Clearwater Books

ANDRÉ ACIMAN. Eight White Nights. A novel. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 2010. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 360pp. Paper-covered boards. A touch of very light bruising to the backstrip ends, else a fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, with a touch of corresponding creasing to the spine panel ends. The author’s second novel. Uncommon with these attributes. £175

PETER ACKROYD. Hawksmoor. A novel. Hamish Hamilton, London 1985. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page, beneath which is his personal inked inscription: “For Libby from Peter. London: November 6 1985”. 8vo. 217pp. A hint of bruising to the backstrip ends, and with some tanning to the lesser quality paperstock as is so often the case. A very good copy in very good dust wrapper, with a little light corresponding rubbing to the spine panel ends.  The author's third novel, winner of the Whitbread Award for Best Novel. £125

KINGSLEY AMIS. The Old Devils. A novel. Hutchinson, London 1986. First edition of his Booker Prize winner - this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 294pp. Top edge spotted. Neat name and plate of former owner to the front free endpaper, and an unrelated newspaper clipping neatly pasted to the terminal leaf. A very good copy in dust wrapper, with a little fading to the publisher’s red spine panel lettering some internal spotting,  and a little creasing to the base of the rear panel where it has been inexpertly re-shelved. "It stands comparison with any English novel of the century" - Martin Amis. £125

MARGARET ATWOOD. Stone Mattresses. Nine Tales. Bloomsbury, London 2014. First UK edition, issued the same year as the Canadian and US editions. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 273pp. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. Nine stories, including I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth which serves as a sequel to her 1993 novel The Robber Bride. £50

A.L.BARKER. The Gooseboy. A novel. Hutchinson, London 1987. First edition – this copy inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper and dated 1990. 8vo. 151pp.  Spine ends very lightly rubbed and with a near-invisible hint of spotting to the pastedowns and endpapers. Very good indeed in very good price-clipped dust wrapper, with a little corresponding rubbing to the spine panel ends and a single tiny area of staining. The author’s eighth novel. £35

ALAN BENNETT. The Uncommon Reader. Faber and Profile Books, London 2007. The deluxe issue of the first edition, one of an unspecified number of copies signed by the author and housed in a slipcase. Small 8vo. 124pp. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper and cloth-covered slipcase. A lengthy short story, which was first published in The London Review of Books in 2006. £75

ALAN BLEASDALE. Scully. A novel. Hutchinson, London 1975. First edition of Bleasdale’s first book. A presentation copy, inscribed by the author to Dallas Cavell, lead actor in the author’s first state play Fat Harold and the Last 26, which premièred at the Liverpool Playhouse on April Fool’s Day 1975. 8vo. 215pp. Top edge lightly dust soiled and with a narrow strip of tanning to the extreme upper margin of the text leaves. A very good copy in virtually fine pictorial dust wrapper, with a touch of toning to the flaps. A slip of paper detailing the cast and crew of Bleasdale’s stage debut has been pasted to the front free endpaper beneath his inscription. A splendid presentation copy of Bleasdale’s first book, based on stories originally written to entertain his pupils in a secondary modern school where he taught for four years, and later broadcast on BBC Radio Merseyside and the basis for later stage and television plays, and a seven-part television series. £175

J.L.CARR. The Harpole Report. A novel. Secker & Warburg, London 1972. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 163pp. Top edge very lightly spotted, else a fine copy in dust wrapper, with a small area of scoring to the front panel. Laid-in is a printed slip noting that J.L.Carr will be giving a talk at the Annual General Meeting of the Friends of Bishop Stopford School on 13th January 1976 – where presumably this copy was signed. The author’s third novel, in-part inspired by his near-forty year teaching career (and accordingly a minor staff room classic). £350

J.L.CARR. A Month in the Country. Cornucopia Press, London 1990. The second edition of Carr’s classic, with a slightly revised text and a new foreword by the author. Issued in a limitation of 300 numbered copies signed by the author and by Ronald Blythe who provides an introduction. Printed on mould-made paper by The September Press. Crown 4to. 105pp. Top edge gilt. Former owner gift inscription to the half-title, else a fine copy in the original unprinted acetate protector, just a little nicked at the head of the spine panel. £300

MICHAEL CHABON. Wonder Boys. A novel. Fourth Estate, London 1995. First UK edition, issued the same year as the American edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 368pp. A trace of bruising to the backstrip ends, and a discreet inkstamp to the bottom edge. A virtually fine copy in dust wrapper with a hint of very light creasing to several extremities. The author’s third book and second novel, a partly autobiographical tale woven around Chabon’s failure to complete his as-yet unrealised novel Fountain City, with the main character inspired by his University of Pittsburgh processor Chuck Kinder whose own novel detailing his friendship with Raymond Carver ballooned to some 3,000 pages before finally appearing in a considerably reduced version as Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale in 2001. £50

MICHAEL CHABON. Telegraph Avenue. A novel. Fourth Estate, London 2012. First UK edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 468pp. A trace of very light toning to the leaf margins, else a fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper. The author’s seventh novel. £25

JOHN CHEEVER. The Way Some People Live. Stories. Random House, New York 1943. First edition – never reprinted. This copy inscribed by the author on the half-title and dated 1980. 8vo. 256pp. Top edge dust soiled, and with just a trace of toning to the leaf margins. The cloth a little marked and rubbed in places, with a little bruising and a hint of wear to the backstrip ends. Family names of former owner (not the recipient of Cheever’s inscription) inked to the front pastedown, and almost entirely obscured by the wrapper flap, and a small Chicago dealer plate to the base of the front free endpaper. An almost very good copy in dust wrapper, lightly toned at the rear panel, and with some edgewear, creasing, and several small fractions of edge-loss, and one slightly smaller area of triangular loss from the base of the rear panel. Some tenderness to the rear panel – rear flap fold. The author’s most uncommon first book [of which 2,750 copies were printed], containing thirty stories which represent most of his output in his twenties. None of these stories were subsequently included in the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection The Stories of John Cheever (1979), and the vast majority – in fact probably none of them – were never reprinted or collected. Cheever deemed these early stories to be essentially juvenile efforts so he objected to them being reprinted and was generally reluctant to sign copies. £3,000

CYRIL CONNOLLY. The Evening Colonnade. Essays. David Bruce & Watson Ltd., London 1973. First edition. This copy inscribed by the author at the head of the front free endpaper and dated the year of publication. 8vo. 519pp. A trace of very light soiling to the top and fore edge, else a fine copy in virtually fine Cecil Beaton-designed dust wrapper. Over one hundred Connolly essays, the subjects including Oscar Wilde, T.S.Eliot, Richard Aldington, Marcel Proust, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Aldous Huxley, E.E.Cummings, Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, F.Scott Fitzgerald, Jean Cocteau, Louis MacNeice, W.H.Auden, George Orwell, Robert Lowell, Basil Bunting, and the Spanish Civil War. £75

ROBERTSON DAVIES. The Cunning Man. Viking, London 1995. First UK edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. Large 8vo. 469pp. Tip of one corner bumped and with a minor slant to the binding. Boards fractionally marked in one or two places, yet a lovely bright copy internally, housed in slightly edge worn, marked and creased dust wrapper. The author’s final novel and, his publisher maintains, the second volume of his incomplete ‘Toronto trilogy’, part one of which was Murther and Walking Spirits. The magnificent Davies sadly died in the December of the year this UK edition was published. £25

DON DELILLO. The Body Artist. A novel. Scribner, New York 2001. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 124pp. Cloth-backed paper-covered boards. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. The author’s twelfth novel. £50

DON DELILLO. Point Omega. A novel. Picador, London 2010. First UK edition, issued the same year as the US edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 117pp. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. Ticket to the signing event laid-in. £75

NORMAN DOUGLAS. How About Europe? Some Footnotes on East and West. Privately printed by the author [Tipografia Classica, Florence] 1929. First edition, limited to 550 numbered and signed copies, this one additionally inscribed by the author on the title page and dated 1933. 8vo. 216pp. Patterned paper-covered boards with a paper spine label. Fore- and bottom edges untrimmed. Spine ends rubbed and just a touch of tanning to backstrip and spotting to endpapers. A very good copy, lacking the uncommon dust wrapper. £75

LAWRENCE DURRELL. The Alexandria Quartet. Faber, London 1962. The special edition of the first single-volume edition, limited to 500 numbered and signed copies. A short preface by Durrell details a few minor textual alterations. 8vo. 884pp. Full buckram with a black hand motif to upper board. Cloth at backstrip lightly faded, else in fine state with original unprinted protector and decorated slipcase, a little chafed at extremities. Marred only by a somewhat over bold former owner gift inscription to front endpaper. £600

RICHARD FORD. Independence Day. A novel. Alfred A.Knopf, New York 1995. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 451pp. Cloth-backed boards. A touch of bruising to the backstrip ends, and the tips of two corners very gently bumped. Very good indeed in dust wrapper, with a trace of corresponding creasing to the spine panel ends and a hint of further light edgewear, and a single tiny closed tear. The second volume of the author’s celebrated ‘Frank Bascombe’ series; winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (the first novel to win both awards in the same year). £75

