Books & Periodicals

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions

Boole’s 1847 paper would ‘find widespread use in the design of computers and communication systems’

This copy of 'The Study of Sociology' by Herbert Spencer is a first edition from 1875 in original cloth.

Forgotten today, a collection sold in Somerset remembers a multi-talented showman and author

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions

A prayer book once owned by a priest who helped Charles II hide after defeat at the Battle of Worcester, and later heard his death-bed confession, has sold at auction to a national heritage organisation.

Letter sent from a very young Charles to his grandma with doodles and kisses emerges at auction

Inscribed as a gift and sent with his kind regards to Miss Anne Stephenson, the daughter of his aunt and uncle, Abigail and Samuel Longfellow Stephenson, an 1868 edition of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 'The Courtship of Miss Standish and other Poems' was offered in a sale held by Sarasota Auctions (26% buyer’s premium).

Offered as part of a March 2 sale held by Heritage (20% buyer’s premium) that was billed as a Pulp Magazine Showcase was this October 1919 issue of 'The Thrill Book'.

Shown here is what would be an arachnophobe’s nightmare: one of the 29 hand-coloured engraved plates that illustrate a copy of John Blackwell’s 'History of Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland'.

The dust jacket in those familiar red, black and yellow colours favoured by the publisher, Gollancz, had a few shortcomings in terms of condition, including some chips and losses, but this ‘Just out!’ 1935 first of 'Gaudy Night', signed by its author, Dorothy L Sayers, was bid to £2100 on March 3.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions

First published in 1755, Samuel Johnson’s 'A Dictionary of the English Language' had taken eight years to compile with six helpers.

Complete with the often missing dust jacket and entirely unrestored, as the cataloguer’s notes were pleased to point out, a 1925 Hogarth Press first of Virginia Woolf’s famous novel Mrs Dalloway was offered as part of a March 2 sale at Swann Galleries (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) of New York.

Shrewsbury sale offered rare opportunity to bid for a letters by the great writer and lexicographer

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions

A sale held by Martel Maides (20% buyer’s premium) of Guernsey to disperse the contents two island homes included some 60 or more single and multiple lots of books, a number of which boasted special bindings.

Tom Lintern-Mole, co-organiser with John Martin of PBFA’s book fair at Oxford Brookes University on Saturday and Sunday, April 22-23, said he is looking forward to 75 dealers standing.