Search Results: Titles starting with D from Ash Rare Books

London : Victor Gollancz, 1972. A hardback reprint of Innes' scarce wartime classic, first published in 1942 – numerate horse stolen, two missing young women, Bloomsbury mansion rebuilt up the Amazon, experiments in the supernatural, etc. "An odd and startling piece of delicatessen to find in the meaty earthbound larder of detective fiction ... There is a brilliant madness in this book" (Punch). Post 8vo (21cm). [ii],(152),[ii]pp. Original red boards, lettered in gilt; mild bruising at foot; faint band of tanning to front endpaper; top edge a little spotted, but otherwise a very good copy in a very good dust-jacket.

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.

London : Collins, 1947. First edition. A new private detective in Caryl Wylde O'Hara - and the story of Leonora Ivory, Alexis Ricaud and his heroin-addicted wife, Esmeralda, etc. "A perfect case, probably the most perfect case that Mr. Cheyney, with as good an eye for a pretty plot as for a pretty woman, has ever devised". Set mainly in London, with excursions to Maidenhead, the Sussex coast and Torquay. Crown 8vo (20cm). (192)pp. Original sand cloth, lettered in green; a very good copy in the original pictorial Winslade dust-jacket - frightened brunette in long white gown and gloves - complete if a little worn, torn and creased, with some taped repairs.

London : Frederick Muller, (1938). First edition. The collected edition of Morton's "Beachcomber" verses - including some previously unpublished. With illustrations and decorations by Nicolas Bentley. Includes "Horrible Araminta", "Lovely Big Cow", "The Danger of Queer Hats", "Epitaph for a Foolish Lady", "Song for a Hunted Financier" - and the Zoological Verses: "I think the hippopotamus, Is really almost one of us; Even the way he eats his grub, Reminds me of the Savage Club ...". Crown 8vo (20cm). [iv],(160)pp. Original blue cloth, lettered in darker blue; some tanning of endpapers, but a very good, bright and firm copy in the original Nicolas Bentley dust-jacket - a design in orange, white, yellow and black - faintly sunned, price-clipped, slightly nicked, small chip from lower panel, and with some small tape reinforcements on verso.

London : Hodder & Stoughton, (2002). First edition. Her powerful fourth crime novel - mystery, parapsychology and madness on the Northumberland moors. Medium 8vo (25cm). 246,[ii]pp. Original black boards, lettered on spine in gilt; a very good copy in a just lightly used dust-jacket.

London : Weidenfeld & Nicholson, (1977). First edition. The opening volume of the Levant Trilogy. Guy and Harriet reach Egypt. "Manning etches in the landscape and the intricate machinery of war - which devours so much that is exuberant and tender - with lyrical exactitude. And she has a fine ear attuned to the inventive and desperate converse of people flung together and ringed by fire" (Kirkus Reviews, 1 September 1977). Demy 8vo (23cm). [iv],196,[iv]pp. Original bright blue boards, lettered in gilt; just a touch bruised; a handful of faint spots, but otherwise a very good copy in the David Hockney dust-jacket - the jacket price-clipped and in second state, with reviews of the novel on the rear panel, but just lightly used and very good.

London : Gordon Martin Publishing Co., [1946]. First edition. Five stories, some evidently drawing on Gordon's wartime experiences in Germany, his time at Yale, and in England as a Rhodes Scholar. Crown 8vo (19cm). (126),[ii]pp. Original stapled card wrappers; staples rusted, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket - a striking design in red and black by Griff. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

London : Hamilton & Co. (Stafford), [1949]. First edition. Sheena begins to think she has married beneath her - and the acute post-war housing shortage is not helping. Jean Wattson is thought perhaps to be a pseudonym of the author John F. Watt. Although not announced on cover or title-page, the last seventeen pages contain a separate story - "Flame of Desire" by Janice Talbot. Crown 8vo (19cm). [32]pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers - a design by Brab; a few faint marks; staples rusted, but overall a very good copy of a scarce and fragile item. Just a single copy (British Library) located in major libraries worldwide.

London : Bodley Head, (1954). First edition. The lives and work of the much-admired painters and print-makers Thomas, William, and Samuel Daniell - their work in India 1788-1793, "The Voyage Round Great Britain" 1813-1825, etc. With appendices of the original paintings and drawings; a list of the printed and engraved works; a bibliography, etc. Crown 4to (26cm). 200pp. Plates, portraits, some in colour. Maps. Original boards; a little bruised, sunned and slightly marked; mild spotting of endpapers, but a good, sound and serviceable copy of a difficult title.

London : Jonathan Cape, (1969). First British edition. An "essential companion" to "Under the Volcano" – Lowry's return to the scene. Edited by Lowry's widow, Margerie Bonner, and his first biographer, Douglas Day, from 700 pages of Lowry's notes and drafts. "I welcome the chance to read these pages, which come from the draft-plan of another masterpiece" (Dominic Le Foe in The Illustrated London News, 12th July 1969).
Post 8vo (21cm). xviii,[2],(256)pp. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; top edge lilac; an unusually good copy, the book very good indeed, the jacket fresh, white, unworn and the lettering unfaded.

