Search Results: Titles starting with C from Neil Pearson Rare Books

London: Faber & Faber, 1992. 8vo, pp.277. Original black boards, lettered in silver to spine. A fine copy in a fine dustwrapper. First edition of the author's third Aurelio Zen title.

London: W.H. Allen, 1959. 8vo, pp. 204. Original red boards, lettered in silver to spine. Illustrated dust jacket. A fine copy in a very near fine dust jacket with just a little darkening to (white) rear panel. First UK edition. First published as an Ace paperback original in the US in 1957. An Ed Noon title. The impossibly prolific Michael Avallone [1924-1999] wrote countless short stories, novels and movie and TV tie-ins, under an army of pseudonyms. The Ed Noon series ran to more than thirty titles; this was number six. There is never any danger of mistaking Avallone for Chekhov: the title character of The Case of the Bouncing Betty is a four hundred pound mattress tester who, according to the blurb, 'jumps on one mattress too many, and comes to a sudden and distressing end.' A fine copy. HUBIN, p. 18

New York: William Morrow, 1945. 8vo, pp. 218. Original black boards, lettered in black on red to front panel and spine (where the first part of the title is lettered in red on black). Illustrated dust jacket. A fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with just a little fading to spine and the lightest of wear to spine ends. First edition. A Perry Mason title in the almost impossibly prolific Erle Stanley Gardner's bibliography. This is the twenty-sixth title featuring fiction's most famous criminal attorney -- there were eighty-five in all. HUBIN, p. 162

New York: Viking Press, 1978. Oblong 4to, pp. 63. Original black boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Illustrated dustwrapper. Boards a little bowed (as is often the case with this title), otherwise a fine copy in a fine dustwrapper. Drawings by Leonard Baskin accompanying text throughout. First US edition.

London: Simon & Schuster, 2008. 8vo, pp. 473. Original red boards, lettered in silver to spine. Illustrated dustwrapper. A fine copy in a near fine dustwrapper with the lightest of wear to spine ends. First edition of the author's first book, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR. Shortlisted for the 2008 Booker Prize.

Paris: Vendome Press, 1949. 8vo, pp. 283. Original illustrated paper wrappers. Line drawing to front panel, lettered in red and white, lettered in black to spine. Wrappers lightly bumped and creased, a little age toning, but a very good copy. First edition. One of the scarcer Vendôme Press titles, and not nearly as shameful as it sounds. A St. Trinian's-style romp, but with a 15 certificate, the short-lived Vendôme Press specialised in books which, while mildly titillating, promised more in their title than they delivered in their contents (The Love Orchid, The Fleshly Prelude etc.). Cheaply made and frequently read to death, this copy is a superior example of a scarce title in any condition.

London: Thames & Hudson, 1956. 4to, pp. 144. Original yellow boards, lettered and patterned in red to front panel and spine. Illustrated dustwrapper. Small closed tear to head of spine, small gift inscription to ffep., otherwise a very good copy in a very good price-clipped dustwrapper, head of spine chipped with loss affecting the 'C' of China, some wear to top edge of front panel, one or two small closed tears. 144 pp. of photographic illustrations by Cartier-Bresson. First UK edition, which seems to have been published simultaneously with its US counterpart.

Verona: Plain Wrapper Press, 1977. 8vo, pp. 12, unpaginated. Original olive stiff paper wrappers with foldover flaps, title in brown to front panel. Sewn binding. Uncut and unopened. A fine, unread, unopened copy. Woodcut illustration by Fulvio Testa to [p.6] opposite the single page of text. First edition, one of 180 copies. 2pp. TLS FROM THE PRINTER RICHARD-GABRIEL RUMMONDS TO NOVELIST AND ART CRITIC FREDERIC TUTEN LAID IN, DISCUSSING THE RECENT MOVE OF THE PLAIN WRAPPER OPERATION TO VERONA, AND PLANS FOR THE PRINTING AND PUBLICATION OF BOOK. One of the pre-eminent handpress printers of the twentieth century, the American Richard-Gabriel Rummonds founded his Plain Wrapper Press in the mid-1960s. A meeting with Verona-based Giovanni Mardersteig, master printer at the Officina Bodoni, convinced Rummonds to move his operation to Verona in 1971. The letter accompanying the book is packed with information about the press in general, and this title in particular: 'Burgess wrote this poem one… Read More

London: John Murray, 1980. Small 8vo, pp. 64. Original green boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Illustrated dustwrapper. A fine, unread copy in a dustwrapper with some sunning to the spine, but which is otherwise fine. Illustrated throughout with line drawings by John Piper. First trade edition, first issue. An edition of 100 copies signed by both author and artist was also issued. Following the discovery that seven lines were missing from the poem Bristol and Clifton and sixty-four from Sunday Afternoon Service in St. Enodoc Church, Cornwall (as well as at least seven other oversights in proof-reading), this edition was withdrawn immediately on publication in October 1980 and destroyed. The corrected and repaginated 'first' edition appeared in March 1981. Light sunning to the spine apart, a fine copy.

