Search Results: Literature from Christison Rare Books, IOBA SABDA

(Pretoria: Academica, 1982) 0868741604. 8vo; laminated boards; pp. (vi) + 305. A little sunned on spine; top fore-corners bumped; gift inscription to front free endpaper. Very good condition. South African printing of 'The Nuttall Dictionary of English Synonyms and Antonyms'. .

(London: Putnam, 1955). First edition. Crown 8vo; original black boards, lettered in gilt on spine; dustwrapper; pp. 115. Dustwrapper foxed and edgeworn, with some archival tape repairs to reverse; bump to tail of spine; scattered foxing. Good condition. "Several years before his death, Dylan Thomas began to write a novel that would not be strictly autobiographical, but would bear a relation to the two parts of his experience, his own actions and the actions of his dramatised self. ... Only the opening of this novel ever got written, and this is its first publication in book form. It is a unique fragment, fantastic in comedy, and rich with the poet's personality." .

(London, Hutchinson, 1991). 8vo; yellow boards and price-clipped laminated pictorial dustwrapper, small brown mark on edge; pp. x + 201. Very good condition. "... this book chronicles Usborne's own involvement with Wodehouse, and includes much material never before readily available. What was the upstairs/downstairs world of Blandings Castle? What did Wodehouse really think about dogs, dictators, cats, curates, butlers, airguns, policemen, earls, girls, aunts, old nannies and pigs? What was the earliest published poem from Wodehouse's pen? Take Usborne's word as sooth on all such conundrums. This book is an open door to the world of Wodehouse." .

(London: Picador, 2000) 0330480774. 195 x 129 mm; laminated pictorial wrappers; pp. (viii) + 311. Trace of foxing to edges. Very good condition. "In his first novel since The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje displays again the richness of imagery and the keen emotional surety that are the hallmarks of his writing." .

(London, Printed for F.C. and J. Rivington et al, 1821). 3 volumes 12mo; gilt-bordered calf with black title labels on spine in each case; bindings very worn, with backstrip of each volume in state of partial disintegration; marbled endpapers; pp. xxiv + 502, iv + 479, (iv) + 470; engraved title page (dated 1820) and facing plate in each volume; prelims. rather foxed; some pages creased; variable browning throughout. Fair condition. A portable three-volume English edition of Galland's translation into French. .

(Johannesburg, Cosmos Publikasies, 1975). "Internasionale Jaar van die Vrou" Afrikaanse Taalfees Jaar 1975 Gedenkuitgawe. Vertaal en versorg deur Adèlemarie van der Spuy en Adriaan S. van der Spuy. 8vo; original red leatherette gilt; pp. (x) + xii + 138; line drawings in text. Slight wear at head of spine; corners very slightly bumped; previous owner's discreet hand-stamp on front free endpaper; short tear to top edge of flyleaf. Afrikaans text. Afrikaans translation of Olive Schreiner's classic work Women and Labour. .

(London: Frank T. Sabin and John F. Dexter, 1890-1892). Three folio volumes (39 x 30 cm), including "A Supplement to Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil"; original cream quarter buckram with turquoise cloth over bevelled boards; gilt lettering to spines; gilt lion emblem from Dickens' bookplate to upper cover in each case; pp. xviii + 80, (iv) + [81-192] + xvi, vi + (iv) + 82 + (ii) + publisher's adverts.; numerous plates with captioned tissue guards showing Dickens at various stages of his life, with remarque marginal portraits; also, numerous plates of those associated with Dickens' life, along with reproductions of illustrations from his works and facsimiles, both as plates and in text. Bindings a little slack; some foxing. A part-work, inconsistently bound up, this set appears to lack some plates: a detailed collation can be provided upon request. There can be no more graphic testament to the superstar status of Charles Dickens during the late nineteenth century than this… Read More

(London: John Murray, 1899). Demy 8vo; original brown blind-stamped buckram, lettered in gilt on spine; tinted edges; pp. vi + 1019; numerous illustrations in text. Boards a little rubbed, and backstrip frittered at head and tail; cloth tape reinforcing to hinges; variable foxing throughout. Good condition. "The Classical Dictionary, published more than thirty years ago, of which this book is a revision, was designed by the late Sir WILLIAM SMITH to include in a single volume as much of the information contained in his larger Dictionaries of Biography and Mythology, and of Ancient Geography, as would be serviceable for the upper forms of schools, and might make it useful also as a compendious book of reference for somewhat more advanced students. ... The design of this revised edition, projected by Sir WILLIAM SMITH more than two years ago, is much the same as that of the older work. ... Hence the old limits are for the most part observed, and, as was then said, 'the historical articles… Read More

