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BLACKWELL’S RARE BOOKS

For Oxford 2020

Item 10

48-51 Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BQ, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1865 333555 : Fax: +44 (0)1865 794143

Email: rarebooks@blackwell.co.uk : Twitter: @blackwellrare

www.blackwell.co.uk/rarebook

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‘.. . Oxford (a planet of its own)’ 1. Aldiss (Brian W.) Neanderthal Planet. New York: Avon, 1970, FIRST EDITION,

page-borders toned throughout, nick at fore-edge of one leaf, pp. 192, foolscap 8vo, original

wrappers with a very short closed tear to fore-margin of front, edges pink, very good £60 Inscribed by the author on the half-title: ‘To John Baxter - Best wishes from Oxford (a planet

of its own), Brian Aldiss, Apl ‘79’.

A collection of four stories

2. (Anglo-Saxon.) BENSON (Thomas) Vocabularium Anglo-Saxonicum Lexico Gul.

Somneri magna parte auctius. Oxford: Sheldonian

Theatre, printed by Sam. Smith, & Benj. Walford,

London, 1701, engraving of the Theatre on the title-

page, engraved frontispiece, text in double columns,

frontispiece a little browned, pp. [192], 8vo in 4s,

contemporary panelled calf, rebacked (not terribly

sympathetically), red lettering piece shelfmark and

date in gilt at foot of spine, good (Alston iii, 9; ESTC

T101265) £500 First edition of this abridgement of Somner’s

Dictionarium of 1659. The splendid frontispiece

shows a group of scholars at work in the interior of

the Bodleian Library.

3. (Bawden.) HEATH (Ambrose) Good Drinks.

Faber and Faber, 1939, FIRST EDITION, title-page

illustration by Edward Bawden, pp. 239, crown 8vo,

original cream boards with illustrations and lettering by

Edward Bawden printed in green and blue, some light

spotting to boards, edges, and endpapers, dustjacket

repeating board design, price-clipped, a little toned, lightly

rubbed with a couple of tiny nicks, very good £150

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Scarce Beckett ephemeron... 4. [Beckett (Samuel)] [Programme for:] A Celebrity Gala in aid of the Oxford Samuel

Beckett Theatre Appeal [...] on Sunday, March 8th, 1970, at 8.30 p.m. Oxford: Oxford

Playhouse, [1970], facsimiles of letters from Beckett and Buckminster Fuller regarding the

proposed theatre, wishes of support from OUP, Blackwell’s, the Holywell Press and John

Calder printed against a gold background, very faint vertical crease throughout, pp. [8], 4to,

original stapled wrappers with photos of Beckett and

Buckminster Fuller to front and rear respectively, very

minor rubbing and bottom corner a little creased, sliver

of adhesive residue to margin of front, very good £150 Scarce. A glimpse at what might have been – an

ambitious proposal for an experimental theatre in

Oxford to be named after Samuel Beckett and designed

by R. Buckminster Fuller, the project conceived in 1967

by Francis Warner of St Peter’s College (in whose

grounds the theatre was to be situated). This ‘Beckett

Evening’ is produced by Warner, with appearances by

Patrick Magee, Richard Harris, Huw Wheldon, Wolf

Mankowitz, et al. – with Buckminster Fuller present, but

Beckett himself not. The evening featured the UK

premiere of his play ‘Breath’, a screening of ‘Film’, and

various pieces relating to Beckett’s life and work –

including nods to Joyce (Siobhan McKenna performs as

Molly Bloom) and Yeats.

Despite the consent of Beckett and the support of various eminent figures, both literary and

from the wider cultural sphere, the project now exists only in the form of a Trust to promote

innovation in the field of the dramatic arts.

