LANG, John.

Botany Bay.

London, William Tegg 1859. Octavo publisher's orange cloth printed in black (rather grubby and faded, spine shabby but solid). Definitely second hand and still most acceptable. With John Lane Mullins' gift bookplate to St Sophia's Library. The cover is dated 1860 as is Mitchell's copy.
¶ First edition of Lang's maybe most reprinted and best regarded book. "Thinly veiled" is the usual description for fiction that might be an insult to some readers so Lang's preface begs the pardon of his Australian audience for words unrelated to this book that saw him unpopular before his departure and assures us that he does not intend to be "sarcastic or insulting" in this book. An old clipping claims that the same folk who bought up every copy they could of Mudie's Felonry of New South Wales and destroyed unacceptable pages did the same with this, making complete copies rare. As the first story isn't really true there's no reason to believe the second. I can't find any record of mutilated copies of this but I can't find many copies at all. Trove finds four locations and Worldcat adds the four standard libraries of Britain.

Richard Neylon, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 10320

Keywords: literature fiction thrillers c19th Australia

LANGLEY, Samuel Pierpont and Charles M. MANLY.

Langley Memoir on Mechanical Flight.

Washington, The Smithsonian 1911. Solid quarto publisher's cloth; xii,320pp and 101 plates, illustrations and diagrams through the text. A fairly splendid copy.
¶ Langley's experiments in flight from 1887 to 1903; those up until 1896 written by him, those subsequent written by his assistant Manly.

Richard Neylon, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 8226

Keywords: science technology aviation aeronuatics c19th America

LARNER, E.T.

Practical Television with a foreword by John L. Baird.

London, Benn 1928. Octavo publisher's cloth; 175 & [4 advert]pp; 13 photo plates, illustrations through the text. A very good copy.
¶ A full and fundamental treatment, still in the days when essential Baird experimental apparatus included a warm overcoat. Appended is a stop press announcement describing Baird's transatlantic transmission.

Richard Neylon, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 344

Keywords: science television c20th England technology electronics communications

LAW, Frederick Houk.

The Heart of Sindhra. A novel.

NY, Tennyson Neely [1898]. Octavo publisher's blue cloth blocked in silver and red (spine a touch rubbed). A rather good copy.
¶ First edition of this India set fantasy thriller with a lost city, native fanaticism and some mightily portentous dialogue.

Richard Neylon, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 9758

Keywords: literature fiction c19th America India south Asia thrillers fantasy lost race

LAWRY, Rev. Walter.

Friendly and Feejee Islands: a missionary visit ... [with] A Second Missionary Visit to the Friendly and Feejee Islands ..

London, Mason 1850 & 51. Two volumes octavo publishers red cloth blocked in blind and gilt; folding map and six wood engraved plates in the first book.
¶ A well tended pair since new, with a respectable Wesleyan provenance. Both are inscribed as a birthday present to Mrs Tait from her "old pupils" Betsy, Mary and Maria in October 1851 at Bass Lane House. These "old pupils" were, in 1851, between eight and thirteen and are the daughters of cotton mill owner John Robinson Kay, grand-daughters of Richard Hamer (each of his three daughters inherited a cotton mill). Mary Hamer married Kay in 1834 and their home was Bass Lane House in Bury. Kay was a stalwart Methodist and built the Summerseat Methodist School - next to his Wesleyan church; he seems to have pretty much built an entire Wesleyan village. The records of well-to-do, well meaning society and Methodist Societies of the period are buckshot with ackowledgments to the Kays and their relatives, in much the same way that pockets of Lancashire still are peppered with landmarks bearing their names. The pencil inscription "JR Kay" on one endpaper suggests that Kay stumped up the girls' gift to Mrs Tait. Lawry was an early Wesleyan presence in the south seas, arriving in Sydney in 1818 and missionising Tonga in the early twenties. The first book here is his journal of his return in 1847 - after some twenty five intervening years of mixed success, or failure, as a churchman and missionary - and his visit to Fiji; augmented by an appendix gathering the present state of Fiji. The second book records his second tour in 1850. The immediate narrative of such an integral figure in the taming of the most savage south seas made these books modest best-sellers and neither are rare; but such well cared for copies paired since birth, with thoroughly proper ownership, are.

Richard Neylon, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 8098

Keywords: travel history Australia New Zealand Pacific Tonga Fiji missionaries c19th

LAWSON, Will.