(London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1889). 8vo; original blue cloth over beveled boards; ornate gilt titles to spine and upper cover; pp. (iv) + 341. Spine somewhat cocked; some stippling to cloth; gift inscription dated 1890 on front free endpaper; moderate foxing throughout; some fishmothing to edges of a few pages. Fair to good. Early reprint of a Haggard work (first ed., 1888) that owes more to his knowledge of country life (he was knighted for his services to agriculture) than the experiences in Africa which inspired his more famous fantasy novels. .

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995) 0192892320. 196 x 128 mm; laminated pictorial wrappers; pp. 304, incl. index; maps. Half-title removed; earlier owner's discreet book label to title page; occasional fox spot. Good condition. "Wole Soyinka, Peter Carey, Margaret Atwood, V.S. Naipaul, J.M. Coetzee - postcolonial writers from around the world now enjoy wide popularity. In this book, Elleke Boehmer looks challengingly at the history of such writing, how it developed and how it departs from writing in the Empire in the Victorian period. Throughout this literature key themes and images - journeying, loss, the search for community, the arrival of the stranger - are expanded and redefined." .

(London: The Folio Society, 1987). Introduction by Susan Hill. Wood-engravings by Joan Hassall. 8vo; original decorative papered boards backed by gilt-margined red cloth with gilt-on-blue spine titles; papered slipcase; pp. xii + 201; engravings in text. Fine condition. "By now, almost two hundred editions of Cranford have appeared, and though I doubt if it is read as widely as it once was, or loved so universally - and what classic of the nineteenth century is? - it still has a loyal and devoted following, and acquires new readers every time it is re-issued. Many attempts have been made to account for its longstanding place in the hearts of the reading public, as will always be the case with a popular classic, and there have been many interpretations and explanations and academic dissections of the text. Cranford has been many things to many people. ... But although it has serious points to make, and indeed is at heart a deeply serious book, Cranford is first and foremost a work of… Read More

(Amsterdam: Jacobus van Hardenberg, 1697). Small 4to; recent half Oasis goatskin with marbled sides; spine tooled in compartments, with gilt lettering piece to second compartment; new endpapers; title page expertly silked; pp. (xx) + 391. A very attractive copy of this uncommon work. This is the earliest edition of the poet's collected original poetry and translations. David van Hoogstraten (1658-1724), physician, lived at the tail end of the Dutch Golden Age. He came from a family active in the arts, and achieved some renown as a poet, translator and linguist. He died in Amsterdam on November 21, 1724, having fallen into the water in fog eight days before. .

(Leipzig: Reclam, 1954). 150 x 96 mm; pictorial wrappers; pp. 237 + (iii). Wrappers a bit tanned; regular browning. Good. German text. Cheaply-produced East German publication of the Soviet classic, 'The Iron Flood', by Cossack writer Alexander Serafimovich. .

(Boston: The Bibliophile Society, 1910). This edition is limited to 483 copies printed for members only. Small 4to; original half-vellum, with brown boards; pp. (x) + 90; pages uncut; plates with captioned tissue-guards; facsimiles, incl. folding. Rather foxed throughout. Good only. "At the time of the issue (in 1908) of the volume of the Dickens-Beadnell Correspondence, containing Professor Baker's footnote calling attention to another collection of early Dickens letters that changed hands in Birmingham, England, about ten years ago, it was hardly to be hoped or believed that within a year these letters should be located here in the United States, and in the hands of a generous Bibliophile, who not only expressed an eager willingness to share their contents with his fellow-booklovers, but also offered to edit and arrange them for the press, which he has done in a scholarly and highly entertaining and instructive manner. ... It will be remembered that Kolle, in addition to looking after his… Read More

