Search Results: Titles starting with P from Neil Pearson Rare Books

New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1975. 8vo, pp. 121. Original blue threequarter boards, lettered in gilt on cream spine. Bookseller's label to rear endpaper, pages a little browned, but a near fine copy in a near fine, price-clipped, lightly age-toned dustwrapper. Illustrated. First edition in book form of an essay skewering the pretensions of modern art which first appeared in the April 1975 issue of Harper's magazine.

London: G. Arthur Pearson., 1915. 8vo, pp. 741. Original publisher's binding. Binding a little scuffed, faded and worn, but a well preserved copy. Wodehouse story illustrated by Lewis Baumer. First edition. Vol. XL, July - December 1915 issue, containing the Wodehouse story The Test Case. McIlvaine Addendum D118.26b

Boston: Little, Brown, 1907. 8vo, pp. 295, 4pp. advertisements bound in at rear. Original dark blue boards, the front board patterned, lettered in yellow to front panel and spine. Tissue guard to frontispiece. A near fine, tightly bound copy. Frontispiece and three illustrations by Arthur William Brown. First edition. Early mystery from the Canadian Arthur Stringer [1874-1950], who also wrote science fiction and screenplays for early cinema. A very well preserved copy. HUBIN, p. 394

New York: Dodd, Mead, 1917. 8vo, pp. 363. Original orange boards, lettered in black to front panel and spine. Lacking the dustwrapper. Small bookseller's label to rear pastedown. A fine copy. Frontispiece and seven full-page illustrations by May Wilson Preston. First edition, preceding the UK edition which did not appear until the following year. A very fine copy. McIlvaine A-20a

London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1965. 8vo, pp. 45. Original mauve and black boards, lettered in black and white on front panel and spine. A very near fine, unread copy in a near fine dustwrapper with just a little fading to spine. First edition.

London: Cape, 1952. 8vo. pp. 254. Index and foldout map. Original blue boards, lettered in silver to spine. A fine copy in a near fine, unclipped dustwrapper, slight dulling to spine and with just the lightest edgewear to head of spine. Photographic frontispiece and illustrations by the author. First edition. As well as a mastery of his subject, Francis Kingdon-Ward [1885-1958] had a deep curiosity about the terrain and people he encountered during his botanical expeditions. The result was a series of absorbing travel-cum-textbooks, engagingly written, attractive to the general reader as well as the specialist, whose author was one of the forefathers of popular science. An unusually well-preserved copy in the dustwrapper.

London: Hamish Hamilton, 1958. 8vo, pp. 208. Original red boards, lettered in silver to spine. Printed dust jacket, author's photographic portrait to rear panel. Offsetting to endpapers, otherwise a near fine copy in a very good dust jacket with some loss to corners and spine ends. First edition of this last Philip Marlowe title, and Chandler's last completed novel. HUBIN, p. 76

London: Cape, 2004. 8vo, pp. 391. Original black boards, lettered in gilt on spine. Fine in dustwrapper. First UK edition.

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. 8vo, pp. 252. Original maroon and blue threequarter boards, lettered in silver to spine, apple design in silver to front panel. Top edge red. Illustrated dustwrapper. Light offsetting to endpapers, small ownership name to front free endpaper, but a near fine copy in a near fine dustwrapper with just a little wear to spine ends. First US edition, preceded by the UK edition of the previous year. A collection of short stories featuring several headline names, Lord Emsworth, Jeeves and Ukridge among them. McIlvaine A89a

Paris: Obelisk Press, 1934. 8vo, pp. 54. Original cream boards. Spine label. Leading and lower edges uncut. Text a little age-toned, but a very good copy in a darkened dustwrapper, with two closed tears and some loss to rear panel, small chip to lower edge at front corner. Frontispiece portrait of the author by Iacovleff. First edition. One of 100 copies, this copy unnumbered. The only book by Isabel Maria Teresa Micaela Rafaela Gabriela Nadejda de Bragança, a descendant of the Portuguese royal family, who killed herself via a London hotel window in 1946 -- an entirely understandable reaction to having written these execrable poems. Of no literary value, the book is one of the scarcer titles issued by the Obelisk Press, the English-language Paris-based imprint responsible for publishing the early work of Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell and Anaïs Nin, among many others. Very scarce in dustwrapper. Pearson A-30

London: SPCK, 1954. 8vo, unpaginated. Original illustrated stiff paper wrapper, lettered in blue and red to front panel. Age-toned, some wear and bumping to (outsize) wrappers, but a very good copy. First edition, INSCRIBED ON HALF-TITLE BY THE AUTHOR: 'Inscribed for [?] Huggett John Betjeman 1970'. Not a scarce book, but very scarce signed or inscribed. This copy was inscribed sixteen years after publication in Betjeman's by then very shaky hand.