5. (Beckett.) TROCCHI (Alexander, Editor) Merlin. Volume One, Numbers 1-3 &

Volume Two, Numbers 1-4 [7 vols, all published.] Limerick, Maine: Alice Jane Lougee,

1952- 1955, FIRST EDITIONS, line drawings by Seoma Baram, Shirley Wales, Corneille,

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Jack Youngerman, Stanley William Hayter, and William Parker used decoratively throughout

the respective issues, plates reproducing artwork by Ernst Fuchs, Brassai, Hayter, Jaap

Mooy and Lennart Olson, and a graphic story by George Bartholick at rear of 2:3, positional

correction [by the author?] in ink to Logue’s poem in 2:1, light handlign and a few faint

spots, pp. 52, [3, ads]; 53-115, [1, ads]; 116-185, [1, ads] original printed wrappers, a few

good and clean but soiling, creasing and chipping elsewhere with a few stains, 1:2 with some

light charring to edge of textblock and wrappers (not affecting any text), this one of 3 issues

with subscription slip laid in, the latest being 2:1 where it is for Beckett’s ‘Watt’ (published

by Collection Merlin), original wraparound band present (but breached) for 2:1, good

condition overall (Federman & Fletcher 32.03, 372, 374.01, 1305) £300 A short-lived but important periodical, edited by the Scottish expatriate Beat author

Alexander Trocchi and founded by him and Richard Seaver. The publisher was Trocchi’s

American girlfriend. The staff also included Christopher Logue and Patrick Bowles, whose

writing appears in a number of issues. Other authors featured include Henry Miller, Jean-Paul

Sartre, Jean Genet, Pablo Neruda (the first English translation of his ‘Twenty Love Poems’),

and Italo Svevo - but the most notable contributions are those by Samuel Beckett, who found

amongst what he came to term the ‘Merlin juveniles’ a group of acolytes keen to both praise

and publish his work. He would, however, experience frustration in his dealings with them,

complaining of errors in the text and royalties not forthcoming.

The pieces by Beckett are an extract from ‘Watt’, the first appearance of this extract in any

language (the subscription form for the novel’s publication also present, a rare piece of

ephemera), the first appearance of his short story ‘The End’ in full in any language (a

truncated French version called ‘Suite’ appeared in ‘Temps Modernes’ I in July 1946, whilst

the full text in French, retitled ‘La Fin’ was published as part of ‘Nouvelles et Textes pour

rien’ in 1955), and an extract from ‘Molloy’ - the first appearance of any of the work in

English. All are listed by Federman & Fletcher as containing variants from their later

publication - albeit some doubtless formed by the errors that he complained of to Trocchi. As

well his own work, the second number of Volume One is notable for the first substantial

critical appreciation in English of Beckett’s work, by Richard Seaver.

Volumes 2:1 and 2:4 are identifiably from the library of British pataphysician Stanley

Chapman, with his contemporary ownership inscriptions.

6. Bellamy (W.H.) [Sketch Book;] Characters taken on

the Oxford Circuit. 1824, some 72 subjects, pencil studies

(gone over with a fixative - ?gum arabic), bust or half length of

men and women in the dock or witness box and lawyers and

judges &c, on 23 leaves, all captioned, the inside front cover

signed, dated, and inscribed with artist’s address (38 John St,

Bedford Row), title and dedication to Francis Justice of Abbey

House [Berkshire/Oxfordshire], some leaves excised, a few

blank, original roan backed vellum tipped marbled boards,

lettered in ink on the upper cover, a little shaken and worn,

good £2000 Subtitled ‘Characters but no Caricatures’, which is an apt

description of the portraits. The majority are in various

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categories: bumpkin, juryman, witness, ‘one of the fair sex’, a snob, &c, sometimes with

pithy comments on personalities or foibles, and some are a little sly. They verge on the

caricature in such an instance as ‘a rare brandy nose’, but otherwise are forthright depictions

of real characters, drawn with care and empathy. Only a few subjects are named, one being

James Stamp Sutton Cooke, ‘the principal actor in the farce of the Stafford Peerage.’ Another

is identified as a descendant of Sir Christopher Wren.

The sketch book seems to have been kept for the artist’s amusement during lengthy sessions

(there is a reference to ‘speechifying’), possibly very sketchy to begin with, and finished

later, but having a nice air of spontaneity. It is a splendid gallery of ‘ordinary’ people in the

fifth year of the reign of George IV, documenting, inter alia, hairstyles (or lack of them), and

costume. Several characters are in the 90s: their dress is somewhat Johnsonian. The dress of

most of the others is behind the fashion, in a provincial sort of way.

