GLASGOW, Ellen Anderson Gholson (1873-1945)

The Descendant [First Issue]

New York, Harper & Brothers, 1897. First Edition. Decorative Cloth. First Printing of Glasgow's first book in first issue binding (author's name not on spine and single imprint on title page). Small 8vo: [4],276,[8]pp. Publisher's green and brown art deco pictorial cloth, covers and spine ornamented in gilt with flowers and swirls; spine and upper cover lettered in gilt. Very slight browning to front end sheets, upper half of spine lightly speckled, else a firmly bound, bright, clean copy. Wright 2190. Fullurton, p. 114. Johnson and Blanck, p. 204. Glasgow published 20 novels, including five bestsellers, and won the Pulitzer prize in 1942. Before she died, she had won every major award for fiction except the Nobel prize. This, her first novel, was written in secret and published anonymously when she was 24 years old. She destroyed part of the manuscript after her mother died in 1893. Publication was further delayed after her brother-in-law and mentor, George McCormack, died the following year. The novel features an emancipated heroine who seeks passion rather than marriage. Although it was published anonymously, her authorship became known the following year, when her second novel, Phases of an Inferior Planet, announced on its title page, "by Ellen Glasgow, author of The Descendant." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Fine- .

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Katalog: MODERN FIRSTS

GLASS, Julia

Three Junes [Signed]

New York, Pantheon, 2002. First Printing. Hardcover. First Printing (with full number line) of the author's first novel, set in Greece, Scotland, Greenwich Village, and Long Island, tracing the lives of a Scottish family. Signed by Glass, without inscription, on title page. 8vo: 353pp. Publisher's purple paper-covered boards, spine lettered in gold; first issue dust jacket (without the "Read This!" logo or "Good Morning America" blurb) priced $25. Winner of the 2002 National Book Award for Fiction. Tightly bound (apparently unread) and clean throughout, a superior example. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Fine/Fine.

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Katalog: MODERN FIRSTS

GORDIMER, Nadine (1923-2014)

Face to Face

Johannesburg, Silver Leaf Books, 1949. First Edition. Hardcover. First Impression of the Noble laureate's first book. Crown 8vo: 164,[4]pp. Publisher's French blue cloth, spine stamped with silver foil; illustrated dust jacket by Ernest Ullman, priced 12s/6d. Fine and unread, tightly bound, clean and crisp; Fine jacket, tips of spine panel and flap folds very lightly rubbed. An excellent example. Driver A1. A collection of 16 stories probing the psychological consequences of a racially divided society, published the year after the first Nationalist Government (the party of apartheid) came to power in South Africa. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Fine/Fine.

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Katalog: MODERN FIRSTS

GORDIMER, Nadine (1923-2014)

Occasion for Loving

London, Victor Gollancz, 1963. First Edition. Hardcover. First Impression of Gordimer's third novel. 8vo; 288pp. Publisher's scarlet cloth, the spine lettered in gilt; in a typographic dust jacket priced 21/-. A Fine copy, tight, square and unmarked (though the top edge lightly dust-soiled); in a just about Fine jacket, the spine somewhat age-toned, with a very short closed tear to the bottom of the front panel. Still, overall, superb and scarce thus. Driver A7. Written during South Africa's Sharpeville massacre of 1960, which demonstrated to many liberals in the author's camp the futility of nonviolent resistance and marked her own movement toward a political and literary radicalism. While Occasion for Loving, like its predecessors, The Lying Days (1953) and A World of Strangers (1958), relied on formal novelistic conventions, her next novels, including The Conservationist (1974), for which she won the Nobel Prize, begin a period of stylistic innovation. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Fine/Fine-.

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GORDIMER, Nadine (1923-2014)

Six Feet of the Country

New York, Simon & Schuster, 1956. First Printing. Hardcover. First Printing (stated) of the author's second collection of stories to be published in the United States. Near Fine or better (slight soiling and toning to the spine) quarter cream linen cloth spine with green paper-covered boards and a rich green top stain, in a Near Fine (soiled rear panel, lightly rubbed spine ends) price-clipped dust jacket. Driver A4. Collects 15 short stories, including "The White Goddess and the Mealie Question," which was omitted from the London edition. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Near Fine+/Near Fine.

