Paperbacks & Pulps | Invisible Books

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Anthony Berkeley | The Poisoned Chocolates Case | Penguin | 1936 | First Penguin printing. No jacket. Cover is very worn & heavily foxed, with a previous owner’s name inked near the top. Front cover set forward, corners worn, splits at extremities of spine. | £50

Nicholas Blake (C. Day-Lewis) | The Case of the Abominable Snowman | Collins | 1946 | White Circle pocket edition, printed for the Canadian market. Cover worn, edge of spine scuffed, back cover marked, outer edge of page-block worn & marked, front cover set forward. No problem with text pages, & cover still looks good. | £30

Nik Cohn | Arfur | Panther | 1973 | 0586035729 First paperback printing. Predominantly white cover is rather worn, with very light foxing, & a darker mark at the edge of the spine. Paper is tanned, & the reverse of the cover & endpapers are foxed. There are a couple of tiny fingernail nicks to the outer edge of the book. | £50

Albert Cossery | A Room in Cairo | Ace | 1959 | A handsome copy with moderately creased spine, rather scuffed back cover, some wear to edges of cover, pre-decimal price pencilled on first letter of title on front cover. | £30

John Creasey | Introducing the Toff | Arrow | 1961 | Light wear to cover, 1.5 cm split at bottom of fold of front panel/spine, front cover set a little forward, damp mark at inner corner of top edge of page-block, extending into the upper margin of main page area. Still a handsome copy. | £50

Nicholas Fisk, Andre Norton, Peter Dickinson, John Christopher, Robert A. Heinlein | Science Fiction: Space Hostages, Catseye, The Weathermonger, The Lotus Caves, Citizen of the Galaxy | Puffin | n.d. | Five SF novels in a striking but rather worn box. The box has the Puffin logo on the spine, & all the books are Puffins except for the Heinlein, which was published under the Peacock imprint. All the books appear to be unread, except for the Heinlein, which has light creasing to the spine. The lettering of the title of The Weathermonger has faded on the book’s spine. The spines of Catseye & The Lotus Eaters are a little worn at their edges, & the back cover of The Lotus Caves, which is positioned at the outer edge of the box, is a little scuffed. Despite these small faults, this remains a handsome set. | £50

Richard Goyne | Parisian Nights | Federation Press | 1925 | Very fragile paperbound publication, with some quite heavy-handed sellotape reinforcement to the reverse of the covers. Top edge of the ffep has been trimmed off, & an ownership signature & address written across the revealed portion of the page beneath & the ffep itself. | £50

Sam Greenlee | The Spook who Sat by the Door | Pan | 1972 | 0330029606 Cover worn & scuffed, outer edge of page-block worn, paper darkened with age. | £30

Leonard Gribble | The Diamond Web | Milestone | 1953 | Fragile paper cover is creased & worn, with loss around the edges.The outer edge of the page-block is worn & marked. The text pages are browned & foxed, with a mark in the lower margin of p.12 & some calculations inked in the outer margin of p.45. There is a crossed-out price label on the front cover, with a price written in ink above it, & a book exchange stamp on the ffep. | £50

George Hirst | The Golden Mile / Back to the Golden Mile | Sphere | 1974, 1975 | THE GOLDEN MILE appears to be in unread condition, with minor wear to its outer edge, most evident at the lower corner. Its sequel is in good condition, with some creasing to the cover & a foxed/marked outer edge. | £50

Elisabeth Sanxay Holding | Who’s Afraid / Widow’s Mite | Ace | 1953 | Ace Giant Double Novel Book. Some wear to cover. The binding appears solid, but there is a very noticeable bulge at the outer edge of the page-block at the point at which the two novels join. | £50

Sydney Horler | Horror’s Head | Hodder and Stoughton | n.d. | Outer edge of page-block foxed, non-sticky offset marks of tape at end of prelims & reverse of back cover, presumably from a protective wrapper that had been put on the book at some time. | £50

