Literature and Poetry

London: The Erotic Print Society, 2002 Illustrated erotic novel. Hand numbered limited edition 20/950.. First Edition. Cloth. Fine/Fine. Illus. by Mario Tauzin. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: The Spiral Press, 1925 Breton was a prolific author of considerable versatility and gift, popular with his contemporaries, and forgotten by the next generation. His work consists of religious and pastoral poems, satires, and a number of miscellaneous prose tracts. His religious poems are sometimes wearisome by their excess of fluency and sweetness, but they are evidently the expression of a devout and earnest mind. His lyrics are pure and fresh, and his romances, though full of conceits, are pleasant reading, remarkably free from grossness. His praise of the Virgin and his references to Mary Magdalene have suggested that he was a Catholic, but his prose writings abundantly prove that he was an ardent Protestant. Hand numbered limited edition 129/425, some rubbing to corners.. First Edition. Cloth. Good/No Jacket as Issued. Illus. by Ernest Fiene. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: Ballantine Books, 1963. Novel first published in 1934. In Name Only is a 1939 romantic film starring Cary Grant, Carole Lombard and Kay Francis. It was based on the novel Memory of Love by Bessie Breuer.. First Paperback Edition. Paperback. Very Good. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. more information

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Westport: Greenwood Press, 1984 Brian Wilson Aldiss, OBE, (born August 18, 1925 in East Dereham, Norfolk) is a prolific English author of both general fiction and science fiction. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss. Greatly influenced by the SF pioneer, H.G. Wells, Aldiss is a vice-president of the international H. G. Wells Society.. First Edition. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library. more information

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London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1923 Rebound in strong library binding.. First Edition. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library. more information

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London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1953 Rebound in strong library binding.. First Edition. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library. more information

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Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1972 First Edition. Hard Cover. As New/Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Published for The William Morris Society By the Times Bookshop, 1962. William Morris (24 March 1834 - 3 October 1896) was an English architect, furniture and textile designer, artist, writer, socialist and Marxist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris wrote and published poetry, fiction, and translations of ancient and medieval texts throughout his life. His best-known works include The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems (1858), The Earthly Paradise (1868–1870), A Dream of John Ball and the utopian News from Nowhere. He was an important figure in the emergence of socialism in Britain, founding the Socialist League in 1884, but breaking with the movement over goals and methods by the end of that decade. He devoted much of the rest of his life to the Kelmscott Press, which he founded in 1891. The 1896 Kelmscott edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer is considered a masterpiece of book design.. First Edition. Paperback. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Robson Books, 1990 First Edition. Hardcover. As New/As New. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Chichester: Phillimore & Co., 1972 First thorough examination of the Act Books of the Ecclesiastical Court of Stratford. These are made available in considerable detail throwing a flood of light on Shakespeare's nearest relatives, friends and contemporaries as well as his religion and the circumstances of his death.. First Edition. Hardcover. New/New. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: Lancer, 1968 Erotic novel.. First Paperback Edition. Paperback. Good. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. more information

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New York: Columbia University Press, 1995 Explores the legacy of effeminacy in homoerotic literature that began more than a century ago with the 1885 Labouchere Amendment criminalizing male homosexual contact and Oscar Wilde's subsequent incarceration. This broad overview looks into the century that followed these defining moments in the history of gay literature, demonstrating how the effeminate behaviour that came to be connected so solidly with male homosexual identity has manifested itself in the literature of gay male writers in England. Focuses closely on the works and lives of several prominent British literary figures of the past century, including E.M. Forster, John Addington Symonds, and Quentin Crisp. In a concluding section, the author evaluates the impact of the AIDS epidemic on gay men's writing and offers a thoughtful, original reading of Alan Hollinghurst's novel, The Swimming Pool Library. The author shows how the stereotype of effeminacy has been variously celebrated and challenged over the years, from Forster's strong moral distinction between "feminine" and "effeminate" in Howards End to the camp effeminacy in the writing of Ronald Firbank. The book shows how different writers have helped to attach sentiments of stigma and pride, loathing and love, to the stereotype of the effeminate gay man through their literature. Includes notes, bibliography and index.. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/No Jacket, as Issued. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Edinburgh: Charles Skilton, 1985. hand numbered limited edition 56/275. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/No Jacket, as Issued. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. more information

