Search Results: Titles starting with R from Ash Rare Books

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1971. First edition. The sequel to "Rabbit, Run" (1960), set against the background of the Summer of Love - "Ten years have passed; the athletic escapist has become a paunchy conservative, and Eisenhower's becalmed America has become 1969's lurid confusion of technology, fantasy, and emergency. Rabbit is abandoned and mocked, his home is invaded, the world of his childhood decays into a mere sublunar void; still he clings to semblances of patriotism and paternity". Acclaimed on first publication - "A rare verbal genius, a gifted intelligence and a sense of tragedy made bearable by wit. A masterpiece" (Time Magazine), "Without doubt, the finest novel John Updike has written" (Julian Symons in the Sunday Times), and acclaimed now, "One of the most gifted American realists ... John Updike's surpassingly eloquent valentine to his country" (Joyce Carol Oates in 2015). Post 8vo (21cm). [viii],(407),[i]pp. Original red cloth, ruled and lettered in silver and gilt; top edge blue;… Read More

[London : Fisher, Son & Co., 1833]. An appealing antique print of the castle - deer shelter under trees in the foreground. Engraved by William Alexander le Petit (1804?-1896) from an original study by the gifted Thomas Allom. Originally produced for the part-work "Northern Tourist" series (London : 1832-1835). Steel line engraving on paper. Later hand colour. Engraved surface 108 x 154mm (approx. 4-1/4" x 6"). In very good and clean state. A guaranteed genuine antique print.

London : Country Life, (1939). First edition : in the secondary binding of pale brown cloth over thin and flexible boards, lettered in black - the publisher's imprint reading Junior Country Life Library on four lines. A story for older children set on Romney Marsh - and "without the inevitable ponies and dogs filling the chief roles". Foolscap 4to (22cm). viii,180pp. Illustrations by Nina Scott Langley. Just a touch bruised; a few slight edge spots, but a very good and bright copy in the secondary dust-jacket - a Scott James pictorial design in black and orange on white - priced 4s/6d - and listing forty-seven titles in the Junior Country Life Library - the jacket a little worn, tanned and repaired, and somewhat chipped at tips, but without loss of lettering.

London : Michael Joseph, (1971). First British edition. Wolfe coined the term "radical chic" in an essay for "New York" magazine in June 1970. It had already struck a chord before the essay (in augmented form) appeared in book form on either side of the Atlantic - "Political extremism is all the rage in these days of radical chic - just as it was when the bored children of the middle class, reacting against their background, helped the radical leftists Mussolini and Hitler into dictatorial power", noted the Illustrated London News on 31st October 1970. Wolfe's second essay illuminates in similar vein the San Francisco poverty programmes - "the smell of singed snobbery, roasted radicals and charred chic ascends with blissful delight" (Alexander Walker in the Birmingham Daily Post, 23rd October 1971). Post 8vo (21cm). [vi],(154)pp. Original black boards, lettered in gilt; a couple of spots, but a very good copy in the Graham Rogers dust-jacket, also very good.

London : Penguin Books, (1988). A reprint, in the Penguin Modern Classics series, of this collection originally published by Heinemann in 1969. Signed by Edward Upward on the title-page. Post 8vo (20cm). (234),[vi]pp. Original colour-printed Paul Leith wrappers; text edges very mildly tanned; a few very small spots on title-page, but otherwise in very good state. Walker A3c.

London : André Deutsch, (1972). First edition. Signed by Kevin Crossley-Holland on front free endpaper. His first full-length collection - thirty-eight poems, including "Spring-Tide, Burnham-Overy-Staithe", "Mirror Edged with Shells", "A Lindisfarne Tombstone", "Alderney: The Nunnery", etc. Demy 8vo (23cm). 62,[ii]pp. Original blue boards, lettered in silver; very good in the blue, black and white Lloyd Martin dust-jacket - just a little tanned at edges.

