Clearwater Books

JOHN BETJEMAN. Bevis Hillier. Young Betjeman. John Murray, London 1988. First edition – the dedication copy, inscribed by the author “To Oliver, one of the dedicatees, with much love from his uncle, the author, Bevis. Redhill, July 1988”.  8vo. 479pp. Illustrated with over forty captioned photographs. A very good copy in dust wrapper. The first volume of Hillier’s mammoth three-decker biography of Betjeman, the research and writing of which occupied twenty-five years. (Oliver is the youngest child of Hillier’s sister, Mary Thompson). £95

JAMES BOSWELL. Ian Finlayson. The Moth and the Candle. A Life of James Boswell. With illustrations. Constable, London 1984. First edition. 8vo. A fine copy in dust wrapper. £15

ROBERT BYRON. James Knox. A Biography of Robert Byron. John Murray, London 2003. First edition. A presentation copy, fondly inscribed by the author on the title page and dated the year of publication 8vo.xvi, 493pp. With one map and sixty black and white photographs and reproductions. A hint of bruising to the backstrip ends and tiny place-marker creases to the tips of two text leaves. A very good copy in dust wrapper, faded at the spine panel and with a touch of light edgewear. The first biography of the celebrated author and travel writer. £20

CYRIL CONNOLLY. Jeremy Lewis. Cyril Connolly. A Life. Jonathan Cape, London 1997. First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: “For Peter & Fiona. Well done on 30 yrs – old Connolly never managed half as well - & best wishes for the next. Jeremy”. 8vo. xvii, 653pp. Illustrated with thirty-nine photographs. A hint of spotting to the edges. Very good indeed in very good dust wrapper, lightly rubbed at the upper edge and with just a touch of fading to the spine panel. £25

HUBERT CRACKANTHORPE. David Crackanthorpe. Hubert Crackanthorpe and English Realism in the 1890s. With illustrations. University of Missouri Press, Columbia 1977. First edition. 8vo. 193pp. A little light spotting to top and fore edge and boards lifting just a fraction. A very crisp copy in slightly dust marked price-clipped dust wrapper. £15

ADELAIDE CRAPSEY. Karen Alkalay-Gut. Alone in the Dawn. The Life of Adelaide Crapsey. The University of Georgia press, Athens & London 1988. First edition. 8vo. x, 364pp. Illustrated with twenty-one captioned photographs. A tiny bump to the tip of one corner, and a hint of spotting to the top edge. A very good copy in dust wrapper, faded at the spine panel and with a little creasing to the spine panel ends. The first full-length study of the work and life of the American poet. £15

E.E.CUMMINGS. Susan Cheever. E.E.Cummings. A Life. Pantheon Books, New York 2014. First edition, not published in the UK in casebound format. 8vo. xvii, 213pp. Illustrated with nearly fifty black and white photographs and reproductions. A touch of minor bruising to the base of the backstrip, else a fine copy in fine dust wrapper. £10

CHARLES DICKENS. Norman & Jeanne MacKenzie. Dickens. A Life. With illustrations. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1979. First edition. 8vo. 434pp. A fine copy in dust wrapper. £10

FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY. Alex Christofi. Dostoevsky in Love. An Intimate Life. Bloomsbury, London 2021. First edition. 8vo. xiv, 236pp. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A novelistic biography Dostoevsky “from the Siberian prison camp to the gambling hall of Europe; from the dank prison cells of the Tsar’s fortress to the refined salons of St Petersburg”. £15

WILLIAM FAULKNER. Frederick R.Karl. William Faulkner: American Writer. A Biography. Faber, London 1989. First UK edition, issued the same year as the US edition. 8vo. xvi, 1131pp. Quarter cloth with paper-covered sides. Bind very slightly puller. Very good in dust soiled and fractionally rubbed dust wrapper. £15

ROY FULLER. Souvenirs [and] Vamp Till Ready. Further Memoirs. [and] Home and Dry. Memoirs III. The author’s memoirs, complete in three volumes. London Magazine Editions, London 1980-1984. A first edition set of Fuller’s memoirs. 8vo. Top edges spotted, else in virtually fine state with virtually fine dust wrappers. £35

HENRY GREEN. Jeremy Treglown. Romancing. The Life and Work of Henry Green. Faber, London 2000. First edition. 8vo. xvii, 340pp. Illustrated with sixteen black and white photographs and reproductions. The merest hint of toning to the paperstock, else a fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A scholarly study and of life and work of the celebrated novelist ‘Henry Green’ [i.e. Henry Yorke], winner of the Dictionary of Literary Biography Award. £20

ROBERT A.HEINLEIN. William H.Patterson Jr. Robert A.Heinlein. In Dialogue With His Century. Volume One: 1907-1948 Learning Curve. Tor Books / Tom Doherty Associates, New York 2010. First edition. 8vo. 622pp. Paper-covered boards. Illustrated with thirty-two black and white photographs. The head of the backstrip a little bruised, else a fine copy in dust wrapper, fine but for a trace of light corresponding creasing to the head of the spine panel. A super copy of the first volume of Patterson’s two-volume authorised biography of Heinlein, probably the greatest American science fiction author of the twentieth century. Not published in the UK. £30

SAMUEL JOHNSON. Rev.J.F.Russell. The Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson. With frontispiece and decorations. James Burns, London 1847. First edition. Small 8vo. Original gilt-decorated, blind-embossed cloth. Covers just a little bumped or rubbed at some extremities. Endpaper hinges cracked, with label partially removed from one endpaper. Name of former owner. £30

JACK KEROUAC. Barry Miles. Jack Kerouac. Kings of the Beats. A Portrait. Virgin Publishing Ltd., London 1989. First edition. 8vo. 332pp. Head of backstrip lightly bruised. Very good indeed in very slightly marked and chafed dust wrapper. £10

