Search Results: Titles starting with O from The Second Shelf

London: Victor Gollancz, 1964. Fourth impression.
Hardcover, 208 pp. Red cloth binding, bump on the bottom of spine, some toning on the top edges, near fine. Original jacket, some age related darkening and slight wear on the edges, as well as two small closed tears on the bottom edge, but bright and very good condition.

New York: Random House, 1993. First edition thus. Small square octavo. Publisher's original cream cloth titled in gilt to the spine in a lovely example of the cream and blue dust jacket with some light soiling and grubbiness, a very good copy indeed. Internally clean. A very sharp example of the Presidential Inaugural Poem by William Jefferson Clinton. First published in paperback.

London: The Bodley Head, 1984. First edition. Hardcover, 188 pp. Brown cloth binding and dust jacket in near fine condition. In The Only Problem, Spark assigns her main character, Harvey, the task of wrestling with the big questions of life and philosophy of religion, as he tries to bang out his monograph about Job - the problem at hand being how can an omnipotent creator permit suffering in the world? Spark casts the rest of her characters to compare the conventional and the unconventional. There's cheating, partner swapping, the police, and some seclusion in France. So, it's not too holy, because it's Spark.

Graphic novelist Posy Simmonds names Kathleen Hale's books as important to her. A glimpse at the gorgeous layout of Orlando the Marmalade Cat: A Camping Holiday shows the influence.
London & New York: Country Life and Transatlantic Arts, 1948. Third printing of the 1938 first edition. Signed by the author on the front endpaper. 31 pages. Folio. Hardcover. Beautiful colour lithographed illustrations throughout. Near fine in slightly chipped with a small loss a bottom, very good unclipped dust jacket. Rare signed.

A superb manuscript book recording events at Burlington House Girls High School, Spring Grove, Isleworth, Hounslow from 1887-1890, with most of the materials produced by students. The school was established by Medina Griffiths (1840-1927) in September 1886. In an essay, printed and placed in the back of the book, she details her views on education and states: "I would have girls placed on an equality with boys so far as educational advantages are concerned… I would have girls stand in the foremost ranks of learning". She was witty and musical, and though at times caustic and frightening, she was adored by a vast number of her pupils. Griffith's personality clearly permeated the school, resulting in the lively students' work bound in Ort and Naughts, including cartoons, original poetry and comic writing alongside accomplished art and trompe l'oeil work. A number of the event programmes bound in are hand printed and painted. Records of her pupil's names and examinations included, and a carefully… Read More

First edition, first printing. Barbara Comyn's second novel, set in 1930's London, is an intense and dark account of a marriage's failure, childbirth, and financial difficulty. Our Spoons goes into significant details about an arduous pregnancy and delivery, and as Emily Gould notes in The Paris Review, this was provocative and unusual for 1950. She explains, "Comyns elevates what might have been a commonplace melodrama about a girl led astray into much more unusual sort of novel."
A cult classic by an underrated writer. Incredibly rare and highly desirable.
Hardcover, 223 pp. Green cloth binding, very slight toning on edges and almost imperceptible wear on the top and bottom edges of the spine. Original jacket, shows age related darkening, toning of the spine and signs of wear around the edges, and a minor scratch on the centre of the front cover. Significant foxing in the edges of the book, no markings or annotations. Binding is intact. Overall in very good condition.