Amusingly inscribed 7. Blish (James) The Night Shapes. New York: Ballantine Books, [1962,] FIRST

EDITION, pages gently toned throughout, pp. 125, [2], [1], foolscap 8vo, original wrappers,

some minor rubbing and creasing, yellow edges, good £100 Inscribed on the inside cover: ‘For the further infuriation of John Baxter - Jim Blish, 1963’

A paperback original

8. Boyd (William) An Ice Cream War. Hamish Hamilton, 1982, FIRST EDITION, full-

page map, pp. [xii], 372, crown 8vo, original dark blue boards, backstrip lettered in gilt,

dustjacket with merest hint of fading to the orange lettering of backstrip panel, near fine £75 The author’s second novel, set in Africa during the First World War.

The publisher’s copy 9. Brooke (Rupert) Four Poems: The Fish 1911, Granchester 1912, The Dead 1914,

The Soldier 1914. Drafts and Fair Copies in the Author's Hand. With a Foreword and

Introductions by Geoffrey Keynes. (Edited by A.N.L. M[unby]). Scolar Press, 1974, 15/100

COPIES (from an edition of 500 copies) signed by Geoffrey Keynes, the copy number crossed

through and marked ‘out of sequence’, stamped ‘File Copy’ on the half-title, tipped-in

portrait frontispiece and facsimiles of each of the four poems, pp. 25 + Facsimiles, 4to,

original quarter vellum with blue cloth, facsimile of author’s signature to upper board,

backstrip gilt lettered, some fading to cloth, untrimmed, very good £200

10. (Chickens.) FINK (Jon-Stephen) Cluck! The True Story of Chickens in the Cinema.

With additional material by Mieke van der Linden. Virgin Books, 1981, FIRST EDITION,

monochrome stills, pp. [viii], 164, [1], crown 8vo, original wrappers, light reading crease to

spine and a touch of creasing at corners, good £60 The copy of film-writer and bibliophile John Baxter, who met the student Fink whilst a

visiting professor at the University of Virginia, where the ‘Chicken Theory of Film’ was first

cooked up by his colleague, poet R.H.W. Dillard. Fink has inscribed this copy warmly for

‘Mister JB’ on the title-page some twenty years later, ‘with much happiness for the reunion’.

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Baxter provides a typescript account of the theory’s formulation and its motive, tipped in to

the inside cover: essentially, the hypothesis being that every film contains a chicken

somewhere, an ingenious strategy to induce the close viewing attention of students. This

book provides an A-Z exposition of the theory, running from ‘A Bridge Too Far’ to ‘The

Wizard of Oz’, with each film receiving a chicken-rating of between one and four.

The book’s printed dedication is to Dillard.

11. Dexter (Colin) The Riddle of the Third Mile.

Macmillan, 1983, FIRST EDITION, pages faintly toned as

usual, pp. 224, crown 8vo, original grey boards, backstrip

lettered in silver, faint spotting to edges and a couple of tiny

red specks to fore-edge, dustjacket, very good £300 Inscribed by the author on the title-page: ‘For Ian - Bless

you for your support! Colin Dexter’

12. (Fowles.) PINTER (Harold) The Screenplay of The

French Lieutenant’s Woman. Based on the novel by John

Fowles. With a Foreword by John Fowles. Jonathan Cape in

association with Eyre Methuen, 1981, FIRST EDITION, pp.

xvi, 104, crown 8vo, original black boards, backstrip lettered

in gilt, dustjacket with some minor creasing to extremities,

very good £300 Signed by John Fowles on the title-page.

13. (Greek Language.) TATE (James) and James Moor. Tracts on the Cases,

Prepositions, and Syntax of the Greek Language. Richmond [Yorkshire]: 1830, title-page

inscribed ‘From the author’ (i.e. James Tate), two corrections to the text in the same hand,

pp. [iv], xvi, 18, [2], 8vo, disbound £300 A presentation copy of a scarce pamphlet reprinting three papers on Greek prepositions and

their use with the oblique cases of nouns, together with a prefatory letter, mostly by James

Tate (1771-1843). The first paper, ‘Origin of the Cases’, is reprinted from the British Critic

(April 1826) while the second is the text of a talk given by James Moor (1712-1779) at

Glasgow in 1764 (Moor was professor of Greek there, and the talk was printed two years

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later by the Foulis Press), and the third is Tate’s response to Moor, reprinted from the

Classical Journal of June 1811.

