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A Fan's Notes - Inscribed -
Frederick Exley
1968 - Harper &, New York - First Edition
Inscribed ‘Read in good “mental health”’ by Exley to renowned New York professor and psychologist and psychoanalyst Avrum Ben-Avi, and then gifted by a Sarah P. I. to ABA ‘for helping me end my “journey on a davenport”’ which refers to Exley’s six months on the sofa at his mother’s house at the end of which he was consigned to a mental hospital.
Exley's cult classic, a fictional memoir based on the author's real struggle, complicated by alcohol abuse and mental illness, to avoid being a lifelong "loser." Son of a fabled high school athlete in Watertown, NY, but with no interest in athletics in a sports-rabid town, Exley's only joy was in watching, through an alcoholic haze, the NY Giants on television on Sunday afternoons at a local bar. A Giants' victory would seem to justify, for a few hours, his misshapen life. In between football games, drinking bouts, shock treatments and insulin therapy, Exley would venture out into the world to play at being a normal, successful, young man on-the-go only to find each attempt driving him toward insanity again bringing him to the conclusion he is not a hero but merely a fan.
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Price HK$ 4,500
1968 - Harper &, New York - First Edition
Inscribed ‘Read in good “mental health”’ by Exley to renowned New York professor and psychologist and psychoanalyst Avrum Ben-Avi, and then gifted by a Sarah P. I. to ABA ‘for helping me end my “journey on a davenport”’ which refers to Exley’s six months on the sofa at his mother’s house at the end of which he was consigned to a mental hospital.Exley's cult classic, a fictional memoir based on the author's real struggle, complicated by alcohol abuse and mental illness, to avoid being a lifelong "loser." Son of a fabled high school athlete in Watertown, NY, but with no interest in athletics in a sports-rabid town, Exley's only joy was in watching, through an alcoholic haze, the NY Giants on television on Sunday afternoons at a local bar. A Giants' victory would seem to justify, for a few hours, his misshapen life. In between football games, drinking bouts, shock treatments and insulin therapy, Exley would venture out into the world to play at being a normal, successful, young man on-the-go only to find each attempt driving him toward insanity again bringing him to the conclusion he is not a hero but merely a fan.
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Price HK$ 4,500
Murder at a Police Station -
Jefferson Farjeon
1943 - The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis - First Edition
A fine first edition in fine and thus rare example of the evocative dust jacket.
By the author who Dorothy L. Sayers described as being ‘unsurpassed for creepy skill in mysterious adventures’.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1943 - The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis - First Edition
A fine first edition in fine and thus rare example of the evocative dust jacket.By the author who Dorothy L. Sayers described as being ‘unsurpassed for creepy skill in mysterious adventures’.
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Price HK$ 3,000
Underground -
J. Jefferson Farjeon
1928 - Lincoln Mac Veagh, New York - First Edition
A superb example of the first edition in bright sharp dust jacket.
By one of Dorothy Sayer’s favourite authors who called him ‘unsurpassed for creepy skill in mysterious adventures’.
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Price HK$ 2,000
1928 - Lincoln Mac Veagh, New York - First Edition
A superb example of the first edition in bright sharp dust jacket.By one of Dorothy Sayer’s favourite authors who called him ‘unsurpassed for creepy skill in mysterious adventures’.
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Price HK$ 2,000
Thirteen Guests - Inscribed -
J. Jefferson Farjeon
1936 - Collins, London - First Edition
Rare first edition, even more so in the original dust jacket and inscribed. The inscription is to his friend, the book collector ‘Eileen Cond. with very best wishes J. Jefferson Farjeon’ ‘January 1937’.
What to expect when thirteen guests are invited for a weekend party at Lord Aveling’s country-house. The guests include an attractive widow, an actress, an authoress, a journalist, a society artist, a county cricketer, an M.P. and a retired “sausage king”...
