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Cannery Row -
John Steinbeck
1945 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition, First State
Cannery Row's ‘inhabitants are, as the man once said, 'whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,' by which he meant everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, 'saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,' and he would have meant the same thing.’
A fine first edition of one of Steinbeck’s wonderful stories set in Monterey, with the Doc being based on his old friend Ed Ricketts. In the scarce first State binding using buff-coloured cloth (there was not enough of this cloth to complete the run, so canary-yellow cloth was selected to bind the remaining majority).
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Price HK$ 10,000
1945 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition, First State
Cannery Row's ‘inhabitants are, as the man once said, 'whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,' by which he meant everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, 'saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,' and he would have meant the same thing.’A fine first edition of one of Steinbeck’s wonderful stories set in Monterey, with the Doc being based on his old friend Ed Ricketts. In the scarce first State binding using buff-coloured cloth (there was not enough of this cloth to complete the run, so canary-yellow cloth was selected to bind the remaining majority).
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Price HK$ 10,000
The Wolf Woman. A Novel. -
Arthur Stringer
1928 - The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis - First Edition
The story of Dynamite Mary, brought up in the wild in Northern America and introduced into the metropolis of New York.
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Price HK$ 800
1928 - The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis - First Edition
The story of Dynamite Mary, brought up in the wild in Northern America and introduced into the metropolis of New York.
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Price HK$ 800
A Woman of Means - SIGNED -
Peter Taylor
1950 - Harcourt, New York - First Edition
‘Those who want the most fiction can give, who expect to read things they hardly knew they knew, and to experience the shock of recognition, will enjoy Peter Taylor and remember these stories.’
A lovely signed copy of Peter Taylor’s first novel, a Proustian reflection on life and family in St. Louis, Missouri during the 1920’s. In turns tragic and humorous, it is a novel that reveals its depth and craft slowly to the reader, as Quintus Dudley, our protagonist, must helplessly watch his stepmother tiptoe on the brink of insanity.
‘No description of mere mortals or events can indicate the particular kind of excitement it possesses... the excitement of being constantly on the verge of deep perceptions and deep interpretations.’ ―Robert Penn Warren, The New York Times
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Price HK$ 3,800
1950 - Harcourt, New York - First Edition
‘Those who want the most fiction can give, who expect to read things they hardly knew they knew, and to experience the shock of recognition, will enjoy Peter Taylor and remember these stories.’A lovely signed copy of Peter Taylor’s first novel, a Proustian reflection on life and family in St. Louis, Missouri during the 1920’s. In turns tragic and humorous, it is a novel that reveals its depth and craft slowly to the reader, as Quintus Dudley, our protagonist, must helplessly watch his stepmother tiptoe on the brink of insanity.
‘No description of mere mortals or events can indicate the particular kind of excitement it possesses... the excitement of being constantly on the verge of deep perceptions and deep interpretations.’ ―Robert Penn Warren, The New York Times
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Price HK$ 3,800
A disturbing duo - The Family Arsenal - with - My Secret History -
Paul Theroux
1976 - Hamish Hamilton, London - First Editions
Two first editions of of Paul Theroux’s more exotic and disturbing works.
The Family Arsenal - Hood, a renegade American diplomat, envisions a new urban order, flirts with terrorists. Mayo, has just made a political statement - stealing a Flemish painting. Murf the bomb-maker scrawls 'Arsenal Rule' across the city's walls, whilst Brodie bombs Euston and afterwards worries about her complexion. A novel of London lowlife and the dispossessed, and a powerful and violent thriller of disenchanted people.
‘One of the most evocative, intelligently crafted suspense novels in years - like the early fiction of Graham Greene.' - The New York Times.
'Brilliant and haunting. . . the ingenious of the plot, the London setting. . . the trapped and interwoven people, and the balefully witty observation, have an undistracted force' - Observer.
My Secret History - 'Nothing on the shelf has quite prepared the reader for My Secret History… Parent saunters into the book aged fifteen, shouldering a .22 Mossberg rifle as earlier, more innocent American heroes used to tote a fishing pole. In his pocket is a paperback translation of Dante's Inferno… He is a creature of naked and unquenchable ego, greedy for sex, money, experience, another life' - Observer.
