This inspirational new translation of the 6th century Chinese classic is accompanied by 81 beautiful black and white photos by mountaineer photographer John Cleare, each one illustrating the 81 sections of the Tao Te Ching, the path to living in concordance with the unity of the universe. According to Lao Tzu, an inextricable partnership of every part with the whole means living in synchronicity with processes, and being completely authentic, sincere, natural and innocent. The translator's own interpretation of the title Tao Te Ching is "a guide to the theory and practice of the Great Integrity". Lao Tzu invites us to transcend names: "In the infancy of the universe, there were no names." Paradox is the principal mode of his thought processes, and in fact it is possible that he did not himself write the Tao, but that it was compiled from his sayings by followers. We have exchanged our natural harmony with the universe for ego-oriented lifestyles, but we will not return to our previous state by consciously going back, but by reorienting our whole life so that integrity is the final result. "The Great Integrity never strives, but always fulfils itself." We need to be ready, willing and able to be agents of change for ourselves, for others and the planet. The Great Integrity is ultimately love, but there are negative forms of love such as possessiveness, co-dependency and the escapism of romantic love. These need to be balanced with subjective love, with no reservations or ulterior motives, so that in the end we become love itself. "There is no greater calamity than acquisitiveness racing out of control. Only those who know when enough is enough can ever have enough". 16 x 24cm, 172pp, beautiful photography on every double spread, colour.

A deluxe album of 36 colour prints each showing a poet on the left and one of her poems on the right with a frontispiece by Hokusai designed by Hosoda (Eishi) 1756-1829. The volume explores the lives and works of a group of 36 poets and novelists who flourished in the Imperial Court of Japan from the 9th through to the 13th centuries. Aristocratic women of the medieval Japanese court took up waka poetry as their literary vehicle. The poems were circulated at court and assembled in carefully structured anthologies which were copied and studied, even memorised, as models of the finest literature. A poetry competition had developed from games played among court women, and emerged as a significant literary and social structure. The poems were reproduced in calligraphy in 1797 by 36 girls between the ages of six and 15 and we are struck by these gorgeous colourful illustrations with a marginalia noting the name, address and age of the child responsible. For example the poem by Ukon was copied by Toyota Mine, age 6, and the poem by Michitsuna no haha was brushed by the girl's 10 year old sister, Toyota Ito. The children were all pupils of a calligraphy school who sponsored the publication, demonstrating the skill of the woodblock carvers who would have cleaned up any rough spots and showing the skills in drawing kana, the elements of Japanese syllabic script. Over the centuries selected representative examples were illustrated with imaginary portraits of the poets and such handscrolls and books were not only made as artistic works, but as instructional guides for new generations of poets. A student of Utamaro, here we have a reproduction of one such album by Eishi where portraits of poets presented in elegant court dress are paired with one of their most famous poems. Large print text and huge size softback, colour artworks throughout. 192pp, 20.3 x 26cm and a quality George Braziller rare 1991 imported publication from New York.

The Kinsey reports on sexual behaviour in the human male (1948) and female (1953) changed the nature of erotic writing and led eventually to the abolition of censorship. Kinsey's book on female sexuality caused acute consternation because "Nobody wanted to imagine the American housewife seeking out orgasms". This anthology is structured around desire, society, body, ritual and a final section on actually talking about sex. Described by the authors as a cultural anthology, it covers poetry, fiction, articles, reviews, personal ads, advice columns, sex manuals, film scripts and even a passage from the Bible. A conversation with Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs explores their earliest sexual desires, while Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues revolutionised female sexuality for thousands of theatregoers. Nothing is off limits, as "A story of a girl and her dog" illustrates, while Erica Jong's celebration of a sexual encounter from Fear of Flying has lost none of its erotic charge over the years. In the section on Body the writer "bell hooks" uses her own painful loss of virginity in the back seat of a car to examine the Tina Turner myth and other examples of the commodification of Black singers' sexuality. The section on Ritual starts with a mainstream article "Suggestions for Marital Success" and moves on to an explicit extract from Dr Alex Comfort's bestselling The New Joy of Sex, in which the man and then the woman is tied up to prolong the foreplay as long as possible. The darker side of sex is there too, and in Philip Appleman's poem "A Priest Forever" an abusive priest reveals himself as suffering abuse. 254pp, paperback.

