Search Results: Titles starting with F from The Second Shelf

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: Constable, 1988. First edition. Hardcover, 189 pp. Brown cloth binding and pictorial dust jacket in near fine condition. Jacket design by Pat Doyle. A Far Cry From Kensington is a favourite recommendation of ours to the Spark-curious. A digestible, funny, and well-observed novel in which Mrs Hawkins, a war widow, looks back at her London of the 1950s with a reminiscent and sharp eye - with some closely observed snark about the publishing scene and literary set.

London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 1976. Published for the Scottish Arts Council Exhibition in 1976. The 8 page publication includes an essay by curator and fashion historian Madeleine Ginsburg on designers including Schiaparelli and Delaunay. From Ginsburg's library, Illustrated with 11 black and white plates and a bibliography. 21 x 15 cm. In very good condition.

Harlin Quist, 1980. First edition, first printing. Paperback, graphic cover. Wraps are slightly worn at edges. Binding is slightly loose at some pages but holding together very well. Very good condition. Fiorucci is stunning book, not only for the writing of Eve Babitz, critically acclaimed for her writing about Los Angeles, pop culture, fashion and rock and roll in the 70's and 80's, which analyses the fashion phenomenon that was, and continues to be, Fiorucci, as a brand and as an aesthetic, but because the book in itself is an incarnation of said aesthetic. A fantastic example of graphic design for fashion writing. A book for lovers of art, design and fashion.

Silver Spring: National Institute of Drycleaning, 1967. Second printing of the revised edition, includes 200 fabric samples, 150 black & white and 58 colour photos of fabric. Index, bibliography. Red cloth boards, title printed in gilt on front cover and spine, binding in excellent condition. 29x22 cm - XX, [1], 571 pages. Minor spotting to title page, endpaper. All samples present (4 no longer attached by adhesive). Minor spotting to 15 samples due to interactions with adhesives. In very good condition.An important association copy documenting the work of three women, Dr. Dorothy Siegert Lyle, Eileen Heagney, and June Wilbur. Signed by the author on the title page "To my dear friend June: I hope Focus on Fabrics serves you well! It should be a constant reminder of Eileen and the programs we believe in so deeply. Fondly, Dot January 16, 1969".Dr. Lyle documented the rapid developments from the 1950s-1970s in the manufacture and care of all kinds of textiles, to enable consumers to maintain the… Read More

New York: Lachman - Novasel - Owens Paper Corporation, 1960. Swatches of Lachman-Novasel-Owens brilliant Paisley foil embossed papers. Lachman - Novasel - Owens was an expanding paper distributor based in New York on Greene Street in Soho. Undated, 20 x 13cm. 12 variously embossed foil paper samples, 4 embossed spun foam papers in stapled brochure. Small mark and crease to cover, very good condition and vivid.

Born Violet Paget in Bologne, France in 1856 to British parents, writer Vernon Lee was a harpsichord-playing expert of the Italian Renaissance who also wrote short stories preoccupied with hauntings and possession. In addition to writing under a man's name, she is known for dressing à la garçonne. She was a lesbian and had three committed relationships with women in her life.
Lee was also known for her criticism and support of the Aesthetics Movement and for her pacifism and feminism. Lee was well-connected and successful in her lifetime, despite her alternative lifestyle, but ultimately was blacklisted after her condemnation of WWI. Long forgotten, her work was rediscovered by feminist academics in the 1990s and she has regained much of her literary reputation, but she still deserves to reclaim a broader readership.
For Maurice is her third and last collection of weird fiction, and contains an insightful introduction by Lee to her stories, and an exquisite example of a humorous fantasy, "Winthrop's… Read More

Montpellier, France. A thriftily made schoolgirl's book featuring over seventy handmade samples of various types of lace work stitched onto four repurposed Gallia notebook covers with four additional sheets folded and bound in with rough stitches. The lace samples are stitched over maps of France on several pages of this book, which was assembled from multi-colour stationery from Librarie Vve Valat [the Bookshop of Widow Valat] in Montpellier. Different colours and weights of yarn and patterns of lace are included, ranging from fine to chunky; much work is evident in the samples, though less in the presentation. An unusually bound sample collection signed "M. Valette" in various places throughout, with some doodling, notes such as "problemes des vacance", math notations. Softcover book in paper cover. 22 x 17.5cm. 14 pages. Pages frayed to extremities, marked due to multiple uses and needle marks. An entirely charming form of homemade sample book, beautifully utilising whatever materials were to… Read More

New York: Alfred A. Knopf Borzoi Book, 1987. A first novel from Eisenstadt is a time capsule from 1987. Set in Queens, NY, by the beach, we follow a group of friends just graduated from high school, capturing the dangerous vibe of teens who don't yet know where they are going next. Eisenstadt wrote at the same time as Tama Janowitz and Bret Easton Ellis and was considered part of the Literary Brat Pack, her 2017 book Swell features some of the same characters.Hardback. 214 pages. 22 x 15.5 cm. Sand coloured boards with gilt lettering to spine. First edition. Near fine book in near fine jacket.

The Bobbs-Merrill, 1964. Annotated and inscribed copy of Sister Mary Gilbert's poetry book given as a gift to David Posner, with correspondence and original poems. Sister Mary Gilbert was the religious name of [Sister] Madeleine DeFrees, who later requested a dispensation from her vows in 1973. She won a Guggenheim Fellowship for Poetry and awards for short stories and memoirs of convent life. The book has an autograph poem written by Sister Madeline De Frees on the front end paper. Laid in the book are two typed poems by her, two typed letters to David and one autograph letter dated March 20, 1968.Hardcover. 23 x 16cm. 64 pages. Price-clipped. Blue quarter cloth over purple boards with white lettering and design to cover and spine.