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GORDIMER, Nadine (1923-2014)

The Soft Voice of the Serpent [Signed]

New York, Simon and Schuster, 1952. First Printing. Hardcover. An exceptional signed First Printing of the Nobel laureate's first book published outside of her native South Africa. Crown 8vo (205 x 131mm): [6],244,[2]pp. Publisher's greyish-brown finely woven cloth, upper cover stamped in gold, spine lettered in gold within pink title block with gold serpent device; top edge stained pink, fore-edge uncut; illustrated cream dust jacket printed in black and priced $3.50. Signed by Gordimer on title page. Laid in is a publisher's response card. Fine, barely worn copy, square and tightly bound (apparently unread) and clean throughout; lightly dust-soiled jacket, about Fine. Driver A2. Gordimer's enduring reputation rests on the sequence of novels that form her response to apartheid, from The Lying Days (1953) through to A Sport of Nature (1987). But her early fame, in the 1950s and 1960s, came as a writer of finely turned short stories, beginning with her first collection, Face to Face, published in 1949, the year after the first Nationalist Government—the party of apartheid—was elected, and then this, her second collection, mostly a re-release of the smaller, earlier collection. It contains 21 stories, all quite short. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Fine/Fine-.

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GOYEN, William (1915-1983); Balint Stephen ("Val") Biro (Illustrates)

The House of Breath

London, Chatto & Windus, 1951. First Printing. Hardcover. First British Edition of Goyen's acclaimed debut novel, touching on themes of family, sexuality, time, place, and memory. Crown 8vo (183 x 120mm): 223,[1]pp. Publisher's burgundy cloth, beautifully illustrated dust jacket by Biro, priced 10s / 6d. A handsome example, about Fine (spine lettering dulled), seemingly unread, square, tight, and clean throughout, all but pristine; about Fine jacket (brief wear to head of spine panel). Yet another example of the value to be found in the graphically superior designs of most UK editions of American authors's works. Greene (Fifty Best Books on Texas), pp. 47-48 ("his best novel"). Lepper, p. 229. Set in the East Texas town of Charity, the novel is an elegy for the place Goyen left as a boy: Charity "is really Trinity, Texas, truly, accurately described," Goyen said later in life. Reginald Gibbons, Goyen's literary executor, called The House of Breath a "spangled fish," shimmering and elusive, in an afterward he wrote for the book's fiftieth anniversary. Goyen began writing The House of Breath aboard an American aircraft carrier in the South Pacific during the Second World War. After the war, he published several short stories and was awarded the Southwest Review Literary Fellowship, which allowed him to complete the novel. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Fine-/Fine-.

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Katalog: MODERN FIRSTS

GRAVES, Robert (1895-1985)

[American Revolution] Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth; [Offered with the Sequel: ] Proceed, Sergeant Lamb

London, Methuen, 1941. First Edition. Hardcover. First Impressions of Graves's two novels of the American War of Independence, based on the actual Roger Lamb's autobiographical works. Crown 8vo (185 x 120mm): xi,[1],376; vii,[3],,314,[2]pp, with frontispieces and folding map tipped in at rear of each volume. Publisher's plum and sea-green cloth (respectively), spines lettered in white; illustrated dust jackets, priced 8s/ 6d, illustrated by John Aldridge and printed in red, black, brown, green, and blue. 10,000 copies of each title were printed. Sergeant Lamb: top edge a bit dusty and lightly spotted but an unusually attractive copy. Proceed: trace of foxing to preliminaries and slightly dusty page edges, degree of lightening to spine, minor wear to head of spine panel. Excellent examples, tightly bound and generally clean throughout, rarely encountered as a set in such collectible condition. Higginson & Williams A51a & A53a. In the autumn of 1939, Graves, short of money and recently returned from America after the end of his relationship with Laura Riding, "hit on the idea of writing a big popular novel about the American War of Independence, taking as his narrator the historical figure of Sergeant Roger (Gerry) Lamb of the Ninth . This project would enable him to combine some disparate purposes: he could exorcize his own painful experience of America, while at the same time making use of his military knowledge and settling a few old scores (for instance, he turned his former friend Geoffrey Taylor into a satanic clergyman). Exactly a decade after the Roman Emperor Claudius had first engrossed Graves' attention to such profitable effect, the Dublin-born Sergeant Lamb came to his creative and, above all, financial rescue." (Powell, "Sergeant Lamb to the Rescue," TLS , Issue 5047, p. 19) By the following April, Graves had completed his vast novel and decided to divide it into two manageable volumes of about 90,000 words each. George Orwell, writing in the New Statesman, praised its accurate historical detail and convincingly eighteenth-century prose. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Near Fine+/Near Fine.

