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9 BRIGGS, Raymond. The Snowman. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1978 the snowman meets harry potter First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper verso, “For Fiona With Best Wishes from Raymond Briggs 1979”. The recipient was Fiona Waters, the bookseller, publisher, author, and reviewer. Her review of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone features on the rear cover of the first edition of that book. The Snowman was the runner-up for the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal in the UK and won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in the US in 1979. It was adapted into a Bafta-winning animated short, first broadcast 26 December 1982, which remains a Christmas classic. Quarto. Original pictorial boards, spine and front cover lettered in black. No dust jacket issued. Illustrated throughout in colour by Raymond Briggs. Slightly skewed, spine and corners bumped, consistent toning to boards with occasional light marks. A very good and attractive copy. £1,500 [158897] 10 BROOKS, Gwendolyn. For Illinois 1968. A Sesquicentennial Poem. [Chicago:] Illinois Sesquicentennial Commission, 1968 “beside thy rivers, illinois!”
Signed limited edition, with the author’s signature on the colophon, scarce in commerce. Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of Illinois, this poem was published the same year that Gwendolyn Brooks became the state’s poet laureate. Brooks was the first Black woman to hold the post of poetry consultant to the Library of Congress and was the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. Written in the year of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1968, the poem presents an impassioned plea for unity within the state of Illinois: “Come exorcise the cry ‘Prepare for hate!’ . . . To a new morning waking late, declare a daybreak of communion and repair, beside thy rivers, Illinois!”. Octavo, pp. 4. Original blue wrappers, seal of Illinois on front cover and of Illinois Sesquicentennial Commission on rear cover in blue, clear free endpapers printed with rivers of Illinois. Text printed in blue. Tiny mark to one letter, still legible; a fine copy. £1,250 [157211] 11 BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett. Sonnets from the Portuguese. Edinburgh: Otto Schulze and Company, 1901 a beautiful work from inside to out An attractive edition with intricate woodcut initials to each sonnet, one of 300 copies, this copy in a fine arts and crafts style binding by Rivière. The sonnets
include some of Browning’s most famous love poetry, written in the first years of her falling in love with Robert Browning, including the famous sonnet “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”. The collection was first published in 1850. Quarto (211 × 172 mm). Contemporary brown morocco by Rivière and Son, spine in compartments framed in gilt, raised bands tooled in gilt, elaborate triple rule gilt frames with reef knot details to covers, front cover lettered in gilt within central foliate vignette, board edges ruled in gilt, top edge gilt, red marbled endpapers, turn-ins ruled in gilt. Elaborate woodcut title page and initial to each sonnet. Bookplate of Charles Cobb Walker (1871 – 1950) of Manchester, Mass., son of wealthy industrialist Silas B. Cobb on front pastedown. Blind stamp of the New England Conservatory of Music at head of Sonnet 37. Spine and head of covers sunned, small bump to upper outer corner of front cover, faint offsetting to endpapers, contents clean and bright; a beautiful copy in near-fine condition. £1,250 [155449] 12 BUKOVSKY, Vladimir. To Build a Castle. My Life as a Dissenter. London: André Deutsch, 1978 “this dream of absolute, universal equality is amazing, terrifying, and inhuman” First edition, inscribed by the author on the half-title, “To Mr. Jan Beer, with the best wishes, V. Bukovsky, April, 16, 1982, Cambridge”. This title is scarce inscribed. Mr Beer is potentially John Beer (1926–
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CHRISTMAS 2022
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