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Memoirs of a Booklegger -
Jack Kahane
1939 - Michael Joseph Ltd., London - First Edition
Jack Kahane founded the Obelisk Press based in Paris, in France in 1929, he took advantage of the fact that books published in France in English were not subject to the kind of censorship practised in Britain at the time.
He published among others Henry Millers ‘Tropic of Capricorn’, which had explicit sexual passages and and could therefore not be published in the U.S. Other author’s included James Joyce, Anaïs Nin, and Lawrence Durrell.
Kahane passed away just before the outbreak of World War II, having just finished this book of his memoirs. His son took over the press which later became the Olympia Press continuing in a similar tradition, being the first to publish works such as Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’ and Burrough’s ‘Naked Lunch’.
First edition in the original scarce and unclipped dust jacket, not a common book as most of the edition were destroyed when a German bomb hit the publisher's warehouse.
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Price HK$ 4,500
1939 - Michael Joseph Ltd., London - First Edition
Jack Kahane founded the Obelisk Press based in Paris, in France in 1929, he took advantage of the fact that books published in France in English were not subject to the kind of censorship practised in Britain at the time.He published among others Henry Millers ‘Tropic of Capricorn’, which had explicit sexual passages and and could therefore not be published in the U.S. Other author’s included James Joyce, Anaïs Nin, and Lawrence Durrell.
Kahane passed away just before the outbreak of World War II, having just finished this book of his memoirs. His son took over the press which later became the Olympia Press continuing in a similar tradition, being the first to publish works such as Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’ and Burrough’s ‘Naked Lunch’.
First edition in the original scarce and unclipped dust jacket, not a common book as most of the edition were destroyed when a German bomb hit the publisher's warehouse.
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Price HK$ 4,500
I am Lazarus. Short Stories -
Anna Kavan
1945 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Edition
First edition of this collection of fifteen short stories which ‘examines war and mental illness from her signature surreal point of view. Inspired by Kavan’s own experiences nursing traumatized Second World War soldiers and as a patient in various asylums, these pieces communicate the claustrophobia and isolation of life amidst conflict or caught in the gears of an institutional machine – but also the stunning beauty of physical experience, as her cast of outsiders find themselves pulled back into the world despite its hostility.’ – Pushkin Press.
In a superior example of the fragile wartime economy dust jacket, without chips or repairs.
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Price HK$ 9,000
1945 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Edition
First edition of this collection of fifteen short stories which ‘examines war and mental illness from her signature surreal point of view. Inspired by Kavan’s own experiences nursing traumatized Second World War soldiers and as a patient in various asylums, these pieces communicate the claustrophobia and isolation of life amidst conflict or caught in the gears of an institutional machine – but also the stunning beauty of physical experience, as her cast of outsiders find themselves pulled back into the world despite its hostility.’ – Pushkin Press.In a superior example of the fragile wartime economy dust jacket, without chips or repairs.
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Price HK$ 9,000
The Dharma Bums -
Jack Kerouac
1958 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition
‘Who were all these strange ghosts rooted to the silly little adventure of earth with me? And who was I?’
A fine first edition in bright dust jacket with far less than the usual rubbing to which this black jacket is prone. Kerouac’s chronicle of carefree wanderers learning to meditate Buddhist style, the story of Ray Smith – obviously Kerouac himself – who after a self-imposed discipline in the wilds of Sierra Madres, and sixty days of summer solitude on the mountain top lookout Desolation Peak, returns to the world with a new ‘vision of the freedom of eternity...’
‘Book ends with a great holy Blah! At last America has a new visionary poet. So let us talk of Angels.’ - Allen Ginsberg.
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Price HK$ 14,000
1958 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition
‘Who were all these strange ghosts rooted to the silly little adventure of earth with me? And who was I?’ A fine first edition in bright dust jacket with far less than the usual rubbing to which this black jacket is prone. Kerouac’s chronicle of carefree wanderers learning to meditate Buddhist style, the story of Ray Smith – obviously Kerouac himself – who after a self-imposed discipline in the wilds of Sierra Madres, and sixty days of summer solitude on the mountain top lookout Desolation Peak, returns to the world with a new ‘vision of the freedom of eternity...’
‘Book ends with a great holy Blah! At last America has a new visionary poet. So let us talk of Angels.’ - Allen Ginsberg.
