J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
P R E S E N T A T I O N C O P I E S & M A N U S C R I P T S
CONRAD TO CATHERINE WILLARD 14. CONRAD, Joseph THE SECRET AGENT Methuen, 1920.
Tenth edition. Original red cloth lettered in gilt to the spine. Author’s presentation copy, inscribed on the front endpaper, “Catherine Willard from her friend Joseph Con- rad 1st Jan 1921”. A very good copy indeed with minor wear to the spine ends and some cracking to the front hinge. [32862] £3,750 Catherine Willard (1898-1954) was a noted screen actress and leading lady. She met Conrad in about 1920 through her mother, Grace, who at the time was an interior designer helping the Con- rads furnish their new home, Oswalds, in Bishopsbourne, Kent. She was establishing herself as an actress and was about the same age as the Conrad’s son, Borys. The latter suspected his parents of attempting to line her up as a future daughter in law. Conrad was writing his dramatic adaptation of The Secret Agent at the time and had Willard in mind for the heroine. He sent the finished man - uscript of the play to her shortly before his death in 1924, and it is probable that he gave her this copy to familiarise herself with the novel, in the hope she would take the part, whilst he finished the play. The Secret Agent has long been regarded as one of Conrad’s finest and most enduring novels and was a key influence on both Graham Greene and Eric Ambler. It is notably rare in a presentation state, even as a reprint. “The Secret Agent depicts the atmosphere of Edwardian London in a psychological thriller of the anarchist underworld. Conrad’s wit and chivalrous magnanimity are at their airiest in this novel.” (Connolly)
DICKENS TO AGNES LAWRENCE 17. DICKENS, Charles CHRISTMAS BOOKS Chapman and Hall, 1852.
First collected edition. Author’s presentation copy, inscribed by Dickens on the in- serted blank facing frontispiece, “Agnes Sarah Lawrence, from her affectionate friend Charles Dickens, Twenty Second November 1852”. Octavo (180 x 118 mm). Publish- er’s presentation binding of contemporary red calf, with raised bands and green calf title label to the spine and elaborate gilt decoration to the sections. Double gilt rule and blind stamped border to covers. All edges gilt, marbled endpapers with green silk page marker. Engraved frontispiece by John Leech, text in double columns. A very good copy indeed with a neat repair to the front joint and head of the spine and a few trivial scratches to the cover. Internally fresh with a modicum of foxing to the frontis- piece. Housed in a custom made red cloth chemise and red morocco-backed slipcase. [40312] £60,000 The recipient Agnes Sarah Lawrence (born c.1835, and a young lady at the time of this inscrip- tion) was the daughter of John Towers Lawrence of Balsall Heath, near Birmingham. Dickens corresponded with her father in February that year about bringing a group of amateur players to Birmingham. The following Christmas, Dickens returned to Birmingham to give a three-and-a- half-hour reading of A Christmas Carol and The Cricket on the Hearth at the Birmingham Town Hall - the first of his famous readings. Copies for presentation were evidently specially prepared with a heavy text leaf replacing the standard tissue guard. The Gimbel Collection, now at Yale, includes three presentation copies of this edition, each similarly inscribed on an inserted front blank and dated November 1852. Dickens’s Christmas books were published here together for the first time, with a new preface by Dickens. PROVENANCE: Agnes Sarah Lawrence (1835-1911, presentation inscription from the author); Sold at auction 1931 to Dawson’s Bookshop, California (bookseller’s catalogue description tipped in); sold in 1932 to Estelle Doheny (1875-1958, noted collector who built “one of the rarest book libraries in the United States”, morocco book label to front pastedown); sold at the Doheny sale (October 1998) to Jock Elliot; sold at the Elliot sale (December 2006); Private British collection.
INSCRIBED BY DAHL
15. DAHL, Roald THE TWITS Cape, 1980. First edition. 8vo. Red boards with gilt lettering on the spine in a pictorial dustwrapper, with colour illustration by Quentin Blake. Inscribed on publication by the author with Dahl’s distinctive scrawl in black felt tip covering the front endpaper, “To Hannah and Charlotte with Love Roald Dahl 22 Dec. 1980”. Illustrated throughout in black and white by Quentin Blake. A near fine copy in a near fine dustwrapper, which has light fading to the spine. [40570] £3,000
16. DAHL, Roald THE WITCHES Cape, 1983. First edition. 8vo. Petrol blue boards in pictorial dustwrapper, which is illustrated in colour by Quentin Blake. Inscribed by Dahl on the front free endpaper, “To James love Roald Dahl, 16 Dec. 1983”. Illustrated in line by Quentin Blake throughout. A near fine copy in a near fine dustwrapper. [37485] £6,750 Uncommon signed.
16
17
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs