Clearwater Books

VIRGINIA WOOLF. Frederic William Maitland. The Life and Letters of Leslie Stephen. Duckworth, London 1906. First edition. Tall 8vo. 509pp. Buckram with bevelled edges. With a tissue-protected portrait and four further photogravure portrait plates (two from photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron) also with tissue guards present, with one guard slightly torn. Top edge dust soiled and with a little light bruising to the backstrip ends. Free endpapers lightly toned, and with a little fox-spotting to three or four preliminary and concluding leaves. A small area of surface marking to the base of the upper board from where a small library plate has been removed, and with an inkstamp to the rear pastedown stating “Purchased from the Library”. Name and address details of a former owner inked to the tip of the front free endpaper. A lovely, bright copy of a work which is best known for including the first bookform appearance by Virginia Woolf, who contributes a three-page recollection of her father under her then-name Adeline Virginia Stephen. Thomas Hardy also contributes recollections of the subject, plus the first printing of his poem The Schreckhorn. £95

VIRGINIA WOOLF. The Mark on the Wall. A story. Hogarth Press, Richmond 1919. The first separate edition (erroneously marked ‘second edition’ on the upper wrapper). Slim 8vo. 10pp. Originally issued in thin off-white paper wrappers, this copy has been bound into red cloth with a gilt lettered and bordered leather spine label, retaining the original wrappers. The tips of two corners very gently bumped. The front wrapper lightly marked and soiled, with some light spotting to the leaf margins and to one blank concluding leaf, and with a crease to the rear wrapper. A very good copy. Woolf’s ten-page story was first printed in the very first Hogarth Press publication, Two Stories (1917), a hand-printed production limited to just 150 copies, where it appeared alongside Leonard Woolf’s story Three Jews. This separate edition, its second appearance in print, followed nearly two years later, and the story was subsequently revised and collected in Monday or Tuesday (1921) and A Haunted House (1944). 1,000 copies were printed, but its somewhat ephemeral nature makes it really quite scarce. Kirkpatrick A2b / Woolmer 8. £500

VIRGINIA WOOLF. Atalanta’s Garland. Being the Book of the Edinburgh University Women’s Union. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1926. First edition – issued to celebrate the twenty-first anniversary of the opening of the Edinburgh University Women’s Union. 8vo. vix, 191pp. White buckram with white and tan decorated paper sides and a printed paper title label. With a captioned tissue-protected colour frontispiece and eleven plates, three of them also in colour (one of which is a reproduction of a watercolour by Katherine Cameron) and nine of them with captioned tissue protectors, as required. A small area of indeterminate staining to the base of the backstrip and a touch of spotting to the free endpapers and to occasional leaf margins. A very good copy with the uncommon Otto Schlapp-designed dust wrapper, a little darkened and spotted with an inch or so of loss from the spine panel ends. Virginia Woolf contributes an original five-page essay, A Woman’s College from the Outside, which includes a full-page photograph of the author. Other contributors include W.H.Davies (his poems Where Shall We Live and Contented Hearts), Katherine Mansfield (Two Unpublished Sketches), Hugh MacDiarmid (his Penny Wheep poem Hungry Waters, here set to music by Francis George Scott), Hilaire Belloc, Walter de la Mare (his poem The Snail), T.Sturge Moore, Edwin Muir, Charlotte Mew, Gordon Bottomley &c. 2,000 copies were printed (of which 750 were subsequently pulped). Kirkpatrick B6 (for both Woolf and Mansfield), in the primary tan patterned binding (a total of five binding variants have been identified). £275

VIRGINIA WOOLF. The Waves. A novel. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York 1931. First American edition, issued two weeks after the original English edition. Crown 8vo. 297pp. Publisher’s maroon top edge stain. Backstrip ends gently bruised, and with a sliver of light discolouration there to the cloth where the dust wrapper is defective. Some light partial toning to the free endpapers. A touch of light spotting to the half-title, title page and to three or four subsequent leaves, and also to several unprinted rear flyleaves, and to occasional margins. Former owner name inked to the head of the front free endpaper. A very good copy in good Vanessa Bell-designed dust wrapper, correctly priced at $2.50. The wrapper is quite toned at the spine panel, with some light dust soiling, a touch of chafing to the natural folds, and with several tiny areas of loss to the spine panel ends and corner tips, and a centimetre of further loss from the head of the front panel (none of this loss impacts any lettering). 10,000 copies of this first American edition were printed. Kirkpatrick A16b. £300

