Decadence, Symbolism and the 1890s

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1925 Firecrackers. A Realistic Novel (1925), by Carl Van Vechten: Of the four (out of seven) novels that deal directly with what Carl Van Vechten called "the splendid drunken twenties" in New York, Firecrackers was published at the heart of the period and comes closest to depicting the Jazz Age in all its variety. After so many years, the novel will strike many readers as quaint or mannered or camp (or all three), but Van Vechten subtitled it A Realistic Novel, and the hi-jinks from the period on which it reports are apparently accurate, although informed by a masked austerity. As early as 1925, Van Vechten saw the end in sight even if few others were looking ahead that far. Coming out in the same year as books as disparate as Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Loos's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, dealing with similar if markedly different milieus, Firecrackers bolsters our understanding of that strange decade. It extends the lives of some characters in Van Vechten's earlier novels, and it anticipates the frantic desperation depicted in his last one, Parties (1930), when the stock market crash brought the twenties to a thudding halt. The novel centers around a wide cast of characters whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mysterious Gunnar O'Grady in 1920s New York. Though, like most Van Vechten novels, there is more than actually meets the eye. Paul Moody, a man who finds his life utterly tedious and uneventful in New York City, tries to uncover the mystery of his young friend, while also desperately seeking his own purpose in the world. Though, little does he know that his life and the lives of those around him are about to be changed forever. Humorous, poignant, and ironic, Firecrackers boldly stands as one of the most definitive portraits on the excesses and recklessness of the Jazz Age.. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928 Boards stained and marked, contents fine.. First U.K. Edition. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Comet, 1985 First Thus. Paperback. Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: The Falcon Press, 1948 Minor chips to d/j.. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Allan Wingate, 1947 With a note on the period by Holbrook Jackson. An Anthology of Works. A book in which the pictures and other illustrations are as characteristic of the aesthetic movement as its poetry and prose. d/j chipped and worn.. First Edition. Cloth. Good/Poor. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Elkin Mathews, and John Lane, 1893 Decorations by Warrington Hogg. Watson 1858-1935, a minor poet of the 1890s. His first great success was Wordsworth's Grave (1890), followed by a meditative elegy on Tennyson, Lachrymae Musarum (1892). He is also remembered for sonnets and lyrics. He was knighted in 1917. Bound with catalogue for 1893 at rear.. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/No Jacket as Issued. Illus. by Warrington Hogg. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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London: John Lane, the Bodley Head, 1912 Rebound in strong library binding.. First Edition. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library. more information

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Edinburgh: The Tragara Press, 1980. Hand numbered limited edition 82/120 copies, printed in Baskerville type on Abbey Mills paper.. First Edition. Paperback. Very Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Private Press. more information

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Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1972 Biography of the Victorian Artist. Revised edition of the hardback.. First Paperback Edition. Paperback. Good. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. more information

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London: W.H. Allen, 1967 Biography of the Victorian Artist. Price clipped.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: A.M. Philpot, 1925 Biographical study of the pivotal 1890s poet, editor, literary, theatre and music critic Arthur Symons. (1865-1945). He became a friend of Yeats, G. A. Moore, and H. Ellis, and attended the Rhymers' Club; his early volumes of poetry (Days and Nights, 1889; London Nights, 1895) were very much of their time in their celebration of decadence and the demi-monde of stage, street, and Café Royal. He was editor of the Savoy, 1896, and published Beardsley, Conrad, Dowson, L. P. Johnson, etc. His The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899) was an attempt to introduce French Symbolism to England, and he wrote critical studies of Blake, Baudelaire, Pater, Wilde, and others. He is largely remembered as a leading spirit in the Decadent movement, a defender of "art for art's sake". Includes a full bibliography. (Studies in the Fine Arts: Criticism, No 25). First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Faber & Gwyer, 1926 First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: The Unicorn Press, 1960 Includes bibliography, notes and index.. First Complete Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1907 The first edition publishing the full suite of sixteen Beardsley illustrations. Introduction by Robert Ross. The gilt embossed front board is clean and bright except for a little fading to the leading edge. The rear board has some patchy lightening to the first 5cm in from the leading edge. Ownership signature and remains of removed ex-libris inside from board. Rare in any condition.. First Thus. Cloth. Good/No Jacket, as Issued. Illus. by Aubrey Beardsley. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1945 Anthology.. Reprint. Cloth. Good/No Jacket as Issued. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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Portland, Maine: The Mosher Press, 1922 feps and backstrip missing.. First Thus. Hard Cover. Fair/No Jacket. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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London: Porcupine Press, 1948 First Thus. Paperback. Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Methuen & Co., 1934 Boards faded and marked.. Reprint. Cloth. Fair/No Jacket as Issued. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1908 First Thus. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. more information

