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

JOHN BETJEMAN. Bevis Hillier. John Betjeman. New Fame, New Love. A biography. John Murray, London 2002. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page, with his printed name struck-through. 8vo. xv, 736pp. Illustrated with nearly eighty black and white photographs and reproductions. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A super signed copy of the central volume of the author’s mammoth three-volume biography of John Betjeman. £20

ROBERT BRIDGES. Catherine Phillips. Robert Bridges. A Biography. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1992. First edition. 8vo. xii, 364pp. Illustrated with seventeen black and white photographs and reproductions. A little light fox-spotting to the top edge, else a fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper. Hand-written letter from the author laid-in. The first full-length biography of the Poet Laureate, perhaps now best remembered as the friend and champion of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Curiously uncommon. £30

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

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

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

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

EDWARD LEAR. Jenny Uglow. Mr. Lear. A Life of Art and Nonsense. Faber, London 2017. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. viii, 598pp. Cloth-backed decorated paper-covered boards. With a place marker ribbon, decorated endpapers, and various colour and monochrome reproductions in the text. A single tiny smudge to the fore edge, else in fine state. No dust wrapper called for. The author’s celebrated biography of Edward Lear; winner of the 2018 Hawthornden Prize. £50

LAURIE LEE. Valerie Grove. Laurie Lee. The Well-Loved Stranger. Viking, London 1999. First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page: “For Anne [Harvey] with thanks for inspiration & help comme toujours - and love. From Valerie. Pitshanger, 26.1.00”. 8vo. xv, 560pp. With manuscript-reproduction endpapers and sixty photographs. Some toning to the leaf margins, as is common with this production, else a fine copy in fractionally faded and soiled dust wrapper. The first major biography of Laurie Lee. Publisher’s press release laid-in alongside various clippings, ephemeral items and a greetings card from the author. £25

PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR. Artemis Cooper. Patrick Leigh Fermor. An Adventure. John Murray, London 2012. First edition. 8vo. xiii, 448pp. Illustrated with fifty-two photographs and two holograph manuscript reproductions. Contemporary former owner name neatly inked to the head of the front free endpaper. A virtually fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper. A biography of Paddy Fermor, penned by his literary executor. £10

ALUN LEWIS. John Pikoulis. Alun Lewis. A Life. Poetry Wales Press, Bridgend 1984. First edition. 8vo. 322pp. Illustrated with various photographs, maps and reproductions. Contemporary former owner name and date inked to the head of the front free endpaper. A virtually fine copy in dust wrapper, lightly faded at the spine panel, with a small area of further fading to the head of the front panel, and a tiny trace of wear to the upper edge. Various ephemeral items laid-in including reviews, and a brief letter and printed email from the author.  The first full-length biography of Lewis, now deemed the standard work on the subject, and including reproductions of hitherto unpublished poems and letters, plus the first full account of the circumstances of his death and the subsequent Court of Enquiry. £25

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

JOHN MORTIMER. Valerie Grove. A Voyage Round John Mortimer. A biography. Viking, London 2007. First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page: “To Anne [Harvey] (what a pity we can’t do a joint gig on this – with you playing PM – or S.A.F?). With love, Valerie G 11.i.08 (our last Dollie in Chichester)”. [The recipient of Grove’s inscription was her friend and fellow writer Anne Harvey, who often organised and performed poetry readings). 8vo. xi, 542pp. With cartoon-illustrated endpapers and forty photographs and reproductions. Leaf margins lightly toned, else a fine copy in virtually fine faux-distressed dust wrapper. £15

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

JAMES PURDY. Michael Snyder. James Purdy. Life of a Contrarian Writer. Oxford University Press, New York 2022. First edition. 8vo. 444pp. Illustrated with twenty-two black and white photographs in the text. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. £20

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

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

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. Jonathan Bate. Radical Wordsworth. The Poet Who Changed the World. William Collins, London 2020. First edition. 8vo. xiii, 586pp. Illustrated with photographs and reproductions. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A biography of Wordsworth, issued to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth. £15