MERVYN PEAKE

Item 24

BLACKWELL’S RARE BOOKS

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1. Peake (Mervyn) A collection of magazine contributions, formed by John Baxter,

including prose, poetry and illustrative work in issues of The London Mercury [16],
Lilliput [13], London Mystery Magazine, Science Fantasy and New Worlds [32 Vols.]
1936- 1969, illustrations by Peake et al. various sizes and formats, original wrappers, the
Christmas 1938 issue of London Mercury with some loss at slightly-ragged foot of spine,
a little creasing and light soiling in places, Science Fantasy with the front cover faintly
waterstained, a few issues of Lilliput with some rusting to staples, otherwise in generally
good shape £450
A representative collection of Peake’s work in various media and genres, from his early career to an
edition of New Worlds magazine shortly after his death that also includes Michael Moorcock’s obituary.
His work for the London Mercury is largely in the form of author-portraits, though a couple of issues
feature some of his earliest published poetry; for Lilliput, he illustrates the stories of other authors, whilst
the later magazines demonstrate the enthusiasm for his work amongst the subsequent generation of
fantasy authors. A listing of the collection is below::

LONDON MERCURY.

October 1936. Portrait of Ernst Toller.

February 1937. Portrait of W.H. Auden. Also sketch for one of Peake’s costumes for play The Son of the
Grand Eunuch.
Also GREENE, Graham. Review of The Great Trade Route by Ford Madox Ford.

June 1937. Portrait of George Barker.

Also GREENE, Graham. Review of The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron.
AUDEN, W.H. Poem, Orpheus.
WAUGH, Evelyn. Review of Anno XIIII by Emilio de Bono.

July 1937. Portrait of Ruth Pitter.

August 1937. Two poems, ‘Coloured Money’ and ‘The Metal Bird’.
Also GREENE, Graham. Review of Vive le Roy by Ford Madox Ford.

October 1937. Poem, ‘Rhondda Valley’

November 1937. Portrait of John Gielgud.

Also GREENE, Graham. Review of Daylight and Champaign by G.M. Young.
Also SMITH, Stevie. Four poems, with drawings.

December 1937. Portrait of Margot Fonteyn.

Also GREENE, Graham. Review of Blasting and Bombardiering by Wyndham

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Lewis.
SMITH, Stevie. I’ll Have Your Heart – 8pp of poems with drawings.

March 1938. Drawing.

Also YEATS, W.B. Eight poems, including Lapis Lazuli.

May 1938. Portrait of James Stephens.

July 1938. Portrait of Sarah Gertrude Millin.

September 1938. Portrait of Charles Madge.

December 1938. Portrait of Elizabeth Bowen.

Also FORSTER, E.M., ‘The Ivory Tower; and YEATS, W.B., Poems.

January 1939. Portrait of C. Delisle Burns.

Also poem, Overture.

March 1939. Drawing.

Also YEATS, W.B. Four poems, plus obituaries
Also GREENE, Graham. Review of Christmas Holiday by Somerset Maugham.

April 1939. Portrait of James Bridie.

Also AUDEN, W.H. Poem, In Memory of W.B. Yeats.
Also ARDIZZONE, Edward. Drawing.

*********************

LILLIPUT.

January 1942. Two drawings for Life Isn’t Worth While by J. Gurevitch.

April 1942. Two drawings for The Fireman’s Wife by Stephen Spender.

March 1943. Three drawings for Incombustible Men by Pennethorne

Hughes.

December 1943. Three drawings for Some Kind of a God by Robert

Neumann.

March 1944. Two drawings for Magic Does Happen by Rupert Gleadow.

May 1944. Two drawings for The Swords of Japan by David Elley.

June 1944 (Australian edition.) Two drawings for The Swords of Japan by David
Elley.

March 1945. Three drawings for The Wasp in the Letter Box by Maurice
Richardson.

January 1950. The Connoisseurs, short story, with two drawings. (2 copies)

May 1950. Children’s Hour. Four full-page colour illustrations for nursery rhymes.

November 1950. Four drawings for The Traitors by F.L. Green.

December/January 1952. Four drawings for The Wendigo by Algernon

Blackwood.

May/June 1953. Five drawings for Love Among the Ruins by Evelyn Waugh.

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LONDON MYSTERY MAGAZINE.

Vol. 1 No. 1. No date but 1949.

Two drawings for Yak Mool San by H.B. Drake.