JOHN FOWLES. The Aristos. A Self-Portrait in Ideas. Essays. Little, Brown & Company, Boston 1964. First edition, this American edition preceding the UK edition by six months. This copy inscribed by the author on the title page and dated 1999. 8vo. 246pp. Top edge dust soiled, and with a little bruising to the backstrip ends. A very good copy in very good dust wrapper, lightly toned at the spine panel, with a touch of rubbing to the spine ends, and one or two minute areas of marking. The author’s second book. £250

HERB GARDNER. A Piece of the Action. A novel. Simon & Schuster, New York 1958. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 313pp. Cloth-backed boards. Boards very lightly marked in one or two places and with a sliver of discolouration to the upper edge of the rear board. A short crease to the corner of a single text leaf. A very good copy in dust wrapper, a little soiled and spotted and with a three-inch tear to the base of the rear panel, a single short tear to the head of the front panel and several small areas of loss from the spine ends and one or two other extremities. The only novel by the noted playwright and cartoonist, a semi-autobiographical satire on the world of advertising. £150

DAVID GARNETT. The Sailor’s Return. With a frontispiece by Ray Garnett (the author’s first wife). Chatto & Windus, London 1925. First edition. This copy inscribed by the author at the head of the front free endpaper. 8vo. 163pp + [ii] publisher’s advertisements. Patterned cloth with a paper spine label (and a spare tipped-in at the rear, as required). Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. A sliver of discolouration to the backstrip ends and to the board edges. Free endpapers spotted with some further quite light spotting to a dozen preliminary and concluding leaves, and to occasional margins. A small bump to the base of the upper board. Very good in dust wrapper which reproduced the Ray Garnett frontispiece, toned at the spine panel and with just a tiny trace of wear to the head and base of the spine panel. The author’s fourth novel (the third published under his real name), set in Victorian Dorset (Garnett took the name of the book from the inn at Chaldon Herring, where he stayed whilst visiting T.F.Powys and Sylvia Townsend Warner). £75

WILLIAM GOLDING. Pincher Martin. Faber, London 1956. First edition – this copy signed by the author by way of a bookplate pasted to the front free endpaper. 8vo. 208pp. The gilt spine lettering very slightly defective and with a touch of dust soiling to the top edge, and just the ghost of an almost entirely erased former owner inscription. A very crisp copy in the Anthony Gross-designed double-spread pictorial dust wrapper, a little nicked at spine ends with several tiny fractions of loss. Small dealer plate to the front pastedown, obscured by the wrapper flap. The author’s third novel – an existential classic. £300

GÜNTER GRASS. From the Diary of a Snail. Translated from the German of Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke by Ralph Manheim. Secker & Warburg, London 1974. First UK edition. This copy signed by the author on the front free endpaper. 8vo. 310pp. Frontispiece. Edges very lightly spotted. A virtually fine copy in double-spread pictorial dust wrapper featuring a design by the author, just fractionally toned. An account his 1969 campaigning for the Social Democratic Party. £75

ALASDAIR GRAY. A History Maker. A novel. Canongate Press, Edinburgh 1994. First edition. This one of 250 copies signed by the author, his signature at the head of the half-title: “Alasdair Gray 136 – 250”. 8vo. xv, 222pp. Decorated cloth. With drawings by the author. Top edge spotted, encroaching just a fraction to the extreme upper margins of very occasional text leaves. Very good indeed in virtually fine pictorial dust wrapper designed by the author, marred only by a hint of internal spotting. The author’s seventh novel, set in the future in the Scottish borders and inspired by his 1970 play The History Maker. Uncommon with the author’s signature. £125

ALYSE GREGORY. Hester Craddock. A novel. Longmans, Green & Co., London 1931. First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed by the author to novelist James Hanley on the front free endpaper: “To James Hanley in appreciation and admiration of his imaginative power as a writer from Alyse Gregory- May 10, 1935 – ‘O, beware, my lord of jealousy; it is the green-ey’d monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on’”.  8vo. 298pp. Cloth at the backstrip browned, and the covers a little spotted, rubbed and marked. Some occasional quite light fox-spotting. A three-inch vertical tear to one text leaf (p.139) with some accompanying creasing. A good copy. No dust wrapper. A nice association copy of the author’s third novel (Hanley was a close friend of John Cowper Powys, and Gregory was J.C.P.’s sister-in-law, married to Llewelyn Powys). £175

