Search Results: Titles starting with V from Adrian Harrington Rare Books

London: Jonathan Cape, 1963. [Post modern literature] FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.[2] 492 [6]. Elegantly hand-bound in black half oasis morocco, spine gilt-lettered in six compartments with raised bands, and matching black cloth over boards. Top edge gilt, with original cloth spine bound in at rear. A fine copy in an attractive recent leather binding. Author's acclaimed debut. In a state of perfection completely at odds with the characters populating it. The British edition includes Pynchon's final revisions not found in the American first.

London: Harper Collins, 2002. [Historical Fiction] SIGNED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.[12] 371 [1]. With map, vignette illustrations and pictorial endpapers. SIGNED by the author in black ink to title page. Publisher's black cloth with gilt titles to spine, and illustrated light pink endpapers. With the dust-jacket illustrated by Chris Moore, priced at £17.99. A fine, as-new copy, dark-stored by ourselves since publication. A young archer sets out to avenge his family's honour on the battlefields of the Hundred Years' War and winds up on a quest for the Holy Grail.

London: Printed for B. Crosby and Co. [etc.], no date [circa 1800]. [Short Romantic Tale] FIRST EDITION. Octavo pamphlet (19 x 12cm), pp.36. No covers; sewn. Internally crisp and clean. Outer leaves toned, with top right corner of the title page lost. Very good. An injured itinerant Irish veteran regales a welcoming Welsh family with tales of his soldiering adventures around the world, and in so-doing wins the heart of his host's daughter. A rare item listed in just five major UK libraries. Goodwin, G., & Potier, J., 'Corry, John (fl. 1792-1836), writer.' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 10 Jun. 2023.

London: University of London Press, 1951. [Children's Literature] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.255 [1]. With a colour frontispiece and occasional line-drawn illustrations throughout the text by Spurrier. Publisher's red cloth with gilt titles to spine and a gilt ship device to upper. Top edge red, and illustrated endpapers. With the colour-illustrated dust-jacket, also by Spurrier, priced at 9/6. Gilt to spine heavily oxidised. Heavy wear to jacket spine, joints and edges, and heavy sunning also to spine. Crisp and clean internally. Very good. A charming children's fantasy based around the construction of a ship.

New York: Alex Grosset & Company, [1898]. [Poetry] SEPARATE EDITION. 16mo (18 x 12cm), pp.[8], with clack and white frontispiece illustration. Text printed in red and green. Publishers's illustrated wraps, tied. Parted at spine, loose in covers. Good. With the front portion or the original mailing envelope. Uncommon.

London: Secker and Warburg, 1959. [Literary Magazine] FIRST UK APPEARANCE. Magazine (26 x 19cm), pp.88. With a black and white photographic plate of Rose Macaulay by Cecil Beaton. Publisher's paper covers. Covers lightly toned and handled. Near fine. Including the first UK appearance of a short story by Nabokov, and a tribute to the life and career of Rose Macaulay.

New York, NY: D. Appleton and Company, no date [circa 1890s]. [Natural History] LIMITED EDITION. Two volumes. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.[4] xii; 461 [1]; pp.[4] viii; 478 [2]. With 43 in-text illustrations to volume I, and a black and white photographic frontispiece to each volume. Number 127 of 1000 copies thus. Publisher's burgundy cloth with gilt titles to spines. Top edges gilt; others untrimmed. Attractive copies printed on good paper. Spines toned and rubbed. Very good. Naturalist Charles Darwin's evolution-related experiments and investigations culminated in five main books on plants, of which 'Variation' was the first (1868), followed by 'Movement and Habits of Climbing Plants' (1875), 'Insectivorous Plants' (1875), 'The Different Forms of Flowers' (1877), and 'The Power of Movement In Plants' (1880). This copy reproduces the text of the Second Edition.

London and Tunbridge Wells: The Reliance Press, no date [1925]. [Kent and Sussex Poetry] INSCRIBED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.63 [1]. INSCRIBED by the author in blue ink to title page: 'To Major Heron, with the author's | kindred regards & in remembrance | of many a hearty laugh! | april 1926.' Publisher's plain textured card wrappers with yapp edges with titles printed to front cover. All edges untrimmed. Light spotting to preliminaries. Covers lightly browned and rubbed. Near fine. Braban was a stage and early film actor from Sussex who seems also to have tried his hand at poetry.

London: Jonathan Cape, 1933. [Journalism/Fiction] SIGNED FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 13cm), pp.336. Illustrated. Publisher's hardback cloth binding. With Fleming's pencilled autograph and signature latin 'scripsit' ['He wrote it'] to flyleaf. Contents clean, some light age-related spotting to edges, binding gently handled. Decorative bookseller ticket to rear [French bookstore, Peiping, China]. A very good copy of the author's scarce third book. Articles and short stories, some published in The Spectator and The Bystander. Lt.Col. Robert Peter Fleming OBE was a British adventurer and travel writer, brother of novelist Ian Fleming, and unofficial editor of his James Bond books. He has often been cited as a model for the debonair secret service agent created by his brother. The present copy is from the comprehensive archive assembled by Jon Gilbert (pencil signature within). His encyclopaedic guide to the works of Ian Fleming (2012, published by Peter Fleming's daughter Kate Grimond) won the 16th… Read More

Herning: Poul Kristensen, 1965. [Drama in Translation] INSCRIBED FIRST DANISH EDITION. Octavo (24 x 16cm), pp.114 [6]. All text in Danish. INSCRIBED by the translator in black ink to the first blank, dated October 1965, with a longer message written onto the back of a business card. Publisher's grey soft covers with titles to spine and upper, and blue endpapers. Light toning to covers, with some bumping to head and tail of spine. Near fine. Eliot's drama 'The Elder Statesman' is the last of his drawing room plays (following 'Murder In the Cathedral', 'The Cocktail Party' and 'The Family Reunion') in which he attempts to give a final expression to his vision of life. First published in English in 1959. Gallup D57.