Tate was master of the grammar school in Richmond, Yorkshire, from 1796 to 1833 (until he

was appointed canon of St Paul’s), during which time it became one of the country’s best

sources for a classical education. The Richmond students who went on to dominate

Cambridge (thirteen received fellowships at Trinity) were called ‘Tate’s invincibles’.

COPAC and Worldcat between them locate 6 copies, at the V&A, BL, Durham, York, NLS,

and Yale.

Inscribed to a contributor 14. (Hitchcock.) SKERRY (Philip J.) The Shower Scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho.

Creating Cinematic Suspense and Terror. Lewiston, Queenston & Lampeter: The Edwin

Mellen Press, [2005,] FIRST EDITION, 17 plates of stills and production shots, pp. viii, 409,

8vo, original white cloth with photographs of cinema audience to upper board and of author

to lower board, monochrome and colour respectively, cloth lightly soiled, bookplate of John

Baxter to front pastedown, good £95 Inscribed by the author on the title-page: ‘For John Baxter, Your contributions - to me as a

writer and to my book - were crucial. Thanks for your help and inspiration. Best, Phil

Skerry’. Baxter is among those given ‘special thanks’ in the Acknowledgements; he

contributes (pp. 362-5) to the section at the back in which various scholars and critics give an

account of their first viewing of the film. A tipped in note on

the flyleaf to the same (dated August 2006) apologises that ‘it

took so long to get this to you. I miss our correspondence’,

adding the P.S. that a paperback is scheduled to be published

by Continuum in 2008. The latter appeared in 2009, still with

Baxter’s contribution and with a quote from his review in

‘Film International’ at the head of the rear cover.

[With:] (Hitchcock.) SKERRY (Philip J.) Psycho in the

Shower. The History of Cinema’s Most Famous Scene. New

York & London: Continuum, 2009, FIRST PAPERBACK

EDITION, illustrated with monochrome photographs

including many stills, signed by contributor John Baxter on

the title-page, and with a grateful inscription to him by the

author at foot of same, pp. xvii, 316, crown 8vo, original

wrappers, fine

15. (Juvenile.). INSTRUCTION D’UN PÈRE A SES FILLES, Ou, Ce qu’un Père croit

devoir faire por bien élever ses filles, surtout pour les former à une solide piété.

[?Switzerland:], c. 1780, woodcut device on title, woodcut tailpiece at end, some soiling and

staining, single worm hole in first gathering touching a few letters, pp. 47, 8vo, original

floral wrappers, rubbed, soiled and frayed, lower out corner of lower cover torn off £550 Not the prettiest of things, but a seemingly unrecorded item. The author begins by saying that

the lack of proper education is what gives rise to the ‘grande corruption’ which prevails both

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in civil society and in the Church, and he states that the education of girls is just as important

as that of boys. The instructions are mainly religious: towards the end other suitable subjects

are brought forward, including geography, history (including Classical history), music,

housekeeping, good manners, restraint in speaking, &c. The author concludes with

considerations on how instruction should be given, in which he shows a good understanding

of the nature of childhood.

A friend’s copy 16. Lawrence (A.W., Editor) T.E. Lawrence by his Friends. Jonathan Cape, 1937,

FIRST EDITION, frontispiece and 7 plates (including Kennington and John portraits), some

marginal marking to the account by Eric Kennington (see below), pp. 595, 8vo, original

maroon cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, top edge maroon, lightly soiled overall with a few

marks, tail edge roughtrimmed, spot to front endpapers carrying through to title-page,

ownership inscription of Celandine Kennington (see below), good £100 A notable association copy, from the library of Celandine Kennington - the wife of artist Eric

Kennington, a close friend of Lawrence and among the illustrators of his ‘Seven Pillars of

Wisdom’; Celandine Kennington herself contributes a short piece to this volume, an account

of her first meeting with Lawrence and an assessment of his attitude to women.

17. Le Carré (John) The Secret Pilgrim. Hodder and

Stoughton, 1991, FIRST EDITION, pp. [vi], 335, [1], 8vo,

original dark blue cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, dustjacket,

fine £100 Signed by the author on the title-page.

