Search Results: Authors starting with S from The Second Shelf

London: George Allen & Unwin, 1935. First edition. 8vo. 127pp. Publisher's pale cream cloth titled and decorated in green to spine and front board, in a very good, clean, example of the illustrated dustwrapper from the artist Nora S. Unwin, some minor wear to the extremities, and a small triangle of loss to the head of the spine panel. A handsome copy. Internally clean. A charming and frothy collection of essays and musings on the importance and joy of gardens and gardening. Scarce, especially pretty.

Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1933. First Tauchnitz edition. 272 pp. Publisher's cream wraps titled in black to spine and front wrap. Front hinge has a three inch split, rendering the front panel rather fragile. Essentially a very good, clean copy of a book that when found in its Tauchnitz "travelling library" form is often very well used indeed. Internally clean. The fact that it was afforded a Tauchnitz printing, is if nothing else a testament to the popularity of this collection of beautifully constructed little stories.

London: Samuel French Limited, 1960. First edition in play form. 8vo. 90pp. Publisher's original powder blue wraps titled in dark blue and red to spine and front panel. A very good, clean copy indeed, with only some very light wear. Internally clean. Uncommon in such a bright, clean state.

Italy: La Grande Illusion, 2015. Everybody says that I need a new pair of shoes, but the choice is not easy." A small artist's book with a re-use message, written, illustrated, and designed by Sdralevich as the first of the Fashion Victim series. Sdralevich is a Belgian book illustrator, graphic designer of political posters and author, born in Italy. Softcover. Binding of Woodstock Malva paperboard with Nettuno Rossa fuoco paper wrapper with cut out shoe detail. 16.5 x 12cm. Printed April 15, 2015 in a limited edition of 600 copies. Near fine.

London, 1903. A single sheet handwritten and printed "Engagement Contract" between Joseph Seebold and "flautisto" Louie Bacon, laying out the conditions of employment for a temporary contract in "Joseph Seebold's Ladies Orchestra". Bacon's weekly salary is given as £1.10.0, in addition to room and board and travelling expenses. Printed on the back of the contract is a list of rules members of the Ladies Orchestra were expected to follow, and a list of fines to be levied if these expectations were not met.Ladies orchestras were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Englishwoman's Year Book and Directory lists several ladies' orchestras operating in Britain during this time, including the English Ladies' Orchestral Society and Lady William Lennox's Orchestra. Wind instruments, including the flute and the piccolo, were considered particularly remunerative, making them attractive to musicians looking to make a living with their music. The Englishwoman's Year Book noted in 1900 that "A… Read More

New York: Simplicity Pattern Co., Inc., 1978. Patterns for three "girls' costumes" sizes 12 and 14, to be made in superhero satin. Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman TV series, airing from 1975-79 was hugely influential, finally making being a Superhero definitely on the cards for girls in the 1970's. Copyrighted directly by arrangement with DC Comics Inc. 1978. Original envelope has light discolouration to the back, pattern and instructions look unused, with Wonder Woman's stars, Batgirl's bats all uncut. 14.5 x 21 cm. In very good condition.

Oxford: B.H. Blackwell, 1918. First edition. Limited to 750 copies. Red and white floral patterned card wraps, some age related darkening but still very bright. Slight wear on edges and spine. Tightly bound. Text printed in the Arts and Crafts style, carved initial caps. Some slight foxing, mostly in the title and dedication pages. Overall in very good condition. This is Edith's Sitwell's second poetry collection.

First edition, limited print run. Edith Sitwell was a British poet and critic. Sitwell equated quietness in the female artist as a failure of female nerve: "a woman's problem in writing poetry is different to a man's... I had to learn everything –learn, amongst other things, not to be timid... And I think that I started getting the thing into very strict limits it might bear the marks of a return to timidity." [Telegraph] This work was the author's first work and part of a print run of around 500, and it was extremely well received. "But in all of these poems one thing is clear. They come from within. Miss Sitwell does not describe, she lives in her verse."
Softcover, 8vo, 19 pages. Original wraps. Edges are worn, with some slight tearing. Spine is slightly worn nevertheless, binding is holding tightly together. Some fading on the cover. Very slight foxing throughout, but overall in good condition.

A complete set of signed first editions of Ali Smith's stunning Seasonal Quartet. Fine in fine dust jackets. Each has a David Hockney illustrated band and is wrapped in mylar. Smith has signed each book on the title page, her signature on Winter is dated March 27, 2019. An exceptional set of novels published with thoughtful design.

Cleveland: Ghost Press, 1967. First edition. Limited to 125 copies. Publisher's paper wraps with an uncredited illustration by T.L. Kryss. Minor edgewear, slight creasing here and there but otherwise a very good copy. Presented in a 'zine format, and printed on several mismatched pieces of paper, varying in size and colour. Internally clean. An ephemeral and fragile little poetry collection. The third in the Persecuted Poets series. Solo works by women poets produced with mimeo in the 1960s are scarce, despite the decade being known as a "Mimeo Revolution" for poetry. This is one of the few known. [Birmingham]

The Coral Sea is rocker and writer Patti Smith's vision of Robert Mapplethorpe's life, in a series of related pieces. The work is somewhere on that Patti Smith borderline of prose and poetry. Performed live several times and in 2008 released as an album.
New York: Norton, 1997. 71 pages. 20.5 x 20.5 x .5cm. First edition. Paperback. In very good condition, no dust jacket as issued.

