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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Inscribed -
Maya Angelou
1969 - Random House, New York - First Edition
A fine first edition signed and inscribed by Maya Angelou: ‘Joy! The caged bird sings of freedom.’
‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ marks the first volume in what would ultimately become a seven volume autobiography. It was written in the months following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on 4 April 1968 - coincidentally, also Maya Angelou's birthday - at the suggestion of James Baldwin, as a way of working through her grief and depression over King's death. Baldwin would later call the resulting work "a Biblical study of life in the midst of death." Its themes of identity, racism, trauma, and literacy led to equal parts acclaim and criticism, with the book hailed as one of the greatest works of biography ever produced by an American author and one of the most frequently banned or challenged books in the United States.
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Price HK$ 30,000
1969 - Random House, New York - First Edition
A fine first edition signed and inscribed by Maya Angelou: ‘Joy! The caged bird sings of freedom.’‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ marks the first volume in what would ultimately become a seven volume autobiography. It was written in the months following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on 4 April 1968 - coincidentally, also Maya Angelou's birthday - at the suggestion of James Baldwin, as a way of working through her grief and depression over King's death. Baldwin would later call the resulting work "a Biblical study of life in the midst of death." Its themes of identity, racism, trauma, and literacy led to equal parts acclaim and criticism, with the book hailed as one of the greatest works of biography ever produced by an American author and one of the most frequently banned or challenged books in the United States.
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Price HK$ 30,000
Le Paysan de Paris – The Peasant of Paris - Signed by Henri Cartier-Bresson -
Louis Aragon, Henri Cartier-Bresson
1994 - The Limited editions Club, New York - Number 89 of 300 copies.
‘I was seeking… a new kind of novel that would break all the traditional rules governing the writing of fiction… a novel that the critics would be obliged to approach empty-handed’ – Louis Aragon.
A large (32x42cm) beautiful and superbly produced limited edition folio of Louis Aragon’s outstanding Surrealist novel – in which he compares a poet’s love for his city to a peasant’s love for his land – illustrated and signed by Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of only 300 copies. With the text in English, translated by Simon Watson-Taylor.
Stunningly illustrated with seven original lithographs and a photogravure by Henri Cartier-Bresson. The lithographs were pulled by Bruce Porter at his Trestle Editions studio in New York. The photogravure was printed by Jon Goodman on French-made Arjo Wiggins stock.
Bound in silk and provided with a matching felt lined silk slipcase.
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Price HK$ 9,000
1994 - The Limited editions Club, New York - Number 89 of 300 copies.
‘I was seeking… a new kind of novel that would break all the traditional rules governing the writing of fiction… a novel that the critics would be obliged to approach empty-handed’ – Louis Aragon.A large (32x42cm) beautiful and superbly produced limited edition folio of Louis Aragon’s outstanding Surrealist novel – in which he compares a poet’s love for his city to a peasant’s love for his land – illustrated and signed by Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of only 300 copies. With the text in English, translated by Simon Watson-Taylor.
Stunningly illustrated with seven original lithographs and a photogravure by Henri Cartier-Bresson. The lithographs were pulled by Bruce Porter at his Trestle Editions studio in New York. The photogravure was printed by Jon Goodman on French-made Arjo Wiggins stock.
Bound in silk and provided with a matching felt lined silk slipcase.
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Price HK$ 9,000
The Complete Works - Sense and Sensibility; Pride and Prejudice; Mansfield Park; Emma; Northanger Abbey and Persuasion; Lady Susan, The Watsons, and Letters -
Jane Austen
1911-12 - John Grant, Edinburgh - The Winchester Edition
‘I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.'
An elegantly bound twelve volume set, comprising all of Austen's works. With a portrait frontispiece to first volume, and title pages printed in red and black with a vignette 'JA' monogram.
‘Affectation of candour is common enough—one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design—to take the good of everybody's character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad—belongs to you alone.’
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Price HK$ 35,000
1911-12 - John Grant, Edinburgh - The Winchester Edition
‘I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.'An elegantly bound twelve volume set, comprising all of Austen's works. With a portrait frontispiece to first volume, and title pages printed in red and black with a vignette 'JA' monogram.