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Price HK$ 14,000
Vanity of Duluoz: An Adventurous Education, 1935-46 -
Jack Kerouac
1968 - Coward-McCann, New York - First Edition
‘All right, wifey, maybe I’m a big pain in the you know what, but after I’ve given you a recitation of the troubles I had to go through to make good in America between 1935 and more or less now, 1967, and although I also know everybody in the world’s had his own troubles you’ll understand that my particular form of anguish came from being too sensitive to all the lunkheads I had to deal with...’
A bright first edition of Kerouac’s final novel published during his lifetime, the autobiographical tale of his alter-ego Jack Duluoz, recounting his experiences at Columbia University on a football scholarship in the 1930s to his coming of age serving in the US navy during WWII. When Duluoz returns to New York after the war, he abandons his former plans, and embarks upon a riot of drugs, sex and writing, as the Beat movement begins.
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Price HK$ 3,000
1968 - Coward-McCann, New York - First Edition
‘All right, wifey, maybe I’m a big pain in the you know what, but after I’ve given you a recitation of the troubles I had to go through to make good in America between 1935 and more or less now, 1967, and although I also know everybody in the world’s had his own troubles you’ll understand that my particular form of anguish came from being too sensitive to all the lunkheads I had to deal with...’A bright first edition of Kerouac’s final novel published during his lifetime, the autobiographical tale of his alter-ego Jack Duluoz, recounting his experiences at Columbia University on a football scholarship in the 1930s to his coming of age serving in the US navy during WWII. When Duluoz returns to New York after the war, he abandons his former plans, and embarks upon a riot of drugs, sex and writing, as the Beat movement begins.
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Price HK$ 3,000
It will be Warmer When it Snows -
Arthur La Bern
1966 - W. H. Allen, London - First Edition
A rare first edition of this ‘absorbing and brutally penetrating novel about a bankrupt and his crumbling world’, set in London.
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Price HK$ 1,800
1966 - W. H. Allen, London - First Edition
A rare first edition of this ‘absorbing and brutally penetrating novel about a bankrupt and his crumbling world’, set in London.
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Price HK$ 1,800
The Karla Trilogy – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; Smiley’s People - Signed -
John le Carré
1974 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Editions
A first edition set of John le Carré’s acclaimed espionage trilogy – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People – featuring legendary master spy George Smiley pitted against his elusive Cold War rival, Karla.
Smiley’s People signed by Le Carré.
First edition, first issue of The Honourable Schoolboy with maps of Hong Kong for endpapers, these were not included in the second issue.
As a secret service agent, Le Carré moved from MI5 to MI6, and was in Berlin when the wall was erected. His experiences inspired him to write a novel which became 'Call For The Dead'; 'When I first began writing, Ian Fleming was riding high and the picture of the spy was that of a character who could have affairs with women, drive a fast car, who used gadgetry and gimmickry to escape.' Le Carré’s aim was to portray the intelligence world from a new view and he has earned a reputation for gritty, realistic, suspenseful spy novels based on a wide knowledge of international espionage or simply human behaviour. His famous recurring character, George Smiley, is an ageing, diffident, shadow-like member of the British foreign service, and the antithesis of James Bond; this trilogy of Smiley books is the author's masterwork, a thrilling elegy for post-imperial Britain. 'Tinker Tailor...' was the basis for the Oscar-nominated 2011 film starring Gary Oldman.
‘Simply the world’s greatest fictional spymaster’ – Newsweek.
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Price HK$ 14,000
1974 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Editions
A first edition set of John le Carré’s acclaimed espionage trilogy – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People – featuring legendary master spy George Smiley pitted against his elusive Cold War rival, Karla.Smiley’s People signed by Le Carré.
First edition, first issue of The Honourable Schoolboy with maps of Hong Kong for endpapers, these were not included in the second issue.
As a secret service agent, Le Carré moved from MI5 to MI6, and was in Berlin when the wall was erected. His experiences inspired him to write a novel which became 'Call For The Dead'; 'When I first began writing, Ian Fleming was riding high and the picture of the spy was that of a character who could have affairs with women, drive a fast car, who used gadgetry and gimmickry to escape.' Le Carré’s aim was to portray the intelligence world from a new view and he has earned a reputation for gritty, realistic, suspenseful spy novels based on a wide knowledge of international espionage or simply human behaviour. His famous recurring character, George Smiley, is an ageing, diffident, shadow-like member of the British foreign service, and the antithesis of James Bond; this trilogy of Smiley books is the author's masterwork, a thrilling elegy for post-imperial Britain. 'Tinker Tailor...' was the basis for the Oscar-nominated 2011 film starring Gary Oldman.