(Amsterdam, Meulenhoff, 1996). Illustrations by Breyten Breytenbach. 4to; orange boards; laminated pictorial dustwrapper; gift inscription on ffep; pp. 160; colour artwork. Very good condition. Dutch text. Contributions by Anna Achmatova, Breyten Breytenbach, Bei Dao, Alfred van Cleef, Adriaan van Dis, Duoduo, G.L. Durlacher, Günter Grass, Lieve Joris, Marcel Kurpershoek, Norman Manea, Marcel Möring, Carolijn Visser, Vladimir Vojnovitsj and others. "In De vrijheid verteld, uitgegeven in samenwerking met Amnesty International, zijn verhalen, reportages en gedichten bijeengebracht, die te zamen laten zien hoe de soms wrede geschiedenis van onze eeuw de literatuur heeft beïnvloed en hoe schrijvers hebben getracht hun eigen lot en dat van hun familie, hun stad of hun land in beeld te brengen, in een poging om dat lot onder de aandacht te brengen. Ook de betrokkenheid met 'de ander', soms in verre landen, komt aan bod door middel van een keuze uit het werk van… Read More

(Cape Town: The Firfield Pamphlet Press, 1996) 1875058060. 210 x 140 mm; saddle-stitched wrappers with pictorial dustwrapper; pp. 36; some illustrations. Very good condition. Humorous poems on scientific subjects. "Professor Brian Warner, Head of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Cape Town, trained as an astrophysicist at University College London, and has D.Sc. degrees both from the University of London and Oxford University." - From the poet's pen portrait in Flora Herscheliana .

(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999) 0297824813. 4to; original dark green boards, lettered in silver gilt on spine; laminated pictorial dustwrapper; pictorial endpapers; pp. 160, incl. index; full-colour photographs of settings from the poet's life, and monochrome photographs from his lifetime. Some foxing to reverse of dustwrapper and to endpapers; earlier owner's name on front free endpaper. Very good condition. "In Dylan Thomas's Wales Hilary Laurie revisits the places he knew and loved. Through his poems, stories and letters, and with the help of contemporary illustrations and specially commisioned photography by Kathy de Witt, she explores the Welsh towns and countryside that were his home and his inspiration." .

(London, Macdonald, 1949). 8vo, original blue cloth somewhat faded at extremities of backstrip, no dustwrapper, original illustrations by Lancelot Speed, extensive moderate foxing (quite pronounced in endpapers), gift inscription on front free endpaper, pp. 304. Fair condition. "Rider had reached home on 27 July and, after resting and then writing about his adventures [in Iceland], he sat down to write his Icelandic saga, Eric Brighteyes, on 29 August. By 25 December 1888, he had finished 266 foolscap pages. Lang, to whom he first showed the manuscript, was ecstatic: 'I have read four chapters . . . I think it is the best thing you have done . . .' . . . In his study Old Icelandic Sources in the English Novel (1935) Ralph Bergen Allen places Eric Brighteyes ahead of all other English novels of this type." - H. Rider Haggard, A Voice from the Infinite, by Peter Beresford Ellis. .

(London: André Deutsch, 1989) 0233983767. 8vo; original blue boards, lettered in gilt on spine; laminated pictorial dustwrapper; pp. ix + (i) + 380. Dustwrapper ever so slightly rubbed; some foxing to flaps, reverse of dustwrapper, and endpapers, with occasional fox spot elsewhere; earlier owner's name signed on front free endpaper. Very good condition. "Wyndham Lewis is acknowledged as one of the most important British visual artists of this century. The Essential Wyndham Lewis sets out to affirm his equal standing as a writer. It contains extracts from the best of his fiction, together with passages from his social, artistic and literary criticism." .

(London: Hutchinson, no date). Hutchinson's Colonial Library edition. 8vo; original red cloth, with gilt lettering to spine and upper board; bookplate of J. Willis Dixon to front free endpaper; pp. vi + 345; some plates. Cover somewhat worn and sunned; endpapers rather browned; some foxing and occasional trace of soiling; binding slack, with some gatherings pulled. Fair condition, with the bookplate of a member of the famous Sheffield silver family. François Eugéne Vidocq, head of the Criminal Investigation Department in Paris, published his memoirs in 1828, and is generally recognised as the prototype of Edgar Allan Poe's fictional sleuth Auguste Dupin, who brought the detective genre to English fiction. .