Clearwater Books

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 Other contributors include W.H.Davies (his poems Where Shall We Live and Contented Hearts), Katherine Mansfield (Two Unpublished Sketches), Hugh MacDiarmid (his Penny Wheep poem Hungry Waters, here set to music by Francis George Scott), Hilaire Belloc, Walter de la Mare (his poem The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. 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.  Julian Bell. Genesis. St. Anne’s Galleries, Lewes 2015. First edition, issued to accompany a 2015 exhibition at St. Anne’s Galleries, Lewes. This copy signed by the author on the half-title. Landscape 4to. [44pp]. A fine copy. No dust wrapper called for. Fully illustrated record of the artist’s thirty-seven oil panel paintings which represent a new interpretation of the first thirty-three chapters of the Bible (Bell’s initial series of drawings for the project were destroyed along with his entire studio in a March 2014 fire). £50

BLOOMSBURY. Peter Blee. The Bloomsbury Group in Berwick Church. The Decorative Scheme by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell & Quentin Bell. St Michael and All Angels, Berwick 2016. First edition. 8vo. 182pp. Illustrated with over 120 photographs and reproductions, predominantly in colour. In fine state with fine dust wrapper. A scholarly account of the commissioning and completion of the paintings and decorations which augment the interior of St Michael and All Angels Church in Berwick, East Sussex. Folding Berwick Church Paintings Appeal leaflet laid-in. £25

“They must, I think, be accounted among the best paintings to be made in a church or chapel in England during the present century” – Sir John Rothenstein.

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. Christopher Ondaatje. Woolf in Ceylon. An Imperial Journey in the Shadow of Leonard Woolf 1904-1911. HarperCollins Ltd., London 2005. First edition. This copy signed by the author on the title page. Small 4to. xiii, 326pp. Illustrated throughout with scores and scores of colour and monochrome photographs. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A scholarly account of the seven year period Woolf spent with Ceylon civil service £35

BLOOMSBURY. Christopher Reed. Bloomsbury Rooms. Modernism, Subculture, and Domesticity. Published for The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, New York by Yale University Press, New Haven and London 2004. First edition. 4to. viii, 314pp. Lavishly illustrated throughout with photographs and reproductions, many of which are presented in colour, and including works by Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry, Duncan Grant. A fine copy in fine dust wrapper. A study of the development of the Bloomsbury domestic aesthetic, based on analysis of the rooms and environments created for Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes and others. £50

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. 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. Duncan Grant. A monograph. With a five-page introduction by Roger Fry. Leonard & Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, London 1923. First edition – one of no more than 400 casebound copies (a rather more common second edition bound in wrappers was issued seven years later). 4to. xi + 24 plates to alternate rectos and with captions to adjacent versos. Cloth-backed decorated paper-covered boards, designed by Grant in the best Omega Workshop style, with a paper spine label. The backstrip cloth and spine label toned, and with some quite light soiling and marking to the boards. A trace of bruising to the backstrip ends. A tiny smattering of light spotting to the List of Illustrations leaf, and a single tiny blemish to the margin of a single plate. A very good copy of a most uncommon item. This was conceived as the first in a series of books on living painters, but no subsequent examples were produced. Woolmer 31. £1,000

“Duncan Grant may almost be called a popular artist. He has not, of course, a big popularity, nor is he likely ever to obtain it. But he has, for so pure and uncompromising an artist, a surprisingly large circle of genuine admirers. I hasten to add that he has never done a single stroke of work with a view to ingratiate himself. He pleases, but merely by the accident of being what he is, never because he has sought in any way to satisfy the possible demands of the public” – From Fry’s introduction.

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 and toned, with a touch of wear to the spine ends. Near-contemporary former owner name and date (1931) neatly inked to the tip of the front free endpaper (that of Charles David Abbott, director of Buffalo University Libraries from 1934-60, and founder the University's Twentieth-Century Poetry in English Collection). A small area of ink staining to the top edge, and a little occasional spotting. Very good. 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. £125

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. Edward Thompson. The Other Side of the Medal. Leonard and Virginia Woolf, The Hogarth Press, London 1925. First edition. 8vo. 143pp. Green cloth with very dulled lettering and rules to the spine. The tiniest hint of wear to the corner tips, and the free endpapers fractionally toned. A very good copy. No dust wrapper. This copy from the library of Vera Anstey, noted scholar of the Indian economy, with her inked signature to the head of the front free endpaper. An uncommon critical analysis of the Indian Mutiny and its aftermath. 1,200 copies were printed yet it remains really quite fugitive. Woolmer 77. £250

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. 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. John Lehmann. A Garden Revisited and Other Poems. Leonard and Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, ‘Hogarth Living Poets’ series, London 1931. First edition. Small 8vo. 52pp. Paper-covered boards, very lightly faded at several margins. Half a dozen tiny spots to the top and fore edge, and a crease to the backstrip, seemingly from where something heavy was placed on the book. A good copy, really very crisp internally. Twenty-seven poems, the author’s first book, preceded only by a series of ten broadsheet poems published in 1928. Woolmer 262. £95

HOGARTH PRESS. George Rylands. Poems. L. & V. Woolf at The Hogarth Press, London 1931. First edition, limited to 350 numbered copies signed by the author (this being #340, and the earliest state, with a comma instead of a period after Leonard Woolf’s initial at the base of the title page). Slim 8vo. Unpaginated [16 pages of printed text]. Decorated paper-covered boards with a three-colour vertical design. Lettered title label to the upper wrapper. Some fading to the spine. Very good indeed and housed in the original unprinted tissue protector which is lightly creased at the upper edge and with one tiny fraction of loss. Fourteen poems. Woolmer 269. £200

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. V.Sackville-West. The Dark Island. A novel. Leonard & Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, London 1934. First edition. 8vo. 317pp. Ben Nicolson-designed map printed to the front pastedown (Nicolson also contributed the dust wrapper lettering). The cloth a little marked and discoloured in places, with some spotting to the edges and to very, very occasional text leaves. Royal Naval War Libraries inkstamp to the head of the front pastedown. A very good copy in somewhat marked and soiled dust wrapper, with two or three tiny portions of edge-loss. 10,590 copies were printed. Cross & Ravenscroft-Hulme A30 / Woolmer 351. £125

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