18. Longfellow (Henry Wadsworth) The Song of Hiawatha. Boston: Ticknor and

Fields, 1855, FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, second printing, a few faint spots to title-page

recurrent at rear, pp. iv, 316, 12 [ads, dated November 1855], crown 8vo, original brown

cloth, blindstamped design to both boards, backstrip lettered in gilt, very slight lean to spine,

touch of wear at extremities, very good (BAL 12112) £250 Longfellow’s most famous poem, sometimes considered the first American epic to be wholly

free of European influence; nevertheless it was much parodied (including by Lewis Carroll).

The first London edition had appeared a few months earlier.

An attractive copy, with the variants noted by Blanck conforming to the second printing of

the text - published a couple of weeks after the first. 19. Masefield (John) Shopping in Oxford [a Poem]. Heinemann, 1941, FIRST EDITION,

210/500 COPIES signed by the author, a few spots to page-heads at rear, pp. [iv], 14, crown

8vo, original mid blue cloth, backstrip and upper board gilt lettered, the backstrip a shade

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faded with a couple of faint scuffs overall, a couple of spots to edges and endpapers, good

(Wight 101) £60 ‘Happy the morning giving time to stop

An hour at once in Basil Blackwell's shop,

There, in the Broad, within whose booky house

Half England's scholars nibble books or browse’

Inscribed by the violinist 20. Menuhin (Yehudi) Violin. Six Lessons with Yehudi Menuhin. Faber Music Ltd,

1971, FIRST EDITION, title with vignette of author with his violin, numerous illustrations of

stretching exercises and correct playing positions, many musical examples, pp. 144, crown

8vo, illustrated boards lettered in red and black, spine

yellowed, slight damage to surface at upper joint, flyleaf

with gift inscription and stamp, half-title with authorial

inscription, ‘Pour Josué Fagan, avec tous mes voeux,

Yehudi Menuhin, 2 Mai 1976’, good £150 Published to accompany a series of master-class films,

Menuhin’s teaching methods are both technical and highly

practical, reflecting his interests in yoga. His aim is to help

the student to master ‘an instrument which must surely be

one of the most beautiful artefacts ever created by man and

one of the most capricious to handle’ (Introduction).

The gift inscription, dated 1974, is to June Fagan, violinist

and daughter of South African conductor and composer,

Gideon Fagan, from her mother; the stamp is also June

Fagan’s with her Dutch address.

21. Morgan (James Jones, of Abergavenny) Epistolary Correspondence, Containing

Official, Political, and Explanatory Letters, (with introductory Preface,) written upon patriotic

points and particular occasions, to the Right Reverend Dr. Warren, bishop of Bangor, and to a

member of the British House of Commons. In two parts. Birmingham: Printed for the

Author; by Swinney & Hawkins, Birmingham; and sold by Richardson & Co. London, and all

other Booksellers, 1800, FIRST EDITION, 2 parts in 1 vol. (Part 2 has a separate title-page,

omitting Richardson - and London - from the imprint), pp. lxii, [ii], 64, [4], ]65-] 168, 8vo,

uncut in the original boards, a little stained and with cracks to spine, engraved armorial

bookplate of the sixth Duke of Portland (ESTC T201014) £400 The Duke of Portland (presumably) has scrawled on the fly-leaf opposite the half-title; ‘Most

extraordinary & most stupid Nonsense !!, which to this cataloguer seems a fair summary. It

is, at any rate, a nice piece of printing by a follower of Baskerville, Swinney - letter founder,

printer, and bookseller. 5 copies only in ESTC, 3 in England, 2 in Wales (including

Gladstone’s Library).

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22. (Oxford. University.) THE COSTUMES of the Members of the University of

Oxford. Oxford: James Ryman, [?1850], with a printed title-page pasted onto the inside front

cover, and a series of 17 colour illustrations, on concertinaed sheet attached to binding at the

end, final 2 folds a bit foxed (the poor Scholar, and Commoner), small 8vo, contemporary

pebble-grained pale green cloth, amateur paper label on upper cover lettered in ink, minor

staining, good (cf. Cordeaux & Merry ‘University’ 1318) £300

23. (Oxford University. Jesus College.) [docket title:] Copy of ye Advowson of Furtho

in North[amp]ton given to Jesus College Oxon. ?London: 21 May, 1675, contemporary

manuscript copy in English, single bifolium, ([p. 1]) and Latin ([p.3]), [p.2] blank, [p. 4]

docketed, unbound (plus VAT in the EU) £150 Being a copy, not signed by Arnold. Arnold bequeaths the Advowson, &c, of the Rectory of

Furtho to Jesus College as ‘a particular mark of the esteem and friendship I have of long time

had for Sir Leoline Jenkins.’ Jenkins was Principal of Jesus College from 1661 to 1673.

