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Our American Adventure [&] Our Second American Adventure -
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1923 - Doran / Little, New York / Boston - First American Edition
Two volumes. The accounts of Doyle's two American tours investigating and speaking on matters of Spiritualism. Illustrated with black and white photographs.
‘We live in the time of dawn, and year by year the overwhelming importance of this psychic question is forcing itself upon the public attention’
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Price HK$ 2,600
1923 - Doran / Little, New York / Boston - First American Edition
Two volumes. The accounts of Doyle's two American tours investigating and speaking on matters of Spiritualism. Illustrated with black and white photographs.‘We live in the time of dawn, and year by year the overwhelming importance of this psychic question is forcing itself upon the public attention’
More details
Price HK$ 2,600
The Speckled Band : An Adventure of Sherlock Holmes - The original Royal Adelphi Theatre program. -
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1910 - Adelphi Theatre, London
‘Special Cable to The New York Times. London, June 4. -- Sherlock Holmes came to life ton-night on the stage of the Adelphi Theatre in an adaptation of Conan Doyle’s story called “The Speckled Band.” It will be remembered that the mysterious title refers to a snake trained by its master to do murders. The reptile made three appearances to-night, finally killing its master in a scene so horrible that even Holmes had little chance. Lyn Harding, as a half-mad Anglo Indian villain, with the horrid pet, held the stage in a fashion evidently delightful to the gallery. Doyle responded to frantic calls with a bow.’
Here we present a rare original programme from that show which only ran for two months, with H. A. Saintsbury playing Sherlock Holmes and a very large rock boa which rather stole the show playing the part of the serpent. The play was transferred to the Globe on August 8th of 1910. In near fine condition and enclosed in separate magnificent colour art-nouveau covers.
‘[Doyle] took a six-month lease on the Adelphi Theatre so that The House of Temperley [based on his novel ‘Rodney Stone’] might be produced. The death of the King and a serious slump in audience attendance, coupled with the subject which was not thought suitable for women, meant that the run was short.
'When I saw the course that things were taking I shut myself up and devoted my whole mind to making a sensational Sherlock Holmes drama. I wrote it in a week and called it ‘The Speckled Band’ after the short story of that name. I do not think that I exaggerate if I say that within a fortnight of the one play shutting down I had a company working upon the rehearsals of a second one, which had been written in the interval' (Memories and Adventures, p. 101).
The new play was a great success.’ – Green and Gibson, A Bibliography of A Conan Doyle.
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Price HK$ 6,000
1910 - Adelphi Theatre, London
‘Special Cable to The New York Times. London, June 4. -- Sherlock Holmes came to life ton-night on the stage of the Adelphi Theatre in an adaptation of Conan Doyle’s story called “The Speckled Band.” It will be remembered that the mysterious title refers to a snake trained by its master to do murders. The reptile made three appearances to-night, finally killing its master in a scene so horrible that even Holmes had little chance. Lyn Harding, as a half-mad Anglo Indian villain, with the horrid pet, held the stage in a fashion evidently delightful to the gallery. Doyle responded to frantic calls with a bow.’Here we present a rare original programme from that show which only ran for two months, with H. A. Saintsbury playing Sherlock Holmes and a very large rock boa which rather stole the show playing the part of the serpent. The play was transferred to the Globe on August 8th of 1910. In near fine condition and enclosed in separate magnificent colour art-nouveau covers.
‘[Doyle] took a six-month lease on the Adelphi Theatre so that The House of Temperley [based on his novel ‘Rodney Stone’] might be produced. The death of the King and a serious slump in audience attendance, coupled with the subject which was not thought suitable for women, meant that the run was short.
'When I saw the course that things were taking I shut myself up and devoted my whole mind to making a sensational Sherlock Holmes drama. I wrote it in a week and called it ‘The Speckled Band’ after the short story of that name. I do not think that I exaggerate if I say that within a fortnight of the one play shutting down I had a company working upon the rehearsals of a second one, which had been written in the interval' (Memories and Adventures, p. 101).
The new play was a great success.’ – Green and Gibson, A Bibliography of A Conan Doyle.
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Price HK$ 6,000
The Speckled Band, An Adventure of Sherlock Holmes -
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1929 - Samuel French, London - First Edition, Fourth Impression. (&lsquo
Scarce early edition of Doyle’s gothic-themed Sherlock Holmes locked room mystery.. With five full page schematics for the stage plot, followed by the properties plot and the electric and lime plot at the rear of the book.
‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’ had first appeared in Strand Magazine in February 1892, and was later collected as the eighth story in ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’. After Doyle’s successful stage adaptation of 1910, with the celebrated actor H.A. Saintsbury as Holmes and Claude King as Dr. Watson, it was committed to print by Samuel French in 1912. The play toured, and was also performed in America, with Saintsury returning in the London revival of 1921.
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Price HK$ 2,000
1929 - Samuel French, London - First Edition, Fourth Impression. (&lsquo
Scarce early edition of Doyle’s gothic-themed Sherlock Holmes locked room mystery.. With five full page schematics for the stage plot, followed by the properties plot and the electric and lime plot at the rear of the book.‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’ had first appeared in Strand Magazine in February 1892, and was later collected as the eighth story in ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’. After Doyle’s successful stage adaptation of 1910, with the celebrated actor H.A. Saintsbury as Holmes and Claude King as Dr. Watson, it was committed to print by Samuel French in 1912. The play toured, and was also performed in America, with Saintsury returning in the London revival of 1921.
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Price HK$ 2,000
The Hound of the Baskervilles. Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes -
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sidney Paget (illustrator)
1902 - George Newnes, London - First Edition First Issue [misprint 'you' for 'your' p.13 line 3]
A finely bound first edition of this legendary and terrifying mystery in which Holmes and Watson must investigate the menacing devil-beast that haunts the moors around the Baskerville ancestral home. Dramatically illustrated with sixteen plates by Sidney Paget. To be read in a big leather armchair on a stormy night, whisky to hand.
Sherlock Holmes still remains the world’s best-known and best-loved fictional detective’ and The Hound of the Baskervilles one of the most desirable and classic works of detective fiction. Arguably the great detective's most charismatic case; "Holmes is at his very best, and it is a highly dramatic idea" - Doyle, to his mother, 2nd April 1902.
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Price HK$ 18,000
1902 - George Newnes, London - First Edition First Issue [misprint 'you' for 'your' p.13 line 3]
A finely bound first edition of this legendary and terrifying mystery in which Holmes and Watson must investigate the menacing devil-beast that haunts the moors around the Baskerville ancestral home. Dramatically illustrated with sixteen plates by Sidney Paget. To be read in a big leather armchair on a stormy night, whisky to hand. Sherlock Holmes still remains the world’s best-known and best-loved fictional detective’ and The Hound of the Baskervilles one of the most desirable and classic works of detective fiction. Arguably the great detective's most charismatic case; "Holmes is at his very best, and it is a highly dramatic idea" - Doyle, to his mother, 2nd April 1902.
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Price HK$ 18,000
The Trilogy of Desire: The Financier; The Titan; The Stoic. -
Theodore Dreiser
1912 - Harper &, New York - First Editions
A complete first edition set of Dreiser’s ‘Trilogy of Desire’, also known as ‘The Cowperwood Trilogy’, telling the life story of Charles T. Yerkes, renamed Algernon Cowperwood by Dreiser, a Philadelphia securities manipulator and streetcar magnate. ‘The Financier’, the first of the trilogy, in scarce and unrestored dust jacket.
‘It is Mr. Dreiser's constant probing of the intertwined needs for money, art, glory, sex and so much else that makes "The Financier" the greatest of all American business novels.’ - The Wall Street Journal, 2012.
‘Dreiser laboriously researched the business practices and personal exploits of real-life robber baron Charles Yerkes to narrate Frank Algernon Cowperwood's early career in ‘The Financier’, which explores the unscrupulous world of finance from the Civil War through the panic incited by the 1871 Chicago fire.’ (University of Illinois). Despite claiming complete ignorance about finance and an inability to make money, Dreiser presents a technical masterpiece.
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Price HK$ 62,000
1912 - Harper &, New York - First Editions
A complete first edition set of Dreiser’s ‘Trilogy of Desire’, also known as ‘The Cowperwood Trilogy’, telling the life story of Charles T. Yerkes, renamed Algernon Cowperwood by Dreiser, a Philadelphia securities manipulator and streetcar magnate. ‘The Financier’, the first of the trilogy, in scarce and unrestored dust jacket.‘It is Mr. Dreiser's constant probing of the intertwined needs for money, art, glory, sex and so much else that makes "The Financier" the greatest of all American business novels.’ - The Wall Street Journal, 2012.
