English Literature

Contact Donovan Rees or Zach Larsen

British literature and history from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, with an emphasis on poetry, fiction, and drama.

We usually have a selection of literary works from the STC and Wing period (i.e. before 1701), and a broad range of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century fiction and poetry, particularly the Romantics. We also have a selection of historical manuscripts, prints and broadsides, and works in translation.

Among important works which have passed through our hands are the editor's presentation copy of Milton's Lycidas, Swift's Modest Proposal, the autograph draft of Byron's She walks in beauty, the autograph manuscript of Jane Austen's only play Sir Charles Grandison, Dickens’s copy of Vanity Fair, Trollope's classical library, and, over the years, some fifty Shakespeare First Folios.

  1. LEWIS, Wyndham.

    Filibusters in Barbary (Record of a Visit...

    London, Grayson & Grayson, [1932].

    First edition, scarce in the dust-jacket,...

    £500

  2. LEWIS, Wyndham.

    The Childermass … Section 1.

    London, Chatto & Windus, 1928.

    First edition, no. 74 of 225 copies of...

    £2500

  3. LEWIS, Wyndham, and D. G. BRIDSON.

    ‘Satiric Verse … The Text of a Lecture...

    Transmitted 9 July and 23 August 1957.

    Typescript for broadcast of a lecture delivered...

    £1200

  4. [LEXICON.] [ALENIUS, Arnoldus, i.e. Arnout van EYNDHOUTS.]

    Lexicon Graecolatinum post omnes hactenus...

    Venice, Alessandro Brucioli and brothers...

    First edition of the Lexicon edited by...

    £2000

  5. [LILY, William.]

    A short introduction of grammar compiled...

    London, S. Buckley and T. Longman, 1738.

    Two beautifully printed eighteenth-century...

    £550

  6. LIVY, Titus. 

    T. Livii Patauini […] ex XIIII Decadibus...

    Paris, [Michel Vascosan for] Oudin Petit,...

    A much-praised edition of Livy’s History,...

    £3800

  7. [LOQUET, Marie-Françoise].

    Voyage de Sophie et d’Eulalie, au Palais...

    Paris, Charles-Pierre Berton, 1781.

    First edition of this rare utopian voyage...

    £1500

  8. LUCILIUS, Gaius; Franciscus DOUSA, editor.

    Satyrarum quae supersunt reliquiae. Franciscus...

    Leiden, Franciscus Raphelengius, ex Officina...

    Editio princeps of the earliest...

    £950

  9. LUCRETIUS. 

    Titi Lucretii Cari de rerum natura libri...

    Padua, Giuseppe Comino [for Volpi], 2...

    First Volpi–Comino edition of Lucretius’s...

    £450

  10. [LYTTELTON, George, Lord Lyttelton, attributed author].

    The Court-Secret: a melancholy Truth. Now...

    London: Printed for T. Cooper … 1741

    First edition of a political satire in...

    £350

  11. MACAULEY, Auley.

    A Sermon on the peculiar Advantages of...

    London, Printed for C. Dilly … and...

    First edition of a rare sermon to promote...

    £250

  12. MACDIARMID, Hugh.

    A Lap of Honour.

    [London,] MacGibbon & Kee, [1967].

    First edition, published to coincide with...

    £40

  13. MACDIARMID, Hugh.

    Three Hymns to Lenin …

    Edinburgh, Castle Wynd Printers, [1957].

    First collected edition, inscribed ‘With...

    £200

  14. [MACDIARMID, Hugh.]

    WESTON, John C. MacDiarmid’s A Drunk...

    Preston, Akros Publications, 1970.

    First edition, inscribed ‘To Joyce and...

    £100

  15. MACDIARMID, Hugh.

    Poems to Paintings by William Johnstone 1933 …

    Edinburgh, K.D. Duval, [1963].

    First edition.

    £25

  16. MACDIARMID, Hugh.

    ‘Direadh’ in Agenda Vol 2,7-8,

    May-June 1962.

    £25

  17. MACDIARMID, Hugh.

    More Collected Poems.

    [London,] MacGibbon & Kee, [1970].

    First edition.

    £50

  18. MACDIARMID, Hugh.

    Direadh I, II and III …

    [Stamperia Valdonega for] Frenich, Foss,...

    First edition, no. 29 of 200 signed copies...

    £175

  19. MACDIARMID, Hugh [i.e. Christopher GRIEVE], and Valda TREVLYN GRIEVE.

    Three Christmas cards, signed from Christopher...

    undated.

    Three Christmas cards to Douglas Geoffrey...

    £100

  20. [MACDIARMID, Hugh.] WESTON, John C.

    Hugh MacDiarmid’s A Drunk Man looks...

    Preston, Akros Publications, 1970.

    First edition, inscribed ‘To Joyce and...

    £100