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Katalog: MODERN FIRSTS

GRAVES, Robert (1895-1985)

My Head! My Head! [First Issue]

London, Martin Secker, 1925. First Impression. Hardcover. First Issue (without box around title page), one of only 500 copies. 8vo: 141,[3]pp. Publisher's black cloth spine, lettered in gilt, over red patterned cloth-covered boards, without the dust jacket. Near Fine or better, first and final few pages lightly toned, top edge dust-soiled, spine ends bumped, else clean, square and tight, and scarce such. Higginson A14a. The poet's first work of fiction, a retelling of the brief Old Testament story of Elisha and the Shunamite woman, amplified into a series of dramatic encounters that elaborate Graves's unorthodox theory of the origins of primitive Judaism and the role of Moses in the cult's triumph over the other desert religions of the time. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Near Fine+ .

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Katalog: MODERN FIRSTS

GRAVES, Robert (1895-1985)

Poems 1930-1933

London, Arthur Barker Ltd, 1933. First Edition. Hardcover. First Impression. Slim 8vo: [8],38pp. Publisher's black linen spine stamped in gilt, grey paper-covered boards lettered in black (without dust jacket, as issued), bookplate and gift card tipped to front paste-down. Near Fine or better, covers lightly browned, end papers spotted and toned, else clean and bright. Higginson A40. A collection of 26 poems, some previously published (but now altered) in a limited edition entitled To Whom Else?. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Near Fine+ .

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Katalog: MODERN FIRSTS

[GREENE, Graham, 1904-1991]; Dorothy Craigie (illustrates), 1901-1971

[Children's Literature] the Little Train

London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1946. First Edition. Hardcover. First Impression, second issue, with reviews on front flap (the first issue appeared in plain boards with plain buff dust jacket) of Greene's first children's book. Both issues are scarce and sought-after, and this is the more attractive. Oblong royal 8vo (176 x 243mm): [3],42,[3]pp, illustrated by Craigie on every page in color. Original yellow cloth, spine and upper cover delightfully decorated with tiny steam locomotives in red, black, and green, lower cover with vignette of black lantern with red light, top edge stained yellow, map end papers, light blue dust jacket, priced 7/6, with wispy white mottling, lettered in black and red decorative train pattern in manner of upper cover. Remarkably fine and fresh, internally clean and bright, with only mild rubbing to boards and tiny nick to bottom edge of jacket. Miller 23a. Brennan 18. Wobbe A19a. Greene's name appears on neither book nor dust jacket (he first acknowledged authorship on the title page of The Little Fire Engine, published in 1950). Dorothy Craigie, the illustrator, was Greene's girlfriend at the time and is credited with authorship as well. Greene presumably wanted the book published as a result of her efforts, and not only because he had written the text. He may also have feared jeopardizing his reputation as a serious novelist. This is the first of a series of four transport books for children produced by their partnership. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Fine/Fine.