Mervyn Peake and young Terry Pratchett 24. Peake (Mervyn) and Terry Pratchett. ‘Same Time, Same Place’ and ‘The Hades

Business’ in Science Fantasy Magazine. Vol. 20, No. 60. Nova Publications, 1963, pages

lightly toned, pp. 112, crown 8vo, original wrappers, some gentle creasing and very light

soiling, nick at foot of upper joint, good £60 As well as his original contribution, Peake is the subject of ‘An Appreciation’ by Michael

Moorcock; but the issue is perhaps of most significance for the appearance of the first

published story by Terry Pratchett, aged 15, whose ‘Hades Business’ had earlier been printed

in his school magazine.

Presentation copy 25. Powell (Michael) 200,000 Feet on Foula. Faber and Faber, 1938, FIRST EDITION,

frontispiece map and 32 monochrome plates comprising stills from The Edge of the World,

map at rear, pp. xii, 334, crown 8vo, original grey cloth, backstrip lettered in blue and gilt, a

little worn and soiled, good £275

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With a later inscription by the author on the flyleaf, ‘To John

Baxter, Michael Powell, National Film Theatre, Jan 10. 1971’ -

the recipient an Australian author and authority on cinema who

had encountered Powell during the early years of the director’s

revival, at the beginning of the 1970s.

Powell’s account of the making of his film ‘The Edge of the

World’ is an uncommon book, and presentation copies are not

often seen.

26. Pullman (Philip) The Book of Dust, Volume One: La Belle Sauvage. Illustrated by

Chris Wormell. David Fickling in association with Penguin, 2017, FIRST EDITION, pp. [x],

546, 8vo, original black boards, gilt flecked pattern to both boards, backstrip lettering in gilt,

dustjacket, near fine £40 Signed by the author on a bookplate to the half-title, repeating title-page illustration.

27. Pynchon (Thomas, Contributes) New World Writing 16. London/Philadelphia:

Andre Deutsch/J.B. Lippincott, [1960], FIRST EDITION, English issue, the title-page with

sticker indicating British publisher, pp. 286, foolscap 8vo, original wrappers, some minor

rubbing and creasing, UK price in manuscript at foot of front, a few faint spots to fore-edge,

good £35

A notable issue of this magazine-anthology – which began under the New American Library

imprint, with publication taken over by Lippincott from this volume onward. The issue

begins with Tillie Olsen’s ‘Tell Me a Riddle’, first published here, the winner of the O. Henry

Award for the best American short story of 1961 and regarded as one of the twentieth-

century’s most powerful examples of the form. Perhaps of most significance, in terms of his

future literary standing, is the presence of Thomas Pynchon, ‘a twenty-two-year-old New

Yorker’, whose contribution, ‘Low-Lands’ is his ‘second published work [...] he is presently

[...] at work on a novel’ – this being, of course, ‘V.’ ‘Low-Lands’ was first collected, some

quarter of a century later, in the volume ‘Slow Learner’.

Further contributions come from Anne Sexton, ‘Dancing the Jig’ constituting her first

published fiction, Kingsley Amis, et al., including essays on Nabokov's 'Lolita' and the legal

status of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'.

Corrected presentation copy 28. Roche (Paul) All Things Considered. Duckworth, 1966, FIRST EDITION,

frontispiece portrait of the author by Duncan Grant, with the author’s corrections to poems

on pp. 76-7, 91, 95 (see below), pp. 128, foolscap 8vo, original green boards, backstrip

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lettered in gilt, bookplate to front pastedown, dustjacket repeating frontispiece illustration,

very good £75 Inscribed by the author on the flyleaf : ‘for Helen & Oliver, September 1975, Paul Roche.