VIRGINIA WOOLF. Recollections of Virginia Woolf by Her Contemporaries. Edited with an introduction by Joan Russell Noble. Peter Owen Ltd., London 1972. The first British Commonwealth edition, issued the same year as the US edition. 8vo. 207pp. Illustrated with photographs and manuscript reproductions. An area of offset browning to the front endpaper and pastedown where a newspaper clipping has been stored. Very good indeed in very lightly toned and dust soiled dust wrapper with a light but lengthy vertical crease to the front flap. A collection of recollections, anecdotes, and first-hand impressions contributed by Clive Bell, Elizabeth Bowen, Lord David Cecil, T.S.Eliot, E.M.Forster, David Garnett, Duncan Grant, Christopher Isherwood, John Lehmann, Rose Macaulay, William Plomer, Vita Sackville-West, Stephen Spender, Rebecca West and a score of others. £25

VIRGINIA WOOLF. Virginia Woolf and the Raverats. A Different Sort of Friendship. Edited by William Pryor. Clear Books, Bath 2003. First edition. This copy inscribed by the editor at the head of the half-title and dated the year after publication (the signing occasion was a promotional event at the National Portrait Gallery). Small 4to. 205pp. Illustrated throughout with drawings, paintings, wood engravings, photographs and manuscript reproductions, including thirteen in colour. A fine copy in dust wrapper, with some fading to the spine panel and a further vertical strip of fading to one margin of the front panel. A five-page introduction by the editor (the grandson of Gwen and Jacques Raverat) precedes a selection of letters and journal entries (including many hitherto unprinted) charting the relationship between Woolf and the Raverats. £30

VIRGINIA WOOLF, Bernard Blackstone. Virginia Woolf. A Commentary. Harcourt Brace, New York 1949. The American issue of the first edition (from UK sheets). Covers a little faded and handled and spine lettering partially defective. Quite a good, bright copy. No jacket. Former owner name neatly inked to tip of front endpaper. £10

VIRGINIA WOOLF. Deborah Newton. Virginia Woolf. Melbourne University Press, Victoria 1946. First edition. Slim 8vo. 79pp. Top edge lightly spotted, else a fine copy in very good dust wrapper, a little chafed at spine ends and with a single short closed tear. The first Australian-published monograph on Woolf. £20

BLOOMSBURY. Isabelle Anscombe. Omega and After. Bloomsbury and the Decorative Arts. With photographs by Howard Grey and a two-page foreword by John Lehmann. Thames & Hudson, London 1981. First edition. 4to. 176pp. Illustrated with over 120 photographs and reproductions, including twenty in colour. Faint ghost of a few pencil marks to the front free endpaper, else a fine copy in laminated dust wrapper with a small kink to the upper edge. Will you help save Charleston? Folding handbill laid-in.  Chapters include Roger Fry and the foundation of the Omega Workshop, Vanessa Bell and the development of an idea, The war years, and The Ending of the Omega. £30

BLOOMSBURY. Leon Edel. Bloomsbury - A House of Lions. With illustrations. Lippincott, Philadelphia 1979. First edition. A very bright copy in slightly rubbed dust wrapper. £10

BLOOMSBURY. David Gadd. The Loving Friends. A Portrait of Bloomsbury. The Hogarth Press, London 1974. First edition. 8vo. xiv, 209pp. Illustrated with photographs. A tiny fraction of loss from the lower tip of the front free endpaper, and just a shadow of browning to two adjacent text leaves from where a clipping was once stored. Very good indeed in very good dust wrapper. £10

BLOOMSBURY. Michael Holroyd. Unreceived Opinions. Heinemann, London 1973. First edition - this copy signed by the author on the title page. 8vo. 266pp. A fine copy in very slightly marked and edgeworn dust wrapper. Thirty essays, the subjects including ‘Bloomsberries’ Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, and Roger Fry; plus further essays on Patrick Hamilton, William Gerhardie, A.E.Housman, J.M.Barrie, Bertrand Russell, Wilson Steer, and the friendship between Wyndham Lewis and Augustus John. £25

BLOOMSBURY. James & Alix Strachey. Bloomsbury/Freud. The Letters of James and Alix Strachey 1924-1925. Edited by Perry Meisel & Walter Kendrick.  Basic Books, New York 1985.  First edition. A fine copy in dust wrapper. Review slip. £20

