Going Solo, Signed by Roald Dahl, First Edition in Original Dust Jacket, 1986

Hemingway, Ernest, The Old Man and the Sea. 1952, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. First Edition. Rebound in blue Morocco leather with custom embossed stamp on the front, raised ba...

Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. First trade edition, first issue. In the original first-state dust jacket and publisher’s black cloth boards. Presented in a new archival ¼ leather and cloth clamshell case, with raised bands, gilt tooling, and titles to the spine. Presented is a first trade edition, first issue of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. The book was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in New York, in September of 1929. This first printing is presented with its original first issue dust jacket. The dust jacket, as designed by Cleonike Damianakes Wilkins, is considered by many to be one of the greatest of the 20th century and rivals even The Great Gatsby in its collectibility. Set during World War I, A Farewell to Arms tells the story of a young American Lieutenant serving as an ambulance driver in Italy struggling through love and war. The story is told through first person narration detailing many aspects of war that would have been very familiar to readers at the time, as the book was published only 11 years after the 1918 armistice. The simple, direct tone his character uses when giving his unromanticized account of the war later defined Hemingway’s writing style. A Farewell to Arms is loosely based on Hemingway’s own experiences. The author briefly served overseas as an ambulance driver in the Italian Army, sustained injuries, and met a nurse who he eventually proposed marriage to but was declined. The novel’s post-war disillusionist subject assigned Hemingway to the “Lost Generation” of Modernist artists. A Farewell to Arms was Hemingway’s most successful publishing venture to date. Charles Scribner's Sons issued seven impressions of the novel in the short time between September and December of 1929, with over 100,000 volumes sold. The novel secured Hemingway’s place as a popular American author and became his first bestselling book. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was an American author and journalist. His distinctive writing style, characterized by economy of words and dry understatement, strongly influenced 20th-century fiction, as did his life of adventure and his public image. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Hemingway published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works during his lifetime; a further three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously. Many of his works are now considered classics of American literature. The book’s striking dust jacket design was illustrated by the artist Cleonike Damianakes Wilkins, who worked under the pen name of Cleon. Wilkins was known for her distinctive fusion of Art Deco and Hellenistic styles. She designed the dust jackets for Hemingway’s earlier The Sun Also Rises in 1926 and his later publication In Our Time in 1930, as well as Conrad Aiken’s Great Circle, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s All the Sad Young Men,and Zelda Fitzgerald’s Save Me the Waltz. Wilkins was chosen by Hemingway’s celebrated editor at Scribner’s, Maxwell Perkins. In order to differentiate Hemingway’s tale from other, competing WWI novels on the bookshop shelves, Perkins sought to widen its appeal through the dust jacket. The resulting design was Wilkins’ interpretation of Sandro Botticelli’s epic oil painting “Venus...

Milne, A. A. Now We Are Six. London: Methuen & Co., 1927. First Edition. Illustrated by Ernest Shepard. Octavo. In the publisher's original red leatherette boards, stamped in gilt, with new joints and linings, and presented with a new archival ¼ cloth slipcase. Presented is the first edition of A. A. Milne’s iconic children’s poems, Now We Are Six. This collection of verses was published by Methuen & Co, in London in 1927. It is presented here in the publisher’s original gilt-stamped red leatherette boards, with new joints and linings, and filled with E. H. Shepard’s charming illustrations. The book is now protected in a custom, archival red cloth slipcase with gilt stamped inlays...

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner, as related by Himself. London: Humphrey Milford, 1931. Embe...

The first illustrated edition of this popular sci-fi, a colourful edition signed by the author. The first illustrated edition, a incredibly striking edition, with colourful and uniq...

The first edition of this incredibly popular science fiction novel, a smart copy in the original second state dust wrapper. The first edition, first impression. Uncommon to see the first U.K. edition. In the original unclipped second state dust wrapper, without the advert to the rear wrap. 'The Hitch Hiker's Guide to...

A very smart first edition copy of the seventh James Bond novel. With the original Richard Chopping dustwrapper in a fantastic condition. First Edition, Publishers' Original Binding...

Colonial Furniture: The Superb Collection of the Late Howard Reifsnyder, including signed pieces by Philadelphia cabinetmakers, formerly contained i...