The Color Purple by Walker, Alice - 1986

Published when she was 53, A Start in Life is Brookner's first published novel, a darkly funny tale of an academic who cannot stop comparing her life to that promised by literature. Brookner's author biography of 1981 defines her an international authority on art history, and a past Slade professor at Cambridge, a career perhaps later overshadowed by her 24 novels and Booker prize. Striking dust jacket design by Suzanne Perkins.
This copy of Brookner's first book belonged to her publisher, Tom Maschler, the managing director of Jonathan Cape. Maschler died in 2020 and his collection was sold via Heywood Hill. This book is scarce in unclipped state due to a late price change.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1981. First edition. Hardback. 176 pages. 20.5 x 13.5 cm. Grey boards with gilt lettering to spine. Small Maschler/Heywood Hill bookplate to front endpaper, remains of a new price label over printed price on dust jacket flap. Fine book in near fine dust jacket.

Didion's third novel, A Book of Common Prayer is the story of two American women in Boca Grande and Central America, respectively, focused on the themes of absolute power, violence rooted in poverty, and the dichotomy between purity and corruption. It is a stunning novel that deserves more readers, and a favourite of ours at The Second Shelf.First edition. Hardback, 269 pp. 22 x 14.5 cm. Black quarter cloth with black boards, with red decoration and gilt lettering to spine, slight fading on bottom edge front cover. Very good book in very good dust jacket. Advance copy publisher's slip laid in with typed title.

Il Cielo Cade, Mazzetti's first novel, was written in part as a therapeutic endeavour while receiving treatment for the suppression of traumatic childhood memories as a result of growing up in during WWII.
Written from the perspective of ten-year-old Penny who is sent along with her sister to live with her aunt and uncle in the countryside after the death of their parents (mirroring Mazzetti's own experience). The novel explores the children's perspective of war and the massacre of the family as the war turned.
Rejected by several publishers until Attilio Bertolucci read the manuscript, which he declared a "masterpiece" and was swiftly published by Garzanti in 1961. The book won the Viareggio prize the same year for the most outstanding first novel.
Mazzetti started her life in London as a penniless chambermaid in Charing Cross, her fortunes shifted when artist William Coldstream was so impressed with her dedication to the arts she was accepted to study at the Slade School of Fine Art.
Mazzetti became… Read More

Winner of the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1968, Several Perceptions is Angela Carter's third novel. Set in the Vietnam era, the insular urban vignettes focus on 22-year-old unemployed Joseph. Several Perceptions is notable for its Alice in Wonderland references, and the surreal book cover image reflects the collage-like nature of the novel.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968. First US edition. Hardback, in dust jacket. 21 x 14 x 2. 153 pages. Octavo. Publisher's brown cloth lettered gilt at front and spine. Dust jacket slightly water-stained at rear, slightly grubby. Very good book in very good dust jacket.

University of Minnesota Press, 1989. First edition. Paperback, 80 pp. White graphic wraps with moderate shelf wear. Spine is slightly rubbed and creased. Very good condition. Clarice Lispector's seventh novel, originally titled Água Viva, is considered to be her masterpiece. It is a perfect example of her particular poetic style, her profound understanding of language and her ability to play beyond its boundaries. It was first translated into English by Elizabeth Lowe and Earl Fitz for this edition, as part of the Emergent Literatures series. Published many years before Lispector became renowned in the English speaking world. It includes an introduction by Hélène Cixous, who was a translator of the novel herself into French.

London: Victor Gollancz, 1932. London: Victor Gollancz, 1932. With original band, some small nicks. English adaption by Barbara Burnham, first edition in English. 96 pages. 18.5 x 11 x 1. Paperback. Very good condition.An English language adaption of the play Gestern und heute which about a young lesbian's feelings for her schoolteacher which lead to suicide. Also produced as a film, Mädchen in Uniform, with an all female cast. The film was heavily censored for decades following its release and Winsloe lived in exile, continuing to write plays with lesbian and and gay themes. Winsloe and her partner Simone Gentet were murdered in France in 1944, just at the time of the liberation. An important work.

New York: Pantheon Books, 1993. Proof copy. Paperback, light blue wraps. Very slight wear on corners, otherwise in near fine condition. Laid in is a folded proof of the publisher's dust jacket, with black ink stamp in verso. Kathy Acker's thirteenth novel, My Mother: Demonology is an exploration of love, desire and power, that takes the character back to her childhood's memories and experiences. This experimental and boundary pushing novel, composed of fragments and references to cult and canonical works of literature and film, is a fantastic example of Kathy Acker's impulse to turn literary and aesthetic precepts inside out. An acclaimed novel by a countercultural icon.

Victor Gollancz, 1964. First thus, publisher's file copy, novels previously published 1951, 1954.This edition includes the psychological thriller set in Cornwall, My Cousin Rachel, and Mary Ann, a novel based on the life of du Maurier's great grandmother Mary Ann Clarke, mistress of Frederick Augustus, Duke of York.
Hardcover 352 pp. Red cloth, slight separation of the binding at the top and staining at bottom edge, but otherwise near fine condition. Original jacket, light wear on top and bottom edges. File copy stamp on front flap and back cover. Very bright and in near fine condition.

Winner of the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1968, Several Perceptions is Angela Carter's third novel. Set in the Vietnam era, the insular urban vignettes focus on 22-year-old unemployed Joseph. Several Perceptions is notable for its Alice in Wonderland references, and the surreal book cover image reflects the collage-like nature of the novel.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968. First US edition. Hardback, in dust jacket. 21 x 14 x 2. 153 pages. Octavo. Publisher's brown cloth lettered gilt at front and spine. Dust jacket slightly water-stained at rear, slightly grubby. Very good book in very good dust jacket.

University of Minnesota Press, 1989. First edition. Paperback, 80 pp. White graphic wraps with moderate shelf wear. Spine is slightly rubbed and creased. Very good condition. Clarice Lispector's seventh novel, originally titled Água Viva, is considered to be her masterpiece. It is a perfect example of her particular poetic style, her profound understanding of language and her ability to play beyond its boundaries. It was first translated into English by Elizabeth Lowe and Earl Fitz for this edition, as part of the Emergent Literatures series. Published many years before Lispector became renowned in the English speaking world. It includes an introduction by Hélène Cixous, who was a translator of the novel herself into French.