Pacific Steamers.

Glasgow, Brown, Son and Ferguson 1927. Octavo publisher's cloth and dustwrapper; 244pp, profusely illustrated. A rather good copy.
¶ This appears to have been Pat Lawlor's copy and has, pencilled on the back endpaper, some typically obsessive book collector's notes about prices.

Richard Neylon, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 1541

Keywords: history maritime c19th pacific ships trade travel nautical

LEE, Henry.

The White Whale.

London, R.K. Burt Printers [1878]. Octavo publisher's printed wrapper; 16pp. A nice copy.
¶ Something of a news flash, this is a description of the Beluga whale and, more interesting, a description of the bringing of the first live White Whale to England to go on show at the Royal Westminster Aquarium as part of one of Farini's extravaganzas. This creature lived for four days, whereupon the eels that had been supplied as food began to eat it. Whereupon Signor Farini (William Hunt) declared that he "will bring a dozen White Whales here if I want them". And so another four were caught and shipped - three of which survived the trip - arriving two days before Lee went to print with this pamphlet. Lee was the naturalist to the Brighton Aquarium, opened in 1872, one of the first public aquariums in Britain.

Richard Neylon, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 9013

Keywords: science marine biology whales maritime history theatre England c19th

LEFFINGWELL, Alsop.

The Mystery of Bar Harbor. A melo-dramatic romance of France and Mt. Desert.

NY, Dillingham 1887. Octavo publisher's cloth blocked in gilt and black (a touch rubbed); some natural browning but quite a good copy.
¶ First (only?) edition.

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Book number: 6996

Keywords: literature fiction c19th America thrillers mystery detective

LEGRAND, Edy.

Voyages Glorieuses Decouvertes des Grands Navigateurs & Explorateurs Francais.

Paris, Tolmer 1921. folio publisher's illustrated boards & cloth spine; 2 folding maps & illustrations throughout coloured by pochoir. A rather good copy in a cloth chemise and slipcase.
¶ One of the triumphs of modern French book making which, fittingly enough looks back to the triumphs (or glory at least) of Cartier, de la Salle and La Perouse.

Richard Neylon, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 8542

Keywords: children travel c20th France illustrated art deco Pacific maritime nautical modernism

LEIGH, Evan.

The Science of Modern Cotton Spinning: embracing mill architecture; machinery for cotton ginning, opening ... preparing and spinning, with all the latest improvements; also articles on steam and water power ... gearing and American system of belting compared ... boiler explosions, &c; ...

Manchester, Palmer & Howe &c 1875. Two volumes largish quarto publisher's gilt decorated cloth (spines faded and rubbed); viii,152,[8] & x,153-320pp and 41 plates, plans, elevations and measured drawings (one chromolitho and several double page), illustrations through the text. Inner front hinge of volume one strengthened with paper (neat enough); the rubbed spines are a bit of a puzzle because the contents show few signs of ever being used. A rather good set.
¶ Third edition, it was first issued in parts in 1871-72 and two more editions followed this; all seem unchanged. A handsome and authoritive work. Leigh was by this time a grand old man of engineering and invention with "almost half a century's personal experience". He uses the recent India Mill at Darwen designed by Ernest Bates (the 300 foot chimney comes straight from Rawlinson) as an example of a "first class type" and one of the "noblest specimens of mill architecture".

Richard Neylon, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 8561

Keywords: technology engineering architecture agriculture industry manufacturing trades c19th England texties

LEWIS, Alfred Henry.

Confessions of a Detective.

NY, Barnes 1906. Octavo publisher's decorated red cloth blocked in gilt and white; eight plates. Minor signs of use, rather good with the slightest loss of white from the spine.
¶ First edition. The title story is an earthy account of the rise from uniform to detective in New York subtitled 'A Study in Graft'. This seems to have won the book a place in the detective guidebooks as proto-hardboiled. The rest chronicle the triumphs of Inspector Val.

Richard Neylon, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 8730

Keywords: literature fiction thrillers mystery c20th America detective New York

Catalogue - Lighting.

[Atokyubu : Tokyo Denki Kabushikigaisha].

