Modern Literature | Five volumes

Modern literature

A group of 5 volumes, comprising:

(i) Jack London. The Call of the Wild. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1903. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE (in the vertically ribbed cloth), 12mo (192 x 131 mm), frontispiece and 10 plates by Philip R. Goodwin and Charles Livingston Bull, decorations by Charles Edward Hopper, publisher's advertisement leaf at end, publisher's green cloth, front cover with 3 decorated panels in red, black and white of sled dogs and sled with title in gilt between the panels, spine lettered in gilt with a pictorial panel in red, black and white depicting Buck, pictorial endleaves, top edge gilt, housed in green cloth slipcase, [BAL 11876]

FIRST EDITION of London's best-known novel, The story of Buck, a pampered dog who, after a series of adventures and mis-adventures, ends up leading a pack of wolves.

(ii) T.H. White. The Sword in the Stone. London: Collins, 1938. FIRST EDITION, 8vo (193 x 129 mm), modern black morocco gilt by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, upper cover with a gilt stamp of Excalibur, lower cover with a gilt stamp of Merlyn holding an umbrella, gilt edges, patterned endpapers

FIRST EDITION of White's acclaimed fantasy novel about the boyhood of King Arthur, the first instalment in his tetralogy The Once and Future King, in a handsome modern binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.

(iii) E.M. Forster. Alexandria: A History and a Guide. Alexandria: Whitehead Morris Limited, 1922. FIRST EDITION, 8vo (188 x 121 mm), maps and plans, original boards, binding slightly soiledI, [Kirkpatrick A8a]

(iv) Oscar Wilde—Cecil Beaton (illustrator). The Importance of Being Earnest. London: The Folio Society, 1960. INSCRIBED BY CECIL BEATON ON THE DEDICATION LEAF: "For Raymond Jerome | with such a (?)happy | souvenir of "The | School for Scandal" Best wishes | Cecil", 8vo (), original watered green silk boards, spine labeled in gilt, light blue pictorial endpapers, spine slightly sunned

Beaton designed sets and costumes for the 1962 Comédie-Française production of Sheridan's School for Scandal, and the dedicatee was presumably involved in this production.

(v) D.H. Lawrence. The Tales of D. H. Lawrence. London: Martin Secker, 1934. FIRST EDITION, 8vo (210 x 133 mm), modern green half morocco gilt, top edge gilt