Search Results: Titles starting with B from Ash Rare Books

London : Martin Secker & Warburg, 1957. First British edition. Published to coincide with the UK release of the controversial and much-banned Elia Kazan film starring Karl Malden, Carroll Baker and Eli Wallach. Post 8vo (21cm). 140pp. Plates - stills from the film. Original red boards, lettered down spine in silver; a few faint marks, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket - a touch sunned, very lightly rubbed and just slightly dusty.

London : Barrie & Jenkins, (1973). First edition. Ivor Llewellyn is fresh out of his sixth marriage when his lawyer recommends Bachelors Anonymous, a support group for bachelors to help each other prevent impulsive marriage proposals. "There is the much-married executive, Ivor Llewellyn … who tended to propose to women over the coffee because he couldn't think of anything else to say to them. There is the English Joe Pickering, who has one of the sunniest smiles in SW7; and there is Ephraim Trout, the lawyer, who was so thin and meagre that a course might well have rendered him invisible" (Birmingham Daily Post, 25th May 1974). Post 8vo (21cm). (192)pp. Original green boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a very good, bright, clean and sound copy in the Osbert Lancaster dust-jacket - the jacket slightly darkened at the edges of the laminate (as usual), but also very good.

London : Barrie & Jenkins, (1973). First edition. The sequel to "Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin". Ivor Llewellyn, much married and currently divorced head of a Hollywood film studio, returns to London. Post 8vo (21cm). (192)pp. Original green boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a couple of edge spots, but a very good copy in the Osbert Lancaster dust-jacket - the jacket slightly darkened at edges of the laminate (as usual), with a slight crease to the back panel, but also very good.

London : John G. Murdoch, [1854 (but later)]. A handsome antique print - fishermen on the beach, masts beyond - from an original drawing by the well-known Clarkson Stanfield R. A. Originally produced for John Parker Lawson's "Scotland Delineated in a Series of Views" (London : 1847-1854), but here with the later imprint of J. G. Murdoch and produced for his undated publication "Scotland, Picturesque, Historical, Descriptive". Tint lithograph on paper. Later hand colour. Printed surface 169 x 214mm (approx. 6-5/8" x 8-3/8"). A few very small and very light marks, but in very good and clean state. A guaranteed genuine antique print.

London : Gerald G. Swan, (1942). First edition. Her first crime novel - and we meet the curious investigator Jacob Chaos. Murder in a madhouse - Dr Royd has been killed and any number of people had good cause. Crown 8vo (19cm). (224)pp. Plan. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt; front free endpaper neatly excised; text a little tanned, but otherwise a very good copy in the striking original dust-jacket - a little trimmed, slightly marked and very lightly worn and nicked, but also very good.

New York : Universal Publishing & Distributing, [1952]. First edition. "Whirling in a maelstrom of sex and bloody intrigue ... Ruthlessly hunted through the byways of Manhattan, the subways of Brooklyn, the alleys of Coney Island". Uni-Book No.24. Foolscap 4to (20cm). [ii],125,[i]pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers - a design attributed to Walter Popp (1920-2002); wrappers a little creased; chip at foot; lower wrapper nicked; text spotted in places and a little tanned, but a good copy. No copy located in any major library worldwide.

London : Hamish Hamilton, (2005). First edition. Signed by William Boyd on the title-page. An extensive collection of Boyd's non-fiction - eleven more-or-less autobiographical pieces followed by forty essays on writers - Boyd on Auden, Ballard, Dickens, Fowles, Golding, Spark, Vonnegut, Waugh, etc.; twenty-one pieces on artists - Braque, Bonnard, Grosz, Hopper, Picasso, etc; eleven pieces on Africa; twelve on film; twelve on television; and twenty-four on an eclectic selection of people and places. "In all its richness, diversity and idiosyncrasy - a beguiling intellectual autobiography of one of our most important novelists". Medium 8vo (25cm). (xviii),650,[iv]pp. Original green cloth, lettered in silver; just a few minimal signs of age and use, but a very good copy in a just faintly bruised dust-jacket.

London : Richard Bentley, 1866. First edition. "La Puebla de los Angeles is peculiar, even among the cities of modern Mexico; peculiar in the fact, that two-thirds of its population are composed of priests, pelados, poblanas, pickpockets, and picarones of a bolder type". Love and bandits in the mountains. Post 8vo (21cm). [iv],308pp. Frontispiece. Original pictorial cloth gilt; some very minor rubbing and wear; some spotting of prelims, but still overall a very good copy.

[London : Vernor, Hood & Sharpe, 1809]. An antique print of Soane's refashioned courtyards within the Bank of England. Engraved by the Scottish engraver John Burnet (1784-1868) from an original study by the painter and architect James Robert Thompson (fl.1806-1848). Originally produced for the part-work "Beauties of England and Wales" (1801-1816). Copper line engraving on paper. Later hand colour. Engraved surface 122 x 159mm (approx. 4-3/4" x 6-1/4"). In very good and clean state. A guaranteed genuine antique print. Adams 104/023. Bank of England 127.

Sutton : Hippopotamus Press, (1984). First edition : one of twenty-five special numbered copies signed by Shaun McCarthy. A collection of twenty-three poems, including "Two Short Films", "On Hembury Fort", "American Thriller Movie", etc. Demy 8vo (22cm). (60),[iv]pp. Original grey wrappers, printed in black; very good.