*********************

SCIENCE FANTASY, Vol. 21, No. 61

October 1963, ‘Danse Macabre’

Also MOORCOCK, Michael, ‘Black Sword’s Brothers’ (an Elric story) and `‘Aspects of Fantasy, I.
Introduction’

*********************
NEW WORLDS MAGAZINE (No. 187)

February 1969. The Adventures of Foot-Fruit (facsimile sections from manuscript of his uncompleted last book)
Also MOORCOCK, Michael , ‘Mervyn Peake – an obituary’
Also BALLARD, J.G., ‘Salvador Dali: The Innocent as Paranoid’ and ‘How Doctor Christopher Evans
Landed on the Moon’
Also PYNCHON, Thomas, ‘Entropy’

2. (Peake.) Ride a Cock-Horse and other Nursery Rhymes. Chatto and Windus, 1940,
FIRST EDITION, second issue (with the dedication), 15 full-page illustrations by Peake
(of which 10 are heightened with colours), pp. [v], 28, [1], royal 8vo, original pale cream
boards printed in black and decorated with repeats of 2 of the full-page partly-coloured
illustrations, a few cracks to backstrip which is chipped at foot, a few light marks and a
touch of wear at corners, good £100

3. Peake (Mervyn) Shapes & Sounds [Poems]. Chatto & Windus, 1941,
FIRST EDITION, spot to margin of Contents page, pp. viii, 24, crown
8vo, original quarter black cloth with grey boards, backstrip lettered in
white, touch of wear at bottom corners, dustjacket with design by Peake,
backstrip panel browned, soiling to rear panel, a few short closed tears
around head, chipped at extremities with splitting at bottom half of
lower joint-fold, good £100
His first collection of poems, with a verse dedication to his wife, Maeve Gilmore.
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4. (World War Two.) TAMBIMUTTU (M.J., Editor) Poetry in Wartime. An

Anthology. Faber and Faber, 1942, FIRST EDITION, pp. 192, crown 8vo, original
salmon-pink cloth, backstrip lettered in black and a little rubbed at ends, corners knocked
(the bottom more so), some light soiling overall, clipping of Spender poem ‘The Abyss’
laid in, the dustjacket a little chipped (more so at head, to which a couple of short closed
tears and attendant creasing), good £40
An anthology with a broad brief, assembling the best poetry written since the outbreak of the Second
World War - the majority of it ‘war poetry’, but including some to which the conflict is more incidental.
Poets featured include Auden, George Barker, Lawrence Durrell, David Gascoyne, C. Day Lewis,
Laurie Lee, Louis MacNeice, Mervyn Peake, Kathleen Raine, Herbert Read, Lynette Roberts, Stephen
Spender, Dylan Thomas, William Empson, et al.

5. Crisp (Quentin) All this and Bevin Too. With drawings by Mervyn
Peake. Nicholson & Watson, 1943, FIRST EDITION, 7 full-page
drawings by Mervyn Peake, pp. 29, crown 8vo, original stapled wrappers,
Peake drawing to front, heavily chipped along spine (but covers holding
by virtue of staples), ownership inscription to flyleaf, fair £60

S IGNED TWICE BY P EAKE

6. Joad (C.E.M.) The Adventures of the Young Soldier in Search of the Better World.
With drawings by Mervyn Peake. Faber and Faber, 1943, FIRST EDITION, frontispiece
& 12 full-page illustrations by Peake, numerous smaller drawings throughout text, pp.
124, crown 8vo, original grey cloth, backstrip lettered in blue, dink along tail and a couple
of very faint spots to cloth, light spotting to top edge with a thin white mark thereupon,
faint tape offsetting from former covering to corners of free endpapers, good £250
Signed twice by Mervyn Peake - to the title-page, and at the foot of the flyleaf where he adds his ‘best
wishes’ and the date (1944).

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7. Peake (Mervyn) Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1945,
FIRST COLOUR EDITION, each page with a line-drawing by Peake, almost all
colourprinted, pp. [48], 4to, original cream cloth, front cover lettered in green, bookplate,
offset tape adhesive to free endpapers from previous covering, single spot to front
pastedown, dustjacket designed by Peake, very good £200
The original uncoloured edition of 1939 was, with the exception of a few copies, destroyed during the
blitz. This is the second, or first colour, edition.

8. Carroll (Lewis) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-glass.

With Illustrations by Mervyn Peake [Zephyr Books Vol.67.] Stockholm: Continental
Book Company, 1946, FIRST PEAKE EDITION, numerous Peake line-drawings, many
full-page, pp. 352, foolscap 8vo, original pale grey wrappers printed in blue and red,
further drawing by Peake to front, touch of rubbing at extrememites with gentle fading to
lettering of backstrip panel, light crease at one corner, bookplate of Berit Lindgren to
inside front-cover, dustjacket repeating cover design, a little rubbed at folds, lettering
faded to backstrip panel, the latter with a tiny scrape towards head, gently nicked at head
with a very short split at foot of upper joint-fold internally tape-repaired, very good £325
Issued eight years before the English edition of Peake’s illustrations - a nice copy.