E. W. Hornung | Mr. Justice Raffles | Penguin | 1937 | First Penguin printing. Its jacket is still intact, although rather fragile at the folds of the flaps. There is a little loss to the extremities of the jacket’s spine. There is a long closed tear, pretty much corresponding to the white band on the cover, down the crease of the front flap: three short horizontal closed tears extend from this. There are short closed tears at the extremities of the creases of both flaps. The top edge of the page-block is marked. Previous owner’s name on ffep. Despite the faults noted above, this is a handsome copy which remains pleasant to read & handle. | £100

Ken Johnson | Zoltan: Hound of Dracula | Everest | 1977 | First printing. Some wear to cover, very light crease to top corner of front panel, top edge of back panel bumped, white background of cover foxed. W. H. Smith price label on cover. First & last pages of text block foxed. | £30

Paula Levey | Dancing in London | New English Library | 1981 | 0450052133 First printing. Remainder notch in upper edge, John Menzies price label on cover, light wear to cover & edge, book exchange stamp on reverse of front cover. Text pages in very good condition. | £100

C. Day Lewis; Edward Ardizzone (illus.) | The Otterbury Incident | Puffin | 1961 | First Puffin printing. A handsome copy with a very light crease to the lower corner of the front cover, name & address in a child’s careful handwriting on the reverse of the front cover. | £30

Ngaio Marsh | Death in Ecstasy | Penguin | 1940 | First Penguin printing in jacket. Book itself is in very good condition, with a slight forward slant, & name on ffep. Jacket is a little marked, with some loss to edges. The lower inch of the jacket’s spine appears to have come adrift at some time & has been reattached: the entire length of the spine has been reinforced with tape on the reverse of the jacket. | £100

Stephen Ransome / Harry Whittington | I, the Executioner / So Dead my Love | Ace | 1953 | An Ace Double. Covers are rather worn, but still look impressive. Spine is very noticeably slanted. | £30

Ross Russell | The Sound | Macfadden | 1962 | Book still looks impressive, but is noticeably cocked, with front cover set forward. Page 99 projects very slightly from the page block. Although the binding still holds firm at the time of cataloguing, it is entirely possible that it might come adrift in the course of reading. | £30

D. Scott-Moncrieff | Not for the Squeamish | Background Books | 1948 | Worn reading copy.Slender book is rather bowed. Paper cover is creased & worn, with a little loss to edges. Outer edge of page-block is worn & foxed. Pen scribble on half-title page. No problem with text pages. | £50

Samuel Selvon | The Lonely Ones | Digit | 1956 | First paperback edition of The Lonely Londoners. Cover is heavily creased, with the price scribbled out. First two pages of book more lightly creased, Book exchange stamps & ownership signature on ffep. Very outer edge of pp.47-52 creased, with a couple of tiny closed tears. | £100

Georges Simenon | The Sixth Simenon Omnibus: Maigret and the Wine Merchant; The Prison; The Rich Man | Penguin | 0140035427 Some wear to cover & edge, no problem with text pages. | £30

Georges Simenon | Girl in Waiting | Pan | 1957 | First paperback printing. Minor wear to cover & edge, paper tanned with age. | £25

Geoffrey Spalding | Escorts | New English Library | 1973 | 0450014517 First printing. A reading copy, with a couple of horizontal creases across the spine, which continue onto the main area of the cover. There is a short split where the heavier of the two creases extends onto the back panel. The paper has become tanned with age. | £50

Walter Tevis; David Fickling | The Man who Fell to Earth | Oxford | 1979 | Edition designed for English learners, with modified text. Fabulous cover art. Monochrome film stills on reverse of front & back covers. Front cover is scuffed at edge of spine; there is an unsightly label mark on the back cover. | £30

Jim Thompson | Omnibus 2: After Dark My Sweet; A Hell of a Woman; Savage Night; A Swell Looking Babe; Nothing More than Murder | Picador | 1997 | 9780330344517 Cover is worn, with pressure marks to the front panel, bumped upper corner of the front panel/spine, & a fingernail impression to the top edge of the back panel. Outer upper corner a little bowed. Text pages in very good condition. | £40