Tuesday, December 30, 2025

random old books revisited

Way back when (OK, it was 2009) we rescued more than 100 old books from going to landfill. We donated some to Oxfam, put some on our shelves, and offered the rest for sale on Amazon marketplace (before Amazon enshittified everything). After I sold a few, Amazon added some hoops to the procedure that I didn't want to jump through, so I stopped using the site. The remaining 45 books have been sitting in our attic for ten years, but now I've brought them down to check if there is anything of interest to me that I missed back then (there wasn't really), and hopefully to rehome some or all of them.

The books date from 1916 to 1977. The list of stock right now looks like this:

Novels, plays, Poetry (33 titles):

Lascelles Abercrombie (1881-1938): Four short plays, Martin Secker, FE 1922

Lascelles Abercrombie (1881-1938): Twelve Idyls and Other Poems, Martin Secker, FE 1928 These two books have matching outfits.

Herbert Asquith: Young Orland, Hutchinson & co. fifteenth edition Author is the son of the prime minister Herbert Asquith

Douglas Brown (ed.): A book of modern prose Harrap, London, FE 1957

Gerald Bullett (1893-1953): Nicky Son of Egg (FE 1929)

Arthur Gray Butler (1831-1909): Harold, A drama in four acts (SE 1906, orig. 1892). The author was the dean of Oriel College, Oxford.

Donn Byrne: Destiny Bay Sampson Low, Marston & Co London, undated edition, text dated to 1927

F.J.Harvey Darton: Without fear and without reproach – the adventures of the famous knight Bayard. Wells Gardner Darton & Co, London, undated

Oliver Davies: Songs at random (FE 1912) Poetry from the author of “Between-time poems”

Walter D. Edmonds (1903-1998): Chad Hanna (1942 reprint of 1940 publ.) US author of historical novels

Leonard Feeney: In towns and little towns (poetry) The America Press, NY, 1928 Contains a type-written poem by the same author, implying a triangular friendship with two women named Ruth and Grace (who received the book as a gift from somebody else). As Wikipedia seems to suggest that Feeney was a catholic extremist with antisemitic views, I am wondering what the deal was with these two ...

Paul Fox: The Daughter of Jairus, W.H Allen, London, date ?????

Sir John Froissart: The Days of Chivalry: Stories from Froissart’s Chronicles, edited with an introduction by John Hampden, Edmund Ward date???

Halcott Glover: Morning Pride (FE 1933) Novel by a UK playwright, friend of Richard Aldington, to whom there is a letter at the front. o

A.D.Godley: Lyra Frivola (poetry) Methuen London 4th ed. 1907 Acquired by Trinity College Oxford in 1935.

Jackson Gregory: The Everlasting Whisper, Hodder & Stoughton 1922 (FE?)

Maurice Hewlett: Peridore & Paravail W. Collins Sons & Co London FE 1917 Ex Libris Albert Louis Cotton

Charles Lee (1870-1956) : The Widow Woman, Wayfarer’s Library, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd date???

D. M. Low: Twice shy (a novel) Chatto & Windus London FE 1933

John P. Marquand: H.M. Pulham, Esquire Undated edition, foreword dated 1940. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_P._Marquand

Alida Monro, ed.: Recent Poetry 1923-1933 (FE 1933) The editor appears to be the widow of the poet Harold Monro (1879-1932), who is also represented in this anthology.

E.C. Oakden and Mary Sturt: Pattern plays Thomas Nelson and sons, London 1956 (originally publ. 1925)

Edward A. Parker: A book of longer modern verse OUP / Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1926

Edward B. Powley: The Laurel Bough: An anthology of verse (1380-1932) excluding lyric and dramatic, G. Bell and sons, ltd 1934 FE

Alfred Tresidder Sheppard: Brave earth Jonathan Cape, London. Reprint of FE in same year (July 1925, FE was April)

Leonard Shoobridge: Poems No publication date, but purchase or gift date 27.9.1920 written inside front cover.

J.C. Snaith: Lady Barbarity: A romantic comedy, Ward, Lock & Co., Limited date???

Booth Tarkington: Monsieur Beaucaire; The beautiful lady. Thomas Nelson & Sons, undated (looks like early 20th century)

Darwin L. Teilhet (1904-1964): The fear makers (UK FE 1946, c 1945) This novel was turned into a movie in 1958, The Fearmakers.

Sylvia Thompson (1902-1968): The people opposite (FE 1949)

Agnes Sligh Turnbull (1888-1982) The Gown of Glory (Originally published: Boston Houghton Mifflin 1952, this is the 3rd printing of the UK Collins edition, Oct. 1952) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Sligh_Turnbull http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gown_of_Glory

Elinor Wylie: Mr Hodge and Mr Hazard, Heinemann 1928 (FE)

E.H. Young: The Misses Mallett Jonathan Cape, London, 1949 reprint, first publ. 1922

Non-fiction (12 titles):

Gerald Bullett: The Story of English Literature, A& C Black ltd 1935 FE The author also has a title on the fiction list: Nicky son of Egg

Harold Gomes Cassidy: The sciences and the arts. FE 1962

S. J. Curtis: Education in Britain since 1900 FE 1952

G. Lowes Dickinson: A modern symposium J.M.Dent & sons, London 1923

William J. Entwistle and Eric Gillett: The Literature of England A.D. 500-1942: A survey of British literature from beginnings to present day, Longmans, Green and co, 4th edition 1944

Graham Hutton: We too can Prosper: the Promise of Productivity, George Allen and Unwin ltd , 1953 FE

J. Isaacs: The background of modern poetry G. Bell & Sons London 1951 Based on lectures “delivered in the B.B.C. Third Programme” 1948-49

Philip E. B. Jourdain: The Nature of Mathematics, The People’s Books SE 1919

Robert Lacey: Majesty – Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor 1977 Book Club Associates ed.

A.B.Mayne (Headmaster of the Cambridge and county High School for boys and open scholar of Balliol College, Oxford): The Essentials of School Geometry (with answers), Macmillan 1933 FE

E. A. G. Robinson: The structure of competitive industry Nisbet & Co. London / Cambridge University Press, 1946 reprint, first published 1931.

University of Durham College of Medicine: Calendar 1916-1917 This one and some of the others are signed by C. J. Colquhoun - seems to suggest old CJ was a student at the Durham College of Medicine, which was based at Newcastle?

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