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9. Collis (Maurice) Quest for Sita. Of Ravana, The Dark Angel

and his Paradise at Lanka, Of Hanuman and the Divine Vultures,
Jatayus and Sampati. Faber and Faber, 1946, FIRST EDITION,
ONE OF 500 COPIES printed on English handmade paper, the
publisher’s slip to this effect laid in at front, 30 full-page line-
drawings by Mervyn Peake, title-page printed in black and red, pp.
xii, 164, 4to, original dark blue buckram, backstrip gilt lettered
partly on a red ground, Peake design stamped in red to upper board,
t.e.g., others untrimmed, dustjacket reproducing cover design, a
little chipped and toned with a few spots, closed tear and a little
creasing at foot of rear panel, good £250
With the signature of the author on a slip laid in at the front.

10. Peake (Mervyn) The Craft of the Lead Pencil. Allan Wingate, [1946,] FIRST
EDITION, Peake drawings throughout with many full-page, tape residue to title-page
and final illustration page, pp. [ii], 22, 8vo, original green cloth with Peake drawing
stamped to upper board and lettering in white thereupon, ownership inscription to front
pastedown, very good £30

11. Hole (Christina) Witchcraft in England. Illustrated by Mervyn Peake. New York:
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947, FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, Peake illustrations
throughout including some full-page, pp. 168, 8vo, original dark blue buckram, backstrip
lettered in gilt, ownership inscription to front pastedown, dustjacket with Peake design, a
little rubbed and frayed, good £25

12. Stevenson (Robert Louis) Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Introduction by John Hampden.
Folio Society, 1948, FIRST PEAKE EDITION, printed in black and yellow, 12 full-page
illustrations by Mervyn Peake (including frontispiece design), pp. 148, crown 8vo, original
black and yellow cloths, with the backstrip lettering and Peake vignette to upper board
stamped in gilt, a few spots to top and fore-edge, free endpapers with faint partial
browning, dustjacket repeating board-design, a few nicks internally tape-repaired, very
good £50

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13. Peake (Mervyn) The Glassblowers. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1950, FIRST EDITION,
title printed in red, pp. vii, 40, crown 8vo, original mid-blue cloth, backstrip and upper
board gilt lettered, tape shadows from previous covering to free endpapers, dustjacket
with a design by Peake, a trifle rubbed to extremities, very good £140

14. Drake (Burgess) The Book of Lyonne. Illustrated with 8 coloured plates and line
drawings by Mervyn Peake. Falcon Press, 1952, FIRST EDITION, pp. 260, crown 8vo,
original mustard cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, a few spots to lightly dustsoiled top edge,
free endpapers with faint tape offsetting from previous covering, Peake dustjacket with
sunned backstrip panel and a few faint spots to rear panel, very good £140
An amusing adventure in comic absurdity set in the world of the child, in whose nursery said Lyonne (a
pyjama case) wreaks order, suitably enhanced by Peake’s superb illustrations.

M ERVYN P EAKE DUSTJACKET AND ORIGINAL BAND

15. Edelman (Maurice) Who Goes Home. Allan Wingate, 1953, FIRST EDITION, pp.
256, crown 8vo, original blue boards, backstrip lettered in black with slight lean to spine,
a couple of small dinks to edges, top edge blue, some very faint spots to fore-margin of
free endpapers, dustjacket with colour-printed Mervyn Peake illustration, lightly nicked
with some shallow chipping at extremities, spot of internal tape repair at foot of backstrip
panel, the original ‘Book Society Choice’ band present, very good £40

16. Palmer (E. Clephan) The Young Blackbird. With drawings by

Mervyn Peake. Allan Wingate, 1953, FIRST EDITION, pp. 62, [1],
crown 8vo, original green boards with Peake vignette to upper board
stamped in gilt, backstrip lettered in gilt repeating vignette with the gilt
just a touch rubbed and slightly dulled, top edge a little dusty, faint tape
offsetting from previous coverings to free endpapers, dustjacket
designed by Peake printed in black, yellow and green, a few spots to
borders of front panel, backstrip panel slightly browned, very good £50
The author’s account of nurturing an injured bird back to health; Peake handled the
book’s design, and his borders and vignettes convey the narrative with charm.