JAMES HANLEY. Captain Bottell. A novel. Boriswood, London 1933. The deluxe issue of the first edition, limited to 99 specially bound numbered copies printed on Mediaeval rag paper and signed by the author (this being #14). 8vo. 423pp. Quarter buckram with cloth-covered sides. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. A trace pf wear to the backstrip ends, and some browning to an unprinted preliminary and concluding leaf. Very good indeed. No dust wrapper called for. The author’s fourth novel, published a year before the obscenity trial that resulted from the 1934 cheap edition of his second novel, Boy (1931). £100

VIOLET HUDSON. Jean-Louis Curtis. The Silken Ladder. Translated by Violet Hudson & E.B.Behrens. Secker & Warburg, London 1957. First English edition. 8vo. Tips of two corners slightly bumped. A bright copy in slightly rubbed and marked dust wrapper. Inscribed by the translator to Mavis Eurich and with a covering typedletter, signed: "I thought you would find 'The Silken Ladder' interesting. I found it remarkable and some of it very original. There are many beautiful and true passages and, indeed, the book is strewn with them. it was frightfully difficult to translate". £25

P.D.JAMES. Shroud for a Nightingale. An Adam Dalgliesh mystery. Faber, London 1971. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 296pp. A trace of very light spotting to the top edge, a little soiling to the fore edge and just a hint of light partial browning to the front free endpaper. Very good indeed in dust wrapper, rubbed and chafed at the spine ends and at one or two other extremities, and with just a touch of dust soiling to the rear panel. The fourth Adam Dalgliesh mystery. £500

NICOLE KRAUSS. The History of Love. A novel. W.W.Norton & Co., New York 2005. First edition. A presentation copy inscribed by the author across the title page and title page verso: “For Tom & Fiona in Friendship, Nicole. June 22 2005”. 8vo. 252pp. Paper-covered boards. Top edge just fractionally spotted, else a fine copy in fractionally marked and creased dust wrapper. The author’s second novel; shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and winner of the 2008 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing for fiction. £35

OSBERT LANCASTER. With an Eye to the Future. With illustrations by the author. John Murray, London 1967. The deluxe issue of the first edition, limited to 100 numbered copies signed by the author and with an additional laid-in illustration (this being #90). 8vo. 156pp. Buckram-backed marbled paper-covered boards. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. With a colour frontispiece, a title page decoration and various full-page drawings and further line drawings in the text. The backstrip just fractionally darkened else in fine state. Some leaves uncut. No dust wrapper called for but housed in the original decorated stiff card slipcase, very lightly rubbed at one or two extremities. Five stories. £225

EDWIN M.LANHAM. Sailors Don’t Care. A novel. Contact Editions, Paris 1929. First edition, limited to 510 copies (this being one of 500 un-numbered wrappered examples). This copy inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper and dated the year of publication. 8vo. 277pp. Lettered blue card wrappers, chipped at the spine ends with several lengthy readership creases, and with a touch of light wear and discolouration to the margins of the front and rear wrappers. Some toning to the leaf margins, and a two-inch tear of one text leaf (with no loss). A good copy of the author’s first book, based on his experiences working aboard a freighter at the age of sixteen. This Paris edition precedes the expurgated US edition by a year, and whilst both editions are uncommon, this example, buoyed by the author’s contemporary presentation inscription, is especially desirable. £500

JOE R.LANSDALE. By Bizarre Hands. Stories. With an introduction by Lewis Shiner and illustrations by Mark A.Nelson. Mark V.Ziesing, California 1989. The first trade edition of the author’s first collection of short fiction – this copy boldly inscribed by the author on the half-title and with a signed type written letter from the author laid-in. 8vo. 246pp. With decorated endpapers, a title page design and nine plates. A fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper, very lightly rubbed at the head of the spine panel. Sixteen stories, mostly reproduced from the pages of assorted pulp anthologies and magazines, with two hitherto unprinted and one appearing in its entirety here for the first time. £50

DAVID LODGE.  How Far Can You Go? A novel. Secker & Warburg, London 1980.  First edition – this copy inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, and dated the year of publication. 8vo. 243pp. A virtually fine copy in virtually fine dust wrapper.  The author’s sixth novel, winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year, and a Burgess Ninety-Nine.  £250

COLUM MCCANN. Transatlantic. Bloomsbury, London 2013. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 298pp. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. The author’s sixth novel. £35

