlapping upper edge. £30

FRANCIS THOMPSON. The Letters of Francis Thompson. Edited by John Evangelist Walsh. Hawthorn Books, New York 1969. First edition. With a portrait frontispiece. Upper board lifting a little and a small stain to top edge. Quite a crisp and bright copy in slightly marked and dusty, price-clipped dust wrapper. £15

JAMES THURBER. Selected Letters of James Thurber. Edited by Helen Thurber and Edward Weeks. Little Brown, Boston 1981. First trade edition, following the limited Franklyn Library issue. Decorated paper-covered cloth. With a caricature self-portrait frontispiece and a number of Thurber cartoons in the text. In fine state with dust wrapper, faded at spine panel and lightly rubbed and chafed at top edge. A selection of over 100 of Thurber’s letters chosen by his widow and editor at The Atlantic and including correspondence to Harold Ross, John O’Hara, E.B.White, Kenneth Tynan and others. £15

ALICE B.TOKLAS. Staying On Alone. The Letters of Alice B Toklas. Edited by Edward Burns. With an introduction by Gilbert A.Harrison, Liveright, New York 1973. First edition. With thirty-six photographs and reproductions. Boards lifting a little, else a very good copy in slightly faded, price-clipped dust wrapper. £18

EDITH WHARTON. The Letters of Edith Wharton. Edited by R.W.B.Lewis & Nancy Lewis. Scribner, New York 1988. First edition. 8vo. 654pp. Cloth-backed boards. Illustrated with photographs. Edges lightly marked. A very good copy in dust wrapper, just a little nicked at the head of the spine panel with a tiny fraction of loss. £20