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The Sot-Weed Factor -
John Barth
1960 - Doubleday, Garden City - First Edition
First edition of John Barth's satirical epic set in the 1680s–90s in London and colonial Maryland, cementing his reputation as one of the leading experimental writers of his generation. Accompanied by two examples of the scarce and delicate dust jacket, suitably designed by Edward Gorey.
The main character - Ebenezer Cooke - was considered by Time to be ‘one of the most diverting... to roam the world since Candide’.
The Sot-Weed Factor ‘recounts the widely chaotic odyssey of hapless, ungainly Ebenezer Cooke, sent to the New World to look after his father’s tobacco business and to record the struggles of the Maryland colony in an epic poem. On his mission, Cooke experiences capture by pirates and Indians; the loss of his father’s estate to roguish impostors; love for a former prostitute; stealthy efforts to rob him of his virginity, which he is (almost) determined to protect; and an extraordinary gallery of treacherous characters who continually switch identities. “ [Atlantic]
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Price HK$ 6,000
1960 - Doubleday, Garden City - First Edition
First edition of John Barth's satirical epic set in the 1680s–90s in London and colonial Maryland, cementing his reputation as one of the leading experimental writers of his generation. Accompanied by two examples of the scarce and delicate dust jacket, suitably designed by Edward Gorey.The main character - Ebenezer Cooke - was considered by Time to be ‘one of the most diverting... to roam the world since Candide’.
The Sot-Weed Factor ‘recounts the widely chaotic odyssey of hapless, ungainly Ebenezer Cooke, sent to the New World to look after his father’s tobacco business and to record the struggles of the Maryland colony in an epic poem. On his mission, Cooke experiences capture by pirates and Indians; the loss of his father’s estate to roguish impostors; love for a former prostitute; stealthy efforts to rob him of his virginity, which he is (almost) determined to protect; and an extraordinary gallery of treacherous characters who continually switch identities. “ [Atlantic]
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Price HK$ 6,000
The Yellow Book -
Aubrey Beardsley
April 1894-April 1897 - Elkin Mathews &, London
A complete, clean and better than normally encountered thirteen volume set of this groundbreaking art nouveau publication, in the publisher’s bright yellow illustrated covers with designs by Aubrey Beardsley. Together with ‘A Selection’ published in 1950 and bound in yellow cloth to match the earlier set. Fourteen volumes in total.
From its initial visually arresting issue, for which Aubrey Beardsley was art editor and for which Max Beerbohm wrote an essay, ‘A Defence of Cosmetics’, ‘The Yellow Book’ attained immediate notoriety.
Published by John Lane and edited by Henry Harland, ‘The Yellow Book’ attracted many outstanding writers and artists of the era, such as Arnold Bennett, Charlotte Mew, Henry James, Edmund Gosse, Richard Le Gallienne, and Walter Sickert.
Although dominated by the illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley, and his decadent fin de siècle aura, many other distinguished artists contributed to the quarterly, notably Frederic Leighton, Will Rothenstein, Walter Sickert and Philip Wilson Steer; contributors to the text included Max Beerbohm, John Buchan, Baron Corvo, Edmund Gosse, Kenneth Grahame, Henry James, E. Nesbit and W. B. Yeats.
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Price HK$ 10,000
April 1894-April 1897 - Elkin Mathews &, London
A complete, clean and better than normally encountered thirteen volume set of this groundbreaking art nouveau publication, in the publisher’s bright yellow illustrated covers with designs by Aubrey Beardsley. Together with ‘A Selection’ published in 1950 and bound in yellow cloth to match the earlier set. Fourteen volumes in total.From its initial visually arresting issue, for which Aubrey Beardsley was art editor and for which Max Beerbohm wrote an essay, ‘A Defence of Cosmetics’, ‘The Yellow Book’ attained immediate notoriety.
Published by John Lane and edited by Henry Harland, ‘The Yellow Book’ attracted many outstanding writers and artists of the era, such as Arnold Bennett, Charlotte Mew, Henry James, Edmund Gosse, Richard Le Gallienne, and Walter Sickert.
Although dominated by the illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley, and his decadent fin de siècle aura, many other distinguished artists contributed to the quarterly, notably Frederic Leighton, Will Rothenstein, Walter Sickert and Philip Wilson Steer; contributors to the text included Max Beerbohm, John Buchan, Baron Corvo, Edmund Gosse, Kenneth Grahame, Henry James, E. Nesbit and W. B. Yeats.
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Price HK$ 10,000
The Two Undertakers -
Francis Beeding
1933 - Little, Boston - First American Edition
Featuring Colonel Alistair Granby of C.I.D., aided by Ronald Briercliffe and Hilda von Esseling as they engage in a chess game across Eastern Europe against a fanatical Frenchman’s modern day Assassins who plan the destruction of present-day Germany.
An interesting scenario considering this ‘present-day Germany’ is set in the early 1930’s.
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Price HK$ 1,800
1933 - Little, Boston - First American Edition
Featuring Colonel Alistair Granby of C.I.D., aided by Ronald Briercliffe and Hilda von Esseling as they engage in a chess game across Eastern Europe against a fanatical Frenchman’s modern day Assassins who plan the destruction of present-day Germany.An interesting scenario considering this ‘present-day Germany’ is set in the early 1930’s.