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London: Femina Books, 1968 Study of obscenity and lesbianism in the literature of Radclyffe Hall. Vera Mary Brittain (December 29, 1893- March 29, 1970) was an English writer, feminist and pacifist, best remembered as the author of the best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of Youth, recounting her experiences during World War I and the growth of her ideology of Christian pacifism.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Manchester: Savoy Books, 2001. David Britton's novel, Lord Horror, published in 1990, became the first book to be banned in England since Hubert Selby Jnr's Last Exit to Brooklyn in 1968. Geoffrey Robertson QC and Article 19 led the appeal in 1992, when the ban was overturned. Baptised in the Blood of Millions is the second Lord Horror novel. Allegedly an 'autobiographical' work, the book is set in a very bizarre alternate universe in England before and after the Second World War. Events are rendered in Symbolist fashion and explore the British Fascism of Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts and war-time radio broadcaster Lord Haw-Haw. Other dramatis personae include pop icon Jack Good, 1950s parliamentarian Lord Boothby, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, poetess Sylvia Plath and the biggest English movie star of the 1930s, Jessie Matthews. Includes illustrations by the author. We guarantee you will never read another novel like this one! Cover art by John Coulthart.. First Edition. Hardcover. New/New. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Manchester: Savoy Books, 1996. The Citizen Kane of Bad Taste. There's so much evil energy in this book, if it moved next door to you you'd probably get cancer within a week! In the long-awaited sequel to David Britton's first novel, Lord Horror (and Savoy's contender for the 1996 Booker Prize for Fiction) the great horror of modern history is absorbed into the framework of Surrealism, literary fantasy and the darkest children's fiction. By viewing the Holocaust as a tragicomic carnival of the grotesque, the author offers the reader a vivid, dream-level identification with the era of efficient barbarism. A terrain of unfettered imagination, written to the glorious edgy, spooky, intense, mad, weird Rock'n'Roll and Rhythm'n'Blues music of the 1950s, from a series of tapes compiled for David Britton by the legendary Roger Eagle. Roger provided us with the best and most obscure down home Blues, Rockabilly, Hilly-Country and Rockin' instrumentals from that seething decade. His experience and unrivalled musical library helped reinforce the musical motifs that run through Motherfuckers. Clubman and DJ extraordinaire, Roger was a friend of ours for thirty years. A word to the wise: Roger was owner The Magic Village Club in Manchester and helped form the Punk movement of the '70s with his seminal Liverpool club, Eric's. As a promoter he brought to Britain many Blues performers (Bo Diddley, LaVern Baker, Screamin' Jay Hawkins) and a number of Jamaican artists, particularly Lee 'Scratch' Perry. "A bizarre and outrageous confection of riotous, Rabelaisian imagery it may be, but Motherfuckers does offer a consistent view of fascism. This is also the terrain of unfetted imagination; where the macabrely-detailed dreamscape of Lautréamont and Sade meet the popular common-sense fantasy of L. Frank Baum and Roald Dahl. The book draws on the fantastic current in English writing (the gothic, Swift, Carroll, Hodgson, Graham, Ballard) but there's a strong input from the more specifically continental transgressors, both social and textual, Huysmans, Bataille and Céline. Motherfuckers is a truly frightening book." Julian Petley, The New Statesman.. First Edition. Hard Cover. New/New. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Manchester: Savoy Books, 1984 A special limited edition collection (1,000 copies) of fiction, articles and graphics, and the second in Savoy's planned trilogy of anthologies which commenced with The Savoy Book in 1978. Contains a selection of the letters which Michael Moorcock wrote to J.G. Ballard when the latter was Prose Editor of Ambit magazine, with the drug references left in. The full correspondence sans drug references formed Moorcock's account of his adventures in the movie capital of the world, Letters From Hollywood (Harrap, 1986). Police raids and litigation delayed publication of Savoy Dreams for four years, but on the plus side we were able to include detailed coverage of these raids as well as the 1982 trial and imprisonment of David Britton. "Money well spent, not least for its especially articulate and timely account of the way obscenity trials are now being conducted in Britain." RAMSEY CAMPBELL.. First Paperback Edition. Paperback. New. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Manchester: Savoy Books, 2005 Fuck Off and Die is the follow-up to the notorious Adventures of Meng & Ecker. Featuring all the usual favourites Meng & Ecker, Lord Horror, La Squab as well as new characters, it is probably David Britton and Kris Guidio's farewell volume of comic strips. All-new strips in b/w and 48 pages of full colour, containing the complete run of the La Squab three-panel strips, FOAD stacks-up more fucking bad taste than a monkey can shake a pointed stick at; the un-politically correct Daddy of comic books. La Squab's mischief frames epistles from Meng & Ecker, including 48 pages of full-color delirium wending from urban legend and the Hungerford murders into Schopenhauer with the full-immersion baptism in hate, violence, fascism, and duplicity that have marked Britton as a brave, unapologetic, and unblinking satirist arguably the best of our generation and, in England at least, as a pornographer and criminal. Guidio's artwork is wrenchingly beautiful, repulsive, nightmarish, profound. Buying this book is an act of conscience and of revolution against those who fear words and images." DOUGLAS WINTER. With an introduction by Alan Moore and an afterword by Dr Benjamin Noyse. Jacket design by John Coulthart.. First Edition. Hardcover. New/New. Illus. by Kris Guidio. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. more information

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London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1929 A dictionary of Shaw's plays and novels with a bibliography of his works and the literature concerning him, with a record of principal Shavian play productions.. First Edition. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library. more information

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London: Hutchinson, 1954 First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Manchester: World Distributors, 1974 First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/No Jacket, as Issued. Illus. by E.A. Hodges J. Leeder P.J. Crompton. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. more information