‘Merges the two genres he's famous for... My Secret History is about the permanence of marriage in the face of mistrust and infidelity; it's about the wisdom of women and the foolishness of men; and it's about mature love as the necessary and sometimes successful antidote to youthful selfishness.’ - New York Times Book Review.
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Price HK$ 900
1976 - Hamish Hamilton, London - First Editions
Two first editions of of Paul Theroux’s more exotic and disturbing works.The Family Arsenal - Hood, a renegade American diplomat, envisions a new urban order, flirts with terrorists. Mayo, has just made a political statement - stealing a Flemish painting. Murf the bomb-maker scrawls 'Arsenal Rule' across the city's walls, whilst Brodie bombs Euston and afterwards worries about her complexion. A novel of London lowlife and the dispossessed, and a powerful and violent thriller of disenchanted people.
‘One of the most evocative, intelligently crafted suspense novels in years - like the early fiction of Graham Greene.' - The New York Times.
'Brilliant and haunting. . . the ingenious of the plot, the London setting. . . the trapped and interwoven people, and the balefully witty observation, have an undistracted force' - Observer.
My Secret History - 'Nothing on the shelf has quite prepared the reader for My Secret History… Parent saunters into the book aged fifteen, shouldering a .22 Mossberg rifle as earlier, more innocent American heroes used to tote a fishing pole. In his pocket is a paperback translation of Dante's Inferno… He is a creature of naked and unquenchable ego, greedy for sex, money, experience, another life' - Observer.
‘Merges the two genres he's famous for... My Secret History is about the permanence of marriage in the face of mistrust and infidelity; it's about the wisdom of women and the foolishness of men; and it's about mature love as the necessary and sometimes successful antidote to youthful selfishness.’ - New York Times Book Review.
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Price HK$ 900
The Proud Highway - INSCRIBED -
Hunter S. Thompson
1997 - Villard, New York - First Edition
Volume I of ‘The Fear and Loathing Letters’ inscribed and signed by HST clearly in order to extract money and cigarettes from the recipient -
This is a Fair Trade For Fare to the airport… Plus your lighter and smokes –
That’s a Fair Fare!…
Shit I think You Come up Short!
I Will Need a ride back and more smokes! That’s Fair Fare Now!!! O.K.
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Price HK$ 18,000
1997 - Villard, New York - First Edition
Volume I of ‘The Fear and Loathing Letters’ inscribed and signed by HST clearly in order to extract money and cigarettes from the recipient -This is a Fair Trade For Fare to the airport… Plus your lighter and smokes –
That’s a Fair Fare!…
Shit I think You Come up Short!
I Will Need a ride back and more smokes! That’s Fair Fare Now!!! O.K.
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Price HK$ 18,000
Songs of the Doomed - INSCRIBED -
Hunter S. Thompson
1990 - Summit Books, New York - First Edition
Volume 3 of the ‘Gonzo Papers’ viciously and magnificently inscribed and violently signed by HST across the first page -
Stay away from me
you PIG FUCKER
This is Not a Good Time
I STILL Have a Half Bottle
OK!!
This volume of the Gonzo Papers, charts ‘the long, strange trip from Kennedy to Quayle in Thompson's freewheeling, inimitable style. Spanning four decades – 1950 to 1990 – Thompson is at the top of his form while fleeing New York for Puerto Rico, riding with the Hell's Angels, investigating Las Vegas sleaze, grappling with the "Dukakis problem," and finally, detailing his infamous lifestyle bust, trial documents, and Fourth Amendment battle with the Law. These tales – often sleazy, brutal, and crude – are only the tip of what Jack Nicholson called "the most baffling human iceberg of our time”.’ [from the intro to a later edition].
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Price HK$ 30,000
1990 - Summit Books, New York - First Edition
Volume 3 of the ‘Gonzo Papers’ viciously and magnificently inscribed and violently signed by HST across the first page -Stay away from me
you PIG FUCKER
This is Not a Good Time
I STILL Have a Half Bottle
OK!!
