Journey Without Maps -
Graham Greene
1936 - William Heinemann Ltd., London - First Edition
A near fine first edition of this most elusive title, Graham Greene’s first travel book, illustrated with 34 black and white photographs taken by him. Listed in National Geographic's 100 Greatest Adventure books.
Shortly after Greene's first child was born in December 1933 he had an impulse to explore Liberia, and over a glass of champagne asked his twenty-three year old cousin to accompany him. The result, according to Norman Sherry, was "one of the best travel books of our time..." (The Life of Graham Greene).
‘A doctor in Freetown, Sierra Leone, P.D. Oakley, sued the publisher, Heinemann, after the book's publication, saying Greene's depiction of a character in the book, called Pa Oakley, also a doctor, was libellous. Heinemann withdrew the book from circulation and pulped the remaining copies’. It took 10 years for a second edition to be printed.’
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Price HK$ 15,000
1936 - William Heinemann Ltd., London - First Edition
A near fine first edition of this most elusive title, Graham Greene’s first travel book, illustrated with 34 black and white photographs taken by him. Listed in National Geographic's 100 Greatest Adventure books.Shortly after Greene's first child was born in December 1933 he had an impulse to explore Liberia, and over a glass of champagne asked his twenty-three year old cousin to accompany him. The result, according to Norman Sherry, was "one of the best travel books of our time..." (The Life of Graham Greene).
‘A doctor in Freetown, Sierra Leone, P.D. Oakley, sued the publisher, Heinemann, after the book's publication, saying Greene's depiction of a character in the book, called Pa Oakley, also a doctor, was libellous. Heinemann withdrew the book from circulation and pulped the remaining copies’. It took 10 years for a second edition to be printed.’
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Price HK$ 15,000
Lions and Shadows - An Education in the Twenties -
Christopher Isherwood
1938 - Leonard &, London - First Edition, First Impression
The first of Isherwood’s fictional biographies. A captivating account of a young novelist’s development in the literary culture of 1920s Cambridge and London and of his experiences as he forged lifelong friendships with his peers W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and Edward Upward.
‘That young man holds the future of the English novel in his hands.’ - W. Somerset Maugham, after reading Lions and Shadows.
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Price HK$ 4,000
1938 - Leonard &, London - First Edition, First Impression
The first of Isherwood’s fictional biographies. A captivating account of a young novelist’s development in the literary culture of 1920s Cambridge and London and of his experiences as he forged lifelong friendships with his peers W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and Edward Upward.‘That young man holds the future of the English novel in his hands.’ - W. Somerset Maugham, after reading Lions and Shadows.
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Price HK$ 4,000
The Salmon Fly: How to Dress it and How to Use it -
Geo. M. Kelson
1895 - Published by the Author, London - First Edition
One of the finest books produced on the Salmon Fly, for the passionate fly fisherman, with eight beautiful full page colour plates of flies, and over 120 black and white wood engraved illustrations. In The Salmon Fly, George Kelson boldly and confidently distilled a lifetime of salmon fishing wisdom into this privately published work. In the publisher’s bright burgundy and gilt cloth, housed in a custom felt lined slipcase.
The first part of the book is devoted to the techniques of tying the salmon fly as well as patterns for individual flies. The second part is devoted to the practical aspects of fishing for salmon with the fly, locating fish, casting techniques, catching and landing fish and various accessories and equipment.
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Price HK$ 12,000
1895 - Published by the Author, London - First Edition
One of the finest books produced on the Salmon Fly, for the passionate fly fisherman, with eight beautiful full page colour plates of flies, and over 120 black and white wood engraved illustrations. In The Salmon Fly, George Kelson boldly and confidently distilled a lifetime of salmon fishing wisdom into this privately published work. In the publisher’s bright burgundy and gilt cloth, housed in a custom felt lined slipcase.The first part of the book is devoted to the techniques of tying the salmon fly as well as patterns for individual flies. The second part is devoted to the practical aspects of fishing for salmon with the fly, locating fish, casting techniques, catching and landing fish and various accessories and equipment.
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Price HK$ 12,000
A Way of Seeing. Photographs of New York -
Helen Levitt, James Agee
1965 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition
A fine first edition, of this important photographic work.
In 1945 Photographer Levitt and Pulitzer Prize winning author James Agee worked together in 1945 on a documentary film shot in Harlem, these photographs were taken on the streets of Harlem and the Lower East Side in the late 1930’s and 1940s, but the project remained unpublished until ‘A Way of Seeing’ in 1965.
In James Agee's words, ‘‘Levitt’s photographs seem to me as beautiful, perceptive, satisfying, and enduring as any lyrical work that I know… an uninsistent but irrefutable manifesto of a way of seeing, and, in a gentle and wholly unpretentious way, a major poetic work’.
‘Since its first publication in 1965, Helen Levitt’s collection of photographs taken on the streets of New York in the 1940s has been a classic of its kind. Produced in collaboration with writer James Agee, who provided the book’s introduction. Levitt’s focus on marginalized children and communities offers a compassionate perspective. His work also set a new standard for authenticity and poetic storytelling in street photography. A Way of Seeing remains a benchmark for those seeking humanity in their images.’ – The 50 Most Influential Photobooks of All Time – Blind Magazine, January 2025.
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Price HK$ 10,000
1965 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition
A fine first edition, of this important photographic work.In 1945 Photographer Levitt and Pulitzer Prize winning author James Agee worked together in 1945 on a documentary film shot in Harlem, these photographs were taken on the streets of Harlem and the Lower East Side in the late 1930’s and 1940s, but the project remained unpublished until ‘A Way of Seeing’ in 1965.