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Paris: Editions Universitaires, 1966 Biography. French text.. First Edition. Paperback. Good. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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Paris: Eric Losfeld, 1966 Biography. French text. Pages uncut.. First Edition. Paperback. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Consul Books, 1964 Biography of the author of My Life and Loves. Includes bibliography and index.. Third Printing. Paperback. Very Good. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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London: Arthur Barker, 1951 Includes a bibliography. Part of "The English Novelists" He was born in London January 17, 1886; and died in Rome May 21, 1926. Son of society lady Harriet Jane Garrett and MP Sir Thomas Firbank, Firbank went to Uppingham School, and then on to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He converted to Catholicism in 1907. In 1909 he left Cambridge, without completing a degree. Living off his inheritance he travelled around Spain, Italy, the Middle East, and North Africa.. First Edition. Cloth. Fine/Fine. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1936 Chip missing from centre of worn spine.. Eighth Imp.. Cloth. Fair/No Jacket. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1908 First Edition. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library. more information

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Paris (?): Np, 1966 Explicit erotic novel clandestinely published. Np nd c.1966.. First Thus. Paperback. New. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. more information

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London: Rupert Hart-Davies, 1949. Literary and social history of America in the mid 19th century.. First Thus. Hard Cover. Very Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: Knickerbocker Publishing Co., 1942 Classic American guide book for bachelors from the 1940s. Essays on the joys of the bachelor life, by among others, James Thurber, George Jean Nathan, Frank Sullivan, Jack Hanley and Benjamin Franklin (!) Some chipping and wear to d/j.. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/Fair. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: Belmont, 1963 Erotic novel. Orignally published as All Passion Spent.. First Paperback Edition. Paperback. Very Good. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. more information

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Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969. Includes an extensive bibliography of Edgar Allan Poe criticism.. First Edition. Cloth. Fine/Fine. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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London: Sphere, 1971 Controversial novel based on the myth of black supersexuality.. First U.K. Paperback Edition. Paperback. Good. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. more information

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London: Longmans, 1969 Biography of the French poet, novelist and film director. Some tears to d/j.. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Collins, 1957 Helen of Troy, Sappho of Lesbos, Cleopatra and Macbeth.. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: William Heinemann, 1939 First Edition. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library. more information

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New York: Oxford University Press, 1986 Study of Bernedetta Carlini and lesbian love among nuns in a convent during the Italian Renaissance. The discovery of the fascinating and richly documented story of Sister Benedetta Carlini, Abbess of the Convent of the Mother of God, by Judith C. Brown was an event of major historical importance. Not only is the story revealed in Immodest Acts that of the rise and fall of a powerful woman in a church community and a record of the life of a religious visionary, it is also the earliest documentation of lesbianism in modern Western history. Born of well-to-do parents, Benedetta Carlini entered the convent at the age of nine. At twenty-three, she began to have visions of both a religious and erotic nature. Benedetta was elected abbess due largely to these visions, but later aroused suspicions by claiming to have had supernatural contacts with Christ. During the course of an investigation, church authorities not only found that she had faked her visions and stigmata, but uncovered evidence of a lesbian affair with another nun, Bartolomeo. The story of the relationship between the two nuns and of Benedetta's fall from an abbess to an outcast is revealed in surprisingly candid archival documents and retold here with a fine sense of drama. An unread copy.. First Thus. Paperback. New. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: Oxford University Press, 1986 Study of Bernedetta Carlini and lesbian love among nuns in a convent during the Italian Renaissance. An unread copy.. First Thus. Paperback. New. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: The X Press Reproduced from typescript. Stapled booklet. Some curling and creasing to edges.. First Edition. Pamphlet. Good. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. more information

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Hayes: Poet & Peasant Books, 1976 Reproduced from typescript. Stapled booklet.. First Edition. Pamphlet. Good. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. more information

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Chatsworth: GX Inc., 1971 Explicit gay pulp novel. Interracial theme. c.1970s. Spartan Classics series.. First Edition. Paperback. Very Good. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. more information

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London: Fortune Press, 1934 Rare in dust jacket, some pages uncut.. First Edition. Cloth. Fine/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: The British Library, 2000 Published on the occasion of the centenary exhibition: Oscar Wilde: a life in six acts, at the British Library, 10th November 2000-4th February 2001. Includes bibliographical references and illustrations.. First Edition. Paperback. New. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Leicester: Omens, 1975 Omens Poetry Pamphlet Number Four.. First Edition. Pamphlet. Very Good. Illus. by Marian Gladstone. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Derby: Monarch Books, 1963 Pulp erotic novel.. First Edition. Paperback. Good. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. more information

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New York: Lancer Books, 1964 Pulp erotic novel.. First Edition. Paperback. Fine. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. more information

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London: The Poetry Book Society, 1982 New poems by Dannie Abse, Fleur Adcock, Charles Causley, D.J. Enright, Gavin Ewart, Roy Fisher, John Fuller, Ted Hughes, Andrew Motion, Peter Redgrove, Vernon Scannell.. First Edition. Pamphlet. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: Bell Publishing Co., 1970 Edited by John Cohen. Some minor damage to d/j.. First Thus. Hardcover. Fine/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971 Second Edition. Cloth. Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library. more information

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London: Putnam and Company, 1935. Historical novel set in 5th century Greece. Rear hinge cracked, some chipping to d/j.. First Edition. Cloth. Good/Fair. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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