Seventeen-year-old Florence Nightingale Soden began this diary to mark her society debut and to document the expanded social and travel engagements available to her. The first entry on Sept 3, 1883 marks her seventeenth birthday and details Soden's extensive journey around Italy and France, far away from her home in Clapham, England.
Soden clearly reflects upon some of her entries after they are written and edits herself. She cut out three pages, another four have been completely removed from the diary, and one page is painted over black. Botanical specimens are tipped in as momentos. Her student days are remembered with a Class I exam paper on the history of Rome laid in at the back. (It may be that a Class I mark was the parental prerequisite for the reward of her travel abroad.)
Born in 1866 and named after the illustrious nurse, Florence visited her namesake city several times in her journeys. Soden documents everyday vexations and unusual events including singing lessons from Dr Emil Behnke and… Read More

London: Clay Ltd for Bloomsbury, 1992. Booker-shortlisted author Soueif was born in Cairo, and this is a review copy of her second novel. In the Eye of the Sun illuminates the sexual, educational and international politics of Egypt and England in the Sixties and Seventies, through the story of Aysa, a young Egyptian woman. Contains a publisher's press release announcing publication on 25 June 1992.
Hardback. 15.5 x 24cm. [8], 792 pages. Original blue boards with gilt lettering to spine, in dust jacket.
With laid in publisher's press release. First edition, apparently an early issue with printer's instructions on page 127. A very good, bright book and dust jacket.

London: Hutchinson, 1949. Poison for Teacher is journalist and radio personality Nancy Spain's best-known mystery novel, featuring an amateur detective ballerina, and a girls' school called "Radcliff Hall." Spain gives more than a nod to the writer Radclyffe Hall, author of the milestone lesbian novel, The Well of Lonlieness. Inscribed by author "Dear Tanya I cannot believe that you will like (or have time to read) this very silly book from your new pen friend Nancy Spain November 1949".287 pages. First Edition. Hardcover. Repairs to jacket. Slightly foxed.

London: Macmillan, 1968. Proof copy. Paperback, 192 pp. Pink wraps are significantly toned. Light lean to binding, but otherwise tight. Slight foxing on bookedge and in margins. Overall in very good condition. The story of an untalented actress and her struggle to build a positive public image to keep her career on an upward trajectory. Lots of manipulation! Finalist for the Man Booker Prize.

Macmillan, 1976. First edition. Hardcover, 266 pp. Green cloth binding in near fine condition. Dust jacket shows very light shelf wear, and some spotting on the verso, along the spine. Overall in very good condition. Spark had relocated full-time to Italy when she wrote The Takeover, a novel set at the enchanted lake Nevi where the goddess Diana once stood. An ambitious novel that looks at modern problems of love, happiness, religion, and money with questions about the pagan and classical worlds and mythologies as a vibrant backdrop.

The Hand and Flower Press, 1952. First edition, first printing. Red lettering to cover. Pamphlet, 35 pp. 12.5 x 18 cm. Near fine condition. A short collection of early poetry by Spark, the title poem being a ballad based on Baudelaire's novella La Fanfarlo. Semi-satirical rhyming verse. Imaginative and lively.

London: Macmillan, 1970. First edition. Hardcover, 150 pp. Green cloth binding shows light shelfwear Moderate foxing on top of bookedge. The eye-catching dust jacket is slightly toned and darkened at edge and worn at edges of spine, but otherwise clean and bright. The Driver's Seat is one of Spark's most fascinating books, a dark and eerie psychological tale that was marketed as a "metaphysical thriller" when it debuted. The main character, Lise is distracted by her life, and scattered in her thoughts, so she sets out to leave her job for a holiday, but things turn out considerably worse. The book made a huge impression on second-wave feminist scholars.

Macmillan, 1958. First edition. Hardcover, 185 pp. Green cloth bound, very slightly bumped on edges, in near fine condition. Graphic dust jacket is bright, slightly soiled on backcover, and with a 1 mm chip on the bottom right edge of cover. Overall a near fine copy. Spark's second novel is narrated by one of three survivors of a plane crash on "Robinson" a volcanic island inhabited by an unwelcoming spiritual recluse and Bluebell the cat. Mystery, intrigue, suspense, maps, secret caves. The works. Tempesty. Incredibly handsome illustrated cover.

London: Constable, 1988. First edition. Hardcover, 213 pp. Black cloth binding near fine. Dust jacket shows some sun fading on the spine, otherwise very good. Includes two press clippings from the year of publishing of the book. Spark's autobiography! Spark covers her interest in religion, how autobiographical her novels are, and shares a fair amount of family history as well as her interests in literature, craft and reading.