By one of Dorothy Sayer’s favourite authors who called him ‘unsurpassed for creepy skill in mysterious adventures’.
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Price HK$ 8,000
1936 - Collins, London - First Edition
Rare first edition, even more so in the original dust jacket and inscribed. The inscription is to his friend, the book collector ‘Eileen Cond. with very best wishes J. Jefferson Farjeon’ ‘January 1937’.What to expect when thirteen guests are invited for a weekend party at Lord Aveling’s country-house. The guests include an attractive widow, an actress, an authoress, a journalist, a society artist, a county cricketer, an M.P. and a retired “sausage king”...
By one of Dorothy Sayer’s favourite authors who called him ‘unsurpassed for creepy skill in mysterious adventures’.
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Price HK$ 8,000
Seven Dead -
J. Jefferson Farjeon
1939 - The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis - First American Edition
A rare example of what many consider to be Farjeon’s best work (the other being ‘Mystery in White’), in the fine bright sharp dust jacket. Featuring Detective Inspector Kendall.
Assumed first American edition, published the same year as the Collins edition of London, in a number of cases the Bobbs-Merrill edition was published earlier, and without further investigation we cannot prioritise which came first in this case. Both editions are rarely encountered in their dust jackets.
‘Ted Lyte, amateur thief, has chosen an isolated house by the coast for his first robbery. But Haven House is no ordinary country home. While hunting for silverware to steal, Ted stumbles upon a locked room containing seven dead bodies.
Detective Inspector Kendall takes on the case with the help of passing yachtsman Thomas Hazeldean. The search for the house's absent owners brings Hazeldean across the Channel to Boulogne, where he finds more than one motive to stay and investigate’ – British Library Crime Classics.
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Price HK$ 3,800
1939 - The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis - First American Edition
A rare example of what many consider to be Farjeon’s best work (the other being ‘Mystery in White’), in the fine bright sharp dust jacket. Featuring Detective Inspector Kendall.Assumed first American edition, published the same year as the Collins edition of London, in a number of cases the Bobbs-Merrill edition was published earlier, and without further investigation we cannot prioritise which came first in this case. Both editions are rarely encountered in their dust jackets.
‘Ted Lyte, amateur thief, has chosen an isolated house by the coast for his first robbery. But Haven House is no ordinary country home. While hunting for silverware to steal, Ted stumbles upon a locked room containing seven dead bodies.
Detective Inspector Kendall takes on the case with the help of passing yachtsman Thomas Hazeldean. The search for the house's absent owners brings Hazeldean across the Channel to Boulogne, where he finds more than one motive to stay and investigate’ – British Library Crime Classics.
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Price HK$ 3,800
Murder By Nail. Being an Episode in the Career of Jasper Shrig of Bow Street, with particulars of His Highly Original Methods in the Wrybook Case, set down by Ed. Brandonleigh, Gent. -
Jeffery Farnol
1942 - Sampson, London - First Edition
A fine example of one of Farnol’s swashbuckling historic murder mysteries.
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Price HK$ 2,500
1942 - Sampson, London - First Edition
A fine example of one of Farnol’s swashbuckling historic murder mysteries.
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Price HK$ 2,500
The Great Gatsby -
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Michael Graves (illustrator)
1984 - The Arion Press, San Francisco - One of 400 copies, signed by Graves
‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.’
Exquisitely produced deluxe limited edition of Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, now considered a landmark of 20th century fiction, and the epitome of the Jazz Age in American literature.
A collaboration between Andrew Hoyem of the Arion Press and the great American post-modernist architect and designer Michael Graves (1934-2015), a member of The New York Five and the Memphis Group, and a professor of architecture at Princeton University for nearly forty years.
One of 400 copies, signed by Graves who provides ninety-seven drawings from his interpretation of the novel, including its architectural backdrop, the landscape, gardens, buildings, furnishing, vehicles and any other objects that struck his fancy, such as the liquor bottles and cocktail glasses that are fixtures in the story. The slipcase displays a low relief of a site plan for Graves’ envisioning of Gatsby’s Estate.
