Artist: J.L. Whiting
In Winter Woods Decorative Plate - 22ct Gold Rim
Artist: J.L. Whiting
Guardian of The Glen Decorative Plate 22ct Gold Rim
Artist: J.L. Whiting
Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets - Samuel Johnson (1854)
By Samuel Johnson.
With Notes, Corrective And Explanatory, By Peter Cunningham, F.S.A.
In Three Volumes.
Condition: As can be seen from the pictures, some clear signs of wear including a slight split on the spine of Vol II, but otherwise very good considering the books are over 150 years old.
Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets is a work by Samuel Johnson, comprising short biographies and critical appraisals of 52 poets, most of whom lived during the eighteenth century. It is arranged, approximately, by date of death.
Six of the Lives have been singled out as the most "important": John Milton, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, Jonathan Swift, and Thomas Gray. One of the lives, Richard Savage, was previously printed as Life of Mr Richard Savage in 1744.
Johnson began writing his "lives", or individual biographical pieces, in 1740. His first "lives" were of Jean-Philippe Baratier, Robert Blake, and Francis Drake. In 1744, he wrote his first serious "life", the Life of Mr Richard Savage, in honour of his friend, Richard Savage. Between 1737 and 1739, Johnson became close to Savage. In 1743, Savage found himself in debtors' prison and stayed there until his death shortly after. A year later, Johnson wrote Life of Savage (1744), a "moving" work that, according to Walter Jackson Bate, "remains one of the innovative works in the history of biography".
In 1773, publishers in Edinburgh started producing editions of the collected works of various English poets. In order to compete with this project, Johnson was asked by Tom Davies, William Strahan and Thomas Cadell to create this final major work, the Lives of the English Poets. He began this project and, on 3 May 1777, he wrote to James Boswell that he was busy preparing a "little Lives" and "little Prefaces, to a little edition of the English Poets". Johnson asked for 200 guineas, an amount significantly lower than the price he could have demanded. Johnson wrote many biographies over the next few years and reproduced his Life of Savage for the collection.
Publisher Info: London, John Murray, Albemarle Street.
Year of Publication: 1854.
This auction is for the complete, three volume set, as pictured.
A Joyful Surprise and Other Stories (Walter Clarke) RARE
Other than "A Joyful Surprise" other stories include: "Black Or White", "Three Letters", "An Indian Legend", "Brooks Major", "The Royal George", "Just Too Late" and "A Taste For Figures".
Hardback, published 1904 by Robert Culley, London
80 pages, Dimensions: 17.4cm x 11.8cm x 1.1cm
CZ Diamond Engagement Ring White Gold 18ct (GP)
Brand new, never worn.
Includes box (as pictured).
SIZE N
Monster And Horror Movies - T. G. Aylesworth [1986] History of Horror
Monster and Horror Movies looks at the high - and low - points of one of film's most enduring genres with humour, insight and imagination. Although monster and horror movies don't win many awards, people have been flocking to see them since films began. And filmmakers have outdone themselves in coming up with an ever-changing array of man-made, self-made, diabolical or weirdly mutated creatures that all have one thing in common - they scare people out of their wits.
The man-made monsters stalk through such films as Frankenstein and its numerous offspring, The Golem, The Hands of Orlac, Homunculus and The Swamp Thing. Equally frightening is the self-made monster like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a timeless horror story that speaks to the dark side of the human psyche. In this same tradition we find movies as disparate as The Werewolf and The Fly.Then there is the human fiend, epitomized by H.G. Wells' Dr Moreau in Island of Lost Souls, whose earliest film prototype was The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. Back-from-the-dead monsters take various eerie forms, including that of The Mummy in all its incarnations, the zombie, as in pictures from Dracula to Blacula. Not to forget creatures from another realm like King Kong and Godzilla.
As if nature and man himself didn't cause enough trouble, we also have a horrified fascination with the supernatural in the form of satanism, ghosts and witchcraft. Such classics as Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, The Omen, The Innocents and The Shining, plus many others are also covered in this entertaining book, which no monster-movie enthusiast will want to miss. Over 200 fright-full illustrations, both colour and black-and-white, add to the atmosphere created with the author's invitation: 'Come With Me To The Theatre'. - from inside jacket.
Condition: some tears to back of dust jacket (pictured) otherwise excellent.
ISBN: 0 86124 285 8
Hardback: 30.8cm x 23.8cm x 1.7cm
Publisher: Bison Books 1986
Horror Films - Alan Frank [1977] History of Horror
Alan Frank has carefully crept into the crypt, checked, and crept out again to bring you a veritable variety of vampires, a medley of monsters and a hair-raising horde of horrors from the time Melies went to the moon to the day Jaws swallowed Robert Shaw. See The Man Who Turned To Stone! Go with John Agar under the Himalayas and find The Mole People - if you dig them, just think how they'll dig you! Watch too, as Lon Chaney Junior dons his yak hairs and becomes The Wolf Man, Ricou Browning becomes The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Jekyll becomes Hyde. See Peter Lorre become The Raven and get the bird and King Kong become the ultimate urban gorilla! They're all here in a book that treats the subject the way the cinema does - as entertainment.
Horror Films has a foreword by Hammer Horror film director Terence Fisher and is impressively illustrated throughout in colour and black-and-white.
ISBN 0 600 37068 2
Hardback, 32.6cm x 24cm x 2.5cm
First Edition, 1977
Condition: As pictured - some tears to dust jacket. Otherwise excellent.
Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies, 1956-1984
This remark by Ado Kyrou heads up the introduction to Immoral Tales, from which horror and exploitation film fans, especially Americans, can learn much indeed. Not so much a movie guide as an insightful critical overview of European sex/horror films (there is much overlap between the two genres), this book is elegantly organized into a sequence of essays proceeding from general themes (the history of horrific art, the surgical metaphor), to regional styles (Italian, German, French, Spanish), to individual directors (Jesus Franco, Jean Rollin, José Larraz, José Bénazéraf, Walerian Borowczyk, Alain Robbe-Grillet).
The writing is intelligent, engaging, and packed with fascinating historical and technical details. The book includes plenty of photos and poster art (including many in colour), a useful appendix covering miscellaneous actors and directors, an index, and a bibliography. Immoral Tales was a finalist for the 1995 Bram Stoker Award in Nonfiction.
From sexy thrillers to pulp surrealism, from decadent erotica to blood-soaked vampire epics, Immoral Tales tells the fascinating story of this unique period, peeking into the kaleidoscope of visceral horror, maverick directors, and erotic invention.
Authors: Cathal Tohill & Pete Tombs
Paperback, 272 pages
Condition: some slight creases on cover (pictured) otherwise excellent.
Last Of The Mohicans - Very rare, old edition (c.1894)
Dimensions (cm): 18.9 x 13.2 x 2.7
Pages: 331
Author: J. Fenimore Cooper
Very old book, inscription on inner cover (pictured) puts it at around 1894, but no other date info.
Condition: the book is well over 100 years old so it is obviously quite aged (please study pictures carefully), and also quite delicate but otherwise surprisingly good condition. One page with illustration (pictured) is loose.
Publisher info is "London: Frederick Warne and Co. And New York" and also "Morrison and Gibb, Printers, Edinburgh". Hard cover with "The Prize Library" logo.
Batteries Not Included [DVD] 1987 (Steven Spielberg)
Cert PG
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