TWENTY ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce
Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers
20 Items from the Twentieth Century List Eighteen Catalogued by Paul Lee
46 Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3PA. Tel: +44 20 7631 4220 Email: paul@jarndyce.co.uk www.jarndyce.co.uk
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
CHRISTMAS POEMS IN ORIGINAL ENVELOPES 1. ARIEL POEMS. Second Series. FIRST EDITIONS. Faber & Faber. Complete in 8 pamphlets of 4pp, sewn as issued in various coloured paper wrappers. In orig. mailing envelopes; occasional spotting, browning to glue strips. [96362] ¶ Faber and Gwyer’s first series of poems was issued between 1927 and 1931. Faber and Faber reprised the idea in 1954, and the complete run (as presented here) makes for a delightful Christmas collection. 1. ELIOT, Thomas Stearns. The Cultivation of Christmas Trees. Illus. David Jones. 2. AUDEN, Wystan Hugh. Mountains. Illus. Edward Bawden. Wrappers; v. sl. spotted. 3. DAY LEWIS, Cecil. Christmas Eve. Illus. Edward Ardizzone. 4. CAMPBELL, Roy. Nativity. Illus. James Sellars. 5. MACNEICE, Louis. The Other Wing. Illus. Michael Ayrton. 6. SPENDER, Stephen. Sirmione Peninsula. Illus. Lynton Lamb. 7. MUIR, Edwin. Prometheus. Illus. John Piper. 8. DE LA MARE, Walter. The Winnowing Dream. Illus. Robin Jacques. 1954 £150
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
‘BILLANY FOR VILLAINY’ A SOCIALIST DETECTIVE THRILLER 2. BILLANY, Dan. The Opera House Murders: a detective story. FIRST EDITION.. Faber & Faber. Half title. Orig. red cloth. Yellow printed d.w., unclipped; a couple of small spots to front panel, tiny nick to tail of spine. Booklabel of The Holliday Bookshop, New York on following pastedown. A lovely crisp copy of a scarce title. [96593] ¶ Dan Billany, born 1913, disappeared 1943, was a soldier and schoolteacher. He is best remembered for his Second World War novel, The Trap, which was published after his disappearance in the Apennine mountains and hailed by Ken Worpole as ‘the finest novel to come out of the war’. In many ways, The Opera House Murders is a straightforward detective thriller with a ludicrously knowledgeable sleuth who packs the prose with technical detail. However, Billany’s communist values cause it to diverge from the genre in intriguing and subversive ways. For all the action (which led The Sunday Times to laud it as ‘one of the fastest-moving adventures we have ever read’ and the Manchester Evening News to declare that ‘“Billany for Villainy” should become Mr Faber’s war-cry’), Billany ultimately and explicitly presents both crime and its prevention as skilled and dangerous labour. There are no poisoned port decanters or revolver shots covered by the sound of the dinner gong here: brains are bashed in with hammers and golf clubs. Billany’s narrator, Duncan, has his jaw smashed by brass knuckles, and in turn strangles a gang member to death - an event described in horrifying detail. Duncan also provides well-written if slightly heavy-handed soliloquies: ‘In this land of free thought nobody takes the least exception to your believing that the capitalist system works unfairly. You can draw whatever morals you like from Lord Blank’s luxury yacht... and Lord Bonehead’s fleet of Rolls Royces... It’s when you come to translate your theories about property into practice that you encounter opposition. Billany’s novel may seem a strange mixture of worlds, but it is written with enough consistency and gumption to work.