London: Turret Books, 1986. Oblong 16mo, unpaginated. Stiff paper wrappers. A fine copy. Cover design by Heloise Wire. First edition, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR TO TITLE PAGE. ADDITIONALLY INSCRIBED BY THE PUBLISHER BERNARD STONE: 'With best wishes for 1987, Bernard. One of 500 copies.

London: Hollis & Carter, 1955. 8vo, pp. 194. Original black boards, lettered in silver on spine. The slightest of edgewear, but a near fine copy in a very good dustwrapper, a little marking to rear panel, and with some wear to spine ends and folds. First English-language edition, first published in France under the title Drogues De Police. Early quasi-judicial analysis of the drugs issue, focusing on police use of 'truth serums'. Extremely scarce in the dustwrpper.

London: Andre Deutsch, 1977. 8vo, pp. 64. Original green boards lettered in silver on spine. A near fine copy in price-clipped dustwrapper, lightly bumping to top right corner. Illustrated with line drawings by Nicholas Bentley. First edition of the author's second book of poems for children.

New York: William Morrow, 1972. 8vo, pp. 246. Original black boards, lettered in red and white to spine. Red endpapers. Illustrated dust jacket. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. First edition. A fine copy. HUBIN, p. 402

London: A&C Black, 1902. 8vo, pp. 272. Original blue boards, lettered in silver to spine, loving cup in silver to front panel. One small and slight scuff mark to centre of spine, light wear to spine ends, corners a trifle bumped. Offsetting to endpapers, and very light and very occasional spotting to text edges. Lettering bright, and with no sunning to spine. Frontispiece and nine plates by R. Noel Pocock. First edition of the author's first book. First issue, with no advertisements, and with silver loving cup to front board. First published in serial (and slightly condensed) form in Public School Magazine, January--March 1902. '[I]n 1900, [boys' magazine] The Captain appeared, and in the first number was a serial by Fred Swainson called Acton's Feud. It began, I remember, 'Shannon, the old international, had brought a hot side down to play the school...' and if there has ever been a better opening line than that, I have never come across it. It was something entirely new in school stories -- the real… Read More

London: Newnes, N.d. [1925]. 8vo, pp. 186. Original red boards, lettered in black to front panel and spine. Heineman bookplate to front pastedown. Very slightly cocked, foxing to preliminaries, a little wear and fading to spine. A very good copy. First UK edition, fiifth issue. The Heineman copy, with his bookplate to front pastedown. The novel was serialised in The Strand, February--April, 1912. 'By the way, I have started my new novel, which merges about 1/2 way into the plot (with variations) of Psmith, Journalist. It's going to be a corker -- good love interest -- rapid action from first chapter -- length about 100,000 words.' (PGW to Leslie Havergal Bradshaw, 19 January 1911) The autograph manuscript of Psmith, Journalist is missing the chapters which correspond to those revised for this novel. Ranked the sixth scarcest Wodehouse title by Townend, this is a tight, bright example of… Read More

London: Herbert Jenkins, N.d. [1948]. 8vo, pp. 254. 2pp. publisher's catalogue bound in at rear. Original orange boards, lettered in black to front panel and spine. Front panel and front flap of illustrated dustwrapper laid in. Production fault crease to head of spine, but a very good copy with the remains of the dustwrapper laid in. First edition, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO FRONT FREE ENDPAPER: 'Jan 9th 1948. To Ebba & [name illegible] with affectionate regards from Alfred Tack'. Alfred Tack was a businessman who, with his brother, founded the company NuAire in 1937 to manufacture ventilation and heating systems. He later founded a business to teach salesmanship and wrote many books on the subject, as well as developing a sideline as a prolific crime writer.

New York: Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 1968. 8vo, pp. 309. Original grey marbled boards, lettered in silver on red spine. Brown top edge. A near fine copy in a very good dustwrapper, a little edgewear and light dampstaining to top edge of rear panel. First edition. Wolfe's collection of essays documenting the 1960s counterculture of the USA in general and New York in particular. An indispensable social document and an early, dazzling firework display from the man who would go on to establish himself as his country's psychoanalyst-in-chief.

New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1997. 8vo, pp. 298. Original purple and black boards, lettered in gilt on spine. A little edgewear, otherwise a near fine copy in a near fine dustwrapper. First edition of the author's fourth novel, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR on the title page, and additionally inscribed 'For Tim thx for coming, Best Rick'. Moody is perhaps most celebrated for The Ice Storm (1992), later filmed.