London: Cape, 1989. 8vo, pp. 542. Original black boards, lettered in gilt on spine. A fine, unread copy in a fine dustwrapper. First edition. Winner of the Whitbread Prize.

London: Herbert Jenkins, 1922. 8vo, pp. 256. Original green boards, lettered in black to front panel and spine, publisher's device in black to rear panel. Binding a little shaken, small ownership name to front free panel. First edition, first issue, with eight titles to verso of half-title. A well-preserved copy of ten golf-related short stories, published in the US in 1924 with the title Golf Without Tears.

London: Sceptre, 2004. 8vo, pp. 529. Original red boards, lettered in turquoise on spine. A fine, unread copy in a near fine dustwrapper with minimal edgewear. First edition, first impression. Review copy, with publisher's promotional flyer laid in. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1938. 8vo, pp. 298. Original yellow boards, lettered in yellow-on-green to spine. Green line drawing to front panel and spine. Bookplate to ffep. Top edge green, leading edge uncut. Illustrated dustwrapper, price-clipped. Age-toning to preliminaries, but a near fine, tightly bound copy in an almost near fine dustwrapper: two small ticks to book list on rear panel, a little wear to spine ends, and with the lightest of edgewear along front panel. Wrapper illustration by Roese. First edition, published simultaneously with its UK counterpart. The third novel in the Jeeves-Wooster sequence and one of the very finest -- and also the basis for the recent [2014] West End production Perfect Nonsense, starring Stephen Mangan and Matthew Macfadyen. McIlvaine calls for four titles in the book list on the dustwrapper's rear panel: this copy, corresponding to all other issue points called for, carries seven. There is no mention of this variant in McIlvaine. A lovely copy. McIlvaine A60a

London: Gollancz, 1975. 8vo, pp. 252. Original purple boards, lettered in silver to spine. Printed dust jacket. A near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with just the lightest of edgewear. First edition of this collection of characteristically unnerving short stories, by the most singular author ever to work for the Inland Waterways Association. An excellent copy.

London: Chatto & Windus, 2008. 8vo, pp. 346. Original black boards, lettered in silver on spine. A fine copy in dustwrapper. First edition, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR: 'David, What can I say.... Thank you for your wonderful support. Best Wishes, Love, Sulaiman Addonia 30.8.08.'

London: Methuen, 1985. 8vo, pp. 436. Original laminated card wrappers. Wrappers a little age-toned, otherwise a near fine copy. Illustrated throughout. First edition, INSCRIBED BY LOSEY'S WIDOW, PATRICIA: 'January 1993, For David -- Wish you had met Joe -- but he is very much in this book -- Love Patricia.' The recipient was David Gothard, co-founder of the Riverside Studios, London. Laid in to the rear endpapers are a postcard and an invitation to a drinks party, both from Patricia Losey to Gothard.

London: Michael Joseph, 1951. 8vo, pp. 255. Original blue boards, lettered in gilt to spine. Map fronitispiece. Illustrated dust jacket. The lightest of offsetting to endpapers, but a fine copy in a near fine dust jacket with a couple of small closed tears and a little wear to corners and head of spine. Dust jacket design by Patrick Gierth. First edition of the author's first novel, and first in the Mr. Cork series. Macdonald Hastings [1909-1982] was a British journalist and broadcaster (and father of Max Hastings). The Mr. Cork series of detective stories eventually ran to five novels. HUBIN, p. 196

London: Ward, Lock & Co., 1949. 8vo, pp. 286. Original black boards, lettered in gold on spine. Some foxing to edges of text block and preliminaries. In a rather tired but complete pictorial dustwrapper. First edition. One of the Chandos books, written in the characteristic Yates style -- a style once described by Alan Bennett as 'snobbery with violence'.

Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1928. 8vo, pp. 303. Original purple boards, lettered in green to front panel and spine. Illustrated dust jacket. Small area of sunning to foot of spine corresponding to chip in dust jacket. A very good copy in a very good price-clipped dust jacket, a little light chipping and with loss to foot of spine. First US edition, preceded by the UK edition published earlier the same year. The fourth of seven Williams titles featuring the German spy Dr. Adolph Grundt, better known as Clubfoot. HUBIN, p. 439

New York: Harper & Bros., 1952. 8vo, pp. 276. Original grey and blue three-quarter cloth, lettered in white on spine. A fine copy in a near fine dustwrapper, with light edgewear to edges and spine ends. First edition. Published a year before Burns' death in Florence of a cerebral haemorrhage, this is a curious return to the closet, with Burns making only veiled references to the sexuality of his characters where in earlier, better work he had been candid and unapologetic. Gore Vidal believed that Burns 'wanted to die', and had drunk himself to death. Poorly reviewed, and a sad epitaph. A near fine copy.