‘Affectation of candour is common enough—one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design—to take the good of everybody's character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad—belongs to you alone.’
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Price HK$ 35,000
Vermilion Sands -
J. G. Ballard
1973 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Edition
First edition of this short story collection, all set in Vermilion Sands, 'a fully automated desert-resort designed to fulfil the most exotic whims of the idle rich, but now languishing in uneasy decay, populated only by forgotten movie queens, solitary impresarios and the remittance men of the artistic and literary world. It is a lair for beachcombers, hangers-on and malignant obsessions – a place where sensitive pigments paint portraits of their mistresses in a grotesque parody of art; where prima donna plants are programmed to sing operatic arias; where dial-a-poem computers have replaced poets; where psychosensitive houses are driven to murder by their owners' neuroses; and where love and lust, in the hands of jewel-eyed Jezebels, pall before the stronger pull of evil.'
'No one ever comes to Vermilion Sands now, and I suppose there are few people who have ever heard of it. But ten years ago, when Fay and I first went to live at 99 Stellavista, just before our marriage broke up, the colony was still remembered as the one-time playground of movie stars, delinquent heiresses and eccentric cosmopolites in those fabulous years before the Recess. Admittedly most of the abstract villas and fake palazzos were empty, their huge gardens overgrown, two-level swimming pools long drained, and the whole place was degenerating like an abandoned amusement park, but there was enough bizarre extravagance in the air to make one realize that the giants had only just departed’
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Price HK$ 15,000
1973 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Edition
First edition of this short story collection, all set in Vermilion Sands, 'a fully automated desert-resort designed to fulfil the most exotic whims of the idle rich, but now languishing in uneasy decay, populated only by forgotten movie queens, solitary impresarios and the remittance men of the artistic and literary world. It is a lair for beachcombers, hangers-on and malignant obsessions – a place where sensitive pigments paint portraits of their mistresses in a grotesque parody of art; where prima donna plants are programmed to sing operatic arias; where dial-a-poem computers have replaced poets; where psychosensitive houses are driven to murder by their owners' neuroses; and where love and lust, in the hands of jewel-eyed Jezebels, pall before the stronger pull of evil.''No one ever comes to Vermilion Sands now, and I suppose there are few people who have ever heard of it. But ten years ago, when Fay and I first went to live at 99 Stellavista, just before our marriage broke up, the colony was still remembered as the one-time playground of movie stars, delinquent heiresses and eccentric cosmopolites in those fabulous years before the Recess. Admittedly most of the abstract villas and fake palazzos were empty, their huge gardens overgrown, two-level swimming pools long drained, and the whole place was degenerating like an abandoned amusement park, but there was enough bizarre extravagance in the air to make one realize that the giants had only just departed’
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Price HK$ 15,000
The Player of Games -
Iain M. Banks
1988 - St. Martin's Press, New York - First American Edition
A fine first American edition of the second volume in Banks’ acclaimed ‘Culture Series’.
The story of Gurgeh, one of the Culture’s greatest game masters who, bored with success, travels to the cruel and wealthy Empire of Azad, where he becomes entangled in the most dangerous and complex game he has ever played.
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Price HK$ 2,400
1988 - St. Martin's Press, New York - First American Edition
A fine first American edition of the second volume in Banks’ acclaimed ‘Culture Series’.The story of Gurgeh, one of the Culture’s greatest game masters who, bored with success, travels to the cruel and wealthy Empire of Azad, where he becomes entangled in the most dangerous and complex game he has ever played.
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Price HK$ 2,400
The Deadly Percheron -
John Franklin Bardin
1947 - Victor Gollancz Ltd, London - First English Edition
A clean sharp copy in a fine and thus rare example of the delicate Gollancz dust jacket.
The first of Bardin’s acclaimed trilogy, which was followed by ‘The Last of Philip Banter’ and ‘Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly’.
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Price HK$ 2,500
1947 - Victor Gollancz Ltd, London - First English Edition
A clean sharp copy in a fine and thus rare example of the delicate Gollancz dust jacket.The first of Bardin’s acclaimed trilogy, which was followed by ‘The Last of Philip Banter’ and ‘Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly’.
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Price HK$ 2,500
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
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