so with the jacket and in such exemplary condition. Library Hub shows just five copies in British and Irish institutional libraries (British Library, Oxford, Cambridge, Scotland, and Senate House). The Indian-Afghan author Ikbal ali Shah (1894– 1969) is an interesting if contentious figure. He came to Britain before the First World War and studied at Edinburgh before becoming a “prolific writer of articles, and books relating to South Asia, Sufism and the Modern World” and a string of popular biographies of King Abdullah of Jordan, Atatürk, and the Aga Khan. The extent to which he “undertook assignments for the British Foreign Office and became a publicist for a number of Eastern statesmen [and] travelled widely for the British Government” (Library of Congress), is unclear, although he did write for the Information Department of the India Office, largely on Muslim affairs. Octavo. Original moderate brown cloth decorated in turquoise. With dust jacket. Jacket a little dusty, spine panel toned, some nicks, chips and splits but remaining perfectly presentable, binding similarly a touch dusty, scattered foxing. A very good copy. £500 [152351] 99 IRVING, Washington. The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. No. I. New York: C. S. Van Winkle, 1819 THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF RIP VAN WINKLE First edition of the first of Irving’s Sketch Books , marking the first appearance of “Rip Van Winkle”, cited as the first American short story. Unrestored copies in wrappers, as here, are very rare. “The Sketch Book was a celebrated event in American literary history. The collection was the first American work of short stories to gain international success and popularity” and while “most of the book’s 30 odd pieces concern Irving’s impressions of England, six chapters deal with American subjects. Of these tales, ‘Rip Van Winkle’ and ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ have been called the first American short stories” ( Ency. Brit. ). “The Sketch Book . . . has been a particular darling of the sophisticators” (BAL), and copies, especially when rebound, must be treated with caution (to the extent that BAL only allowed copies in the wrappers, as here, when studying the bibliographical history of the book). Copies in the fragile wrappers, even when not sophisticated with leaves or wrappers
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96 HUXLEY, Aldous. Crome Yellow. London: Chatto & Windus, 1921 First edition of the author’s breakthrough novel, with the ownership inscription to the front free endpaper of the writer Robert Henriques (1905–1967), author of two successful novels, No Arms, No Armour (1939) and Through the Valley (1950). Octavo. Original yellow cloth, paper spine label printed in green, top edge green. Spine lightly sunned with slight lean,
endpapers a little discoloured, contents clean; a fresh copy. ¶ Bromer A6.1; Connolly 100. £675 [152373] 97 IBSEN, Henrik. Hedda Gabler. Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, 1890 First published edition, cloth issue, of the defining stage work of the period, ushering in one of the theatre’s first truly developed neurotic female protagonists almost a decade before Freud’s first work of psychoanalysis. Under the illusion that it was necessary for copyright protection, Ibsen had 12 sets of sheets sent to England for advance publication five days earlier than this. The play premiered at the Königliches Residenz-Theater, Munich, 31 January 1891. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, spine and front cover richly decorated in gilt and black. Spine lightly sunned, else a fine, fresh copy. ¶ Printing and the Mind of Man 375. £2,750 [153653] 98 IKBAL ALI SHAH, Sirdār. The Golden Pilgrimage. London: Dennis Archer, 1933 First edition of the author’s fictionalized accounts of the pilgrimages to Mecca, Medina, and El Kuds; genuinely uncommon on the market, particularly
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SPRING 2022
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