Some of the author’s corrections (seen also in other signed copies) reflect poetic decisions,

others simply typographical errors (’mildweed’ to ‘mildewed’). At the foot of the flyleaf is a

squiggle that could be read as the initial ‘D.G’, though it is not in the usual style of signing

for Duncan Grant, the illustrator here - to whom Roche was a companion and muse in the

latter part of his life.

The dedication copy, for Victor Gollancz 29. Rubinstein (H.F.) Isabel's Eleven. A Comedy in

Four Acts. [Contemporary British Dramatists, Vol. LI].

Ernest Benn, 1927, FIRST EDITION, pp. [ii], 101, [1],

crown 8vo, original blue cloth with printed labels to upper

board and backstrip, the latter a little browned, one corner

gently knocked, top edge blue, free endpapers lightly

browned, good £175 The dedication copy. The printed dedication ‘To Victor

Gollancz, Isabel’s Friend’, supplemented beneath by the

author’s inscription ‘To the above, with the author’s love’,

and further some dramatic verse: ‘Question: Tell, oh tell!/

Who the Hell/ Is Isabel? Answer: Fool, don’t you see?

Friend of V.G. Good enough for me! H.F.R., 29.1.27’.

As well as a playwright, Rubinstein was a solicitor, whose

firm Rubinstein, Nash & Co. specialised in literary causes following his defence of Radclyffe

Hall’s ‘The Well of Loneliness’.

30. Shakespeare (William) The Comedy of Errors... And now

Acted at the Theatre Royal in Covent-Garden. Printed for J.

Rivington, et al., 1770, pp. [5], 8-59, [1, ads], 12mo, disbound

(ESTC T99) £250 Collates as per ESTC, but presumably lacks a half-title. 9 copies in

ESTC, 5 in the UK, 4 in the US (Folger, Harvard, U Penn, HRC).

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31. Sutherland (David, Captain) A tour up the Straits, from Gibraltar to Constantinople.

With the leading events in the present war between the Austrians, Russians, and the Turks, to

the commencement of the year 1789. Printed for the Author; and sold by J. Johnson, 1790,

FIRST EDITION, some worming in the (ample) lower margins towards the end, pp. xlvii,

372, 8vo, contemporary mottled calf, compartment ruled in gilt on spine, red lettering piece,

good (Pine-Coffin 787(4)) £550 Letters III-XII (out of 29) relate to Italy. The Monthly Review considered Sutherland's

performance 'easy, polite, good-humoured with that improved taste, which we so frequently,

but not always, discover in the military line' (IV, 1791, p. 290).

32. Taylor (Samuel) An Essay Intended to Establish a standard for an Universal System

of Stenography, or short Hand writing... Printed for the Author, 1786, engraved title-page, 11

engraved plates, certificate of authenticity signed by the Author, pp. [ii], [xvi], 98, x, 8vo,

contemporary tree calf by Joseph Shove with his large engraved ticket inside front cover,

rebcaked not unsympathetically but inner hinges reinforced with brown tape, corners a little

worn, much early pencil shorthand in the margins (cf. Alston viii 286; ESTC T116780 ‘not

in Alston’) £200 The system of geometric shorthand published in Britain by

Samuel Taylor in 1786, under the title An essay intended to

establish a standard for an universal system of Stenography,

or Short-hand writing, was the first shorthand system to be

used across the English-speaking world. Taylor shorthand

uses an alphabet of 19 letters of simplified shape. His book

was translated and published in France by Théodore-Pierre

Bertin in 1792 under the title Système universel et complet

de Stenographie. The lengthy subscribers list is

overwhelmingly of lawyers, but Oxford, where Taylr taught

for many years, is also represented. There is another issue,

with booksellers in the imprint, and the pages nu8mbered to

111 (i.e. 98 + 10, more or less).

Joseph Shove’s ticket proudly proclaims him ‘ Book Binder

to their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, and Duke of

Cumberland... Music books bound in Morocco, Russia,

Calf, &c, and half bound so as to Open without Trouble to

the Performer.’ Another customer was Thomas Hollis.

