Search Results: Authors starting with O from Ash Rare Books

London : Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) / Jonathan Cape, (1960-1964). A first edition set of her scandalous trilogy - the separately published "The Country Girls" (1960) - Irish girls in black underwear, banned in Ireland, publicly burnt by her parish priest in Tuamgraney - "By turns beautiful and bawdy, funny and haunting ... often referred to as the quintessential tale of Irish girlhood, it is not the novel that broke the mould: it is the one that made it" (Eimear McBride); "The Lonely Girl" (1962) - filmed in 1964 as "The Girl With Green Eyes", with Rita Tushingham, Lynn Redgrave, Peter Finch, etc. - and the darker concluding volume set in London, "Girls in Their Married Bliss" (1964). Three volumes. Post & crown 8vo (21 & 20cm). (224); (254),[ii]; 190,[ii]pp. Original boards (black, mauve, blue); a few faint marks; some mild spotting to the endpapers of the first volume and edges of the second, but very good copies in the original pictorial dust-jackets by Jillian Willett, Hofbauer and David… Read More

New York : Century Co., 1921. First edition. O'Brien looks back on his time in Tahiti - some of the time spent in company with the poet Rupert Brooke, of whom he provides a little-known first-hand account. Demy 8vo (23cm). (xvi),534,[ii]pp. Plates. Folding map. Original pictorial cloth; just lightly rubbed; some slight spotting and browning, but a very good copy.

London : MacGibbon & Kee, 1964. First edition of the last novel published in his lifetime - "the best comic fantasy since 'Tristram Shandy'" - mad scientist plots the end of the world, time travel used to age whiskey, both James Joyce and St. Augustine with speaking parts, etc. Post 8vo (21cm). 222,[ii]pp. Original green boards, lettered in gilt; a very good, clean and sound copy in a just lightly used and slightly creased dust-jacket.

Edinburgh & London : William Blackwood & Sons, 1882. First edition. Oliphant in top form with a dozen essays, sketches and stories of a gently satirical turn - "A Turkish Effendi on Christendom and Islam", "Moral Reflections by a Japanese Traveller", "The Autobiography of a Joint-Stock Company", "The Newest American Railroad", "A New Method of Social Evolution", "Knight-Errantry in the Nineteenth Century", etc. "A more thoroughly enjoyable book has not appeared in many a long day" (Morning Post, 19th August 1882). Post 8vo (194 x 123mm). (x),(430)pp. One illustration. Bound in an elegant later half burgundy morocco, by Bickers & Son; top edge gilt; marbled endleaves; just a touch sunned; some spotting, especially of edges and prelims, but otherwise a very good copy. Armorial bookplate of R. D. Jackson.

Leicester : Leicester University Press, 1974. A photographic reprint of the original 1899 edition, here edited by Mrs Harry Coghill for the Victorian Library series, and furnished with an introduction, notes on persons mentioned, and an index by Q. D. Leavis, who sums up Mrs Oliphant thus - "a massive contributor to the novel of several kinds, the short story, the biography, to the reviewing and critical essays in many Victorian periodicals, as well as a maker of solid books of non-fiction ... in sum important as a case-history of the woman of letters in the nineteenth century". Demy 8vo (23cm). (36),(xvi),464pp. Two portraits. Original rexine; just faintly bruised, but a very good copy in a very slightly rubbed dust-jacket.

London : Chapman & Hall, 1834. First edition. "A bottle of Reading sauce, a box of 'peptic pills', and a portable frying-pan ought to form part of every angler's travelling equipage". Fly-fishing in Coquetdale, Glendale and the Northern Hills, together with an appendix - "a well-written review of the older angling literature" (Westwood & Satchell), as well as a list of trout streams all across the north of England and the Borders. Father of the publisher, Chatto was also the editor of "The New Sporting Magazine" - "must have a place in every library" (Blackwood's Magazine). Foolscap 8vo (166 x 100mm). [iv],212pp. Wood-engraved head and tailpieces, mostly by Ebenezer Landells (1808-1860). Contemporary half green sheep, banded and gilt; marbled sides and edges; some minor rubbing and wear; some internal marks, chips and small flaws, but a good copy of an attractive book. With the later armorial bookplate of Mackenzie of Gairloch - probably Sir Kenneth John Mackenzie (1861-1929).

London : Collins Harvill, 1990. First edition. His first poetry collection - forty-eight poems, including "Airfix", "An Imperfect Spy", "Zip Code", etc. - from the award-winning poet. "Once or twice in a decade, certainly not more often, an original talent emerges" (Alan Ross). Demy 8vo (22cm). 64pp. Original white and blue wrappers, lettered in black, and with a Michael Andrews painting in colour on upper wrapper; very good.

London : Hodder & Stoughton, [1930]. First paperback edition. A legal tale of a satisfied barrister - "a triumph in the mode of high make-believe" (Barzun & Taylor). Originally published in 1922 - and here in Hodder's pre-war large format yellow Ninepenny series, with a striking cover design by Bip Pares. Demy 8vo (22cm). 128pp. Original pictorial wrappers - a Pares head in blues, black and white - lightly used, with some minor wear and creasing, but overall a very good copy. No copy of this edition located in any major library worldwide.

London : Hodder & Stoughton, [1928]. First paperback edition. A scarce collection of ten short stories, with Ambrose Lavendale and Suzanne de Freyne. Originally published in 1920 - and here in Hodder's large format Yellow Ninepenny series. Demy 8vo (22cm). 128pp. Original pictorial wrappers; spine rolled; wrappers lightly nicked and chipped and a little marked; edges spotted, but a good copy of a scarce and fragile survival. Just a single copy of this edition (Trento) located in major libraries worldwide.

