London, Toronto: William Heinemann Ltd, [1938]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 1-437, [438-440: blank], original green cloth, spine stamped in gold, publishers device in blind to rear cover, grey-green end papers. First edition. An Albert Campion novel. "Margery's masterpiece" - Barzun and Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime 36. "Margery Allingham was one of the three major Englishwomen mystery writers of the 'Golden Age of Detective Fiction' -- the other two. of course, being Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers." - Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights, p. 15. [Reference: Hubin (1994), p. 13].

London: Printed and Published by E. Lloyd, 12, Salisbury-Square, fleet-Street, n.d., [1847]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] [1] 2-584 577-584 593-868 [note: issue 74 is misnumbered issue 73 and the pagination of number 73 is duplicated], printed in double columns, numerous woodcut illustratioins, nineteenth-century three-quarter brown polished calf and marbled boards. First edition. The two parts numbered 73 are present, but part 74, pp. 585-592, chapters CXXVI-CXXVII, is missing. A lurid penny dreadful published initially as a serial in 109 weekly issues, 1845-1847, and here as a book in 1847. This long novel (864 double-column pages; 220 chapters) was a major influence on later vampire fiction. It includes many of the now standard vampire tropes and it is also the first example of the "sympathetic vampire," a vampire who despises his condition but is nonetheless a slave to it. "The first appearance of the vampire Sir Francis Varney marks a lurid achievement of the horrific; his tinlike eyes, taloned hands, and terrifying teeth are calculated to elicit shudders and revulsion. His victimization of young lovelies places him in line with Stoker's DRACULA and a host of other vampires whose intentions are undeniably sexual ... A pulp classic no aficionado of horror fiction can ignore" (Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV). "... unquestionably the most famous of the Lloyd bloods ... A striking example of low-level popular fiction for the working classes (and adolescents) ...." (Bleiler). [Reference: Baron, ed., Fantasy and Horror (1999) 1-132. Baron, ed., Horror Literature 2-87. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1629. Summers, A Gothic Bibliography, p. 543. Tymn, ed., Horror Literature 2-81. Bleiler (1978), p. 172. Reginald 14580].

Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1954. Octavo, boards. First edition. Asimov's human detective and his robot partner solve a murder on an overpopulated future Earth where its human inhabitants live in underground hives, "a hectic, tenuously self-sustaining underworld machine of housing cells, factories, tunnels, and life-support mechanisms so intricate and interdependent that any impediment of its delicate rhythm would send the whole apparatus into fatal shock" (Berger, p. 31). The bureaucratized humans, afraid of the open air and too timid to go to the stars to solve their overpopulation problem, will perish, doomed by the strain on their complex life support systems. Asimov's first robot novel. "A richly characterized, thoughtfully told story; justifiably a favorite among Asimov's readers." - Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-42. "Asimov's tour de force ..." - Survey of Science Fiction Literature I, pp. 318-21. [Reference: Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 245].

New York: Gnome Press Publishers, later Gnome Press, Inc., [1951-1953]. Octavo, three volumes, first volume bound in cloth, others in boards. First editions, first bindings, first issues. The first three volumes of the Foundation series. Currently streaming Apple TV as a series. Awarded a special Hugo in 1966 for best all-time series. [Reference: Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-46. Survey of Science Fiction Literature II, pp. 819-31].

London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1962. Octavo, boards. First edition. Ballard's second novel. "Some seventy years hence life is only really possible in the Arctic and Antarctic and man is regressing into deeply buried racial memories." - Gerber, Utopian Fantasy (1973), p. 160. "A marvelous culmination of the long British tradition of disaster stories." - Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 4-37. [Reference: Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-67. Pringle, Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels 35. Survey of Science Fiction Literature II, pp. 634-38].