[London : J. Mead, 1842]. A lively antique print - the interior of the Banqueting House, with the annual distribution of Maundy Money to deserving pensioners. Engraved by Henry Melville (1792-1870) from an original study by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd. Originally produced for the part-work "London Interiors : A Grand National Exhibition" (London : 1841-1844). Steel line engraving on paper. Engraved surface 155 x 179mm (approx. 6-1/8" x 7"). In very good and clean state. A guaranteed genuine antique print.

[London : Charles Tilt, 1829]. A most attractive antique print - the castle, the river, the bridge and a fisherman by moonlight. Engraved by Edward Francis Finden (1791-1857) from an original study by William Westall A.R.A. Originally produced for the part-work series "Great Britain Illustrated" (London : 1828-1830). Steel line engraving on paper. Later hand colour. Engraved surface 107 x 146mm (approx. 4-1/4" x 5-3/4"). In very good and clean state. A guaranteed genuine antique print.

Edinburgh & London : William Blackwood & Sons, 1871. First edition. The founding fiction in the whole of the "imaginary wars" genre - a German invasion and conquest vividly envisioned in the wake of the lightning advances of the Prussian army in the Franco-Prussian War. Letters to the newspapers having failed, Chesney, a distinguished army engineer, successfully took to fiction to publicise the ramshackle state of the British armed forces. Originally published in "Blackwood's Magazine", profoundly influential, and subsequently much reprinted. Foolscap 8vo (173 x 110mm). 64 + 8pp advertisements. Bound in neat recent boards, paper label - retaining the original pictorial mauve wrappers; wrappers a little worn and faded; a few spots, but a nicely preserved example. Dated (1880) ownership inscription of Gaston Démarest - this Louis Gaston George Démarest (1869-1955), born in Guildford, eleven miles from Dorking, brought up by his widowed French mother, and subsequently to work in the Scottish and… Read More

London : Ward, Lock & Co., (1958). First edition. Further reminiscence and memoir from Yates and Berry. Post 8vo (21cm). (286),[ii]pp. Original black cloth, lettered across spine in gilt; top edge yellow; a few faint marks; mild tanning of endpapers, but a very good, clean and sound copy in the Peter Rudland dust-jacket - just faintly tanned, but otherwise very good indeed.

London : Salamander Imprint, (1977). First edition : the hardback issue. Inscribed and signed by Kit Wright on the title-page. A collection of thirty-two poems, including "Death in the Phonebox of the Body", "London Elders", "The Dark Night of the Sole", etc. Demy 8vo (23cm). 62,[ii]pp. Original maroon boards, lettered in silver; a few slight edge-spots, but a very good copy in the original dust-jacket - a design in maroon and black on cream - very slightly spotted at edges, but otherwise very good.

London : Orion Books, (2014). First edition. Twenty-nine Rebus short stories, a number previously unpublished, or unpublished in book form. The collection concludes with an absorbing twelve-page essay from Rankin on the origins of the Rebus character. Medium 8vo (25cm). [vi],(452),[vi]pp. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in silver; one tiny corner crease, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket with just a hint of bruising, but also very good.

London : Frederick Warne, (1986). First edition. A richly illustrated biography of Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), with much new material, including previously unpublished photographs and illustrations. Crown 4to (26cm). 224pp. Illustrations throughout. Colour plates. Original boards; a very good copy in a price-clipped and just faintly rubbed dust-jacket. Pictorial bookplate of A.W. & P. M. Best.

London : Vizetelly & Co., 1887. First Mermaid edition. The unexpurgated text of the ten major plays in Havelock Ellis's sought-after Mermaid Series of "The Best Plays of the Old Dramatists" - "The Maid's Tragedy", "Philaster", "The Wild-Goose Chase", "Thierry and Theodoret", "The Knight of the Burning Pestle", "King and No King", "Bonduca", "The Spanish Curate", "The Faithful Shepherdess" and "Valentinian". Edited, with a long and perceptive introduction, notes, etc., by John St. Loe Strachey (1860-1927). Two volumes. Crown 8vo (187 x 113mm). xl,(472); viii,(518) + 32pp advertisements dated September 1887. Portrait frontispieces. Bound in a most attractive recent half chestnut morocco, banded and gilt, by Bayntun-Riviere of Bath; cloth sides; marbled endpapers; top edges gilt; a few leaves slightly spotted, but a very good set.

London : Jonathan Cape, (1940). First edition. An uncommon collection of fifteen short stories, including "The Bridge", "A Scandalous Woman", "Love is not Love", etc. - "Grave, touching, low-toned, Mr. Bates's stories are like the effect of a gleam of pale sunshine on a grey landscape - suddenly, in the most sordid and unexpected circumstances, beauty is there" (Daily News, 1st January 1941). Post 8vo (20cm). (256)pp. Original grey-green cloth, blocked and lettered in red; a touch tanned; some spotting of edges, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket - a typographic design in black, white and pink - lightly tanned, with some minor wear, a couple of short nicks, and a tiny chip, but still very good.

New York : Magazine Productions, (1952). First edition. Alcoholic ex-cop seeks redemption, but "every woman who dared to love him turned up as a corpse in his bedroom". Rainbow Book No. 124. Foolscap 4to (20cm). [ii],5-130pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers in a design by George Gross (1909-2003); some minor rubbing and very mild wear; lower wrapper lightly creased and slightly discoloured, but overall a very good copy. No copy located in any major library worldwide.