ROBERT MACFARLANE AND JACKIE MORRIS. The Lost Words. A Spell Book. With illustrations by Jackie Morris. Hamish Hamilton, London 2017. First edition. This copy signed by both the author and illustrator on a special pictorial slip pasted to the half-title verse. Tall 4to. Unpaginated. Pictorial paper covered boards. Just a little light fading to the margins of the upper board, and a small promotional ‘signed copy’ sticker. Very good indeed. No dust wrapper called for. A super signed copy of this splendid Macfarlane and Morris collaboration which aims to restore to the lexicon words describing the natural world which were omitted from the 2007 edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary. Morris sumptuous illustrations netted her the 2019 Kate Greenaway Medal.  Uncommon with these attributes. £250

PATRICK MCGRATH. Dr. Haggard’s Disease. A novel. Viking, London 1993. First edition. This copy signed by the author at the head of the title page and dated the month of publication. 8vo. 180pp. The merest trace of tanning to the leaf margins, else a fine copy in fine dust wrapper, under which is a second identical dust wrapper. Promotional postcard for the Penguin paperback edition laid-in. The author’s third novel. £40

BERNARD MACLAVERTY. Secret and Other Stories. Blackstaff Press Ltd., Belfast 1977. First edition. A presentation copy, fondly inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper and lined with a quotation from the Book of Psalms. It was subsequently presented as a gift from one of the original receipts to the other, and the front free endpaper adorned with inked notes detailing MacLaverty’s subsequent achievements. 8vo. 130pp. Some tanning to the lesser quality paperstock, else a fine copy in dust wrapper, very lightly rubbed at two of three extremities and with a touch of fading to the publisher’s spine panel colouring. Fifteen stories, the author’s first book. Uncommon. £125

ETHEL MANNIN. Connemara Journal. With wood-engravings by Elizabeth Rivers. John Westhouse (Publishers) Ltd., London 1947. First edition. A presentation copy, fondly inscribed by the author on the title page: “For Tamara, to show I haven’t forgotten her! Ever affectionately Ethel Mannin Oct. 1952”. 8vo. 190pp. With a frontispiece and nine wood-engraved illustrations. Backstrip ends slightly rubbed and discoloured. With some light spotting to the free endpapers, the half-title, and to the margins of two adjacent text leaves. A very good copy in marked and dust soiled dust wrapper, nicked with a little loss to several extremities and with a short jagged tear. The wrapper appears to be price-clipped, but the price (6/- net) remains in situ. “A day-to-day record of the author’s three months of solitude in a three-roomed cottage among the bogs and boulders and bare stony mountains of the district known as Connemara, which is in the West of the County Galway, in the province of Connaught, in the far west of Ireland” – blurb. Uncommon. £175

YANN MARTEL. The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios and Other Stories. Faber, London 1993. First UK and first casebound edition, published simultaneously with the Canadian edition, which was only issued in paperback format. This copy signed by the author on the title page and dated the year of publication. 8vo. 232pp. Some tanning to the lesser quality paperstock, else a fine copy in dust wrapper, fractionally rubbed at several extremities. Four stories - the author’s first book (bar the fugitive limited edition Seven Stories, issued earlier the same year by an Ottawa bookshop). £50

ADRIAN MITCHELL. The Bodyguard. Jonathan Cape, London 1970. First edition – a presentation copy, inscribed by the author: “For John [Conroy] with love and many thanks for Teddy in Woman Overboard. Hoping to work with you again next year! Adrian. Peace 1988” and closing with his familiar elephant drawing. (The inscription relates to John Conroy’s performance as Theodore Custer in Mitchell’s 1988 version of Lope de Vega’s play Woman Overboard). 8vo. 187pp. Publisher’s vibrant maroon stain to top edge. A fine copy in fine price-clipped dust wrapper designed by Ken Sprague. The author’s fourth book and second novel, a dystopian black comedy set in the 1980s (and still strikingly relevant). £30

NANCY MITFORD. The Sun King. [A biography of King Louis XIV]. The Arcadia Press, London 1969. The deluxe edition, issued four years after the original and here limited to 265 numbered and signed copies (this being #20) specially designed and bound by Zaehnsdorf. 4to. 235pp. Full crushed red Morocco with five raised bands, lettered in gold at the spine with a three-colour sun decoration to the upper board. With patterned endpapers, gilt-decorated inner dentelles, and all edges gilt. With a double-spread family tree and numerous photographs and reproductions, including many full-page colour examples. The backstrip fractionally faded and with some soiling to the margins of a single printed preliminary leaf. A virtually fine copy of a quite magnificent production, sadly lacking the original folding solander box. £300

