Adventures in the Skin Trade
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Adventures in the Skin Trade
£125.00
Adventures in the Skin Trade
By Dylan Thomas
First edition, first impression published by Putnam in 1955.
Original black cloth with lettering to spine in gilt. Some toning to edges, else near fine, in a very good or better price-clipped dust jacket with a small nick to bottom edge of lower panel and some fading to spine panel.
1 in stock
Adventures in the Skin Trade
By Dylan Thomas
First Edition
New
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The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway, First Edition, General Literary Fiction, Modern First Editions
The Old Man and the Sea
By Ernest Hemingway
First UK edition, first impression. Originally published in the US a few months earlier in the same year. The novel received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and was an important factor in Hemingway being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
Original blue cloth with lettering to spine in dark red and fish and fisherman motif in red to upper board. A fine and clean copy with a couple of small areas of rubbing to the bottom fore-edge of of lower board.
The original and unclipped dust jacket features the striking artwork of Hans Tisdall and is the first state without the reviews to verso. A hint of minor rubbing here and there to edges with a few nicks to edges of lower panel and an associated crease to top and bottom edges that are only visible on verso.
A superb, bright and near fine copy overall.
£450.00
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American Psycho
First Edition, Modern First Editions, Signed First Editions
American Psycho
By Bret Easton Ellis
First UK hardcover edition, first impression. Signed and inscribed by the author to the title page: 'For Danny best wishes Bret Easton Ellis'. A novel that was censored in several countries due to the graphic nature of the violence it depicts and formed the basis for the popular 2000 film adaptation.
Originally published as a paperback in the US and UK in 1991 and, as a hardcover, by way of the present edition in the UK in 1998. A hardcover edition would not be issued in the US until some 14 years later in 2012.
Original black cloth with silver lettering to spine and dark blue endpapers and paste-downs. A lovely and clean example with only a very minor knock to bottom corner of upper board and mild compression to spine foot.
The original and unclipped dust jacket bears the correct '10.00' price, corresponding to the first issue. Some of the usual sunning to spine panel with a little edgewear to spine ends and a very tiny nick to foot of lower panel spine hinge.
A near fine copy of a novel that is uncommon inscribed.
£1,000.00
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Life of Pi
First Edition, Modern First Editions, Signed First Editions
Life of Pi
By Yann Martel
First Canadian edition, first impression. Signed by the author to the title page. The true first edition published by Knopf in September 2001, preceding those of the US and UK, which were issued the following year. Winner of the Booker Prize in 2002 and later adapted into a successful film in 2012.
Original yellow cloth with red lettering to spine. A little compression to spine foot, else fine. The original and unclipped dust jacket, featuring artwork by Jamie Bennett, has very trivial traces of wear to spine head, but is otherwise fine and sharp.
£500.00
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The Harry Palmer Books: Ipcress File, Horse Under Water, Funeral in Berlin, Billion Dollar Brain
Crime and Thriller, First Edition, Modern First Editions, Showcase, Signed First Editions
The Harry Palmer Books
By Len Deighton
Four Volumes. All first editions, first impressions, published between 1962-1966. Vol I is the correct first issue, without the reviews. Vol II contains the rare crossword competition insert (here blank). Volume I is inscribed by the author to the title page with the note from the author “there are not many copies of this edition!”
Orange, red, black and blue boards, consecutively; lettered in gilt to spines with publisher’s devices to foot; Vol II and III with classification stamp in colour and blind to upper board; Vol IV with white brail design to upper cover, and in the iconic silver dust jacket; all dust jackets unclipped, and designed by Raymond Hawkey; decorative endpapers in all but Vol I; the books generally very good to near-fine, clean, with some mild pushing to spine tips and marking to outer edges of the text block; small stain to p. 11 of Vol I; the wrappers with some darkening to edges and pushing to spine tips; a couple of small creases, nicks and closed tears; front flap of Vol II with paper flaw causing crease and particularly obscuring the price; Vol III a little more rubbed to spine ends, and faint spotting to inside flap; Vol IV a little more creased to the flaps, and lightly rubbed to rear panel.
Deighton’s pinnacle works, and the books which “challenged the nature of British spy fiction”. The series follows protagonist Harry Palmer through a variety of challenges and settings, which include Cold War brainwashing, atomic weapons tests, ice-melting technology, secret plots, murders, and eggs contaminated with a deadly virus.
Inspired by his experiences working for an advertising agency (when he was the only employee not to have been educated at Eton), Deighton wrote a novel based around a gritty, nameless, working-class protagonist who he later named Harry Palmer. The character proved hugely popular with the British public, the success of which the author (modestly) puts down to the fact that The Ipcress File was published in the same year as Fleming’s Dr. No. As well as this series, Palmer also featured in a series of later novels, including An Expensive Place to Die (1967) and Spy Story (1972). Of the present four books, Horse Under Water was the only one not to be adapted to film. The others all starred Michael Caine in the lead role.
Deighton famously avoids book signings, interviews and literary festivals, making signed copies of his works rare indeed.
£2,750.00