1940
£850
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
CHRISTMAS POEM 3. BINYON, Laurence. The Wonder Night. Limited edition. Faber & Gwyer (Ariel Poems, no. 3). Col. illus. by Barnett Freedman, limitation leaf. Orig. blue cloth, pictorially blocked in black; spine faded, front board, v. sl. mottled. Glassine d.w. A very nice copy. [96178] ¶ No. 218 of 350 on Zander’s hand-made paper. Binyon’s verse of Christmas night evokes the warm glow that remains after the presents are opened and the games are played, accompanied by Freedman’s illustration of jovial domesticity. A merry little object. [1927] £150
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
‘SOCIAL THRILLER’ 4. CHAPLIN, Sid. The Day of the Sardine. FIRST EDITION. Eyre & Spottiswoode. Half title. Orig. red cloth; sl. cocked. Grey & red pictorial d.w., unclipped; edges a little rubbed, sl. toning to rear panel. A nice bright copy. [96456] ¶ Sid Chaplin, 1916-1986, was born into a Durham mining family and worked the pits as a teenager. He described this novel of no-prospects disaffection (’every day I jumped out of bed with a feeling of being trapped’) and gang violence as a ‘social thriller’. The description is apt; it is funny and pessimistic (the very environment erodes solidarity), with sharp veracious dialogue. Chaplin has been cited as an influence on Braine and Sillitoe, and D.J. Taylor wrote that ‘few novelists have quite so comprehensively demonstrated the hulking debt that post-war British fiction owes to Our Friends in the North’. 1961 £120
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
LONDON OFFICE LIFE 5. CHAPLIN, Sid. Sam in the Morning. FIRST EDITION. Eyre & Spottiswoode. Half title. Orig. black cloth. Black, white & red pictorial d.w., unclipped; spine & upper edge a little browned, sl. crease to front panel. Ownership inscription of G. Bott to leading f.e.p. A nice copy. [96454] ¶ This is a satirical novel of upwardly mobile London office life (‘U.K. House’, the fictional workplace, is stylishly depicted in Helen Clifford’s jacket illustration), driven by Chaplin’s astute observation that the key aristocratic virtue is simply refusing to bother. 1965 £120
NEWCASTLE NOVEL 6. CHAPLIN, Sid. The Watchers and the Watched. FIRST EDITION. Eyre & Spottiswoode. Half title. Orig. grey cloth; v. small spot to front board. Orange & black pictorial d.w., unclipped; sl. spotting to front flap & rear panel. A lovely bright copy. [96459] ¶ Dustjacket by Hugh Marshall. This is arguably Chaplin’s best novel, about an angry young Newcastle blacksmith who plunges into marriage. Chaplin is unusual in not presenting domesticity as a yoke to be held in contempt, and from which men must escape if they are to remain angry and vital, and is wise enough to show that compromise between the couple is a desirable end. The Newcastle slum streets brim with life, and the race riots of the novel’s climax are urgent and frightening. 1962 £150
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
CHRISTMAS POEMS 7. CHESTERTON, Gilbert Keith. Christmas Poems. FIRST EDITION. Burns Oates & Washbourne. Photo front. Sewn as issued in orig. white card wrappers. Printed white d.w.; a little dusted. 16pp. [96415] ¶ Poems which are deeply informed by Chesterton’s Catholicism. [1929] £20
INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR 8. DUFFY, Maureen. The Single Eye. FIRST EDITION. Hutchinson. Orig. black cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Cream d.w. lettered in black; price clipped. Author inscription on: ‘Very best wishes - Maureen Duffy – ’. [95707] ¶ Maureen Duffy’s second novel, set in England & Italy, follows a photographer who attempts to find happiness in life through his art, resulting in frustration, bitterness, & destruction. 1964 £120
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
EAST-END SCHOOL NOVEL 9. FINN, Ralph L. And All is Mist. FIRST EDITION. Hutchinson. Half title, wartime economy paper. Orig. grey cloth, small mark to front board. Blue printed d.w., unclipped; three small closed tears & some v. sl. chipping & rubbing to edges, rear panel a little rubbed & marked. A nice copy. [96550] ¶ Scarce. Four copies on Copac; OCLC adds five further copies. A rather dark, but complex and humane portrait of Sheridan, a flawed teacher at an East End ‘council school’, who is profoundly affected both by his role as a disciplinarian in the school, and by the events leading up to the Second World War. The London of the novel is a rather cruel place: Sheridan is monitored by the school inspector, beaten up by his brother at a family dinner, and called an ‘effete liberal’ in a staff room row about Nazi Germany. The main character’s - wholly believable - tragedy is that he is ill-equipped to stick to his convictions. [1946] £280
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
EAST-END BLITZ NOVEL 10. FINN, Ralph L. Return to Earth. FIRST EDITION. Hutchinson. Half title, wartime economy paper. Orig. grey cloth; small mark to front board. Orig. green printed d.w., unclipped; sl. rubbed at head & tail of spine, rear panel sl. marked. 98pp. [96549] ¶ In Return to Earth, Finn relates the story of various East Londoners as they shelter in a basement during the Blitz. Their lives are rowdy and sometimes coarse, but always lively: the Rabbi gives a cellar sermon, a marriage is arranged, blows are exchanged, and songs are sung. In his rather stirring final paragraph Finn slightly labours the point regarding the wider implications of his characters and setting; he needn’t have bothered, the scope and atmospheric strength of his writing speaks for itself. As one of his characters berates a fascist: ‘We showed you the East End, the heart of London. We let you live with it.’