‘Dreiser laboriously researched the business practices and personal exploits of real-life robber baron Charles Yerkes to narrate Frank Algernon Cowperwood's early career in ‘The Financier’, which explores the unscrupulous world of finance from the Civil War through the panic incited by the 1871 Chicago fire.’ (University of Illinois). Despite claiming complete ignorance about finance and an inability to make money, Dreiser presents a technical masterpiece.
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Price HK$ 62,000
Sister Carrie -
Theodore Dreiser, Reginald Marsh (illustrator)
1939 - The Limited Editions Club, New York - First Edition illustrated by Marsh, Number 1194 of 1500 copies.
A handsomely bound limited edition, signed by the illustrator, with an introduction by Burton Rascoe and illustrated throughout from crayon drawings by Reginald Marsh
Banned on publication for its questionable morals, Sister Carrie is the great American novel of seduction, a masterpiece of insight into appetite and innocence.
Long before she was seduced by the cautious and ordinary man whose life she would unravel with no malice and only intermittent interest, the young Carrie Meeber was seduced by the promise of the city–its vitality and reckless possibility, the thrill of material luxury, and the spectacle of power and industry.
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time.
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Price HK$ 4,000
1939 - The Limited Editions Club, New York - First Edition illustrated by Marsh, Number 1194 of 1500 copies.
A handsomely bound limited edition, signed by the illustrator, with an introduction by Burton Rascoe and illustrated throughout from crayon drawings by Reginald MarshBanned on publication for its questionable morals, Sister Carrie is the great American novel of seduction, a masterpiece of insight into appetite and innocence.
Long before she was seduced by the cautious and ordinary man whose life she would unravel with no malice and only intermittent interest, the young Carrie Meeber was seduced by the promise of the city–its vitality and reckless possibility, the thrill of material luxury, and the spectacle of power and industry.
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time.
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Price HK$ 4,000
Jorkens Remembers Africa -
Lord Dunsany [pseud. Edward Plunkett]
1934 - Longmans Green and Co., New York - Toronto - First Edition
A fine edition of Lord Dunsany’s second collection of ‘extraordinary’ short stories recounted by the enterprising and adventurous Jorkens at the Billiard Club. In the delicate dust jacket, without repairs or restoration. ‘Extraordinary’ as indicated by the fabulous Allen Lewis illustration of Jorkens fending off a unicorn with his hunting rifle which adorns the dust jacket and also the illustrated title page.
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Price HK$ 4,600
1934 - Longmans Green and Co., New York - Toronto - First Edition
A fine edition of Lord Dunsany’s second collection of ‘extraordinary’ short stories recounted by the enterprising and adventurous Jorkens at the Billiard Club. In the delicate dust jacket, without repairs or restoration. ‘Extraordinary’ as indicated by the fabulous Allen Lewis illustration of Jorkens fending off a unicorn with his hunting rifle which adorns the dust jacket and also the illustrated title page.
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Price HK$ 4,600
Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea; Being the Alexandria Quartet. -
Lawrence Durrell
1957 - Faber and Faber, London - First Editions
A fine set in first issue dust jackets in superior condition.
'One of the most important works of our time.' - New York Times Book Review.
The Alexandria Quartet is Durrell’s most succesfull and admired work, at heart a sensuous and brilliant evocation of wartime Egypt.
In this world of corrupt glamour, L. G. Darley attempts to reconcile himself to the end of his affair with the dark, passionate Justine Hosnani - setting alight a beguiling exploration of sexual and political intrigue that Durrell himself described as 'an investigation of modern love'.
'A formidable, glittering achievement.' - Times Literary Supplement.
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Price HK$ 30,000
1957 - Faber and Faber, London - First Editions
A fine set in first issue dust jackets in superior condition.'One of the most important works of our time.' - New York Times Book Review.
The Alexandria Quartet is Durrell’s most succesfull and admired work, at heart a sensuous and brilliant evocation of wartime Egypt.
In this world of corrupt glamour, L. G. Darley attempts to reconcile himself to the end of his affair with the dark, passionate Justine Hosnani - setting alight a beguiling exploration of sexual and political intrigue that Durrell himself described as 'an investigation of modern love'.
'A formidable, glittering achievement.' - Times Literary Supplement.
More details
Price HK$ 30,000