Clearwater Books

VIRGINIA WOOLF. Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown. The Hogarth Press, ‘The Hogarth Essays’ series, London 1924. First edition, of which 1,000 copies were printed. Slim 8vo. 24pp. Card wrappers featuring a pictorial series design by Vanessa Bell. The wrappers a little marked, toned, soiled and chafed, with a little wear to the spine ends. A good copy, really very crisp indeed internally. A twenty-two page rebuttal to an Arnold Bennett essay, originally printed in an issue of the periodical Criterion in July 1924 under the title Character in Fiction, and appearing here for the first time in bookform, issued as the inaugural number of the Hogarth Essays series.  Kirkpatrick A7 / Woolmer 56. £225

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 Other contributors include W.H.Davies (his poems Where Shall We Live and Contented Hearts), Katherine Mansfield (Two Unpublished Sketches), Hugh MacDiarmid (his Penny Wheep poem Hungry Waters, here set to music by Francis George Scott), Hilaire Belloc, Walter de la Mare (his poem The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. 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. 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

VIRGINIA WOOLF. A Moment’s Liberty. The Shorter Diary of Virginia Woolf. Edited by Anne Olivier Bell and with a new introduction by Quentin Bell. The Hogarth Press, London 1990. The first edition of this abridged version of Woolf’s 1915-1941 diaries. 8vo. xii, 516pp. A review copy, with the publisher’s review slip laid-in. A touch of light toning to the leaf margins. A very good copy in very good dust wrapper. £35

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. T.S.Eliot. Homage to John Dryden. Three Essays on Poetry of the Seventeenth Century. The Hogarth Press, ‘The Hogarth Letters’ series, London 1924. First edition, of which circa 2,000 copies were printed. Slim 8vo. 46pp. Card wrappers featuring a pictorial series design by Vanessa Bell. The wrappers a little marked, toned, soiled and stained, with a touch of wear to the spine ends. A good copy, really crisp internally. Essays on Dryden, Marvell and The Metaphysical Poets, preceded by a one-page preface by the author. The fourth volume of the Hogarth Essays series, and now one of the scarcer numbers. Gallup A7 / Woolmer 43. £95

HOGARTH PRESS. John Crowe Ransom. Grace After Meat. Poems. With an introduction by Robert  Graves. Leonard & Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, London 1924. First edition, hand-printed by Leonard and Virginia Woolf and limited to 400 copies. Slim 8vo. 57pp. Original decorated paper-covered boards with a printer paper title label. This copy with a presentation inscription from fellow poet Ruthven Todd who inks the first stanza of Ransom’s poem Amphibious Crocodile, and overleaf pens the entirety of Ransom’s poem Survey of Literature. Some light toning to the board margins, and a touch of wear to the spine ends and corner tips, with a single tiny area of surface loss. Free endpapers toned. A very good copy. Graves’ five-page introduction precedes twenty poems. The author’s third collection of verse. Woolmer 51. £200

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. R.C.Trevelyan. Poems and Fables. Leonard and Virginia Woolf [at The Hogarth Press], London 1925. First edition, limited to “about 300 copies” - Woolmer. Slim 8vo. 23pp. Attractive marbled paper-covered boards with a lettered  paper title label to the upper board.  The tiniest trace of wear to the head of the spine. Edges spotted, and with some further spotting impacting almost all of the leaves. A nice crisp copy of a handsome and uncommon production, hand-printed by the Woolfs, and with “the Hogarth Press” omitted from the title page (although the imprint logo appears on an otherwise unprinted rear flyleaf). Nine poems and one fable. Woolmer 78. £300

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. F.L.Lucas. Time and Memory. Poems and verse translations. Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, ‘Hogarth Living Poets’ series, London 1929. First edition - issued as the seventh volume of ‘Hogarth ‘Living Poets’ series. Small 8vo. 85pp. Paper-covered boards featuring a series design by Vanessa Bell. Boards quite lightly marked, rubbed and soiled, with some toning to the backstrip. Free endpapers browned, and with a touch of spotting to several preliminary leaves. The binding a little tender at two gatherings. A very good copy of a now uncommon item. Thirty-three poems followed by nineteen translations. 500 copies were printed. Woolmer 200. £75

HOGARTH PRESS. Italo Svevo. The Hoax. Translated from the Italian of Una Burla Riuscita, with an introduction by Beryl de Zoete. Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, London 1929. First edition. Small 8vo. 151pp. Red and black patterned cloth with a toned paper spine label, the text quite faint. Remnants of a label to the front and rear pastedowns, the latter accompanied by the blindstamp of the Harrods Circulating Library. Two or three preliminary and concluding leaves lightly spotted, with a touch of additional spotting to occasional margins. Some moisture marking to the top edge. Ownership signature of Barbara Clutton-Brock to the head of the front free endpaper (Clutton-Brock was a friend of George Orwell, E.M.Forster, and a number of fringe Bloomsbury Group members; she was also the last private owner of Chastleton House in Oxfordshire). A good copy. No dust wrapper. 1,000 copies were printed. The author’s first appearance in English, a novella which was originally published in a special issue of Solaria seven months before his death. Svevo and James Joyce were great friends, the latter being a great fan of Svevo’s neglected second novel Senilità. Uncommon. Woolmer 239. £100

HOGARTH PRESS. Alice Ritchie. Occupied Territory. A novel. Leonard and Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, London 1930. First edition. 8vo. 240pp. A crease to the cloth at the upper board. The edges, endpapers and several preliminary and concluding leaves lightly spotted. The half-title and final text leaf toned. A very good copy. No dust wrapper. The author’s most uncommon second book (she would go on to write a series of children’s books illustrated by her sister Trekkie Parsons, who became the companion of Leonard Woolf following the death of Virginia). Woolmer 233. £350

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. 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