20th Century Classics

Books and Persons – Being Comments on a Past Epoch 1908-1911 – Arnold Bennett. {Ernest H. Shackleton book label – warning see below]

A first edition published by Chatto & Windus in 1917. Octavo, 338 pages. Black cloth covered boards, paper title label [original spare label at rear for anyone that wants to refresh]. No dust jacket probably as issued.

An interesting book by the talented and highly productive wordsmith – Bennett. Dedicated to Hugh Walpole. Bennett had had a number of articles published in the “New Age’ under the nom de plume “Jacob Tonson”. About one third of those re-appear in this book … with some misprints corrected and various crudity softened.

Various subjects tackled with the usual wit and pointedness include … Ugliness of fiction; French Publishers; German Expansion [note 1908]; the Book-buyer; Joseph Conrad and the Athenaeum; Unclean books; the New Machiavelli; Anatole France etc etc

The mystery of the Ernest H Shackleton book label … many booksellers around the world have fallen into the mire in promoting such items as once owned by the distinguished Polar explorer … we think it’s either the “H” for Henry or the desire for profit that traps them – and their customers. Unfortunately, about the right time, a not so distinguished [no writs please] New York lawyer amassed quite a collection and affixed his unpretentious label to each. You have been warned – but may see an opportunity!

Arnold Bennett a keen observer who shared – if Polar add a nought!

$35.00

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The Deadly Dowager – Edwin Greenwood – First US Edition 1937

Published by Doubleday, New York in 1937, first US Edition.

Octavo, 307 pages, pretty good condition, striking period jacket.

Watch out for life insurance! As often behind the plot of the Deadly Dowager to restore the family fortunes by killing them off. Unusual murders.

Watch out for the wet sponge!

$50.00

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Little Ragged Blossom and more about Snugglepot and Cuddlepie – May Gibbs – First Edition c 1920

Published Sydney: Angus Robertson no date but 1920 and a First Edition.

Quarto. Cloth backed pictorial boards with a colour vignette of Little Ragged Blossom pasted on with some wear. The odd mark – on the whole a very good copy.

The wonderful fantasy world of the gum-nut babies portrayed in glorious detail. Illustrated by Gibbs with two full colour plates and twenty wonderful sepia plates as well as pictorial end papers and many line illustrations in-text. Scarce in any condition. Reference the authority Muir 2752.

Little Ragged Blossom a May Gibbs Delight

$190.00

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The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway [1960 Edition]

Should be everyone’s favourite short read. Nobel citation – “his powerful style-forming mastery of the art of modern narration, as most lately revealed in his novel The Old Man and the Sea”

Published by Jonathan Cape, London a in 1960, noting the Nobel Prize win on the front jacket flap. A really super clean, bright copy.

Slim octavo, 127 pages. Wrap around dust jacket [tiny chip rear edge] by designer Hans Tisdall, who also created the unusual font, which is now embedded in font culture.

Nobel Classic – Ernest Hemingway – Nice one

$60.00

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Garden District – Two Plays .. Something Unspoken and Suddenly Last Summer – Tennessee Williams – First Edition 1959

A first UK edition published by Secker and Warburg, London in 1959.

Octavo, 72 pages, very good condition.

Two plays … a short one Something Unspoken a type often referred to as a curtain-raiser; and the longer Suddenly Last Summer.

Both had just been performed in England at the London Arts Theatre to much acclaim

Suddenly Last Summer is a gothic psychological drama. It was adapted and made into a brilliant movie with Katherine Hepburn, Montgomery Cliff and Elizabeth Taylor …. Elizabeth Taylor stole the show …. it is a must watch movie … particularly if you cannot find the play in progress.

Entertaining and still challenging from T.W. …

$30.00

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Wild Geese – Martha Orstenso – 1926 First Photoplay Edition

A very good first Photoplay [movie connected] edition published in 1926 by Grosset and Dunlap. Octavo, 256 pages, superb dust jacket and beneath that striking pictorial boards. Designs by H.o.H … not sure who that was?

This is a special edition with images from the silent movie made from this book directed by Phil Stone and released in 1927.

An Epic of the Northern Frontier, the prairies of northern Manitoba, and packed with living character.Regarded as a new standard in Modernist writing … love, tyranny, destruction and survival ….

A special book of the era

$50.00

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Books and Persons – Being Comments on a Past Epoch 1908-1911 – Arnold Bennett. {Ernest H. Shackleton book label – warning see below]

The Deadly Dowager – Edwin Greenwood – First US Edition 1937

Little Ragged Blossom and more about Snugglepot and Cuddlepie – May Gibbs – First Edition c 1920

The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway [1960 Edition]

Garden District – Two Plays .. Something Unspoken and Suddenly Last Summer – Tennessee Williams – First Edition 1959

Wild Geese – Martha Orstenso – 1926 First Photoplay Edition

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