New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1933, 1943. Octavo, two volumes, (1): pp. [i-vi] vii-viii 1-344 (2): pp. [i-vi] vii [viii] ix-xiii [xiv-xvi] 1-341 [342-344: blank], (1): original red cloth, front panel stamped in light blue and ruled in blind, spine panel stamped in light blue, fore and bottom edges rough trimmed, (2): original blue cloth, front and spine stamped in gold fore edge untrimmed, bottom edge rough trimmed. First editions. Signed letter by Wylie laid in. The first novel and the sequel. Earth is about to destroyed from a collision with a rogue planet, a chosen few are to escape via a spaceship. A famous, popular catastrophe novel that was a huge commercial success (over half a million copies sold) and was made into a film that helped spark the SF movie boom of the 1950s. In the sequel the survivors start a new civilization. [Reference: Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 3-3; (1981) 2-130; (1987) 2-146; (1995) 2-156; and (2004) II-70. Bailey, Pilgrims Through Space and Time, pp. 125-26. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 042. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 62. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 86. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 27. Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2463-68. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 14. Reginald 00801].

London: Macmillan, [1987]. Octavo, boards. First edition. "Conflict between two dystopian cultures, one Islamic, the other communist. First of his novels of the Culture, few of which have explicitly utopian content but can collectively be seen as utopian." - Sargent, British and Utopian Literature, 1986-2009. [Reference: Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-72].

New York: Phoenix Press Publishers, [1938]. Octavo, pp. [1-10] 11-256, publisher's blue cloth stamped in red. First edition. A presentation copy with a contemporary inscription by Bellem on the front free endpaper: "To / Duke & Ann Sutherland / with love / and a leer -- / Robert Leslie Bellem / 29 Palms, Calif., Apr 4, '38." The first novel by the creator of legendary Hollywood detective Dan Turner. BLUE MURDER is a risqué hard-boiled detective novel featuring Los Angeles private eye Duke Pizzatello who is framed for murders he did not commit. "Bellem’s novels, for the most part, are forgettable. The only exception is his first, BLUE MURDER (1938), which features a Dan Turner-like private eye named Duke Pizzatello and contains some of the same slangy, campy mangling of the English language" (Pronzini). Robert Leslie Bellem (1902-1968), a prolific writer, known for his hard-boiled stories, usually with plenty of slang and a touch of the comic, published under numerous pseudonyms and is thought to have written as many as 3000 stories. [Reference: Hubin (1994), p. 63. Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights: The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction, pp. 54-55].

London: John Lane The Bodley Head Limited, [1933]. Octavo, pp.[i-iv] v [vi-viii] 1-348 [349-352: ads], original black cloth, front and spine panels stamped in green, top edge stained green. First edition. Bowen’s own selection of her best supernatural and horror stories, fourteen in all, many reprinted from earlier volumes that are virtually unobtainable but four original to this volume -- “The Last Bouquet,” “The Lady Clodagh,” “Madam Spitfire,” and “The Fair Hair of Ambrosine.” Regardless of the time periods in which her stories are set, Bowen’s supernatural fiction situates horror within the complex interplay among sexuality, desire, and romance. Focusing on women who find themselves at the mercy and whims of a patriarchal culture, Bowen’s protagonists are primarily repressed spinsters, abused wives, jilted lovers, and vengeful widows, characters whose frustrated passions often result in madness and violence. Highlights in THE LAST BOUQUET: SOME TWILIGHT TALES include “The Avenging of Ann Lette” (murderer brought to justice by his own astral projection), “Kecksies” (a horrific tale of rape perpetrated by a reanimated corpse), “Florence Flannery” (brilliant reworking of the demon lover theme involving a carnivorous giant fish), and “Madam Spitfire” (villainous widow’s evil plans thwarted by the ghost of her husband). Aside from being championed by Edward Wagenknecht and Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Bowen has never quite received the attention or the critical acclaim that is her due. She is one of the finest writers of supernatural fiction of the first half of the 20th century, and she belongs on the shelf beside M. R. James, Oliver Onions, and Edith Wharton. [Reference: Barron (ed), Horror Literature 3-33. Clute and Grant (eds), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997), p. 131. Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, pp. 50-1. Wilson, Shadows in the Attic, p. 96. Bleiler (1978), p. 28. Reginald 01702].