Search Results: Authors starting with D from Peter Harrington

Edinburgh., 1850. Large and accurate map of Asia in two parts, north and south. Although aspects of the map are in a copperplate style, the degree of detail and the date suggest this is a steel engraving. Lizars illustrated natural history books, and also engraved bank notes Steel engraving. Original colour. Very good condition, good margins Size: 87 x 77 cm. MacKenzie, British Prints

Paris: Rigaud,, 1716. The first female translator of Homer First Dacier edition, in a beautiful contemporary French binding decorated with small gilt shell tools. Dacier's celebrated translation into French of the Odyssey is considered her "crowning achievement" (Folger, p. 34) alongside her equally successful translation of the Iliad (1711). The only daughter of the noted Hellenist Tanneguy Lefèvre, Anne Dacier (c.1654-1720) began translating classical works from an early age, beginning with Callimachus and progressing to versions of the poems of Anacreon and Sappho. She was a staunch champion of Homer in the Ancients and Moderns debate, in which she defended his works against what she saw as the contemporary decline in standards of taste. Despite literary feuds with Antoine Houdar de la Motte and Thémiseul de Saint-Hyacinthe, and her differences in particular with Alexander Pope, with whom she fundamentally disagreed on how best to approach translating Homer, Dacier was held in high regard by her… Read More

Paris: Denys Thierry,, 1681. When I look at you even for a short time, it is no longer possible for me to speak First edition of the first translation of Sappho by a woman, paired with her version of Anacreon, in a contemporary binding and complete with the often-lacking frontispiece. Prior to Dacier, Louise Labé in France and Gaspara Stampa in Italy published poetic imitations of Sappho, but Dacier was the first woman to translate the poems themselves into any modern language. The only daughter of the noted Hellenist Tanneguy Lefèvre, Anne Dacier (c.1654-1720) translated classical works from an early age, beginning with Callimachus and progressing to Anacreon and Sappho. "By choosing to translate Anacreon and Sappho into French, instead of presenting them with a Latin translation, as her father did, Anne Le Fèvre was seeking to introduce these two authors to a larger audience. That is indeed what she says in her preface to Anacreon, specifying that she is particularly thinking about women: 'By… Read More

Kansas City: Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Company,, 1903. The Boxer Rebellion, as recounted by America's last Union general First edition, first printing, familial association copy, with the ownership signature of the author's daughter Helen Daggett Patterson (1881-1970) on the front free endpaper. Patterson subsequently passed this copy to Trevor Washington Swett Jr, a US Army colonel; his ownership inscription is below her signature. Aaron Daggett (1837-1938) was appointed brivet brigadier general by Andrew Johnson in February 1866, having served with distinction during the Civil War. Following service in the Indian Wars and the Spanish-American War, he was appointed brigadier general in the regular army in 1900, leading the 14th Infantry Regiment during the Boxer Rebellion. By his death, he was the last surviving high-ranking officer to have fought on the Union side. His account describes American and allied troop movements in China, as well as day-to-day experiences of battle and the conduct of key… Read More

London: Michael Joseph,, 1989. First edition, first impression, collecting seven stories written in the Buckinghamshire countryside setting that Dahl called home. He notes in his preface that the stories were composed in the late 1940s and that "rereading them again now fills me with acute nostalgia and with vivid memories of those sweet days many years ago". Octavo. Original blue boards, spine lettered in silver. With dust jacket. Line drawings by John Lawrence. Spine ends bumped, foxing to edges, text mildly toned; bright, price-clipped jacket with occasional crease: a very good copy in near-fine jacket.

New York: Random House,, 1943. First edition, first printing, of the author's first book. As noted by the original jacket blurb, "Everybody has heard about the gremlins, the fantastic Little People whose antics have become one of the great legends of the R.A.F." The book was written as a promotional device for a feature-length Disney animation that was never produced, partly because the studio could not establish firm copyright in the "gremlin" characters (Dahl claimed to have invented them, though they had been common currency in the RAF and had appeared in print at least once before) and partly because the British Air Ministry wanted final approval of the script and production. It was eventually agreed that royalties would be split between the RAF Benevolent Fund and Dahl. The book is described on the title and the front cover as being "From the Walt Disney Production"; the Disney studio wrote to Dahl in August 1943 after publication cancelling any further preproduction work. Quarto. Original… Read More