33. Tennyson (Alfred, Lord) Timbuctoo. A Poem, which obtained the Chancellor’s

Medal at the Cambridge Commencement. [Contained in:] Prolusiones Academicæ Praemiis

Annuis Dignate. Cambridge: John Smith, 1829, FIRST EDITION, first issue (’cones’, p.10,

3rd stanza), pp. 41, 8vo, nineteenth-century tan calf by Riviere and Sons (endpaper with

binder’s ticket), spine gilt with green morocco lettering piece, gilt inner dentelles, gilt edges,

board edges very slightly rubbed, pastedown with armorial bookplate of Francis Head

FOR OXFORD 2020

14

Bulkeley Johnson, very good (Ashley Library Vol.VII, p.103; Hayward 245; Thomson II;

Tinker 2059; Wise 3) £550 Tennyson’s second publication, and the first published under his name. Tennyson was

pleasantly surprised to hear that his poem had won the Chancellor’s Medal - the first poem in

blank verse to do so - and it received an effusive positive review in ‘Athenaeum’, among

other honours. It is published here with poems in Latin, Greek and English by his fellow

Chancellor’s prize-winners, Charles Merivale and C.R. Kennedy.

34. (Tolkien.) 'Wireless' / 'The Theatre'. [Shellac

record, 78rpm.] Linguaphone Institute, [circa 1940,]

the playing surface in excellent condition, Turkish

stamp affixed to label, 10 inch record, original

printed brown sleeve, very good condition

(Hammond and Anderson p. 384) £175 Scarce. Part of a set of records for learning

conversational English - two of which feature the

earliest known recordings of Tolkien (the other is ‘At

the Tobacconist’); here he features in ‘Wireless’,

playing the part of an owner of the device in

discussion with A. Lloyd James.

35. Tolkien (J.R.R.) Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics. Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial

Lecture, British Academy, 1936 [Reprint.] Oxford University Press, 1958, pp. 53, crown 8vo,

original grey wrappers printed in black, some mild border-toning and a touch of corner-

creasing, very good £150 The second impression of this text, reprinted lithographically - in a slightly smaller format -

from the sheets of the first.

36. Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Road Goes Ever On. A Song Cycle. Poems. Music by Donald

Swann. With decorations by J.R.R. Tolkien. George Allen and Unwin, 1968, FIRST

EDITION, printed in black, grey and red, pp. xii, 68, 4to, original cream boards, gentle

knock at foot of backstrip, top corners slightly pushed, dustjacket with a Tolkien design, very

good £125

FOR OXFORD 2020

15

37. Waugh (Evelyn) Brideshead Revisited. The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain

Charles Ryder. A Novel. Boston: Little, Brown, 1945, FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, pp.

[viii], 351, crown 8vo, original red

cloth, backstrip and upper board

lettered in gilt, the latter with

decoration stamped in same, Book-

of-the-Month Club leaflet for the

book with text by Christopher

Morley laid in, dustjacket by Lester

M. Peterson, a little nicked and

rubbed at extremities with some

shallow chipping to same, a small

amount of waterstaining visible at

foot of rear panel, good £300 This Book Club edition precedes

the US trade edition.

38. Winterson (Jeanette) Oranges are not the Only Fruit. Pandora Press, 1985, FIRST

EDITION, pp. ix, 176, crown 8vo, original white wrappers with an illustration by Sue

Sluglett wrapping around, backstrip gently faded with light reading creases and slight lean to

spine, trace of adhesive residue to front, good £250 Signed by the author on the title-page - her first book, a paperback original.

Review copy 39. (Woolf.) DOSTOEVSKY (F.M.) Stavrogin's Confession and The Plan of the Life of

a Great Sinner. With Introduction and Explanatory Notes. Translated by S.S. Koteliansky and

Virginia Woolf. Hogarth Press, 1922, FIRST EDITION,

pp. 169, 6 [ads], crown 8vo, original quarter pale blue

cloth with patterned blue boards, printed label to upper

board and backstrip, that to latter slightly browned, edges

untrimmed and lightly foxed, top edge slightly dusty, very

good (Woolmer 20: Kirkpatrick B2a) £200 An excellent copy of the first issue binding - laid in is a

Hogarth Press slip sending this copy for review; a

previous bookseller’s note conjectures that it may be in

the hand of Virginia Woolf, the work’s co-translator, but

the manuscript elements of price and date do not provide

enough to substantiate.