London : for G. B. Whittaker / Bath : John Upham / Exeter : Charles Upham, 1824. First edition. "One of the most intellectual and imaginative productions of the age" (Monthly Critical Gazette, 1st December 1824). Bookseller, orientalist and quondam mayor of Exeter, Upham intended his anonymous tale to introduce readers to the full glories of ancient Egypt - "a series of data, whereby may be formed a knowledge and appreciation of this ancient and illustrious kingdom, resorted to by the wisest and best of the philosophers, the sages, and legislators of Greece, and pronounced by them to be 'the mother of arts, and the fountain of wisdom'". Each volume concludes with copious historical notes. Three volumes. Crown 8vo (187 x 111mm). viii,(342); [ii],(322); [ii],328pp. Bound, without half-titles and a final blank, in an attractive near contemporary half blue-green polished calf, worked in blind on broad bands, ruled and lettered in gilt; red labels; marbled sides; some mild rubbing and a few minor signs of… Read More

London : Arthur Barker, (1960). First edition. The fifth and last of the Guy Random novels - "a peer caught in a mouse-trap; three dozen mixed gadabouts stuffed into the boot-cupboard ... a striptease artiste roosting in the chandelier; and a weight-lifter entombed in the grand piano". Crown 8vo (19cm). (232)pp. Original maroon boards, blocked and lettered across spine in yellow; a few faint spots, but a very good and sound copy in the original Sinc dust-jacket - a pictorial design in black, cerise, yellow and white - lightly rubbed and worn, and slightly dusty on lower panel.

London : Arthur Barker, (1959). First edition. The fourth Guy Random novel - ranging from East Anglia to the Costa del Sol, via the gilded drawing-rooms of Belgravia and Soho's Vulture Club. Crown 8vo (19cm). (232)pp. Original jade boards, blocked and lettered across spine in pink; slight spotting of edges; faint tanning of endpapers, but a very good and bright copy in the original John Dugan dust-jacket - a pictorial design in orange, green, black and white - just faintly sunned and with just a hint of rubbing.

London : Orion Books, (2016). First edition. "For John Rebus, forty years may have passed, but the death of beautiful, promiscuous Maria Turquand still preys on his mind. Murdered in her hotel room on the night a famous rock star and his entourage were staying there, Maria's killer has never been found". Medium 8vo (25cm). [vi],310,[iv]pp. Original black boards, blocked and lettered in silver; just a hint of age and use, but a very good copy in a very good dust-jacket.

Newcastle upon Tyne : Bloodaxe Books, (1988). First edition. Inscribed and signed by Helen Dunmore on the title-page. The Yorkshire-born poet and novelist's third book - a collection of forty poems, including "Wild Strawberries", "A Mortgage on a Pear Tree", "The Haunting at Epworth", etc. Demy 8vo (22cm). 60,[iv]pp. Original colour printed wrappers, the principal lettering in white and green; very good indeed.

New York : Universal Publishing & Distributing, [1951]. First paperback edition. "The girl was a menace! Even to a slim, sure-shooting rider out of Texas - and the fastest man with a lariat that side of the Rockies". Originally published in 1936 as "Tie-Fast Hombre" as by Chuck Martin and here "especially adapted for your reading pleasure". Uni-Book No. 16. Foolscap 4to (19cm). 160pp. Original pictorial stapled wrappers; some light wear and creasing; a couple of minuscule chips; text a little soiled in places, with a few minor chips and flaws; a good copy. No copy of this edition located in any major library worldwide.

London : William Heinemann, (1944). First British edition. An American airman traumatised by the Great War searches for meaning in life in Chicago, Paris and India. "Mr Somerset Maugham's new novel ... is in some ways the most important he has written ... Do not think from all this that the novel is preachy-preachy, because it is not: it is as full of Maugham sparkle and wit, naughtiness, sex and satire as anyone could wish. My own view is that this is the best non-war novel we have had since 1939. I read it several times with deep appreciation and delight" (Aberdeen Evening Express, 20th July 1944). Filmed in 1946 with Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney and Anne Baxter (who won an Oscar), and again in 1984 with Bill Murray, Theresa Russell, Catherine Hicks, Denholm Elliott, etc. Originally published a few months earlier in the USA. Crown 8vo (182 x 120mm). [iv],284pp. Bound in a handsome recent full blue morocco, banded and gilt; top edge gilt; a couple of tiny marks; a few internal marks and spots, but… Read More

London : Constable & Co., (1932). First edition. Burke in familiar territory in the dark lanes and byways of East End London - dismissing the stereotypes and pointing up the colour, the people, the river and the commerce - the book brought magnificently to life by the atmospheric lithographs of the bohemian Pearl Binder (1904-1990), later Lady Polly Elwyn-Jones - with sketches from her studio, studies of Aldgate, Wapping, Brick Lane, etc. Demy 8vo (23cm). (viii),(164),[iv]pp. Sixteen plates. Smaller illustrations in text. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt; a few spots, mainly to edges; frontispiece just slightly chipped, but otherwise a very good copy in the striking dust-jacket - a pictorial monochrome design of the East End at night by Binder, lettered in bright pink - the jacket just a little worn and slightly frayed, with a short repaired tear, but a rare and welcome survival, featuring an illustration not included in the book. Contemporary (1934) ownership inscription of Kate M. Woodbridge.