In James Agee's words, ‘‘Levitt’s photographs seem to me as beautiful, perceptive, satisfying, and enduring as any lyrical work that I know… an uninsistent but irrefutable manifesto of a way of seeing, and, in a gentle and wholly unpretentious way, a major poetic work’.
‘Since its first publication in 1965, Helen Levitt’s collection of photographs taken on the streets of New York in the 1940s has been a classic of its kind. Produced in collaboration with writer James Agee, who provided the book’s introduction. Levitt’s focus on marginalized children and communities offers a compassionate perspective. His work also set a new standard for authenticity and poetic storytelling in street photography. A Way of Seeing remains a benchmark for those seeking humanity in their images.’ – The 50 Most Influential Photobooks of All Time – Blind Magazine, January 2025.
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Price HK$ 10,000
Of Human Bondage -
William Somerset Maugham
1915 - George H. Doran Company, New York - First Edition, First Issue
A superb example, the first edition of Maugham’s masterpiece, and the most autobiographical of his works. The coming-of-age story of Philip Carey, a sensitive young man consumed by an unrequited and self-destructive love.
One of 4,336 copies of the first edition published on 12 August 1915. First issue with misprint ‘help him’ on page 257 line 4.
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Price HK$ 35,000
1915 - George H. Doran Company, New York - First Edition, First Issue
A superb example, the first edition of Maugham’s masterpiece, and the most autobiographical of his works. The coming-of-age story of Philip Carey, a sensitive young man consumed by an unrequited and self-destructive love.One of 4,336 copies of the first edition published on 12 August 1915. First issue with misprint ‘help him’ on page 257 line 4.
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Price HK$ 35,000
On a Chinese Screen -
William Somerset Maugham
1922 - William Heinemann, London - First English Edition
First edition of Maugham’s collection of sketches on China.
Maugham spent the winter months of 1919 travelling fifteen hundred miles up the Yangtze river, with what are clearly long stops in Shanghai and Hong Kong amongst other treaty ports. Always more interested in people than places, he noted down acute and finely crafted sketches of those he met on countless scraps of paper.
In the resulting collection we encounter Western missionaries, army officers and company managers who are culturally out of their depth in the immensity of the Chinese civilisation. Maugham keenly observes, and gently ridicules, their dogged and oblivious persistence with the life they know. In total 58 sketches.
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Price HK$ 15,000
1922 - William Heinemann, London - First English Edition
First edition of Maugham’s collection of sketches on China.Maugham spent the winter months of 1919 travelling fifteen hundred miles up the Yangtze river, with what are clearly long stops in Shanghai and Hong Kong amongst other treaty ports. Always more interested in people than places, he noted down acute and finely crafted sketches of those he met on countless scraps of paper.
In the resulting collection we encounter Western missionaries, army officers and company managers who are culturally out of their depth in the immensity of the Chinese civilisation. Maugham keenly observes, and gently ridicules, their dogged and oblivious persistence with the life they know. In total 58 sketches.
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Price HK$ 15,000
The Casuarina Tree - Six Stories -
William Somerset Maugham
1926 - William Heinemann Ltd., London - First Edition
First edition in the scarce dust jacket designed by Ralph Keene
Maugham’s collection of short stories by set in the Federated Malay States during the 1920s, including one of his most aclaimed ‘The Outsider’.
by W. Somerset Maugham. The stories are loosely based on Maugham's experiences traveling in the region for about a year
With a short introduction entitled ‘The Casuarina Tree’ followed by the stories – ‘Before the Party’, ‘P. & O.’, ‘The Outstation’, ‘The Force of Circumstance’, ‘The Yellow Streak’, and ‘The Letter’.
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Price HK$ 40,000
1926 - William Heinemann Ltd., London - First Edition
First edition in the scarce dust jacket designed by Ralph KeeneMaugham’s collection of short stories by set in the Federated Malay States during the 1920s, including one of his most aclaimed ‘The Outsider’.
by W. Somerset Maugham. The stories are loosely based on Maugham's experiences traveling in the region for about a year
With a short introduction entitled ‘The Casuarina Tree’ followed by the stories – ‘Before the Party’, ‘P. & O.’, ‘The Outstation’, ‘The Force of Circumstance’, ‘The Yellow Streak’, and ‘The Letter’.
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Price HK$ 40,000
Cakes and Ale - or - The Skeleton in the Cupboard -
William Somerset Maugham
1930 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Edition
“Enjoy yourself while you have the chance, I say; we shall all be dead in a hundred years and what will anything matter then?”
First edition, in outstanding example of the dust jacket, of Somerset Maugham's classic satirical novel; a story of literary poseurs, fame, hypocrisy and freedom, narrated by novelist William Ashenden, Maugham's alter-ego who had already appeared in 'Ashenden', the fictional account of his Secret Service work in World War I.
The book I like best is Cakes and Ale. It was an amusing book to write.
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Price HK$ 7,000
1930 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Edition
“Enjoy yourself while you have the chance, I say; we shall all be dead in a hundred years and what will anything matter then?” First edition, in outstanding example of the dust jacket, of Somerset Maugham's classic satirical novel; a story of literary poseurs, fame, hypocrisy and freedom, narrated by novelist William Ashenden, Maugham's alter-ego who had already appeared in 'Ashenden', the fictional account of his Secret Service work in World War I.
The book I like best is Cakes and Ale. It was an amusing book to write.
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Price HK$ 7,000