Search Results: Biography from Ariadne Books

London: Thames & Hudson, 1961. First edition. Hardback. Very Good/Good. Thames and Hudson, London, 1961. First edition. Book condition: Very good. Virtually free of shelf wear. Gift inscription in ink on ffep. A little colour fade to blue cloth of boards around the edges. Dust jacket condition: good. Jacket unclipped.Some shelf wear to the edges and a little chipping here and there. Small closed tear to front cover at upper edge (approx 3mm). Slight delamination of plastic coating at tail of spine and to upper edge of rear. Jacket a little tanned on internal surfaces. This first volume of a remarkable trilogy opens with a brief sketch of the Churchill ancestry and a detailed life of Lord Randolph which in turn provides the foundation for the life of his son. It concludes with Churchill's appointment as First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911. In between there lies a brilliant biographical account of Sir Winston and an analysis of one of the most exciting periods of British history. The book is… Read More

Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1912. Handwritten dedication to Mme. Edouard de Bavier with date and signature of the author. Hardback. 252pp. Bound in contemporary quarter leather with marbled paper covered boards. Gilt to spine. Marbled end papers.Original card covers bound in. Biography of Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne, poet, soldier and chronicler. Text in French. Book in good condition. A little rubbing to extremities of spine and to corners. Top corner of upper board lightly bumped. Ex libris plate of Edouard de Bavier to front paste down. paper a little toned - especially around the edges.

New York: Henry Holt & Co, 1987. First edition. Softcover. Very Good/No dust jacket issued.. Henry Holt & Co, (Owl Books), New York, 1987. First Owl Book Edition. Book condition: very good with little sign of wear and no creasing to the spine. 'We have long needed a group biography of the modern Irish literary renaissance and Ulick O'Connor has, in small compass, given us an overview of the monolithic characters and their friends, neighbors, associates and gossips who made up the twentieth-century Irish movement. They turned a province of English literature into a great Dominion.' - Leon Edel, author of 'Bloomsbury: A House of Lions'.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981. First edition. Hardback. Fine/Fine. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1981. First edition. Book condition: near fine. Dust jacket condition: near fine - unclipped and virtually free of shelf wear. Anne Ritchie was born in 1837 and died in 1919. Her long life linked the world of her father Thackeray and her niece Virginia Woolf. Blessed with what was described as an 'amazing emotional memory', she vividly evoked in her writings the passing generations, and in particular the eminent people who had been her father's friends & contemporaries. Winnifred Gerin's biography, using much original manuscript material, throws new light on Thackeray himself as a family man after the ragic lunacy of his wife, responsible for and deeply dependent on his beloved daughters: the picture she draws belies the hackneyed portrait of him as a cynic and snob. Anne Ritchie became a woman of letters in her own right, a much admired novelist and a superb writer of… Read More

London: HarperPress, 2006. First edition, 2006. Hardback. 216pp. Black cloth boards with silver lettering to spine. Dust jacket. In this lving biography, Robert Gottlieb chronicles the life and achievements of ballet's foremost choreographer. Drawing on his own involvement with the New York City Ballet and his relationship with Balanchine and many of his colleagues, Gottlieb has produced a compelling portrait of a vital man, one of the creative masters of the twentieth century. Illustrated in black & white. Near fine and appears to be unread. Dust jacket very good. Unclipped and with only very slight edge wear.

London: Jonathan Cape, 2007. First edition, 2007. Hardback. xii, 452pp. Black cloth boards. Dust jacket in a protective sleeve. This book takes the life of one of England's greatest poets and turns it inside out. Rather than following a daily round in which poetry erupts occasionally, it tracks the inner adventures of a spirit struggling to escape and create. This is the life of the poet, rather than the man. Illustrated. Book near fine and unread. Dust jacket near fine. Unclipped. Very minor edge wear only.

London: Chatto & Windus, 1988. First edition. Hardback. Very Good/Very Good. Chatto & Windus, London, 1988. First edition. Book condition: very good, just a little very light shelf wear. Dust jacket condition: very good, unclipped and with a little light shelf wear around the edges. In The Search for Love, Michael Holroyd takes Shaw from his birth in 1856, through a series of poignant and tantalising love affairs, to his marriage in 1898. Following his mother to London, he attempted to set himself up as a professional man of genius. In a crowded social life he collaborated with Sidney and Beatrice Webb, played amorous piano duets with Annie Besant, spent his evenings woth May Morris and Eleanor Marx. Two strands in his character, love and power, competed over his affection for Ellen Terry and his struggle with Henry Irving.