[1945]
£280
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
EDGELL RICKWORD’S COPY 11. GRIGSON, Geoffrey, ed. Unrespectable Verse. FIRST EDITION. Allen Lane the Penguin Press. Half title. Orig. red cloth. Bright pink d.w., unclipped; a little rubbed at top edge. Ownership inscription of Edgell Rickwood on leading f.e.p. [95827] ¶ Edgell Rickword, 1898-1982, was a war poet, editor, and critic. His contribution here is ‘Trench Poets’, a lament about the corrosive effect of writing wartime verse, jaunty in tone but bitter in content. William Langland’s line ‘And blew his rounde ruwet at his rigger-bone end’ in ‘Gluttony the Deadly Sin’ has been helpfully annotated ‘farted’, otherwise readers are on their own. A ‘consolation for cynics, black-humourists and for anyone who has ever succumbed to a sense of personal disillusion or social exasperation’ - the cataloguer wonders if there can be such a person among his customer base. 1971 £50
CARIBBEAN RURAL NOSTALGIA NOVEL 12. LOVELACE, Earl. While Gods are Falling. FIRST EDITION. Collins. Half title. Orig. brown cloth. Bronze & yellow d.w., unclipped; a little rubbed at edges. A nice crisp copy. [96466] ¶ Earl Lovelace’s first novel, awarded the B.P. Independence Literary Award by J.B. Priestley, concerns a disillusioned young man in Port of Spain who devotes all his mental energy to memories of his rural childhood. Lovelace uses his character to explore the tensions between nostalgia and reality, city and village life, and - climactically and crucially - the responsibilities of the individual against those of the state. 1965 £85
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
AUTUMN JOURNAL 13. MACNEICE, Louis. Autumn Journal. FIRST EDITION. Faber. Half title. Orig. brick-red cloth; spine a little rubbed at head & tail. Printed brown d.w., unclipped; a little rubbed & marked, head of spine sl. chipped, upper edge of front flap a little creased. A decent copy. [94051] ¶ MacNeice’s impressionistic account of the period immediately before the Second World War is one of the landmark works of the twentieth century. 1939 £120
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
SIGNED ‘ON THE OCCASION OF THE SOCIETY’S CENTENARY’ 14. PORTER, J.R. and RUSSELL, W.M.S., editors. Animals in Folklore. FIRST EDITION. Ipswich: published by D.S. Brewer and Roman & Littlefield for the Folklore Society, Half title, tipped-in col. front. Orig. green cloth. Green & white pictorial d.w., unclipped. Signed on leading f.e.p. by eleven members of the Society, all of whom contributed to the book, ‘on the occasion of the Society’s centenary’. A very nice bright copy with a fantastic association. [96533] ¶ Signed by seven former presidents of the Folklore Society, all of whom contributed articles to the book: Bill Russell (editor of the present volume and co-contributor of ‘The Social Biology of Werewolves’) Roy Porter (editor of the present volume and contributor of ‘Witchcraft and Magic in the Old Testament, and their Relation to Animals’) Katherine M. Briggs (‘The Folklore Society and its Beginnings’) John Widdowson (‘Animals as Threatening Figures in Systems of Traditional Social Control’) Hilda Davidson (‘Shape-Changing in the Old Norse Sagas’) Carmen Blacker (‘The Snake Woman in Japanese Myth and Legend’) Venetia (Newell (‘Birds and Animals in Icon Painting’) and four contributors: Claire Russell (‘The Social Biology of Werewolves’, with W.M.S. Russell, above) Joan Rockwell (‘Animals and Witchcraft in Danish Peasant Culture’) J.A. Boyle (‘Historical Dragon Slayers’). 1978 £320
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
SCARCE IN THE JACKET 15. POUND, Ezra. Selected Poems. Edited with an introduction by T.S. Eliot. FIRST TRADE EDITION. Faber & Gwyer. Half title. Orig. green cloth, v. sl. spotted. Orig. buff printed d.w.; spine darkened, leading hinge split, tears to spine & rear panel with sl. loss, pencil mark to front panel. Ownership inscription of Geoffrey Tillotson, May 1932 on leading f.e.p. & lightly annotated by him throughout. [94224] ¶ Gallup A31. Published in the same year as the limited, signed edition; scarce in the jacket. Eliot’s landmark selection with his excellent introduction in which he takes great and controversial pains to distance Pound’s poetry from the influence of his ‘pigheaded father’ Walt Whitman. 1928 £800
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
