Search Results: Titles starting with P from Christopher de Lotbiniere Rare Books

New York: Viking Press, 1986. First printing. Hardcover. Fine/near fine. For the many years that Davies was editor and publisher of a Canadian newapaper, a column appeared by Samual Marchbanks, his flamboyant alter-ego. Three volumes of his writings were eventually published and this is the pick of the crop, re-edited by Rorertson Davies himself. This copy is SIGNED, with a dedication, not with Davies' name but in his distinctive copper-plate script, in brown ink, "with the good wishes of both the Authors", on the title page.

New York: Random House, 1988. First printing. Hardcover. As New/as new. This is a true first edition of Pete Dexter's most successful novel to date, of which William Styron has written: "A grim and fascinating novel filled with wonderful comic touches, by a writer whose brilliant understanding of the Deep South has allowed him to capture much of its essence...". An immaculate copy.

London: Andre Deutsch, 1976. First printing. Hardcover. As New/as new. With wit and his usual marvellous drawings, Nicolas Bentley confronts the terrible aftermath of a routine operation that goes wrong and condemns him to months in hospital. His illustrations for Hilaire Belloc and T. S. Eliot's works have earned him an immortal place in any Hall of Fame, but here he demonstrates his writing skills as well.

Burroughs uses a shoot-out in the Wild West of the 1890s to launch a trip through space and time, speeding up and slowing down like a movie director.
Hardcover with jacket.

London: Weidenfeld & Niicolson, 1963. First UK edition. Hardcover. Very Good/very good. Stated first edition. Book has slight spine lean, one or two spots of foxing to edge and a former owner's name and date to first page. Jacket has minor edgewear, else clean and bright. Miller's breezy tone, as his unscrupulous characters drift through life, taking what they want with total disrespect for the ordinary people, is still shocking, and this book remains a defining text for the rebellion of the post-war beats.

London: Cassell & Co., 1968. First printing. Hardcover. As New/near fine. An immaculate copy of 40 poems Graves decided were missing from a previous collection, Love Respelt. Graves has become a legendery example of the scholar-poet-shaman, living in a sort of Classical paradise, communing with the gods.

A charming booklet, containing five long poems by Betjeman, originally written to be read on the radio.
He and his friend John Piper, the illustrator, were obsessed by English country churches and made a practice of visiting, cataloguing and grading the thousands that still dot the English landscape.
Softcover, with wraps and illustrations printed in blue.

Noel Coward's only novel, in which the action revolves around preparations for a visit from the royal yacht to a Caribbean island.
Throw in some scheming socialites and everything that can go wrong, is bound to do so, in this light-hearted social satire.
Hardcover

London: Collins, 1969. First UK edition. Hardcover. Fine/fine. This is a compilation from Pont's many books of cartoons of the British in the 30s and 40s - still startlingly relevant today. Killed at an early age (32), in 1940, he had had time to nail the social life of his day with drawings of unparalleled skill. Still by far the best cartoonist of his era and nothing, except the clothes, has changed.

A collection of very funny pieces from the chaotic life of Burroughs and his even more chaotic friends. Urban angst that makes us feel good about ourselves?

A short series of 14 musings on and around the themes that propelled The Name of The Rose to become a massive best-seller.
"I felt like poisoning a Monk" says Eco, and the rest followed naturally. This small book has become rather sought after.
Perfect copy, apart from a previous owner blind stamp to half-title page.
Hardcover.

London: Methuen & Co., 1984. Second edition . Very Good/fine. First appearing in 1946, this is the second English edition of an early novel, part satire and part autobiography, a formula which would become Isherwood's own. At once a comic portrait of the new film industry and a serious examination of the difference between art and life, this book marked a turning point in Isherwood's life.

Noel Coward
Pretty Polly and Other Stories
New York: Doubleday, 1965
First printing

Three long short stories from the acid pen of a master playwright.

Coward's world is full of social schemers and camp references, but his characters just want to find someone to love.

Hardcover with slight wear to jacket

A good first printing of this hugely successful novel, turned into a movie with Nick Nolte and Barbra Striesand.
A brother realizes that his salvation lies in the emotional rescue of his troubled sister and the exposure of their family secrets.
Hardcover, with slight wear too jacket.

Judith Crist
The Private Eye, The Cowboy and The Very Naked Girl
New York ; Holt. Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
First printing

Judith Crist's early movie reviews in New York magazine have become legend. In this first collection of them, she covers many classics 'from Cleopatra to Bonny and Clyde', shattering the conventional hierarchy of Hollywood and lamenting the ever-more violent trends she sees emerging, by the end of the '60s.

SIGNED in felt-tip, in the first end page.

Hardcover.