London: Macmillan & Co, 1870. Third and cheaper edition, 1870. Hardback. 8vo. xiii, 445pp plus 43pp of Publisher's ads at end. Blue cloth boards with gilt to spine. No jacket. Biographical sketches divided into six sectios: Royal, Politicians, Professional, Scientific, Social and Literary. Includes (amongst others) The Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord Palmerston, Lord Raglan, David Roberts R.A., Alexander von Humboldt, Lady Noel Byron, Amelia Opie, Charlotte Bronte, Mrs Wordsworth, Thomas de Quincey and Walter Savage Landor. Very good condition. A little light mottling to boards and a little wear to extremities of spine. Some spotting, mainly to end papers and text block edges. Overall a very clean copy.

Oxford: Privately Pubished, 1989. First edition, 1989. Hardback. 152pp. Russet cloth boards with gilt to spine. Dustjacket. Michael Warr first became interested in Stratford Canning when he was serving as Consul-General in Istanbul (1962 -67). He lived there in the house built for Canning. The author believes that Canning made a unique contribution to diplomacy and particularly in Turkey where he served for 22 years. Some black & white illustrations. Book in very good condition. Minor bump to upper corner of front and a some slight spotting to text block edges. The book feels unread. Dust jacket in very good condition with only minor edge wear. The jacket is unclipped.

Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2003. First UK Edition. Hardback. Very Good/Very Good. Canongate Books, Edinburgh, 2003. First UK edition. Book condition: very good with little sign of use. Small, faint soil mark to ffep. Dust jacket: very good. Unclipped. Only slight edge wear and some light soiling. Portrait photographs of Iggy Pop - as provocative as you would expect.

London: Folio Society, 1983. First Folio Society Edition. Hardback. Fine/Fine slipcase. Folio Society, London, 1983. Book condition: near fine and unread. Just a very small amount of shelf wear to head & tail of spine. Original slipcase in near fine condition. Beautifully produced volume, cloth bound with printed sides. Profusely illustrated. Introduction by Joanna Richardson. Originally published in 1933 by Constable & Co. The sad story of Lady Blessington who wrote: ' There are so few before whom one would condescend to appear other than happy.'

Copenhagen: Samvirkeradet fo dansk kulturarbejde i undlandet in conjunction with the Danish Ministry of State, 1955. Softcover. 220pp. Edited by Dr Sven Dahl and Dr H. G. Topsoe-Jensen. Translated into English by W. Glyn Jones. Contents: Introduction by Julius Bomholt; The Life of Hans Christian Andersen by Svend Larsen; Idea and Form in Andersen's Fairy Tales by Paul V. Rubow; Hans Christian Andersen in eighty Languages by Erik Dahl; Hans Christian Andersen as an Example for Writers by Cai M. Woel. Illustrated with b&w photographs and drawings. Good. Covers generally a little rubbed and soiled. Some light chipping to edges. Internally clean and unmarked.

London: William Collins, 2008. Paperback. viii, 503pp. No jacket (as issued). The definitive biography of Edward Gorey, the eccentric master of macabre nonsense. From "The Gashlycrumb Time" to "The Doubtful Guest", Edward Gorey's wickedly funny and deliciously sinister little books have influenced our culture in innumerable ways, from the works of Tim Burton to Neil Gaiman and Lemony Snicket. But who was this man, who lived with over twenty thousand books and six cats, who roomed with Frank O'Hara at Harvard, and was known - in the late 1940s, no less - to traipse around in full-length fur coats, clanking bracelets and an Edwardian beard? Mark Dery draws back the curtain on the eccentric genius and mysterious life of Edward Gorey. "A genius book about a bookish genius". Fine and unread. Very small mark to leading edge of the text block.

London: Pavilion Books, 1999. First edition. Softcover. Very Good/No dust jacket issued.. Pavilion Books, London, 1999. First edition. Softcover. Book condition: very good. Just a little light shelf wear around the edges and a small area near tail of spine (approx4mm long) where the printed outer surface has been peeled back. Brando was one of the most influential actors of the twentieth century, a man who pioneered a new method of theatrical self-presentation and changed forever the standards by which we judge performance. He was a man assailed by doubts about the value of his achievements, ever poised on the edge of self-parody and self-destruction. Out of this conflict, Richard Schickel has made Brando: A Life In Our Times a wise and moving portrait of a profoundly gifted, deeply troubled man. Profusely illustrated throughout.