‘Simply the world’s greatest fictional spymaster’ – Newsweek.
More details
Price HK$ 14,000
The Karla Trilogy – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; Smiley’s People -
John le Carré
1974 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Editions
A finely bound first edition set of John le Carre’s acclaimed espionage trilogy – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People – featuring legendary master spy George Smiley pitted against his elusive Cold War rival, Karla.
As a secret service agent, Le Carre moved from MI5 to MI6, and was in Berlin when the wall was erected. His experiences inspired him to write a novel which became 'Call For The Dead'; 'When I first began writing, Ian Fleming was riding high and the picture of the spy was that of a character who could have affairs with women, drive a fast car, who used gadgetry and gimmickry to escape.' Le Carre's aim was to portray the intelligence world from a new view and he has earned a reputation for gritty, realistic, suspenseful spy novels based on a wide knowledge of international espionage or simply human behaviour. His famous recurring character, George Smiley, is an ageing, diffident, shadow-like member of the British foreign service, and the antithesis of James Bond; this trilogy of Smiley books is the author's masterwork, a thrilling elegy for post-imperial Britain. 'Tinker Tailor...' was the basis for the Oscar-nominated 2011 film starring Gary Oldman.
More details
Price HK$ 22,000
1974 - Hodder and Stoughton, London - First Editions
A finely bound first edition set of John le Carre’s acclaimed espionage trilogy – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People – featuring legendary master spy George Smiley pitted against his elusive Cold War rival, Karla.As a secret service agent, Le Carre moved from MI5 to MI6, and was in Berlin when the wall was erected. His experiences inspired him to write a novel which became 'Call For The Dead'; 'When I first began writing, Ian Fleming was riding high and the picture of the spy was that of a character who could have affairs with women, drive a fast car, who used gadgetry and gimmickry to escape.' Le Carre's aim was to portray the intelligence world from a new view and he has earned a reputation for gritty, realistic, suspenseful spy novels based on a wide knowledge of international espionage or simply human behaviour. His famous recurring character, George Smiley, is an ageing, diffident, shadow-like member of the British foreign service, and the antithesis of James Bond; this trilogy of Smiley books is the author's masterwork, a thrilling elegy for post-imperial Britain. 'Tinker Tailor...' was the basis for the Oscar-nominated 2011 film starring Gary Oldman.
More details
Price HK$ 22,000
Cider with Rosie -
Laurie Lee, John Ward (illustrator)
1959 - The Hogarth Press, London - First Edition. First issue with the mention of the piano works fire.
A fine first edition of this wonderfully vivid memoir of childhood in a remote Cotswold village, a village before electricity or cars, a timeless place on the verge of change. Growing up amongst the fields and woods and characters of the place, Laurie Lee depicts a world that is both immediate and real and belongs to a now-distant past. With the dust jacket and illustrations throughout by John Ward.
‘Remains as fresh and full of joy and gratitude for youth and its sensations as when it first appeared. It sings in the memory’ - Sunday Times.
‘An enchanting book, an exquisite farewell, not only to childhood, and boyhood, but also to an England that has vanished’ - J. B. Priestly.
More details
Price HK$ 4,000
1959 - The Hogarth Press, London - First Edition. First issue with the mention of the piano works fire.
A fine first edition of this wonderfully vivid memoir of childhood in a remote Cotswold village, a village before electricity or cars, a timeless place on the verge of change. Growing up amongst the fields and woods and characters of the place, Laurie Lee depicts a world that is both immediate and real and belongs to a now-distant past. With the dust jacket and illustrations throughout by John Ward.‘Remains as fresh and full of joy and gratitude for youth and its sensations as when it first appeared. It sings in the memory’ - Sunday Times.
‘An enchanting book, an exquisite farewell, not only to childhood, and boyhood, but also to an England that has vanished’ - J. B. Priestly.
More details
Price HK$ 4,000