HOGARTH PRESS. E.M.Forster. The Story of the Siren. Leonard and Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, Richmond 1920. First edition, hand-printed and limited to 500 copies. Slim 8vo. 14pp + [i] publisher’s advertisement. Original internally stapled blue marbled wrappers (Woolmer’s first state) with a printed title label to the upper wrapper (Woolmer’s third state, with no bordering). The wrappers tender at the spine, and a little rubbed, marked and discoloured at the margins. The staples rusted. Contemporary former owner name and date inked to the head of the inner front wrapper (that of nutritionist V.H.Mottram [1882-1976]). A good copy of an uncommon and quite fragile production, housed in a custom-made cloth covered clamshell case. Woolmer 9. £650

HOGARTH PRESS. E.M.Forster. Pharos and Pharillon. Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, Richmond 1923. First edition, of which there were 900 hand-printed copies (this being one of those measuring 8¾ x 5¾). 8vo. 80pp + i publisher’s catalogue. Quarter cloth with decorated paper sides featuring a horizontal blue design, and a paper spine label, the latter toned and chipped. The boards rubbed at the edges. Additional blue cloth reinforcements have been added to the corner tips. Some occasional light spotting. Former owner details pencilled to the front free endpaper (easily erasable if desired). A good copy, housed in a beautiful custom-made cloth-covered clamshell case with marbled inlays, very slightly faded at several margins of the upper edge. Includes thirteen “actions and meditations”, the last of which is the essay The Poetry of C.P.Cavafy (one of the very first studies of his work in English). Five of these pieces had been previously published in the periodical The Nation and the Athenaeum with the remainder never previously issued in England. This production also includes the first English-language translation (by George Valassopoulo) of any poetry by C.P.Cavafy (three poems in total, two in the text of Forster’s essay, with The God Abandons Antony printed separately). Woolmer 29. £195

HOGARTH PRESS. V.Sackville-West. Seducers in Ecuador. Leonard and Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, London 1924. First edition. Small 8vo. 73pp. Handsome two-colour patterned cloth with lightly tanned paper spine label. A hint of wear to the backstrip ends. A virtually fine copy. No dust wrapper. A humorous novella dedicated to Virginia Woolf about a character whose life is alarmingly transformed by a pair of blue spectacles. Sackville-West and Woolf had met for the first time two years prior to the publication of this volume. 1,500 copies were printed. Cross & Ravenscroft-Hulme A12 / Woolmer 52. £225

“It was in Egypt that Arthur Lomax contracted the habit which, after a pleasantly varied career, brought him finally to the scaffold. In Egypt most tourists wear blue spectacles. Arthur Lomax followed this prudent if unbecoming fashion”

HOGARTH PRESS. Herbert E.Palmer. Songs of Salvation, Sin and Satire. Leonard & Virginia Woolf, The Hogarth Press, London [1925]. First edition, limited to “about 300 copies” (Woolmer), hand-printed by the Woolfs. This copy signed by the author at the base of the prologue. Slim 8vo. 32pp. Patterned paper-covered boards with a title label to the upper board. Some considerable fading to the boards, and some spotting to the title label. Spine ends and corner tips gently rubbed, and with some quite light spotting throughout. A good copy. A two-page preface by the author precedes a four-line verse prologue and twenty-six songs. Not the nicest copy, but quite a scare title, and uncommon with Palmer’s signature. Woolmer 72. £150

HOGARTH PRESS. Frances Cornford. Different Days. Poems. The Hogarth Press, ‘Hogarth Living Poets’ series, London 1928. First edition - issued as the first volume of Hogarth’s Living Poets series. Small 8vo. 47pp. Paper-covered boards featuring a series design by Vanessa Bell. The backstrip paper a little toned, and with just a touch of further toning to the margins of the upper and lower boards. The free endpapers very lightly browned, with several tiny pinpricks of spotting to the title page and a little tenderness to a single gathering. The text “Xmas 1934” neatly inked to the head of the front free endpaper. A very good copy. No dust wrapper called-for. Thirty-one poems. 500 copies were printed. Woolmer 159. £45

HOGARTH PRESS. Herbert Edward Palmer. The Judgement of François Villon. A Pageant-Episode in Five Acts. Leonard & Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press 1927. First edition – number 22 of 400 numbered copies. 143pp. Decorated quarter-bound parchment-backed boards. Small bump to the tip of a single corner and parchment just a little tarnished. A lovely crisp copy, lacking the dust wrapper. It would appear that the majority of this edition (of which there were apparently 475 copies rather than the 400 noted on the colophon) were signed by Palmer, but this one is merely numbered. Woolmer 140. £35