PHILIP LARKIN. James Booth. Philip Larkin. Life, Art and Love. A biography. Bloomsbury, London 2014. First edition. 8vo. 532pp. Illustrated with sixty-four photographs and manuscript reproductions. A slight readership ridge to the backstrip. A very good copy in dust wrapper, with the merest hint of wear to one or two extremities and just a touch of creasing. £25

PHILIP LARKIN. Andrew Motion. Philip Larkin. A Writer's Life. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 1993. First US edition, issued the same year as the UK edition. 8vo. xx, 570pp. Quarter cloth with speckled paper-covered board. With fifty-five captioned photographs. A short series of numerals inked to the base of the front pastedown, and obscured by the wrapper flap, else a fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, marred by a trace of chafing to the spine panel ends and a little light dust soiling to the predominantly white rear panel. £15

ROSAMOND LEHMANN.  Selina Hastings. Rosamond Lehmann. A biography. Chatto & Windus, London 2002. First edition. A presentation copy, fondly inscribed by the author on the title page and dated the year of publication. 8vo. xiii, 476pp. Illustrated with photographs.  A touch of bruising to the backstrip ends and several small indentations to the board margins. A very good copy in dust wrapper, a little rubbed and creased at the upper edge. £20

PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR. Artemis Cooper. Patrick Leigh Fermor. An Adventure. John Murray, London 2012. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 448pp. Illustrated with fifty-two photographs and two holograph manuscript reproductions. In fine state with fine dust wrapper. A celebrated biography of Paddy Fermor, written by his literary executor. £40

WYNDHAM LEWIS. Paul O’Keeffe. Some Sort of Genius. A Life of Wyndham Lewis. Jonathan Cape, London 2000. First edition. 8vo. 697pp. Illustrated with thirty-eight photographs and reproductions. A small area of staining to the top edge and a former owner gift inscription neatly inked to the head of the title leaf. A very good copy in fine price-clipped dust wrapper. £20

ROBERT LOWELL. Ian Hamilton. Robert Lowell. A Biography. Faber, London 1983. First UK edition, issued a year after the US edition. 8vo. xiv, 527pp. Illustrated with twenty-three black and white photographs. A very good copy in dust wrapper, lightly creased at the upper edge. £10

PAUL NASH. James King. Interior Landscapes. A Life of Paul Nash. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1987. First edition. 8vo. 258pp. With decorated colour endpapers and twenty-four monochrome reproductions, several full-page. A virtually fine copy with virtually fine dust wrapper, marred only by a single tiny crease to the base of the spine panel. £15

EUGENE O’NEILL. Barrett H.Clark. Eugene O’Neill. The Man and His Plays. Robert M.McBride & Company, New York 1929. First edition – a presentation copy, inscribed by the author to the English playwright and critic Allan Noble Monkhouse, and dated the month of publication. 8vo. 214pp. Just a hint of fading to the publisher’s top edge stain, else in virtually fine state with slightly tanned, spotted, chafed and rubbed dust wrapper. £50

DODIE SMITH. Valerie Grove. Dear Dodie. The Life of Dodie Smith. Chatto & Windus, London 1996. First edition. 8vo. xi, 339pp. Illustrated with twenty-two monochrome photographs and with several reproductions in the text. A little light wear to the board edges. A very good copy in lightly rubbed and marked dust wrapper. £10

A.J.A.SYMONS. The Quest for Corvo. An Experiment in Biography. With an introduction by Julian Symons. Cassell, London 1955. The second edition, with a new four-page introduction by the author’s brother. 8vo. x, 298pp. Cloth lightly dust soiled with some spotting to the top edge. A minor slant to the binding and a touch of light partial browning to the free endpapers. A nice crisp copy in dust wrapper, with some spotting to the predominantly white rear panel, and a touch of edge-nicking and creasing with several small fractions of loss. £20

ALICE B.TOKLAS. Linda Simon. The Biography of Alice B.Toklas. With illustrations. Peter Owen, London 1978. The first English edition. 8vo. 324pp. A hint of marking to boards, else a very good copy with lightly dust marked dust wrapper. Neat former owner rubber name-stamp to front endpaper. £10

J.R.R.TOLKIEN. Humphrey Carpenter. J.R.R.Tolkien. A Biography. George Allen & Unwin, London 1977. First edition. 8vo. 287pp. Illustrated with twenty-six photographs and reproductions. The head of the binding gently pulled, else a fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, marred only by a tiny hint of rubbing to the head of the spine panel. £35

ALICE WALKER. Evelyn C.White. Alice Walker. A Life. W.W.Norton, New York 2004. First edition, not issued in the UK. 8vo. 538pp. Illustrated with forty-eight photographs. In virtually fine state with dust wrapper, just fractionally creased at head of spine panel. The first full-length biography of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author. £15

EDMUND WILSON. Jeffrey Meyers. Edmund Wilson. A Biography. Houghton Mifflin, Boston & New York 1995. First edition. 8vo. 554pp. Cloth-backed boards. Illustrated with thirty photographs. A tiny sliver of discolouration to the board extremities, else a fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, with a barcode sticker to the rear panel and a UK price sticker to the front flap, suggesting that that was one of an unspecified number of copies assigned to the British market. £10

LEONARD WOOLF. Victoria Glendinning. Leonard Woolf. A Life. Simon & Schuster, London 2006. Second impression of the first edition – this copy fondly inscribed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 530pp. With family tree-illustrated endpapers and sixty-four monochrome photographs. In fine state with dust wrapper, fractionally rubbed at the head of the spine panel. £15