London: Frederick Muller, 1946. First edition. Hardback. Very Good/Fair. Frederick Muller, London, 1946. First edition. Book condition: very good with only minor shelf wear to head & tail of spine. Neat ink dedication to ffep dated Xmas 1949. Dust jacket condition: fair. Price clipped and split at rear hinge to about half its length from the top. Some slight loss at spine extremities with some creasing around the edges. Jacket somewhat soiled and slight colour fade to spine. The book was published to mark the centenary year of Scott, one of the greatest figures in English journalism. Scott was editor of the Manchester Guardian for 57 years from 1872 to 1929 and he raised it from being a purely local paper to one with an international standing. This volume assembles tributes from various colleagues andincludes a number of essays on various aspects of the paper under Scott's historic editorship. Other sections del with the Manchester Guardian after Scott and the measures taken to ensure that… Read More

New York: Henry Holt & Co, 1987. First edition. Hardback. Very good/Fine. Henry Holt & Co, New York, 1987. First US edition. Book condition: very good - a little bumping to upper corners and very slight indentation to upper edge of front board. Dust jacket condition: near fine and unclipped - a little colour fade to spine. This book is a result of over fifty hours of recorded interviews, the story of drunken brawls, abortions, affairs and of the tenderness that existed in spite of these turbulent times. George Tremlett was a longtime family friend and he persuaded Caitlin Thomas to set the record straight about her tortured relationship with one of the greatest poets of our time. Above all, this is the story of the meeting of two innocent souls - a love story, however sad.

New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1989. First edition. Hardback. Good/Very Good. First edition of US print. The book is in good condition with no dog-ears. The ffep does have a light vertical crease about an inch in from the edge and there is a little discolouration to the end papers - but it is pretty light. The book is square and tight and the boards are bright but again with a little discolouration around the top and bottom - mainly in the area of th spine and the adjacent front & back. It is a very sound book and comes with a very good jacket which suffers only from some light staining on the inner surface that matches with the discolouration on the book itself. Our suspicion is that it was slightly affected by a bit of damp at some stage -but this has not affected the pages or sructure in any way. I guess we don't need to say much about the subject!

London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2017. Hardback. 336pp. Dust jacket in a protective sleeve. First published on the occasion of the exhibition "Second Nature: The Art of Charles Tunnicliffe RA" at the Royal Academy. Charles Tunnicliffe is Britain's foremost twentieth-century wildlife artist. As an etcher, he came to prominence in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Many of his prints are informed by his experience of growing up on a Cheshire farm. His unsentimental representations of field labour and pig slaughter differ markedly from the nostalgic portrayals of rural England by contemporary etchers, whose pastoral vision was influenced by Samuel Palmer. Commercial success soon overshadowed Tunnicliffe's early recognition as a Royal College of Art trained printmaker. Since the mid 1930s, his pictures have been appreciated mainly at the second hand as illustrations for books, in advertisements, or as decorations on biscuit tins and collectable cards. As a result neither his early etchings… Read More

London: Robson Books Ltd, 1988. First edition. Hardback. Fine/Very Good. Robson Books, London, 1988. First edition. Book condition: near fine - just a little very light spotting to upper edge of text block. Dust jacket condition: very good - price clipped. Very slight shelf wear round the edges. Drawn from inumerable interviews with people in the entertainment industry - including Crawford herself - Crawford's Men presents a compelling portrait of a driven, power-hungry woman and the men in her life.

London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1982. First edition. Hardback. Fine/Very Good. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1982. First edition. Book condition: near fine. Dust jacket condition: very good. Unclipped, very light shelf wear around the edges and a little discolouration to spine. A couple of light suface scratches to rear of jacket. This challenging reassessment of the great modern Frenchman draws on documentary evidence from Paris and Washington, many of these documents unpublished prior to this work. the book also draws on Sir Bernard Ledwidge's personal acquaintance with De Gaulle and his contemporaries. the book includes 16 pages of b&w illustrations. The book includes two loosely inserted photocopies of reviews of the book from the time of publication. This is a relatively hefty book at over 400 pages but no additional postage costs to UK destinations.