Laid-in to the slipcase is a copy of Michael Graves draws Gatsby which provides the background, a brief biography of Graves, and description of the production itself, and the regular prospectus letter.
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Price HK$ 16,000
1984 - The Arion Press, San Francisco - One of 400 copies, signed by Graves
‘So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.’Exquisitely produced deluxe limited edition of Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, now considered a landmark of 20th century fiction, and the epitome of the Jazz Age in American literature.
A collaboration between Andrew Hoyem of the Arion Press and the great American post-modernist architect and designer Michael Graves (1934-2015), a member of The New York Five and the Memphis Group, and a professor of architecture at Princeton University for nearly forty years.
One of 400 copies, signed by Graves who provides ninety-seven drawings from his interpretation of the novel, including its architectural backdrop, the landscape, gardens, buildings, furnishing, vehicles and any other objects that struck his fancy, such as the liquor bottles and cocktail glasses that are fixtures in the story. The slipcase displays a low relief of a site plan for Graves’ envisioning of Gatsby’s Estate.
Laid-in to the slipcase is a copy of Michael Graves draws Gatsby which provides the background, a brief biography of Graves, and description of the production itself, and the regular prospectus letter.
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Price HK$ 16,000
The Cubical City -
Janet Flanner (Gen
1926 - G.P. Putnam&rsquo, New York &ndash - First Edition
First edition of the author’s only novel a bright sharp example in the rare dust jacket.
An extraordinary—and memorable—glimpse of the young artist in New York during the Jazz Age, and ‘considered by literary scholars to be one of the first examples of modernist lesbian literature’.
‘From the 1920s to the 1970s, Janet Flanner kept Americans abreast of the goings-on in Paris with a biweekly New Yorker column written under the name Genêt. But before she became one of the country’s most famous expats, she lived among the artists and writers of the Algonquin Round Table. Flanner shares a vivid depiction of the New York she knew in this tale of a young woman’s self-discovery.
Having left Ohio in search of liberation, Delia Poole struggles to find her place in the big city. After getting work as a costume designer for musical revues, she and her dear friend Nancy are finally finding happiness on their own terms. But nothing is simple. From her adoring suitor, Paul, to her widowed mother’s decision to move to New York, Delia must grapple with expectations, responsibilities, and her own uncertainty.
The Cubical City is Janet Flanner’s only published novel. Though homosexuality is never overtly expressed, it is considered by literary scholars to be one of the first examples of modernist lesbian literature’ [Open Road Media]
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Price HK$ 17,000
1926 - G.P. Putnam&rsquo, New York &ndash - First Edition
First edition of the author’s only novel a bright sharp example in the rare dust jacket.An extraordinary—and memorable—glimpse of the young artist in New York during the Jazz Age, and ‘considered by literary scholars to be one of the first examples of modernist lesbian literature’.
‘From the 1920s to the 1970s, Janet Flanner kept Americans abreast of the goings-on in Paris with a biweekly New Yorker column written under the name Genêt. But before she became one of the country’s most famous expats, she lived among the artists and writers of the Algonquin Round Table. Flanner shares a vivid depiction of the New York she knew in this tale of a young woman’s self-discovery.
Having left Ohio in search of liberation, Delia Poole struggles to find her place in the big city. After getting work as a costume designer for musical revues, she and her dear friend Nancy are finally finding happiness on their own terms. But nothing is simple. From her adoring suitor, Paul, to her widowed mother’s decision to move to New York, Delia must grapple with expectations, responsibilities, and her own uncertainty.
The Cubical City is Janet Flanner’s only published novel. Though homosexuality is never overtly expressed, it is considered by literary scholars to be one of the first examples of modernist lesbian literature’ [Open Road Media]
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More details
Price HK$ 17,000