BRIAN MOORE. Judith Hearne. A novel. Andre Deutsch, London 1955. First edition of the author’s first serious book (leaving aside four thrillers, two of which were published pseudonymously). This copy inscribed by the author on the title page “for John” and signed beneath the author’s printed name. 8vo. 223pp. Top edge dust soiled and with a very minor slant to the binding. Small areas of light staining to four text leaves. A nearly very good copy, remaining really quite crisp and bright, and housed in the original pictorial dust wrapper, somewhat dust soiled and darkened, with a two-inch area of loss from the base of the spine panel, and some further smaller slivers from the head of the spine panel and from the corner tips and with several internally repairs short jagged tears. Quite a bright, fresh copy in a somewhat handled and damaged example of the dust wrapper, but still desirable with the author’s signature. £200

JOHN MORTIMER. Like Men Betrayed. Collins, London 1953. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. Some spotting to preliminary leaves, top- and fore-edge, occasionally encroaching to extremities of leaf margins. Tiny scuff to tip of front endpaper. A very nice, bright copy in like dust wrapper, lightly spotted at rear panel, flaps and internally. The author’s fourth book. £35

J.B.MORTON (i.e. ‘Beachcomber’). 1933 and Still Going Wrong! With drawings by Nicholas Bentley. Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1932. First edition – the dedication copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper: “To my darling Mary with all my heart from John”. 4to. 84pp. Some light fox-spotting to half a dozen preliminary and concluding leaves and evidence of a little damp soiling to the rear board. A bright if slightly dusty copy in tanned and spotted dust wrapper, chipped at the spine ends with a little loss and with some minor corresponding signs of damp to the rear panel. A selection of twenty-two satirical poems (Straight-Bat Barrington, The Debasing Influence of a Good Child, Gratuitous Advice to a Lady Who is Kind to Cats, etc.), with a printed dedication To My Wife. Morton met and married Mary O’Leary, an Irish doctor, in 1927. They lived happily together until Mary’s death in 1974, a fact Morton never fully adjusted to, believing in his confusion that she was still alive and even insisting on addressing all of the ladies in his eventual nursing home as ‘Mary’. £450

ROBERT NYE. Faust. A novel. Hamish Hamilton, London 1980. First edition. The dedication copy, inscribed by the author thus: “For Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, publisher and friend from Robert Nye, with respect, affection and good wishes for the future. September 1980 (Faust year 500!)”. 8vo. 277pp. Spine ends and corner tips gently rubbed, and with an indentation to the base of the upper board and a tiny corresponding bump to the base of the lower board. A very good copy in virtually fine dust wrapper. The author’s fourth adult novel, with a printed dedication to Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, author and long-term editor at Hamish Hamilton, later literary agent and publisher in his own right. £350

JOYCE CAROL OATES. Beasts. Orion, London 2003. The first UK edition (originally published in the US in previous year). This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 138pp. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A novella set in a New England college town in the 1970s. £25

ALAN PATON. Knocking on the Door. Shorter Writings. Selected, edited and with an introduction by Colin Gardner. Rex Collings, London 1975. The UK issue of the first edition, printed from the South African sheets. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. xii, 296pp. Half a dozen tiny pinpricks of spotting to the top edge, and a touch of very light spotting to two blank concluding leaves. Former owner name inked to the head of the front free endpaper. Very good indeed in lightly faded, chafed, rubbed and marked dust wrapper. Over seventy stories, poems, essays and autobiographic pieces, plus a short play; about a third of which is hitherto unprinted with much of the remainder appearing here in bookform for the first time. £55

HAROLD PINTER. Mac. Emanual Wax, Pendragon Press [no place] 1968. First edition, limited to 2,000 numbered copies (this being #1924). A presentation copy, fondly inscribed by the author on the title page to Trish [Montemuro] and dated 1983. Slim 8vo. 21pp. Quarter cloth. A very good copy of Pinter’s celebration of Anew McMaster, the noted British Shakespearean actor-manager. No dust wrapper called for but supplied here with a fresh sheet of protective acetate. Pinter’s holograph signature is printed to the base of page 19, which often appears to cause confusion, but this copy certainly does bear his penmanship, inscribed as it is to Trish Montemuro, who was assistant stage manager of the Pinter-helmed National Theatre production of Giraudoux’s The Trojan War Will Not Take Place which ran at the Lyttelton Theatre for 43 performances between May-October 1983 (Pinter’s hand written date “May 10 83” was the press night for the show). A very nice association copy. £250

