First Edition or First of Type

The Knightly Quest – A Parody of Espionage Thrillers – (A Novella and Twelve Short Stories) – Tennessee Williams -1968

A first UK edition of this collection published by Secker and Warburg, London in 1968. A novella and twelve short stories. Three of the short stories had appeared in “One Arm” published in 1959 – see our copy.

Octavo, 253 pages, the novella “the Knightly Quest”, a parody of espionage thrillers comprises eighty odd pages. The short stories common with the earlier edition are .. The Poet; Chronicle of a Demise and Desire and the Black Masseur.

The new short stories are … Hard Candy; Rubio y Morena; The mattress by the Tomato Patch; The Vine; The Mysteries of the Joy Rio; Mama’s Old Stucco House; Man Bring This up Road; The Kingdom of Earth and “Grand”. The first two are variations on the same theme, with the same setting but with very different results … interesting idea.

The great Tennessee Williams -his shorter stories and one slightly longer

$40.00

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The True-born English-man: A Satyr – Daniel Defoe – This Copy Published in 1716

A rare item by Daniel Defoe. The scarce “enlarged” edition printed and sold by James Roberts, London in 1716.

Pocket sized 12 mo, 12, 26 pages, bound in contemporary calf backed boards, some age and wear but solid and rare in this original state.

First edition thus. After the accession of Hanover Defoe added a new passage of 49 lines satirising the English temper. It was hastily published and contains a number of hasty error which ironically confirm its pedigree

A True-born English-man, satirical poem of length about xenophobia … a few could learn from it today. Dutch born William of Orange has become King of England, and there was much tittle tattle about his lack of English-ness. Defoe, forever a wit, wrote this is support of old William of Orange, ridiculing the notion of English racial purity. Well the evidence is there.

Defoe … much quoted from his opening rant

“that het’rogeneous thing, an Englishman:
In eager rapes, and furious lust begot
Betwixt a painted Britain and a Scot
Whose gend’ring off-spring quickly learn’d to bow,
And yoke their heifers to the Roman plough:
From whence a mongrel half-bred race there came,
With neither name, nor nation, speech nor fame.
In whose hot veins new mixtures quickly ran,
Infused betwixt a Saxon and a Dane
While their rank daughters, to their parents just,
Receiv’d all nations with promiscuous lust.
This nauseous brood directly did contain
The well-extracted blood of Englishmen.”

Daniel Defoe and his True-born a delicious antiquarian rarity … over three hundred year old!

$280.00

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Islands in the Stream – Ernest Hemingway – First Edition 1970

This is the first UK edition published by Collins, London in 1970.

Large octavo, 398 pages with end paper maps. Very good if not better condition.

A major novel left among Hemingway’s writings at the time of death. Mary Hemingway said “The book is all Ernest’s. We have added nothing to it” … we believe her …

Hemingway’s Last Novel and a good one!

$60.00

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Strange Interlude – Eugene O’Neil – A Pulitzer Prize Winning Play – 1928

Published in 1928 by the up market Boni & Liveright, New York. A reprint same year as the first.

Large thick octavo, 362 pages, decorative end papers, green cloth covered boards with simple gilt decoration and author’s faux signature. Striking Art Deco dust jacket – a few nibbles but really good. A super copy overall.

The great American play of its day. Later a film with Clark Gable. Pulitzer Prize Winner.

Experimental in nature, presented in nine acts, and uses the technique known as soliloquy [where the actor speaks directly to the audience about their inner thoughts. Nina, the main character looses her husband in World War I. She embarks on a series of relationships and her attitude / approach to life and desires and pains are explored.

A superb gift for the theatre lover - almost 100 years old.

$60.00

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The Potato Factory – Bryce Courtenay – First edition 1995

A very nice first edition published by Heinemann, Melbourne in 1995 an Australian first edition. Thick octavo, 665 pages.

This book is the first of a trilogy of books [also Tommo and Hawk and Solomon’s Song – we should have a copy]. The trilogy is based around the life and acquaintances of Ikey Solomon a London Jewish fraudster who finds his way to Van Diemen’s land aka Tasmania. Ikey was for sure the man behind the character Fagan of Charles Dickens fame.

Anyway, lots of goings on in the Old Dart and then Tasmania where Ikey’s old mistress achieves some elevation and starts a Brewery “The Potato Factory”. Ikey’s wife who arrived under her earlier own unfortunate circumstances is not happy.

Ikey Solomon a true Tasmanian character

$30.00

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The Hunchback of Notre Dame [Complete and Unabridged] – Victor Hugo

One of the more sought after editions of this classic published by the Modern Library in the 1952. A very good dust jacket with striking ghoulish imagery.

Octavo, 416 pages until it all “crumbles to dust”, plus publishers catalogue. A book of ten books all at a fast pace.

Written by Victor Hugo at the age of twenty nine, and stands with Les Miserables as one of his most memorable works.

Stirs the heart kindles the imagination …

The Bells … oh the bells

$40.00

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The Knightly Quest – A Parody of Espionage Thrillers – (A Novella and Twelve Short Stories) – Tennessee Williams -1968

The True-born English-man: A Satyr – Daniel Defoe – This Copy Published in 1716

Islands in the Stream – Ernest Hemingway – First Edition 1970

Strange Interlude – Eugene O’Neil – A Pulitzer Prize Winning Play – 1928

The Potato Factory – Bryce Courtenay – First edition 1995

The Hunchback of Notre Dame [Complete and Unabridged] – Victor Hugo

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