EARLY CARIBBEAN EMIGRE NOVEL 16. SELVON, Samuel. The Lonely Ones. (2nd edn.) Brown, Watson (Digit Books). A little toned. Orig. paper pictorial wrappers; sl. rubbed & v. sl. creased. A nice copy. [96542] ¶ The Alan Wingate first edition (under the title The Lonely Londoners) was published earlier the same year. Priced at two shillings. Along with Lamming’s The Emigrants (1954), Selvon’s novel is one of the first to deal explicitly with the Caribbean experience in London in the wake of the 1948 British Nationality Act. Selvon follows a sardonic ‘veteran emigre’ as he watches and interacts with more recent arrivals, using a deceptively picaresque structure to present his characters as complex individuals with a shared experience of a profoundly odd city - the author skilfully captures the strange aspects of London far beyond its dampness and gloom. The pleasures pursued by the characters tend to be small and immediate, which places them in contact with the seamier side of city life, and this edition amplifies that aspect of the book. The lively, faintly salacious cover art and lurid blurbs represent an interesting, pulpy attempt to sell a novel that is now widely and correctly regarded as a classic. The Financial Times called it ‘the definitive novel about London’s West Indians’ and Sukhdev Sandhu dubbed it a ‘comic masterpiece... arguably still the only great novel about black England’.
1956
£250
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
WITH ALS FROM THE AUTHOR 17. SHUTTLE, Penelope. Rainsplitter in the Zodiac Garden. FIRST EDITION. Marion Boyars. Half title. Orig. pale grey cloth; upper edge a little dulled. Blue printed d.w., unclipped; a few closed tears & mild abrasion to spine. Presentation inscription to ‘Paddy and Dulan with love from Penny, Feb 77’ on half title, signed by the author on titlepage; 27 line ALS on folded notepaper loosely inserted. [95794] ¶ Rainsplitter in the Zodiac Garden’s main character, Faustina, is pregnant and visualising herself as many different women throughout history, and Shuttle (an underrated member of the British post-war avant-garde), employs short, acute sentences to achieve a hallucinatory atmosphere reminiscent of Kavan and Quin. The ALS addresses Shuttle’s own pregnancy with her daughter Zoe, and is chattier in tone, apologising for being too busy to send the copy earlier, and mentioning the birth of her nephew, Matthew ‘so we are up to our ears in babies’. The addressees are presumably the literary couple Paddy Kitchen and Dulan Barber.
1977
£65
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
COMING-OF-AGE SURVIVAL NOVEL 18. SUTCLIFF, Rosemary. Dawn Wind. FIRST EDITION. Oxford University Press. Half title, illus. Orig. purple cloth. Pictorial blue & purple d.w., unclipped. Promotional bookmark loosely inserted. A lovely bright copy. [96532] ¶ Jacket and illustrations by Charles Keeping. Owain, the only survivor of a bloody Viking raid, roams with his dog in post-Saxon-settlement Britain. Sutcliff writes beautifully and with a great degree of historical accuracy. She presents Owain’s world as an initially post-apocalyptic one, but through his friendship with a feral girl and his eventual reconciliation with the Saxons demonstrates the essential strength of human bonds. 1961 £65
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
DEATHS AND ENTRANCES 19. THOMAS, Dylan. Deaths and Entrances. FIRST EDITION. Dent. Half title. Orig. orange cloth. Orange printed d.w., unclipped; v. sl. rubbed at head, tail & corners. A very nice bright copy. 66pp. [94415] ¶ Includes ‘Fern Hill’. This is probably Thomas’s best-known collection, and many of the poems herein reflect on the Second World War. 1946 £400
20 ITEMS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jarndyce Books
A STRANGE LAND 20. TODD, Ruthven. The Lost Traveller. FIRST EDITION. Grey Walls Press. Half title. Orig. black cloth; sl. rubbed. White & yellow pictorial d.w., unclipped; sl. rubbed & a little spotted. [93905] ¶ Scarce in John Craxton’s dreamlike dustjacket. A truly unusual novel, in which a young man - having been killed by an explosion in the street - finds himself in a bizarre gothic-modern city in which the inhabitants worship a merciless block of granite. The book concludes brutally during a rather vogueish attempt to find the great auk. A good slice of wartime surrealism. 1943 £150