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17. Peake (Mervyn) Figures of Speech. Gollancz, 1954, FIRST EDITION, title-page
drawing and 29 full-page drawings by Peake, each representing a figure of speech, printed
on rectos only, one or two tiny faint spots to leading edges, ff. [vi], 29, [1], royal 8vo,
original red boards, backstrip gilt-lettered, light spotting to edges with very faint tape
shadows to free endpapers from previous covering, dustjacket repeats one of the
drawings with faint spotting and browning to borders of rear panel and to flap folds, very
good £60

M ERVYN P EAKE DESIGN

18. Thomson (David) The People of the Sea. Turnstile
Press, 1954, FIRST EDITION, title-page design by
Mervyn Peake, some incredibly faint foxing to prelims,
recurrent at final page of text, pp. ix, 214, crown 8vo,
original brown cloth, backstrip lettered in gilt, edges and
endpapers faintly spotted, the front pastedown with small
bookseller tickets at foot, dustjacket price-clipped with a
nick at head of rear panel, some very light overall soiling
and faint spotting to flaps, very good £100
The author’s first book, following his BBC radio broadcast on the
same subject - that is, the Grey Atlantic Seal and its significance to
the rural coastal communities of Ireland and Scotland; at the close
there is a chapter on ‘The Music of the Seals’, describing the work of
Ludwig Koch in recording their cries, and transcribing songs based on
them.

19. Golding (William), John Wyndham and Mervyn Peake. Sometime, Never. Three
Tales of Imagination. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1956, FIRST EDITION, a couple of spots
to a couple of pages, pp. 224, crown 8vo, original green boards, backstrip gilt lettered
with slight lean to spine, light spotting to top edge and a few spots to fore-edge, free
endpapers with faint tape offsetting from previous covering, dustjacket with small hole to
rear flap-fold, very good £120

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A collection of stories which features John Wyndham's 'Consider her Ways', Mervyn Peake's 'Boy in
Darkness' (the protagonist an anonymised representation of Titus Groan); Golding's contribution being
'Envoy Extraordinary'.

20. Peake (Mervyn) The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb. With 22 Illustrations by the
Author. Dent, 1962, FIRST EDITION, text and illustrations by Peake (including 2 full-
page) printed in grey, pp. [iv], 43, crown 8vo, original black boards, backstrip lettered in
gilt, a little spotting to edges and to gutter of front endpapers, dustjacket with backstrip
panel a shade faded and shallow chipping at head of backstrip panel, very good £150

21. Peake (Mervyn) Poems and Drawings. With a Foreword by Maurice Collis.
Keepsake Press, 1965, FIRST EDITION, ONE OF 150 COPIES, frontispiece and 4
full-page line drawings by Peake printed in brown, pp. [12], 8vo, original stapled grey
wrappers with Peake design to front silkscreen-printed and lettering in red, gentle fading
around spine and a few spots to borders, mild tape adhesive offsetting to endpapers from
previous covering, very good £120

22. Peake (Mervyn), J.G. Ballard and Brian W. Aldiss. The Inner Landscape: Boy in
Darkness, The Voices of Time, Danger: Religion!. Allison & Busby, 1969, FIRST
EDITION, occasional spots to borders, pp. 151, crown 8vo, original grey-blue boards,
backstrip lettered in gilt, small speck at foot of upper board, edges a little spotted,
dustjacket lightly rubbed at extremities with faded backstrip panel, good £60
The collection leads with Peake's novella 'Boy in Darkness', albeit using a corrupt version of the
typescript with a handful of misreadings; Aldiss contributes 'Danger: Religion!' and Ballard 'The Voices
of Time'.
Peake’s contribution is one of his final stories, set in the world of Gormenghast.

23. Peake (Mervyn) Twelve Poems, 1939-1960. Hayes: Bran's Head Books, 1975,
FIRST EDITION, 15/330 COPIES (from an edition of 350 copies) printed on tan
Glastonbury paper, 9 drawings, a number full-page, pp. [29],4to, original pink wrappers
with Peake drawing to front, translucent dustjacket, near fine £100

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24. Wilde (Oscar) Extracts from the Poems. With sixteen illustrations by Mervyn Peake
and a foreword by Maeve Gilmore. Gordon Spilstead, 1980, FIRST EDITION, 184/200
COPIES signed by Maeve Gilmore, printed on Antique Laid paper, 15 full-page
illustrations (including the title-page design for the original projected edition) and one
double-page illustration by Mervyn Peake, pp. 47, crown 8vo, original pink cloth,
backstrip lettered in gilt, cloth and board slipcase with Peake designs, near fine £100
Peake's illustrations were executed in 1946, but only in this present edition do they all make their first
book-form appearance.

Illustration from Item 14

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