ANTHONY POWELL. A Dance to the Music of Time. Complete in twelve volumes. Heinemann, London 1955-1975. The first three volumes reprints (fourth impression, second impression, and second impression respectively), the remainder first printings. Nine of the first ten volumes are signed by the author on the title pages, and the first ten volumes are also inscribed by him on the front free endpapers, his inscriptions dated in the spring of 1971, prior to the publication of the final two volumes, which accordingly do not bear his penmanship. A very nice set in mostly very good dust wrappers, one of which is price-clipped, and two others clipped and re-priced by the publisher.  The wrappers of the first three volumes are a little nicked, chipped and torn. A very nice set of Powell’s twelve-volume masterpiece, here considerably enhanced by his signatures to the first ten volumes. £7,500

E.ANNIE PROULX. Postcards. A novel. Fourth Estate, London 1993. First UK edition, issued a year after the somewhat more common US edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 309pp. The edges lightly spotted, and with a small bump to the base of the lower board. Some spotting and moisture discolouration to the front free endpaper, and just a trace of further spotting to the rear endpaper and pastedown. A good copy, really very crisp, in virtually fine dust wrapper. The author’s acclaimed first novel, winner of the PEN / Faulkner Award for Fiction. £95

E.ANNIE PROULX. The Shipping News. A novel. Fourth Estate, London 1994. First UK edition, issued a year after the US edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 337pp. A tiny trace of soiling to the top edge, else a fine copy in dust wrapper, a little faded at the spine panel. The author’s third book and second novel, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. £200

SIMON RAVEN. An Inch of Fortune. A novel. Blond & Briggs Ltd., London 1980. First edition. 8vo. 176pp. Boards a little marked and soiled and with some tape residue marks to the free endpapers. A nice bright copy in virtually fine dust wrapper. Ownership inkstamp of Philip Gaskell to the front pastedown (Gaskell took the photographs of Raven which appear on the rear panel of the dust wrapper). Laid-in is a postcard from Raven to Gaskill: ”Thanks for nice note re: AN INCH. Publication date is Aug 18; but Reresby Sitwell (“Lyewell” on L.33) is making legal noises. I hope my publisher is firm. Love Simon”. A nice association copy of the author’s first book, written in 1950, twice rejected for publication for fear of legal action and finally published here nearly thirty years later (but apparently still just as libelous). £95

SIMON RAVEN. ‘Is There Anybody There?’ said the Traveller. Memories of a Private Nuisance. Frederick Muller, London 1990. First edition. A presentation copy, intriguingly inscribed by the author on the title page: “Joanna, with juicy cruel memories, from Simon, May 1991”, and with Raven’s full signature on the half-title. 8vo. ix, 190pp. Some toning to the margins of the lesser-quality paperstock, else a fine copy in dust wrapper, lightly faded at the spine panel. A collection of anecdotes and reminiscences. It was withdrawn swiftly after publication following a series of libel action threats, including a writ from his former publisher Anthony Blond, and is accordingly uncommon. Raven subsequently threatened to write a new work entitled All Safely Dead, in which, safe from libel laws, he could expose various deceased luminaries from the British social, academic, political and literary scenes, but the work was never produced. £125

PHILIP ROTH. The Prague Orgy. A novella. Jonathan Cape, London 1985. The first separate edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 89pp. A tiny hint of toning to the paperstock, else a fine copy in fine dust wrapper. An epilogue to the Zuckerman Unbound trilogy, this novella was first published in the US as part of the omnibus edition Zuckerman Bound (1985). This English edition, issued the same year, was the first separate printing. The work was not published separately in the US until the Vintage paperback issue of 1996. Uncommon with the author’s signature. £200

RICHARD RUSSO. Nobody’s Fool. A novel. Random House, New York 1993. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page and dated the year of publication. 8vo. 549pp. Cloth-backed boards. A minute area of very light staining to the fore edge of the first three leaves, and just a touch of bruising to the backstrip ends. A very good copy in very good dust wrapper with a touch of corresponding creasing to the spine panel ends and a touch of wear to a single other extremity. The author’s third book, and the first part of an eventual trilogy following the publication of Everybody’s Fool (2016) and Somebody’s Fool (2023). Splendidly filmed the following year starring the inimitable Paul Newman. Uncommon with the author’s contemporary signature. £100

PAUL THEROUX. Waldo. A novel. The Bodley Head, London 1968 First UK edition of Theroux's debut novel (which was preceded by the US edition). This copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 208pp. A tiny smattering of foxing to the top edge and a single tiny blemish to the front free endpaper. Near fine in Yvonne Skargon-designed dust wrapper, fractionally marked and with a single lengthy closed tear to the front panel. £150