London: Puffin Books,, 2004. First edition, first impression, of this alphabetical primer to Dahl's life and books by Wendy Cooling, the founder of the children's reading charity Bookstart. Square octavo. Original dark purple boards, spine lettered in silver, red endpapers. With dust jacket. Line drawings by Quentin Blake. Unclipped jacket spine partially sunned, panels and flaps bright, light edge creasing: a fine copy in very good jacket.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf,, 1953. Presentation copy First edition, first printing. Presentation copy, inscribed by Dahl on the front flyleaf: "For Kate from Roald Dahl. Nov. 9, 1953." Octavo. Original cream cloth, titles to spine and front board in black on purple ground, top edge purple, fore edge untrimmed. With dust jacket. Spine a touch cocked, boards slightly splayed, joints tender, final few leaves with a faint crease to the upper corner. A very good copy in an excellent jacket with toned spine panel and slightly rubbed extremities.

London: Collins,, 1949. First UK edition, first impression. The title was first published the previous year in the US, and is notable as the first book about nuclear war to be published there after the bombing of Hiroshima. The final chapter is slightly rewritten and expanded in the UK edition. Dahl would later suppress the novel. Jeremy Treglown notes that "Dahl may... have had Tolkien in mind in writing the story... there are echoes too of Lewis Carroll's mixture of the irrational and the commonsensical. But these elements are combined with the realism of his tougher war stories". Dahl's biographer also suggests that the Leader of the Gremlins in the novel "is a prototype of Mr Willy Wonka" (Treglown, p. 82). Octavo. Original purple cloth, spine lettered in gilt, cream endpapers, lower edge untrimmed. With dust jacket. Extremities a little bumped, crease to front free endpaper, minor foxing to endpapers; unclipped jacket worn with loss to head and foot of spine, closed tear to rear panel, spine… Read More

London: Jonathan Cape,, 1975. An inscribed copy First UK edition, first impression, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: "To Clare, with love, from Roald Dahl". The recipient, Clare A. Shapland, has inserted her bookplate on the front pastedown. As noted by one of Dahl's biographers, "Danny... is perhaps Dahl's most straightforward and lyrical children's book" (Sturrock, p. 467). Inscribed copies are not common. The novel is based on the short story "The Champion of the World", which was first published in The New Yorker Magazine on 23 January 1959. It would be collected within Kiss Kiss (published in 1960). As noted by the dust jacket blurb, the novel is "full of absorbing action and heart-stopping suspense, it is fabulous, irresistible fun". The work was the basis for the 1989 film of the same title starring Jeremy Irons, with his son Samuel in the title role. In the 2023 BBC's poll of "The 100 Greatest Children's Books of All Time", the novel was ranked at number 92. Octavo.… Read More

London: Jonathan Cape,, 1981. First edition, first impression. Jeremy Treglown found that the book "owes something to a circus act or a Punch and Judy show" and notes that Quentin Blake "lightens things by visually reminding the reader both how small George is, and... how lonely and innocent" (p. 229). A contemporary review noted that, "For some time now Roald Dahl has been the most popular living novelist that we have for children, despite, or sometimes possibly because of, lapses in taste... George's Marvellous Medicine is a good example of this ability he has to entertain the young often at the cost of offending many of the other sort". Octavo. Original light blue boards, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Illustrated throughout by Quentin Blake. Head of spine very slightly bumped, minor foxing to fore edge; light surface scoring and creases to clipped jacket, some corners rubbed: a near-fine copy in a very good jacket. Times Literary Supplement, 24 July 1981, p. 839; Jeremy Treglown, Roald… Read More

London: Michael Joseph,, 1979. Presentation copy First edition, first impression. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "Jan & Colin, Love Roald 1979". The recipients were Jan and Colin Ross-Munro. Jan, an art historian who regularly lectured at the Victoria and Albert Museum, was a close friend of Dahl's second wife, Liccy. Octavo. Original dark blue boards, spine lettered gilt. With dust jacket. Spine gently rolled, small bump to lower fore tip of front board, an excellent copy in the jacket with slight creasing to extremities, small nick to foot of front flap.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf,, 1970. The children's classic with onlay copied from the jacket First edition, first printing. Octavo. Finely bound by the Chelsea Bindery in brown morocco, titles to spine in black, two raised bands, multi-coloured pictorial onlay of Mr Fox standing in front of his tree taken from the dust jacket, twin rule to turn-ins in black, dark green endpapers, gilt edges. A fine copy.