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Katalog: MODERN FIRSTS

GREENE, Graham (1904-1991)

Loser Takes All [Publisher's Card Laid in]

London, William Heinemann, 1955. First Edition. Hardcover. First Impression of one of Greene's later "entertainments," with publisher's promotional card laid in. Small 8vo: [6],140pp. Publisher's blue cloth, upper cover and spine stamped in gilt, illustrated dust jacket priced 7s/6d. Near Fine or better (mild lightening to spine, offsetting from jacket flaps onto end papers); Fine jacket, fresh and bright. Wobbe A34a. Miller 34a. A novella featuring a Monte Carlo gambler who loses his money but wins back his wife. Greene was fascinated by gambling, not only on roulette but on the stock market as well. His interest in numbers even led him to collect automobile registration numbers (as does Bendrix in The End of the Affair). "But what is more important is that Loser Takes All is Greene's first published experiment with extended comedy. And the novel is an attempt to link comedy (especially satire, parody and burlesque) to the religious thriller." (Wobbe) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. Near Fine+/Fine.

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GREENE, Graham (1904-1991)

Nineteen Stories / 19 Stories

London, William Heinemann, 1947. First Edition. Hardcover. First Impression of this early collection. Small 8vo (183 x 119mm): [6],231,[1]pp. Publisher's navy blue cloth, spine stamped in silver, cream-colored typographic dust jacket printed in red and grey and priced 8s/6d. About Fine (few spots to fore-edge, ink inscription to first blank), square and tight with clean pages throughout; about Fine jacket (several light smudges) without loss. A cheaply produced postwar production often encountered in deplorable condition. Wobbe A20a. Miller 24. Eight of the stories originally appeared in an earlier collection (1935) entitled The Basement Room. Among those new to this collection are "A Drive in the Country," "The Lottery Ticket," and "The Other Side of the Border," the latter two of which were excised from later collections. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Fine-/Fine-.

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Katalog: MODERN FIRSTS

GREENE, Graham (1904-1991)

The Return of A.J. Raffles [Signed]

London, Bodley Head, 1975. Limited Edition. Hardcover. No. 132 of 250 signed limited-edition copies bound in boards (of which only 170 were for sale); the first trade edition was issued as a paperback original. Small, slim 8vo (189 x 113mm): 80pp. Publisher's copper-colored paper over boards, spine lettered in gold, tan end papers; copper dust jacket (unpriced) printed in brown. A very fine copy (pristine and apparently unread) in a Fine Jacket. Not in Wobbe (see A62a for the paperbound issue). Miller 56. An Edwardian comedy in three acts, which opened at the Aldwych Theatre, in London, on December 4, 1975. Set in the late summer of 1900, it centers on the infamous gentleman burglar and cricketer, A. J. Raffles—presumed dead in the Boer War—who returns to Albany where, with his friend Lord Alfred Douglas, he plots to rob the Marquess of Queensberry. Raffles was the creation of E. W. Hornung, who was brother-in-law to Arthur Conan Doyle, and Raffles was one of the chief rivals of Sherlock Holmes. The idea for the play, Greene said, occurred after seeing the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Sherlock Holmes. "For Greene, who [was] an expert on Victorian and Edwardian Crime Fiction. Raffles seems almost natural subject matter." (Wobbe) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Fine/Fine.

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GREENE, Graham (1904-1991)

Rumour at Nightfall

New York, Doubleday, Doran, 1932. First American Edition. Hardcover. First (and only) U.S. Printing of Greene's exceedingly scarce third novel, suppressed by him for being "of a badness beyond the power of criticism." Crown 8vo (190 x 131mm): [10],299,[1]pp. Publisher's red and black herringbone-patterned quarter cloth, spine lettered in red within black title block, top edge stained red, fore-edge untrimmed, title page in red and black. Wanting the rare dust jacket. Spine lightened a degree or two, else an excellent example, tightly bound and clean throughout. Wobbe A4b. Miller 9b. First published the previous year by William Heinemann in London. As with Greene's second novel, The Name of Action, Rumour at Nightfall failed to repeat the success of his debut, The Man Within. The American issue sold only 1,018 copies. According to Greene, written under the influence of Joseph Conrad and Henry James. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.). Near Fine+ .

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Katalog: MODERN FIRSTS