This volume of the Gonzo Papers, charts ‘the long, strange trip from Kennedy to Quayle in Thompson's freewheeling, inimitable style. Spanning four decades – 1950 to 1990 – Thompson is at the top of his form while fleeing New York for Puerto Rico, riding with the Hell's Angels, investigating Las Vegas sleaze, grappling with the "Dukakis problem," and finally, detailing his infamous lifestyle bust, trial documents, and Fourth Amendment battle with the Law. These tales – often sleazy, brutal, and crude – are only the tip of what Jack Nicholson called "the most baffling human iceberg of our time”.’ [from the intro to a later edition].
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Price HK$ 30,000
Open Letter San Francisco October 25, 1960 - SIGNED -
Hunter S. Thompson
1996 - White Fields Press, Kentucky - One of 118 copies signed by HST
Number 44 of 92 numbered examples of this large single sheet broadside reproducing Thompson’s iconic letter to San Francisco, it seems so much has changed but yet so little...
Initialled in large letters "H.S.T." by Thompson with a silver metallic pen in the margin next to his photograph. In fine condition, printed on glossy stock paper, measuring 66x34.5cm.
"At the end of 1960, Thompson and Semonin traveled cross-country together from New York to Seattle, and then hitchhiked down the coast to San Francisco, where Thompson settled. In a stream of consciousness letter dated 25 October 1960, Thompson writes from a bar in the Fillmore district, referring to himself as “Doctor Jazz”, who “prowls the foggy streets, seeking food. / O where is the jazz of yesteryear, the lost paycheck of my servile youth? where are the sacked liquor lockers of my Kempian days?…” Four days later he writes, “I commence walking my thumb toward Carmel & Big Sur…found slur on my ego…”
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Price HK$ 12,000
1996 - White Fields Press, Kentucky - One of 118 copies signed by HST
Number 44 of 92 numbered examples of this large single sheet broadside reproducing Thompson’s iconic letter to San Francisco, it seems so much has changed but yet so little...Initialled in large letters "H.S.T." by Thompson with a silver metallic pen in the margin next to his photograph. In fine condition, printed on glossy stock paper, measuring 66x34.5cm.
"At the end of 1960, Thompson and Semonin traveled cross-country together from New York to Seattle, and then hitchhiked down the coast to San Francisco, where Thompson settled. In a stream of consciousness letter dated 25 October 1960, Thompson writes from a bar in the Fillmore district, referring to himself as “Doctor Jazz”, who “prowls the foggy streets, seeking food. / O where is the jazz of yesteryear, the lost paycheck of my servile youth? where are the sacked liquor lockers of my Kempian days?…” Four days later he writes, “I commence walking my thumb toward Carmel & Big Sur…found slur on my ego…”
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Price HK$ 12,000
Lark Rise to Candleford. A Trilogy -
Flora Thompson, Julie Neild (illustrator)
1945 - Oxford University Press, London - First Edition to be illustrated by Julie Neild
An elegantly bound copy of this well known rural trilogy, the first edition to include Julie Neild’s twenty-four wood-engraved vignettes as chapter headings, and three smaller vignettes as for tailpieces and the title page.
With an introduction by Hugh Massingham.
The trilogy - ‘Lark Rise’, ‘Over to Candleford’, and ‘Candleford Green’ depict rural English life at the end of the 19th century, drawing heavily on Thompson's own childhood experiences in Oxfordshire, including seasonal celebrations, daily life, and the transition from traditional ways of life to modernity. They feature a cast of characters based on real people Thompson knew, and the settings are based on actual places in Oxfordshire.
The books have been adapted into a popular BBC television series and two plays.
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Price HK$ 3,500
1945 - Oxford University Press, London - First Edition to be illustrated by Julie Neild
An elegantly bound copy of this well known rural trilogy, the first edition to include Julie Neild’s twenty-four wood-engraved vignettes as chapter headings, and three smaller vignettes as for tailpieces and the title page.With an introduction by Hugh Massingham.
The trilogy - ‘Lark Rise’, ‘Over to Candleford’, and ‘Candleford Green’ depict rural English life at the end of the 19th century, drawing heavily on Thompson's own childhood experiences in Oxfordshire, including seasonal celebrations, daily life, and the transition from traditional ways of life to modernity. They feature a cast of characters based on real people Thompson knew, and the settings are based on actual places in Oxfordshire.
The books have been adapted into a popular BBC television series and two plays.
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Price HK$ 3,500