45
150 149
149. Harton, sibyl. Doors of eternity. Hodder and Stoughton. 1965.
£98
8vo., finely bound by sangorski and sutcliffe in half red morocco ruled in gilt over marbled paper boards, spine lettered and ruled in gilt with gilt centre tools. soine slightly sunned otherwise a very good copy.
First edition. the author’s own copy, specially bound for her, with a note on hodder and stoughton headed paper congratulating sibyl harton on the book “Dear sibyl, Doors of eternity is a triumph and i an getting it put in hand forthwith for publication early next year. Warmest congratulations on what must be the best job you have ever done. Yours as ever, leonard cutts”.
harton finds in christianity the answer to life’s confusions, uncertainties, anxieties, gloom, and loneliness, and encourages the reader to face and accept even death as part of the goodness of life.
sibyl harton wrote several books based on her religious beliefs.
150. HaWKins, John sidney. an history of the origin and establishment of gothic architecture; comprehending also an account, From his own Writings, of caesar caesarianus, the First Professed commentator on Vitruvius, and of his translation of that author, an investigation of the Principles and Proportions of that style of architecture called the gothic; and an inquiry into the Mode of Painting upon and staining glass, as practised in the ecclesiastical structures of the Middle ages. J. Taylor, 1813. £180
8vo. contemporary half scarlet straight-grain morocco gilt over marbled boards, lightly worn at the corners, marbled endpapers; pp. viii, 252, [1], [20pp., index] + 11 engraved plates, including 4 folding; neat ownership signature to the recto of the ffep, old bookplates, one to the front pastedown, the other to the rear; some offsetting, very light marginal spotting, otherwise a very good copy.
First edition.
151. Heaney, seamus. Door into the Dark. Faber and Faber. 1969.
£400
8vo. original black cloth and wrapper; signs of removal of previous owner’s inscription from ffep; dustwrapper price-clipped with a little marking to front and back, three tiny spots to ffep, otherwise very good.
First edition of heaney’s second Faber collection.
152. Hearn, lafcadio. glimpses of unfamiliar Japan. Boston and New York: The Riverside Press, Cambridge / H.O. Houghton and Company for Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1894.
£250
8vo (204 x 133mm), 2 volumes. original dark-blue cloth [Bal binding B with ‘houghton’ on spine 16mm / 5/8” wide (no priority established)], upper boards blocked in silver with decorative panel enclosing title, spines lettered and decorated in silver, top edges gilt, others trimmed, slate-grey endpapers; pp. i: [2 (blank p., list of works by hearn)], [i]-x, [2 (contents, verso blank)], [1]-342; ii: [4 (title, imprint on verso, contents, verso blank)], [343]-699, [1 (blank)], [2 (publisher’s advertisement)]; 4 integral
151 152
plates; extremities lightly rubbed and bumped, some neatly-repaired splitting on hinges, some quires clumsily opened causing minor marginal tears and losses, some light browning, a few light spots or marks, otherwise a very good set; provenance: W.B. clarke & co., Boston (bookseller’s ticket on upper pastedown of vol. ii) — Frederick s. Young, october 1894 (inscription on front free endpaper of vol. i) — occasional pencilled underlinings or markings.
First edition, first printing of volume i. of greek and irish descent, the writer lafcadio hearn (1850-1904) had a peripatetic upbringing and education in europe, before he travelled to america in 1868-9 where he gradually became recognised as a writer, translator and journalist. in 1890 hearn left america for Japan, never to return, and immersed himself entirely in Japanese culture, marrying setusko Koizumi, the daughter of a poor samurai family, becoming a Japanese citizen in 1896, and changing his name to Koizumi Yakumo. Whilst holding a series of teaching positions, latterly as Professor of english language and literature at tokyo imperial university, hearn published a series of books on Japan, of which Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan was the first. hearn’s preface describes his purpose thus: ‘in the introduction to his charming “tales of old Japan,” Mr. Mitford wrote in 1871: “the books which have been written of late years about Japan have either been compiled from official records, or have contained the sketchy impressions of passing travelers. of the inner life of the Japanese the world at large knows but little: their religion, their superstitions, their ways of thought, the hidden springs by which they move, — all these are as yet mysteries.” this invisible life referred to by Mr. Mitford is the unfamiliar Japan of which i have been able to obtain a few glimpses. the reader may, perhaps, be disappointed by their rarity; for a residence of little more than four years among the people — even by one who tries to adopt their habits and customs — scarcely suffices to enable the foreigner to begin to feel at home in this world of strangeness. none can feel more than the author himself how little has been accomplished in these volumes, and how much remains to do’ (i, p. v). Written of a period of some years at an important period in Japan’s history as the ‘new Japan’ asserted itself over the ‘old Japan’, hearn explains that, ‘of the twenty-seven sketches composing these volumes, four were originally purchased by various newspaper syndicates, and reappear in a considerably altered form, and six were published in the “atlantic Monthly” (1891-93). the remainder, forming the bulk of the work, are new’ (i, p. x). Glimpses enjoyed great popularity, and was reprinted through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Bal distinguished two printings of volume i: the first with a final quire of 10 leaves (as here) and the second with a final quire of 2 leaves. Bal also records that the work was deposited 20 september 1894 and the Boston Public library received its copy on 3 october 1894, confirming that this set (purchased in october 1894) is an early printing. (although this is in the binding designated ‘B’ by Bal, it is noted that, ‘the spine imprint stamped from two varying tools. Simultaneous?’)
BAL 7926; Wenckstern I, p. 215; cf. Cordier, Japonica, col. 666 (London: 1894 ed., noting this ed.).
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