London : Hodder & Stoughton, (1936). First edition. His uncommon first novel - gripping from the very first page (which concludes with a footnote invoking the Official Secrets Act). "A new writer of international spy stories has arrived ... The central character is Professor Henry Barstow, a highly strung savant ... Following a motoring accident, he takes on the identity of the colourful hero of the thriller he had previously picked up. Then, posing as his real self, he calmly accompanies the unscrupulous representative of a big armament firm to a Continental country, ostensibly with object of helping to acquire information about an atomic bomb ... an ingenious story, cleverly written, and cloaked with such verisimilitude that it does not appear to be far-fetched. More will be heard of Eric Ambler" (Mid Sussex Times, 17th November 1936). Crown 8vo (182 x 115mm). 320pp. Bound in a smart recent half calf, lettered in gilt; raised bands; earlier cloth backstrip preserved at rear; slight tanning to the… Read More

London : Collins, 1946. First edition. Rene Berg, ex-Chicago gunman, awakens in a German concentration camp. His greatest moment awaits. "Quite the best book of his career ... the story of a Chicago gunman of Prohibition days, turned patriot and intelligence man ... Even Mr. Cheyney's style, usually as staccato as a sawn-off machine-gun in action, has been considerably smoothened, without any noticeable loss of pace. It is as if he now used a silencer" (The Sphere, 23rd March 1946).
Crown 8vo (20cm). 192pp. Original sand cloth, lettered in green; some spotting to edges and endpapers, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket – lightly worn, and with a couple of minor scuffs and a little dustiness to the lower panel.

London : Collins, 1944. First edition. "The women, of course, dress superbly, move like angels, are as beautiful as diamonds and, with one notable exception, behave abominably". An early Cheyney "dark" novel of counter-espionage. Crown 8vo (20cm). (192)pp. Original sand cloth, lettered in green; a touch bruised; a few edge-spots, but a very good and sound copy in the original atmospheric pictorial dust-jacket - ruby-lipped brunette in green stares us down - lightly rubbed and just very slightly worn at head. Contemporary (1944) gift inscription.

London : Collins, 1944. First edition. An early Cheyney "dark" novel of counter-espionage - the all-wise Quayle, Shaun O'Mara, Ricky Kerr - "The women, of course, dress superbly, move like angels, are as beautiful as diamonds and, with one notable exception, behave abominably". Crown 8vo (20cm). (192)pp. Original sand cloth, lettered in green; a touch bruised; a few edge-spots, but a very good and sound copy in the original atmospheric pictorial dust-jacket - ruby-lipped brunette in green stares us down - lightly used, with a few short nicks, but also very good.

Stroud : Amberley Publishing, (2018). First edition. "How the Dance of the Seven Veils led to 'the libel case of the century'... A close examination of attitudes to women in the Belle Epoque and beyond". The sensational life of the dancer Maud Allan (1873-1956). Medium 8vo (25cm). 287,[i]pp. Plates. Portraits. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in gilt; a very good copy in a very good dust-jacket.

London : Collins, 1948. First edition. One of Cheyney's "Dark" series, with Everard Peter Quayle, "that poker-faced and most secretive of secret agents", Vincente Callao, fashionable dance-band leader, the lovely Aurora Francis, and the enigmatic Antoinette Brown. Crown 8vo (20cm). (192)pp. Original sand cloth, lettered in green; edges spotted, but otherwise a very good copy in the original pictorial dust-jacket - the jacket lightly worn, slightly creased, with a couple of nicks and a short tear.

[London : Charles Tilt, 1830]. A most attractive antique print of the town hall and the market square. Engraved by Edward Francis Finden (1791-1857) from an original study by William Westall A.R.A. (1781-1850). Originally produced for the part-work series "Great Britain Illustrated" (1828-1830). Steel line engraving on paper. Later hand colour. Engraved surface 103 x 146mm (approx. 4-1/8" x 5-3/4"). In very good and clean state. A guaranteed genuine antique print.

London : Cassell & Co., (1966). First British edition, originally published in America earlier the same year as "The Big Knockover". Eight Continental Op short stories, the novelette "The Big Knockover", and a chapter from the unfinished novel, "Tulip" - none of which had previously appeared in hardback form. Edited and introduced by his widow Lillian Hellman (1905-1984). A review copy, with the publisher's slips loosely inserted. Demy 8vo (22cm). (xxii),356,[ii]pp. Original black boards, lettered across spine in silver; top edge a little spotted; a few slight marks, but a very good copy in the original red, white and black dust-jacket - lightly rubbed, a touch sunned, slightly nicked, and a little marked on lower panel.

London : A. & C. Black, 1895. First complete edition : originally published in three separate instalments 1894-1895. A weighty survey, with a lengthy introduction covering collecting, preservation, German book-plates, French book-plates, English book-plates and their ten basic styles, American book-plates, early references, eighteenth-century engravers and styles, nineteenth-century design, etc., followed by detailed chronological tables of known examples from 1516 to 1895. Post 4to (28cm). [viii],124,(226),[xx]pp. Numerous plates and illustrations. Original cloth gilt; lightly sunned; a few minor marks; a touch shaken, but a very good copy of a handsome production.

London : George Routledge & Sons, 1895. First British edition. "A remarkably pretty woman had just whirled past in a sleigh ... 'How in the world did she turn up in New York in January! Too much rapid transit in this world!' ... This year of ninety reminds me that my life has been deficient in sleigh-rides". The colourful and adventurous soldier-turned-popular-author here going completely over the top in Victorian yellow-back format. Originally published in Chicago in 1894. "Colonel Richard Henry Savage wields a pen of power" (Saturday Review, 5th November 1892). Crown 8vo (19cm). [vi],304,4,[iv]pp - advertisements dated 1894. Original pictorial boards; a little rubbed and worn; a little shaken; text a little brittle and tanned, with occasional slight chipping; one leaf more heavily chipped, without affecting the text, but a good copy of a scarce and fragile production. Small bookseller's label of Neal's Library of Paris on front paste-down.