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London: Alvin Redman, 1962 Introduction by Vyvyan Holland.. Third Printing. Hard Cover. Fine/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: W.H. Allen, 1970 Edited by Richard Ellman.. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: Oriole Chapbooks, 1977 First Thus. Pamphlet. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: The Folio Society, 1957 Translated with an introduction by Vyvyan Holland. Some wear to the edges of the slipcase.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/No Jacket as Issued. Illus. by Frank Martin. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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West Drayton: Penguin Books, 1940 Other Plays are A woman of no Importance and An ideal Husband. nd c.1950s.. First Paperback Edition. Paperback. Good. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. more information

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Boston: John W. Luce & Co., 1907 Includes thirteen Beardsley illustrations. Spine worn top and bottom. Rare in any condition.. First US Edition. Cloth. Good/No Jacket, as Issued. Illus. by Aubrey Beardsley. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Creation Books, 2000 This edition, first published in 1890, was later subjected to various edits and rewrites following the advice of Wilde's peers who found the material too dangerous to publish. The subsequent British edition, containing 6 additional chapters, has since become an underground classic and literary masterpiece. The Picture of Dorian Gray remains Wilde’s only novel. In his introduction, Jeremy Reed contests that this original Lippincott’s edition is both radically different from the later version and far more homoerotic. Arguably, it is this version which remains closest to Wilde’s initial preconception. Misogynistic, anarchic, unethical, and overtly homo-erotic, The Picture of Dorian Gray has become a blueprint for subversive fiction and has inspired subsequent literary outlaws such as Jean Genet, William Burroughs and J.G.Ballard. It remains a true classic of renegade literature and, one hundred years on, continues to shock in its disaffiliation from ethics.. First Thus. Paperback. New. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Creation Books, 1996. First Thus. Paperback. New. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980 Eight academics discuss the novel and Realism.. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1920. Some rubbing to boards. Uncommon book.. First Edition. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948 Essays on W.B. Yeats, Symbolism, T.S. Elliot, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein and Arthur Rimbaud.. Reprint. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936 Essays on W.B. Yeats, Symbolism, T.S. Elliot, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein and Arthur Rimbaud.. Reprint. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Alvin Redman, 1957 Biography, including notes bibliography and index. Sone top worn.. First Edition. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Hamish Hamilton, 1977. Biography of Harry Crosby and his decadent life in 1920s Paris. Includes photographs, notes, bibliography and index. Price clipped from d/j.. First U.K. Edition. Cloth. Fine/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. more information

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London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1894 Rebound in strong library binding.. First Edition. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library. more information

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New York: Award Books, 1952 Biography of Sarah Bernhardt.. First Paperback Edition. Paperback. Very Good. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. more information

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Paris: Obliques, 1974 Translation of the Yeats' play by Yves de Bayser. Some creasing to the front cover. French text.. First French Edition. Paperback. Good. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. more information

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London: Faber and Faber, 1961 W.B. Yeats, Ireland's Nobel Prize winning poet also served for six years in the Irish Senate in the 1920's. This collection of speeches give insight into his political as much as his artistic philosophy. "I have no hope of seeing Ireland united in my time, or of seeing Ulster won in my time; but I believe it will be won in the end, and not because we fight it, but because we govern this country well. We can do that, if I may be permitted as an artist and writer to say so, by creating a system of culture which will represent the whole of this country and which will draw the imagination of the young towards it.'". First U.K. Edition. Cloth. Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library. more information

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London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1954 First Edition. Cloth. Good/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library. more information

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