London & Boston : Faber & Faber, (1983) [but 1984]. An American-printed and considerably revised text of the original 1982 London publication, featuring photographs by Martha Swope of Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons in the 1984 Broadway production. Marked "Book Club Edition" on the dust-jacket, but would appear to predate the regular American hardback edition. Demy 8vo (22cm). [x],(116),[ii]pp. Photographs. Original tan boards, lettered in cerise; just a hint of bruising, but a very good copy in the dust-jacket - the jacket a little worn, slightly nicked and chipped with a couple of small tape-repairs at head. From the collection of Professor Ira Nadel (1943-2021), Stoppard's biographer.

London : J. & C. Brown & Co., (1856). First edition : with the variant undated title-page. "I returned to Scotland Yard to report ..." - the very first appearance in fiction of a Scotland Yard detective - indeed, the first English detective stories. "Waters" of the Yard was the invention of journalist William Russell - the stories originally published in Chambers' Edinburgh Journal between 1849 and 1852, with some of the stories appearing in book form in New York in 1852. The present publication is the first appearance of all eleven, with a final twelfth tale not previously published. Foolscap 8vo (18cm). (310)pp. Wood-engraved frontispiece, engraved by George Measom (1818-1901), later knighted for his charitable work. Original pictorial boards, a dramatic yellowback design in red and black; rebacked with a neat paper spine replacing the fragile lost original; some rubbing and wear; internally a few small marks, spots and slight creases, but overall an attractive copy of a cornerstone of the genre.

London : Chatto & Windus, 1899. First edition. Sixteen short stories, including "The Spell of the Black Siren", "A String of Famous Pearls", "The League of Death", "The Forged Cheque", etc. "Mr. Dick Donovan is well known as a writer of clever detective stories. 'The Records of Vincent Trill' (Chatto) is as good as any that he has given us. Vincent Trill was no ordinary detective ... It is of course another matter whether it is desirable to encourage the public interest in the records of crime and criminals, but one can hardly blame Mr. Donovan for giving his readers what they want" (St. James's Gazette, 17th May 1899). Crown 8vo (20cm). [2],[vi],(286),[ii] + 32pp inserted advertisements dated September 1898. Original pictorial cloth; a little rubbed and slightly bruised; a few minor marks and spots, but a good copy.

New York & Chicago : Diversey Publishing Corp., (1948). First edition under this title. "Dick Raynor was a hellion with the girls. This handsome New England chap had time, money - and the youth to go with them ... a headstrong son of a staid family sowed his wild oats as no son of that family had ever sowed them before". Originally published as "Young and Healthy" in 1931, but here in a revised edition for the Novel Library. Foolscap 8vo (17cm). [ii],186,[iv]pp. Original pictorial wrappers - blonde in a champagne glass; a little rubbed and very slightly chipped at tips; text a little tanned, but a good copy.

London : Methuen & Co., (1913). First edition. The further adventures of "The Card" - Edward Henry Machin stumbles into theatrical management in London and pursues Isabel Joy, the suffragette, to appear in his play. "There is no one in contemporary fiction so immense as Edward Henry Machin. He never wearies, because he always surprises and because Mr. Arnold Bennett never once errs in his presentation of him. 'The Regent' is as good, if not better, than 'The Card' and that is, indeed, saying a great deal" (The Globe, 12th September 1913). Crown 8vo (20cm). (viii),(320)pp. Original cloth - the uncommon red variant - attractively blocked and lettered in gilt; a touch sunned; tiny mark to spine; endpapers lightly tanned; some spotting, mainly to edges and prelims, but overall a very good copy. Contemporary pencilled ownership inscription of Emily and Henry Catchpole (a bookbinder) of Richmond Road, Dalston.

[London : Jones & Co., 1829]. A charming antique print of the Robert Adam building at the east end of Princes Street - engraved by Alexander McClatchie (1804?-1888) from an original study by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd. Originally produced for the part-work "Modern Athens! Displayed in a Series of Views: or, Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century" (London : 1829-1831). Steel line engraving on paper. Later hand colour. Engraved surface 119 x 152mm (approx. 4-5/8" x 6"). In very good and clean state. A guaranteed genuine antique print.