Clearwater Books

ENID BAGNOLD. Anne Sebba. Enid Bagnold. The Authorized Biography. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1986. First edition - this copy inscribed thus: "With best wishes Anne Sebba, August 1986" (the recipient being Arthur Calder-Marshall, who had written a glowing appreciation of Enid Bagnold and her work). 317pp. A very nice copy in dust wrapper. £18

ISAIAH BERLIN. Michael Ignatieff. Isaiah Berlin. A Life. Chatto & Windus, London 1998. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. Illustrated with a portrait frontispiece and twenty-four photographs. In fine state with dust wrapper, very lightly marked at rear panel with a single tiny nick to base of spine panel and several small areas of surface abrasion. £20

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. A fine copy in dust wrapper. £15

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

ANTHONY BURGESS. Little Wilson and Big God. Confessions I [and] You've Had Your Time. Confessions II. Burgess’ autobiography, complete in two volumes. Heinemann, London 1987 & 1990. First editions. 8vo. Paperstock a little tanned and with a small blemish to the front endpaper of a single volume. Very good copy in dust wrappers, one in fine state and the other a little faded at spine panel. £15

LORD BYRON. Benita Eisler. Byron. Child of Passion, Fool of Fame. Hamish Hamilton, London 1999. First edition. Large 8vo. 835pp. Illustrated with nearly fifty photographs and reproductions. A fine copy in just fractionally handled dust wrapper. £15

G.K.CHESTERTON. G.F.Watts. G.K.Chesterton. A Biography. With a Preface by Quentin Bell. Duckworth, London 1975. Reprint (originally published in 1904). 75pp. With a frontispiece and thirty-one illustrations. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. £10

BARON CORVO. Donald Weeks. Corvo. Michael Joseph, London 1971. First edition. 8vo. 449pp. With a frontispiece and thirty-four photographs and reproductions. A narrow strip of light browning to endpapers. A very good copy in slightly edgeworn dust wrapper with one short tear; the wrapper is not price-clipped, but the original printed price has been struck through and a new one inked alongside. A very crisp copy of Weeks’ biographical study of Corvo. £10

HUBERT CRACKANTHORPE, David Crackanthorpe. Hubert Crackanthorpe and English Realism in the 1890s. With illustrations. University of Missouri Press, Columbia 1977. First edition. 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

C.DAY-LEWIS. Peter Stanford. C.Day-Lewis. A Life. Continuum, London 2007. First edition. 8vo. 368pp. Illustrated with twenty-two photographs. In fine state with fine dust wrapper. £10

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

JOHN DRYDEN, Kenneth Young. John Dryden. A Critical Biography. Sylvan Press, London 1954. A good, bright copy in chipped dust wrapper. £10

ROBERT DUNCAN. Lisa Jarnot. Robert Duncan. The Ambassador from Venus. A Biography. University of California Press 2012. First edition. 8vo. 526pp. Paper-covered cloth. Illustrated with eighteen photographs. A fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, marred only by a tiny area of rubbing to the head of the spine panel. £20

WALKER EVANS. Belijda Rathbone. Walker Evans. A Biography. Houghton Mifflin 1995. First Edition. 358pp + xxiv photographic plates. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. £12

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

ERIC GILL. Malcolm Yorke. Eric Gill. Man of Flesh and Spirit. Constable, London 1981. First edition. 304pp. Illustrated throughout with over one hundred photographs and reproductions, including some of Gill's erotic drawings, hitherto unprinted. Tips of corners lightly bumped, else in virtually fine state with dust wrapper, lightly rubbed at head and base of spine panel and with just a hint of fading. £20

ROBERT GRAVES, Martin Seymour-Smith. Robert Graves. His Life and Work. With illustrations. Hutchinson, London 1982. The second printing. 608pp. A virtually fine copy in dust wrapper. Former owner bookplate to front pastedown. £10

ROBERT GRAVES. Richard Perceval Graves. Robert Graves. The Assault Heroic 1895-1926. With illustrations. Viking, New York 1987. The first American edition, this copy inscribed by the author. A near fine copy in dust wrapper. Fibre-pen mark to bottom edges.  £20

ALDOUX HUXLEY. George Woodcock. Dawn and the Darkest Hour. A Study of Aldous Huxley. Faber 1972.  First English edition. A fine copy in dust wrapper. £15

HENRIK IBSEN. Michael Meyer. Henrik Ibsen. The Making of a Dramatist 1828-1864, The Farewell to Poetry 1864-1882 [and] The Top of a Cold Mountain 1883-1906. Complete in three volumes. Rupert Hart-Davis, London 1967-1971. First editions. 8vo. Illustrated with photographs. A lovely crisp set of Meyer’s three-part biography of Ibsen, in slightly dust marked and chafed dust wrappers, two short closed tears to the top edge of a single front panel. Former owner bookplates to the front pastedown of each volume, each partially obscured by wrapper flaps. £35

