Literature

[Dublin]: Printed for the Booksellers, 1786. Medium 12mo. pp. [iv], 72, [2]; 37, [1], 32; 25, [1]; 28, 34, [1 (plate)]. Contemporary full tree calf, title in gilt on original red morocco label on spine. Upper joint starting, but very firm. Inner joints strengthened. A very good copy. Internally near fine. [L1BC 2A]  

Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne for John Ballantyne, 1811. Quarto. First edition, second state. Bound by Mullen of Dublin in full polished calf, covers with blind acanthus roll; spine divided into five panels by four gilt raised bands, armorial badge in gilt on first panel, title in gilt direct in the second, the remainder with […]

Cork: The Mercier Press, 1992. 8vo. pp. 123. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers, lightly rubbed at extremities; some spotting to edges and preliminaries, otherwise a very good copy. Signed by John B. Keane on the half-title: “Every good wish / John B. Keane”. With the original Danny Hannon Bookshop, Listowel, “Signed by the Author” label to upper […]

London: The Folio Society, 2014. Folio. pp. 493. A fine copy bound in black buckram, extensively decorated in blue and gilt after a design by John Vernon Lord, lettered in gilt and blue, housed in the original black slipcase decorated with a branching gilt design. A handsome Folio Society edition of Joyce’s final and most […]

Dublin: Whelan and Son, 1918. Third edition. 8vo. 169pp. Portrait frontispiece of Francis Deák. Original blue-green cloth, ruled and lettered in black to upper cover and spine. Spine faded and browned, with wear and a little fraying at head and foot; minor marking and rubbing to boards; occasional light spotting, otherwise a very good, sound […]

New York: Viking, 1987. First edition, first printing. 8vo. [x], 310pp. Original publisher’s quarter black cloth over grey boards, spine lettered in red, author’s initials stamped in red to upper board, red endpapers, in the original pictorial dust jacket. A very good copy; slight toning to text block and minor signs of handling. Dust jacket […]

New York: The Viking Press, 1980. First edition. 8vo. 428pp. Publisher’s black paper-covered boards with red cloth spine, initials ‘SK’ in gilt to upper board, spine lettered in gilt and black, in the original pictorial dust jacket. Jacket worn and chipped at head of spine with further edge wear, creasing and a closed tear to […]

Comprising: The Fellowship of the Ring (Thirteenth Impression, 1963); The Two Towers (Tenth Impression, 1963); and The Return of the King (Tenth Impression, 1963). London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1963. Three volumes. Octavo. Finely bound in full crimson morocco, each volume with the Eye of Sauron in gilt, raised bands, black morocco spine labels […]

London: Faber, New York: Viking, 1939. First edition, first impression. pp. [viii], 628. Original red cloth, lettering to spine in gilt. A touch of foxing to endpapers; a near fine copy in like dust jacket. Top edge yellow. A remarkably attractive bright and fresh copy in price un-clipped near fine dust jacket. Slocum & Cahoon […]

London: Jonathan Cape, 1965. First edition, first impression. Octavo. pp. [8], 221. Original black cloth, gilt lettering to spine. In the original unclipped Richard Chopping illustrated dust jacket, priced 18s. net. The cloth is exceptionally fresh with bright gilt to the spine and square, sharp corners. Internally remarkably clean and crisp, free from inscriptions or […]

London: Faber and Faber, 2005. pp. [viii] 272. Green papered boards, title in gilt on spine. Signed by John McGahern on titlepage. A very good copy in dust jacket. One of the greatest works by this supremely gifted writer, sadly no longer with us. This is certain to become one of the most sought-after of […]

Illustrated in colour throughout. London: Faber and Faber, 2005. Quarto. First edition. pp. [viii], 88. Original pictorial boards. Signed to half-title by the Illustrator Philip Ardagh with Hodges and Figgis authenticated stamp. Written by Paul McCartney with Geoff Dunbar and Philip Ardagh, High in the Clouds is an illustrated children’s adventure first published in 2005. […]

Selected and edited, with an introduction, by W. B. Yeats. Twelve illustrations by James Torrance. London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd.; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, [1895]. First American illustrated edition. Crown 8vo. pp. xviii, 326, with twelve full-page illustrations by James Torrance. Original cream pictorial cloth, elaborately blocked in red and gilt, with […]

Dublin: Liberties Press, 2007. First edition. 8vo. pp. 240. Original blue cloth, title and author lettered in gilt on spine, with illustrated dust jacket and publisher’s slipcase. A fine copy. Number 182 of a signed limited edition of 200 copies, signed by John Montague on the limitation page. An important autobiographical work by one of […]

Norwalk, Connecticut: The Easton Press, 1999. Quarto. pp. v, 732. Full blue/green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt; moiré-silk endpapers, cream and green endbands, gold silk marker. All edges gilt. A fine copy. In a 1920 letter Joyce gives some idea of what he’s attempting in ‘Ulysses’. It is an epic “of the human body as well as […]

New Jersey: Published by Ecco Press, 1996. pp. 93. Limited edition 149 of 350. It is McCarthy’s first screenplay and his first historical work, predating his historical novel, Blood Meridian, by almost a decade. [WR]  

Dublin, Fergus O’Connor, circa 1918. Octavo. Single printed sheet folded (pp. 8). A very good unopened copy of this scarce early work by a leading Irish dramatist of the 20th Century. Sean O’Casey (1880-1964), playwright, born in Dublin into a working class family and christened John Casey. His father’s death in 1886 plunged the family […]

Dublin: King Farouk, 1987. Large post octavo. First edition, first impression. pp. [iv], 144. Pictorial wrappers. Signed by Roddy Doyle on half-title. A fine copy. Very scarce. The true first edition published by the author who couldn’t find a publisher. The Heinemann edition appeared a year later. This is the story of The Commitments, a band with […]

Illustrated. Átha Cliath: Connradh na Gaedhilge, 1902. Crown octavo. pp. vi, [2], 89, [2 (Publisher’s List)]. Red ribbed cloth, title and badge of Connradh in gilt on upper cover. A near fine copy. Scarce. [L3 3C]

London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2023.  4to. pp. xxxi, 272. Profusely illustrated throughout with J.R.R. Tolkien’s own drawings, paintings and maps, including the large folding map at rear. Original quarter green cloth over black cloth boards, gilt lettering and decoration to spine and upper board, all edges gilt, housed in the publisher’s green cloth slipcase with gilt […]

Original black-and-white photographic portrait (90 v 145mm) of Samuel Beckett, boldly signed in blue ink across the lower white margin. A striking head-and-shoulders image of the Nobel Prize-winning Irish playwright, novelist and poet, whose sparse, existential works, including Waiting for Godot, Endgame and Krapp’s Last Tape, transformed twentieth-century literature and theatre. Beckett was famously reserved […]