COLM TÓIBÍN. The Blackwater Lightship. Picador, London 1999. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 273pp. A touch of bruising to spine ends, else in fine state with virtually fine dust wrapper, lightly chafed at the head of the spine panel. The author’s fourth novel, shortlisted for The Booker Prize. £50

COLM TÓIBÍN. The Empty Family. Stories. Viking, London 2010. First edition – this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 214pp. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. Nine short stories, the author’s second collection of short fiction. £35

WILLIAM TREVOR. Mrs Eckdorf in O Neill's Hotel. The Bodley Head, London 1969. First edition - this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 304pp. Spine ends and corner tips lightly rubbed, and with a single tiny indentation to the head of the upper board. A touch of light uneven browning to the endpapers and pastedowns. A very crisp copy in price-clipped dust wrapper, with some minor dust soiling, a small splash of staining, and some rubbing and fraying to the spine ends and corner tips. The wrapper in internally reinforced with masking tape. Inkstamp of literary agency R.Harben to the front free endpaper. The author's fifth novel, and his first Booker Prize-shortlisted effort. Supplied together with an uncorrected proof copy of the first edition, in the publisher’s yellow card wrappers. The edges and the fore edge margin of two or three preliminary leaves lightly spotted. Very good. £250

KURT VONNEGUT. Hocus Pocus. A novel. Jonathan Cape, London 1990. First UK edition, issued the same year as the considerably more common US edition. This copy signed by the author on the front free endpaper with his typically over-sized bold flourish. 8vo. 302pp. The top- and fore edge fractionally spotted, and with a little spotting and blemishing to the endpapers, half-title and to one black concluding leaf. A tiny tear and a short accompanying crease to the fore edge margin of a single text leaf. A very good copy in virtually fine dust wrapper. £250

ALAN WALL. A to Z. A novella. Colophon Press, London 1997. First edition, one of a limited issue of 50 casebound signed and numbered copies with a holograph quotation from the text (out of a total edition of 206 copies). With two handsome vignettes by Philip Byrne. In fine state with original unprinted acetate protector. £25

COLIN WILSON. Religion and the Rebel. Victor Gollancz, London 1957. First edition of Wilson’s second book – this copy boldly inscribed by the author on the front endpaper and dated 1976. 333pp. Top edge dust marked. Quite a crisp and bright copy in slightly dusty dust wrapper, lightly tanned at spine panel and a little chipped at head of spine with several tiny slivers of loss. Small label partially removed from front wrapper flap. £50

R.D.WINGFIELD. Frost at Christmas. Constable, London 1989. First UK edition of Wingfield’s first book – this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 284pp. The merest trace of tanning to leaf margins and a short crease to one corner of the rear free endpaper. In virtually fine state with fine dust wrapper. The first of the author’s Inspector Frost mysteries, originally written in 1972 at the prompting of Macmillan (and spurred on by a non-refundable advance of £50), the manuscript was promptly rejected, before eventually being published in Canada in 1984. This UK edition followed some five years later and the Yorkshire Television adoptions staring David Jason appeared soon after. £350

MICHAEL WISHART. High Diver. A memoir. Blond & Briggs Ltd, London and Colchester 1977. First edition. A presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page: “For John Bird in friendship. Michael Wishart 19.x.1979” and with the recipients neat inkstamped details to the half-title and title page. 8vo. 208pp. Illustrated with thirty-three black and white photographs and reproductions. One corner of the upper board bumped resulting in a short tear to the cloth, and with just a touch of bruising to the spine ends. A very crisp copy in dust wrapper, with a touch of corresponding wear to the spine panel ends and a single short closed tear and a short slit to the rear panel-spine panel join. The author’s memoir, which caused a scandal upon publication due to the depiction of the bohemian lifestyles of Wishart and his friends Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon. Curiously uncommon, and much more so with his signature (the recipient of the inscription was the noted biographer of composer Percy Grainger). £200

TOM WOLFE. The Bonfire of the Vanities. A novel. Jonathan Cape, London 1988. First UK edition, issued a year after the considerably more common US edition. This copy inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper with his splendid flowing penmanship. 8vo. 659pp. A trace of light toning to the leaf margins, else a fine copy in dust wrapper, clipped and re-priced by the publisher, lightly creased at the head of the spine panel, and with perhaps a shade of fading to the publisher’s orange spine panel lettering. A superb inscribed copy of the author’s first novel, perhaps the quintessential novel of the 1980s (signed and inscribed copies of this UK edition are much scarcer than the US equivalent). £200