Tokyo Electric Co. [193-?]. 23x15cm publisher's colour illustrated wrapper; [2],8p, eight full page illustrations. Staples detached, small nibble at the top of the spine and some ink notes on the back cover; still pretty good.
¶ Atokyubu are what they sound like if you say it right: art cubes. Cubes of light and here are some ways they can be used: as signs, display, and chic lighting. I'm not sure they took off, I can't find anything else about them.The sign on the front cover is for Mazda, the light department of Tokyo Electric. In 1939 a merger created Tokyo Shibaura - better known now as Toshiba. But it's not that simple, you need a genealogist to properly unravel the company history.

Richard Neylon, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 10821

Keywords: trade catalogues architecture lighting c20th Japan modernism manufacturers commercial art design advertising signs

LINDEN, Annie.

Gold. A Dutch-Indian Story for English People.

London, John Lane 1896. Octavo publisher's decorated cloth blocked in blind; 285pp and 1896 publisher's list. A little browning; a rather good bright copy.
¶ First edition of this rare Indonesian lost race fantasy; there was also a New York edition which looks not much easier to find. I'm not sure exactly where the dread lost land of Moa and its mountain of gold is but our explorers sail through the Moluccas on their way from Java; once we leave the Banda Islands the geography turns imaginary. Ms Linden starts slow but ends pretty ruthless; most of her worthy characters die miserably while our hero is pretty much a faithless greedy madman well before book's end. There is enough, more than enough, local colour to convince me that first hand experience is at work here. I found mention of a couple of short stories - one about untameable half-caste women (who populate these pages too) - by Linden and one other novel, in English: a domestic drama dismissed as "Dutch fiction" in the one notice I saw; nothing else in English or Dutch.

Richard Neylon, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 9183

Keywords: literature fiction thrillers lost race fantasy Indonesia south east asia c19th

Hikifuda : NYK Line

[Fushikiminato-gawa Nokiwa Mito Han Uemon].

n.p. [187-?]. 36x49cm colour woodcut. Bug chewed and carefully repaired, either some time ago or done using old paper.
¶ This large and still quite handsome steamship advertises ships, routes and fares from Fushikiminato, now part of Takaoka City. Takaoka Museum illustrates their copy online and it is just as chomped as this one.

Richard Neylon, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 11141

Keywords: graphic art advertising hikifuda ships shipping travel transport maritime nautical c19th Japan

LIPS, Julius E.

The Savage Hits Back or the White Man Through Native Eyes.

Yale University Press 1937. Small quarto publisher's cloth with paper title label, dustwrapper (a touch chipped at the tips) ; xxxi,254pp, 213 photo illustrations and line drawings. Endpapers a bit browned, a rather good copy.
¶ The dustwrapper of the English edition is more arresting but the dustwrapper of this is more political. First American edition, using the English sheets, published more or less concurrently - and uncommon in such good shape - of this remarkable book with a history that, if half of what Lips tells us is true, makes it even more remarkable. In March 1933 Lips resigned his directorship of the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in protest against the edicts of the new Nazi regime and found he "was the only 'Aryan' ethnologist to do so." What followed over the next year is the stuff of every nightmarish thriller about that period; threat, persecution and false accusation by a former student and a former assistant - now in control of the museum - the mayor of Cologne and the secret police in pursuit of his manuscript and photographs. "An uproar was produced by the simple fact that a Cologne professor had lying in his house a manuscript the theme of which was the criticism of the white race by their coloured brethren. In addition there were among the illustrations portraits of high German military and Government officials which were the work of blacks, one of the 'lower races'. The mere possession of the pictures was a crime against the State, how much more criminal the attempt to publish them!" The "idea of the illustrations had become a semi official mania; although only the students had seen them, it was now the State, i.e. the Nazi party, that wanted them." The mayor "had cultivated a feverish curiosity about the vanished pictures, which were supposed to be lurid with "nigger atrocities" and "insults to Hitler"." Finally a moonlight flit with his pictures and manuscript on the eve of his arrest was his only option. This left his "wife as a hostage for the production of the manuscript" - which is where I hope Lips is being overly dramatic about the whole affair - while Lips made his way to London and found Lovat Dickson who agreed to publish before he had read a line of the book. The book is revolutionary. It was the first time a mirror was held up in such a simple graphic way to the west who were shown how most of the world - the supposed savage world - saw them. And how keenly it saw them.

Richard Neylon, BooksellerProfessional seller

Book number: 9974

Keywords: non-western art anthropology ethnology c20th Germany Nazis Africa Asia Pacific America