London: Quartet Books, 1974. [Modern literature] FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo (22 x 13cm), pp.[14]; 288; [2]. Publisher's blue softcovers, white titles to upper, lower, and spine. With the pictorial dust-jacket designed by Paul May priced at £1.50 to front flap. Light toning to edges. Some wear to spine. Otherwise, near fine. The now out-of-print novel by Dunne which was met with two challenges upon release; first, it was published only three years after the cult classic 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,' and secondly, readers weren't sure whether the book was a novel or non-fiction. Dunne's preface only serves to further muddy this distinction.

New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923. [Comedy Drama] FINELY BOUND FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.[10] 145 [5]. Recently bound in green full morocco, with raised bands, gilt titles and decoration to spine, and a facsimile signature stamped in gilt to upper. Top edge gilt, fore-edge untrimmed, and marbled endpapers, with the original green cloth upper and spine bound in at rear. Paper slightly toned as usual. A crisp, clean copy in an attractive new leather binding. One of 7650 copies published. Bruccoli [A10].

New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923. [Comedy Drama] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.[8] 145 [7]. Publisher's green cloth with gilt titles to spine and blind to upper. Fore-edge untrimmed. Gently toned throughout, as usual. Neat ownership to flyleaf, bookseller's labels to rear endpapers. Gilt a little rubbed and dulled to spine. Very good. One of 7650 copies published. Bruccoli [A10].

London, Hutchinson 1988. FIRST EDITION, 8vo. Publisher's black cloth, slightly bumped at bottom of spine and the corners, a few tiny white marks on the back and spine, pages in excellent condition, fine. Photographic dustwrapper, also fine.

London: The Falcon Press, 1949. [Letters] FIRST EDITION. Crown octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.88. With all 12 collotype plates. Title page lettered in red and black. Publisher's light blue cloth, gilt titles to spine. With the typographic dust-jacket priced at 7s 6d to front flap. Internally bright and clean, minor spotting to rear endpaper. Some dulling to spine gilt. Offsetting to reverse of jacket. Toning and marking to jacket panels, jacket backstrip toned with rubbing to joints. Edgewear. Very good. A study of Proust told through his correspondence with his friend Armand de Gramont (Duc de Guiche). Written by Romanian-French socialite, and fellow contemporary of Proust, Marthe Bibesco.

London: Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1965. [Crime Fiction] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (19 x 13cm), pp.192. Publisher's black cloth with gilt titles to spine, 'saint' motifs blocked in gilt, typographic dust-jacket priced at 15s. Rear flap mentions 'a very successful [TV] series starring Roger Moore'. Contents clean, no inscriptions, jacket slightly toned to spine. Near fine. The Saint pledges himself to a strangely impersonal vendetta which takes him to Sicily, where it is all-out, heel-stomping war. With the Robin Hood of Modern Crime pitted against the arch-evil, centuries-old traditions of the Mafia, 'Vendetta' was the first full-length Saint novel since 'The Saint Sees It Through' (1947), all the books since then being short story collections.

New York: For The Crime Club by Doubleday & Co., 1964. [Crime Fiction] FIRST EDITION, with Doubleday slip loosely inserted (likely an advance copy). Precedes the British hardcover. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.208; [4], blank. Publisher's red cloth with black titles to spine, pictorial dust-jacket priced at $3.95. The rear flap mentions 'a very successful NBC-TV series starring Roger Moore'. Contents clean, no inscriptions, crisp jacket. A fine copy. The Saint pledges himself to a strangely impersonal vendetta which takes him to Sicily, where it is all-out, heel-stomping war. With the Robin Hood of Modern Crime pitted against the arch-evil, centuries-old traditions of the Mafia, 'Vendetta' was the first full-length Saint novel since 'The Saint Sees It Through' (1947), all the books since then being short story collections. Steinbrunner and Penzler, pp.349-351.

London: Hutchinson, 1961. [Historical Fiction] FIRST EDITION. Octavo (21 x 14cm), pp.383 [1]. Publisher's blue and yellow interweaved cloth with silver titles to spine; blue endpapers. With the dust-jacket designed by Sax, priced at 18s. Light rubbing and a couple of small closed tears to jacket edges. Near fine. A prequel to the Lucretia-Jose series, set in 1906.

London: Macmillan, 1995. [Crime Fiction] SIGNED FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.[8] 231 [1]. Publisher's blue cloth with gilt titles to spine. With the photographic dust-jacket, priced at £14.99. A fine copy, with author's signature to title page. The fourth in the popular Commissario Brunetti series, set in Venice.

London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1887 [1892]. [Venetian History] FIRST EDITION, a later issue (publisher's catalogue dated 1892). Octavo (20 x 14cm), pp.[8] 433 [67]. Publisher's cyan cloth with gilt titles and black decoration to spine and boards. Green-coated endpapers. A crisp, clean copy with a slight reading lean. Minor rubbing to cloth. Near fine.