London: Hamish Hamilton,, 1946. First UK edition, first impression. This collection of stories, based on his experiences in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, was Dahl's second book, his first of short stories, and his first for adults. The US edition was published earlier the same year. Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Head and foot of spine very slightly bumped, minor foxing to edges; extremities of unclipped jacket worn, some toning and foxing: a near-fine copy in a very good jacket.

London: Jonathan Cape,, 1989. Inscribed by the author First edition, first impression, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: "To Anna Love Roald Dahl 1990". Inscribed copies of this title are not common and this copy is dated in the year of the author's death. As noted on the dust jacket blurb, "the marvellously dastardly Dahl has joined forces with that bounder Blake to plunder a wealth of nursery heritage for the delight of the older reader in this wonderful addition to the literature of the absurd". Octavo. Original blue boards, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. With numerous full page and illustrations within the text by Quentin Blake. Foot of spine very slightly bumped; a fine copy in the like dust jacket.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf,, 1972. Inscribed to Mary Berry's children First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author "To all the children of Mary, with love Roald Dahl." The recipients were the children of Mary Berry, "an attractive lady" with whom he sometimes played poker in London (Sturrock, p. 450). The novel was first published in the US and appeared in the UK the following year. Mary Berry and Dahl first met in New York in 1954 when she and her husband were on honeymoon. Mary's son, Edward Berry, subsequently became friends with Dahl's son, Theo. Mary was also the sister-in-law of Dahl's former lover, Pamela Berry, Marchioness of Huntly. Pamela Berry was the daughter of the newspaper magnate Lord Kemsley, the employer of Ian Fleming. Octavo. Original blue cloth-backed grey boards, spine lettered in pink, front cover with illustration in blue, grey endpapers. With dust jacket. With illustrations by Joseph Schindelman. Spine faded, foxing to covers, head and foot of… Read More

Harmondsworth: Viking,, 1986. First edition, first impression. Published to mark Dahl's 70th birthday, the volume comprises two short stories, "Princess and the Poacher" and "Princess Mammalia", which had never been published before and were intended for an adult readership. Octavo. Original black boards, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Colour frontispiece, and black and white illustrations in the text by Graham Dean. Extremities a little bumped, front pastedown lifting slightly; extremities of jacket slightly rubbed, not price-clipped: a very good copy in like jacket.

London: Jonathan Cape,, 1984. First Quentin Blake edition, first impression, following the edition which was illustrated by Rosemary Fawcett the year prior. This Dahl collection of poetry about animals comprises "The Pig", "The Crocodile", "The Lion", "The Scorpion", "The Ant-Eater", "The Porcupine", "The Cow", "The Toad and the Snail", and "The Tummy Beast". Quarto. Original illustrated boards lettered in black and brown, blue endpapers. No dust jacket issued. Colour illustrations by Quentin Blake. A fine copy.

London: Michael Joseph,, 1979. Presentation copy inscribed by the author to his half-sister and brother-in-law First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to his half-sister and brother-in-law on the front free endpaper, "Ellen & Ashley Love Roald 1979". Ellen Marguerite Dahl (1903-1988) was the first of two children born to Harald Dahl and Marie Beaurin-Gresser. Her mother died in 1907 and her father remarried in 1911. Working as a medical laboratory technician she married Arnold Ashley Miles (1904-1988) in 1930. Later Director of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine and Professor of Experimental Pathology in the University of London, Ashley Miles received a knighthood in 1966. The novel stars Uncle Oswald, a character who previously appeared in "The Visitor" and "Bitch", two short stories also written by Roald Dahl (both of which were published in Switch Bitch). Octavo. Original dark blue cloth, titles to spine gilt. With dust jacket. Head and foot of spine… Read More

London: Jonathan Cape,, 1985. Later impression, inscribed by the author on half-title, "To Adam, Love Roald Dahl". The book was first published in 1984; this is the first reprint. In his autobiographical collection of stories from childhood, Dahl includes his fondness for confectionery, his Norwegian ancestry, and his loathing for most schoolteachers. Octavo. Original blue boards, spine lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. With black and white photographic illustrations throughout the text and on illustrated endpapers. Extremities a little bumped and soiled, minor foxing to edges; jacket a little rubbed at extremities, price-clipped but with publisher's price sticker (£7.95): a very good copy in a near-fine jacket.