HOGARTH PRESS. Herbert Read. Phases of English Poetry. Leonard & Virginia Woolf and The Hogarth Press, ‘Hogarth Lectures’ series, London 1928. First edition. 8vo. 158pp. Cloth at the backstrip a little toned, with some spotting to the edges, browning to the free endpapers, and a little further spotting to about a dozen preliminary leaves and to two or three concluding leaves. A nice crisp copy, lacking the uncommon dust wrapper. A two-page preface by the author precedes six lectures on English verse, issued here as the seventh number of the Hogarth Lectures series. Woolmer 170. £35

HOGARTH PRESS. Eric Walter White. Parnassus to Let. An Essay About Rhythm in the Films. Hogarth Press, ‘Hogarth Essays’ series, London 1928. First edition. Slim 8vo. 48pp + [ii] publisher’s advertisements for other titles in the series. Card wrappers, featuring upper and lower wrapper designs [probably by Vanessa Bell]. Just a trace of toning and dust soiling to the wrapper margins. Very good indeed. A forty-page essay by the noted British musicologist, composer and writer, issued here as #14 of the Hogarth Essays, second series. 1,000 copies were printed, yet it remains one of the more uncommon of the Hogarth publications. Woolmer 181. £225

HOGARTH PRESS. Eric Walter White. Stravinsky’s Sacrifice to Apollo. Leonard and Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, London 1930. First edition. 8vo. vii, 150pp. Top edge dust soiled and with some uneven partial toning to the free endpapers. Former owner name and date (1942) neatly inked to the front free endpaper. A very good copy in dust wrapper, toned at the spine panel and lightly rubbed at the extremities. According to the wrapper blurb this is the first full-length critical study of Stravinsky music to appear in English (White’s 1966 book Stravinsky: the Composer and his Works is now considered the definitive work). Woolmer 244 [who notes that 1,000 copies were printed]. £85

HOGARTH PRESS. Rosamond Lehmann. A Letter to a Sister. The Hogarth Press, ‘Hogarth Letters’ series, London 1931. First edition. Small 8vo. 24pp. Sewn card wrappers featuring a two-colour series design by John Banting. A touch of toning to the wrappers, and some light spotting throughout. A very good copy of this twenty-page Lehmann letter, issued as the third number of the Hogarth Letters Series. 4,000 copies were printed. Woolmer 263. £25

HOGARTH PRESS. V.Sackville-West. All Passion Spent. A novel. Leonard and Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, London 1931. First edition. 8vo. 297pp. Some browning to the backstrip cloth, and a touch of light wear to the spine ends. Top edge a little dust soiled, and with some spotting to the fore edge and to a dozen preliminary and a few concluding leaves. Free endpapers very lightly toned. A good copy. No dust wrapper. Woolmer 270 / Cross & Ravenscroft-Hulme A21. £50

HOGARTH PRESS. William Plomer. The Fivefold Screen. Poems. Leonard and Virginia Woolf, The Hogarth Press, London 1932. First edition, limited to 450 copies, this one neither signed not numbered, but marked ‘Out of Series’. 4to. 63pp. The base of the backstrip bumped and with some soiling to the cloth at the rear board. Some light spotting to half a dozen preliminary and concluding leaves. A nice bright copy. No dust wrapper. Thirty-four poems divided into five sections. Woolmer 301. £30

HOGARTH PRESS. Iris Origo. Allegra. Leonard and Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, London 1935. First edition. This copy fondly inscribed by the author (“Always affectionately”) to an un-named recipient at the head of the front free endpaper. 8vo. 119pp. With four plates of photographs and manuscript reproductions. Errata slip laid-in, as issued. The cloth a little marked and soiled, with some dust soiling to the top edge, and some light spotting to the fore edge, and a touch more to occasional leaf margins. Free endpapers browned. A nice crisp copy in dust wrapper, tanned at the spine panel and with a touch of light edge-creasing and wear. Quite uncommon, and much more so with the author’s signature. 1,268 copies were printed. Woolmer 373. £350

HOGARTH PRESS. J.H.Willis, Jr. Leonard and Virginia Woolf as Publishers. The Hogarth Press, 1917-1941. With illustrations. University Press of Virginia 1992. First edition. 451pp. Original publisher's cloth lettered in black at spine. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. £35