London : Hodder & Stoughton, [1928]. First edition. "The Remarkable Astuteness of Police-Constable Chopping" and nine further stories of middle-England. Crown 8vo (20cm). 316,[iv]pp. Original orange-yellow cloth, lettered and decorated in black and green; edges a little spotted; spine very slightly creased; more serious vertical crease to lower cover, but still a presentable copy.

London : Hodder & Stoughton, (1937). First edition. The five beneficiaries of an unexpected windfall from a murdered man - and what befell. Crown 8vo (20cm). (288)pp. Original blue cloth, lettered across spine in black; a few faint marks, a few slight spots, but a very good copy.

London : Ward, Lock & Co., 1930. Sixpenny edition. "They sat at a little round table in the brilliantly-lit supper-room of one of London's most fashionable restaurants. Around them were the usual throng of well-dressed men, of women with bare shoulders and flashing diamonds, of dark-visaged waiters, deft, silent, swift-footed. From the balcony outside came the low, sweet music of a German orchestra played by master hands ...". Oppenheim's early political intrigue featuring "Monsieur Sabin", the French monarchist, first published in 1898, and here in a charming 1930 large-format paperback edition with pictorial cover and period advertisements. Demy 8vo (22cm). 128pp. Original stapled wrappers in a design by Abbey - Sabin and the Duchess crouch grimly over a besuited body; wrappers a little creased, nicked and chipped, with slight loss at foot of spine; text a little spotted and tanned, but a good copy of a scarce and fragile survival. Just a single copy of this edition (Yale) located in major libraries… Read More

London : Hutchinson & Co., 1908. First edition. The third of the Scarlet Pimpernel series - "Paris this September, 1793! - or shall we call it Vendémiaire, Year 1 of the Republic?" - "Like its scarlet predecessor, [it] is so beautifully unlike life that we have thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Sir Peter Blakeney, of the drawl and the inane smile, and the still inaner rhyme, is once more with us, dawdling into Revolutionary France, and doing the most heroic things under the nose of a Government that would give millions to see him dead" (Daily News, 23rd October 1908). Crown 8vo (189 x 122mm). 352 + (32)pp advertisements dated Autumn 1908 - the adverts curiously referring to the present work as "The Illusive Pimpernel", which raises some interesting questions. Bound in a smart later quarter chestnut morocco, banded and ruled in gilt; marbled sides - by James Ashton of London, with his stamp; outer leaves lightly tanned; some occasional scattered foxing, but overall a very good copy. Contemporary… Read More

London : Gerald Duckworth & Co. / British Broadcasting Corporation, (1985). First edition. The rediscovered texts of George Orwell's wartime radio broadcasts, transmitted weekly from December 1941 (Pearl Harbor) through to February 1943. Passages originally deleted by the wartime censor have been restored where legible. "The first large-scale unpublished work of Orwell's to appear since his early death in 1950". Edited, introduced and extensively annotated by the late W. J. (Bill) West (1942-1999), who discovered the lost original manuscripts. Medium 8vo (25cm). 248pp. Maps. Original boards; price obliterated from front free endpaper, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket just lightly sunned but with negligible wear. Contemporary gift inscription.

London : Martin Secker & Warburg, (1997). A definitive edition of Orwell's second novel, originally published in 1935, restoring for the first time a number of previously censored readings, and indicating other passages known to have been "toned down". Edited, and with a lengthy textual note by Peter Davison. First published in this form in 1986. Medium 8vo (25cm). [viii],(308),[iv]pp. Original blue cloth, blocked and lettered in silver; very good in the original dust-jacket - a design in blue, orange, red and white - just very faintly sunned.

London : Country Life, (1954). First edition. A neatly worked dictionary of architectural terms, attractively illustrated with explanatory drawings. Crown 4to (26cm). (112)pp. Illustrations. Original boards; a few slight spots; mild tanning of endpapers, but a very good copy in a slightly chipped, lightly nicked and price-clipped dust-jacket.

London : Faber & Faber, (1971). First edition : the hardback issue. A play written for television - a rich and powerful industrialist starts to pull apart his crumbling private life. The play was eventually turned into a film for television in 1980, with Alan Bates and Gemma Jones - "Osborne has this time tackled a subject worthy of his talents" (Liverpool Echo, 13th February 1980). Post 8vo (21cm). 54,[ii]pp. Original grey cloth, lettered in gilt; an indifferent copy - the spine a little mottled with some very faint spotting of edges, but sound and in the dust-jacket - the jacket rubbed, a little soiled, slightly worn in places, and with a couple of short tears.

London : Faber & Faber, (1965). First edition. A handsomely produced tribute, with essays on Alfred Fairbank (1895-1982) by Ruari McLean and others, and further essays in the wider field of calligraphy and palaeography by Sir Sydney Cockerell, John Dreyfus, Fairbank himself, Nicolete Gray, Sir Francis Meynell, Osley himself, Jan Tschichold, Berthold Wolpe, Francis Wormald, etc. Crown 4to (26cm). (xxiv),(288)pp. Forty-eight plates. Numerous illustrations. Original cloth; a few faint marks; one leaf slightly chipped, but otherwise a nice copy in a price-clipped and just slightly used and nicked dust-jacket.

Dublin : Grafton Publications, [1945]. First edition. Popular policeman is murdered in Tower City. Crown 8vo (19cm). 48pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; slight darkening of edges; staple rusted, but otherwise a very good copy. Just three copies (British Library, National Library of Scotland, National Library of Wales) located in major libraries worldwide.

London : Her Majesty's Stationery Office, (1983). Second edition. The standard work - a fully indexed, annotated listing of 7,950 works. A corrected text of the original 1965 edition. Royal 8vo (26cm). (684)pp. Folding tables. Original boards; a very good copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket also very good.