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Price HK$ 1,800
Death in the House -
Anthony Berkeley
1939 - Hodder and Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition
A rare Berkeley title.
‘Lord Wellacombe, Secretary of State for India, dies whilst giving a speech to introduce a new bill on the floor of the House of Commons. His untimely demise looks like a stroke, but is it mere coincidence that a threat on his life had been made? The bill needs to be passed, but is anyone brave enough to defy the threats and risk potential murder?’
Enter Lord Arthur...
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Price HK$ 1,800
1939 - Hodder and Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition
A rare Berkeley title.‘Lord Wellacombe, Secretary of State for India, dies whilst giving a speech to introduce a new bill on the floor of the House of Commons. His untimely demise looks like a stroke, but is it mere coincidence that a threat on his life had been made? The bill needs to be passed, but is anyone brave enough to defy the threats and risk potential murder?’
Enter Lord Arthur...
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Price HK$ 1,800
Trial and Error -
Anthony Berkeley
1937 - Hodder and Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition
Dedicated to P. G. Wodehouse.
‘Non-descript, upstanding Mr Todhunter is told that he has only months to live. He decides to commit a murder for the good of mankind. Finding a worthy victim proves far from easy, and there is a false start before he settles on and dispatches his target. But then the police arrest an innocent man, and the honourable Todhunter has to set about proving himself guilty of the murder.’
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Price HK$ 2,800
1937 - Hodder and Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition
Dedicated to P. G. Wodehouse.‘Non-descript, upstanding Mr Todhunter is told that he has only months to live. He decides to commit a murder for the good of mankind. Finding a worthy victim proves far from easy, and there is a false start before he settles on and dispatches his target. But then the police arrest an innocent man, and the honourable Todhunter has to set about proving himself guilty of the murder.’
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Price HK$ 2,800
Found Money -
George A. Birmingham (pseud. James Owen Hannay)
1923 - The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis - First American Edition
A humorous Irish mystery of buried treasure. A fine copy in delicate dust jacket.
George A. Birmingham was the pen name of James Owen Hannay (1865-1950), Irish clergyman and prolific and successful novelist.
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Price HK$ 800
1923 - The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis - First American Edition
A humorous Irish mystery of buried treasure. A fine copy in delicate dust jacket.George A. Birmingham was the pen name of James Owen Hannay (1865-1950), Irish clergyman and prolific and successful novelist.
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Price HK$ 800
You Can't Win -
Jack Black, Robert Herrick (Foreword)
1926 - The Macmillan Company, New York - First Edition
The classic American anti-hero narrative of West Coast hobo safecracker and petty thief, Jack Black—a work which William S. Burroughs cited as one of his favorite books. The acknowledgment page sets the tone for Black's journey through the American underworld, "This book is dedicated to Fremont Older, to Judge Frank H. Dunne, to the unnamed friend who sawed me out of the San Francisco jail and to that dirty, drunken, disreputable, crippled beggar, 'Sticks' Sullivan, who picked the buckshot out of my back—under the bridge—at Baraboo, Wisconsin".
‘A journey into the hobo underworld, freight hopping around the still Wild West, becoming a highwayman and member of the yegg (criminal) brotherhood, getting hooked on opium, doing stints in jail or escaping, often with the assistance of crooked cops or judges.’ - A K Press.
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Price HK$ 7,500
1926 - The Macmillan Company, New York - First Edition
The classic American anti-hero narrative of West Coast hobo safecracker and petty thief, Jack Black—a work which William S. Burroughs cited as one of his favorite books. The acknowledgment page sets the tone for Black's journey through the American underworld, "This book is dedicated to Fremont Older, to Judge Frank H. Dunne, to the unnamed friend who sawed me out of the San Francisco jail and to that dirty, drunken, disreputable, crippled beggar, 'Sticks' Sullivan, who picked the buckshot out of my back—under the bridge—at Baraboo, Wisconsin".‘A journey into the hobo underworld, freight hopping around the still Wild West, becoming a highwayman and member of the yegg (criminal) brotherhood, getting hooked on opium, doing stints in jail or escaping, often with the assistance of crooked cops or judges.’ - A K Press.
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Price HK$ 7,500
Fahrenheit 451 - Signed -
Ray Bradbury
1953 - Ballantine Books, New York - First edition
One of the Most Desirable Rarities in Modern Science Fiction.
First edition, one of 200 copies, of which this is number 36, signed by Bradbury and bound in ‘an asbestos material with exceptional resistance to pyrolysis’.
An outstanding, tight and bright copy, whose magnificently named binding material ‘Johns-Manville Quinterra’, a fireproof asbestos material, is prone to crumbling, staining, and soiling.
‘Frightening in its implications.’ - New York Times.
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Price HK$ 250,000
1953 - Ballantine Books, New York - First edition
One of the Most Desirable Rarities in Modern Science Fiction.First edition, one of 200 copies, of which this is number 36, signed by Bradbury and bound in ‘an asbestos material with exceptional resistance to pyrolysis’.
An outstanding, tight and bright copy, whose magnificently named binding material ‘Johns-Manville Quinterra’, a fireproof asbestos material, is prone to crumbling, staining, and soiling.
‘Frightening in its implications.’ - New York Times.
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Price HK$ 250,000