AUGUSTUS JOHN. Michael Holroyd. Augustus John: The Years of Innocence [and] The Years of Experience. Heinemann, London 1974-1975. First editions, complete in two volumes, the first volume signed by the author at the head of the title page and dated the year of publication. Illustrated with fifty photographs and reproductions. Some spotting to edges and some partial browning to endpapers. A very crisp set in lightly if unevenly spotted 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

D.H.LAWRENCE. Stephen Potter. D.H.Lawrence. A First Study. Jonathan Cape, London 1930. First Edition, first printing – this copy inscribed by the author on the half-title thus: “Found by me, 23 May 55, during one of the most delightful week-ends of my life and inscribed to Robert [Henriques] who didn’t know he had it. Stephen Potter. Turn to p. 158 for World Record Freudian misprint”. The misprint in question sees Lawrence's travel book Sea and Sardinia delightfully mis-titled Sex and Sardinia [upon publication the rumour mill got to work and this swiftly became ‘Sex and Sardines’, much to the author’s consternation]. 8vo. 159pp. With a portrait frontispiece and two further illustrations (one a Lawrence self-portrait). Lacking the front endpaper else a very good copy in slightly tanned and nicked price-clipped dust wrapper with several small slivers of loss and a short jagged tear. The author’s second book, a full-length critical reappraisal of Lawrence which by chance was published within a few days of the death of its subject. £35

MALCOLM LOWRY. Douglas Day. Malcolm Lowry. A Biography. Oxford University Press, London 1974. First Edition. 483pp. A fine copy in very good dust wrapper, just a little chafed at head of spine. £10

NANCY MITFORD. Nancy Mitford. A Memoir by Harold Acton (largely based upon her letters to the author). With illustrations. Hamish Hamilton, London 1975. First edition. 252pp. A very crisp and bright copy in slightly torn and chafed dust wrapper. £20

CHRISTIANE PFLUG, Ann Davis. Somewhere Waiting. The Life and Art of Christiana Pflug. With illustrations. Oxford University Press, Toronto &c. 1991. First edition, this copy inscribed by the author. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. The first biography of the celebrated Canadian realist painter. £15

POWYS. Louis Marlow. Welsh Ambassadors. Powys Lives and Letters. With illustrations. Chapman & Hall, London 1936. First edition. 283pp. One fore-edge a little bumped. A very bright copy in slightly faded and dusty dust wrapper. An account of the celebrated Powys family reproducing many letters from John Cowper, Theodore Francis, Llewelyn, A.R. and Gertrude Powys. £25

PETER QUENNELL. Autobiography. Complete in two volumes comprising The Marble Foot. An Autobiography from 1905-1938 [and] The Wanton Chase. An Autobiography from 1939. Collins, London 1976 & 1980. Individual volumes as follows: The Marble Foot. An Autobiography from 1905-1938. (1976). First edition. 8vo. 254pp. Portrait frontispiece. A touch of light spotting to top- and fore edge, else in fine state with fine dust wrapper. The Wanton Chase. An Autobiography from 1939. (1980). First edition. 8vo. 192pp. Portrait frontispiece. Contemporary former owner gift inscription neatly inked to the head of the front free endpaper and just a touch of rubbing to spine ends. Very good indeed in price-clipped dust wrapper, a little sunned and discoloured and with the publisher’s laminate lifting a fraction in one small area. A very nice set of Quennell’s two volumes of memoirs, detailing his life and work, plus literary adventures with Somerset Maugham, Cyril Connolly, Evelyn Waugh, Duff and Diana Cooper, Ian Fleming, Noel Coward and Maclean & Burgess. £20

SIEGFRIED SASSOON. Jean Moorcroft Wilson. Siegfried Sassoon. The Making of a War Poet. 1886-1918 [and] The Journey from the Trenches. 1918-1967. A biography, complete in two volumes. Duckworth, London 1998 & 2003. First editions. 8vo. 600pp & 526pp. Illustrated with nearly 120 photographs. Both volumes in fine state with dust wrappers, one a little sunned at spine panel and the other a little creased at head and base of spine panel. £35

STEPHEN SPENDER. Hugh David. Stephen Spender. A Portrait with Background. Heinemann, London 1992. First Edition. 308pp. Illustrated with nineteen photographs and reproductions. Margins of paper-stock lightly tanned, else in fine state with dust wrapper featuring a colour portrait of the subject of Wyndham Lewis. Wrapper fractionally rubbed at head of spine panel and with four or five minute indentations. The first full-length study of Spender’s life. £10

ALICE B.TOKLAS. Linda Simon. The Biography of Alice B.Toklas. With illustrations. Peter Owen, London 1978. The first English edition. 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. 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

EVELYN WAUGH. A Little Learning. Autobiography. Chapman & Hall, London 1964. First edition. 234pp. Covers a little speckled in places. A very bright copy in price-clipped dust wrapper, just lightly rubbed at head of spine panel. Neat former owner name inked to front endpaper. £15

WYNDHAM LEWIS, Timothy Materer. Wyndham Lewis. The Novelist. Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1976. First Edition. Portrait frontispiece. Front board a little bowed otherwise a very good copy, internally in fine state. In lightly marked, non-price-clipped dust wrapper with a single short closed tear to rear panel. £10