In these two "astonishing" novellas (The New Yorker), the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession returns to the landscape of Victorian England, where science and spiritualism are popular manias, and domestic decorum coexists with brutality and perversion. Beautifully written, the first story Morpho Eugenia concerns an explorer who realises that the behaviour of the people around him is alarmingly similar to that of the insects he studies. In The Conjugal Angel, curious individuals - some fictional, others drawn from history - gather to connect with the spirit world. Throughout both, Byatt examines the eccentricities of the Victorian era, weaving fact and fiction, reality and romance, science and faith into a sumptuous, magical tapestry. Includes a special message from Byatt not available in the trade edition, the novella was the basis for a movie with Mark Rylance, Kristin Scott Thomas and Patsy Kensit. Franklin Center, Pennsylvania Franklin Library 1993. Book accented in 22kt gold. Printed on archival paper with gilded edges. The endsheets are of moire fabric with a silk ribbon page marker. Smyth sewing and concealed muslin joints to ensure the highest quality binding. This book is in full leather with hubbed spines. Signed by author A. S. Byatt. Sealed in publisher's shrink wrap, never opened. Current rare book retail price:

The 23rd novel of Iris Murdoch, first published in 1987. Considered by some critics to be among her best novels, it is the story of a circle of Oxford University graduates in 1980s England. The eponymous book is a theoretical work on Marxism which is to be written by a member of the group. After graduating from university, the friends had agreed to finance the writing of this book as 'brotherhood' but grow uneasy as no written work is in sight and the stipend continues to be paid. David Crimond, tasked with writing the book, resurfaces at a Commemoration Ball the friends attend. His sudden re-appearance induces the group to attempt resolving the untenable situation by pressing for clarification. In turn they find themselves confronted with how far removed they are from their former Marxist beliefs and their own philosophical disorientation. As Crimond promises progress in the book, his draw causes the members of the circle to plunge into chaos. He is a classic example of Murdoch's "enchanter" archetype: the enigmatic character whose charisma inspires others to devote themselves to him. Franklin Center, Pennsylvania: Franklin Library, 1993. This Limited First Edition features 22k Gold Accents, 22k Gold Gilt Edges, Silk Endpapers, and a Sewn-In silk ribbon page marker. The endsheets are of moire fabric with a Smyth sewing and concealed muslin joints to ensure the highest quality binding. This book is in full leather with hubbed spines. Rare copies sell for over

Hanky-panky on the international art scene is the source of the hilarity and fizz in Peter Mayle's novel. He flies us back to the south of France on a wild chase through galleries, homes of prominent collectors, and wickedly delectable restaurants. There are stopovers in the Bahamas and England, and in New York, where that glossiest of magazines, Decorating Quarterly, reflects the cutting-edge trendiness of its editor, Camilla Jameson Porter. (Camilla has recently broken new ground in the world of power lunches by booking two tables on the same day, and shuttling between them, at the city's trendiest restaurant.) It is Camilla who has sent our hero, Andre Kelly, to Cap Ferrat to take glamorous photographs of the houses and treasures of the rich, famous, and fatuous. He happens to have his camera at the ready when he spots a Cézanne being loaded onto a plumber's truck near the home of an absentee collector, and in no time he's on the trail of a state-of-the-art art scam, chasing Cézanne. We encounter with him an awesome Dutch forger, some outstandingly greedy New York sophisticates and, invisible in the background, the parade of remarkable chefs whose mouthwatering culinary masterpieces periodically soothe the hero and tantalize the reader. The Franklin Library 1997. First Edition Society note laid in. Gilt embossed, bound in Fine Genuine burgundy Leather - 22kt gold-stamped spine accents, distinctive raised spine hubs, specially milled acid-neutral paper, Smyth-sewn pages, gilded page edges. Permanent satin ribbon page-marker. SIGNED BY AUTHOR.

With the publication of Chicago Poems in 1916, Carl Sandburg became one of the most famous poets in America: the voice of a Midwestern literary revolt, fusing free-verse poetics with hard-edged journalistic observation and energetic, sometimes raucous protest. By the time his first book appeared, Sandburg had been many things - a farm hand, a soldier in the Spanish-American War, an active Socialist, a newspaper reporter and movie reviewer - and he was determined to write poetry that would explode the genteel conventions of contemporary verse. His poems are populated by factory workers, washerwomen, crooked politicians, hobos, vaudeville dancers, and battle-scarred radicals. Writing from the bottom up, bringing to his poetry the immediacy of America?s streets and prairies, factories and jails, Sandburg forged a distinctive style at once lyrical and vernacular, by turns angry, gritty, funny, and tender. Obtained from the Franklin Library when they ceased publishing, Leather Bound, Gold Leaf, beautifully bound. 676 gilt edged pages, published January 1985, mint condition as are all in the series. With David Frampton Illustrations.

A handsome brown leather First Edition 1987 (so stated) signed by the author on the signature page. Vidal recreates America's Gilded Age, a period of promise and possibility, of empire-building and fierce political rivalries, where the fortunes of a sister and brother intertwine with the fates of the generation, their country, and some of the greatest names of their day, including President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, William and Henry James, the Astors, the Vanderbilts, and the Whitneys. Vidal sweeps us from the nineteenth century into the twentieth, from the salvaged republic of Lincoln to a nation boldly reaching for the world. A significant book by one of America's best masters of the American historical novel, this is the fourth in Vidal's series "Narratives of Empire" series, or as his publishers' preferred, "The American Chronicles Series." The earlier historical novels in the series included "Burr," "Lincoln," and "1876". Includes six pages of black & white photographs. Gilt embossed, bound in Fine Genuine brown leather - 22kt gold-stamped spine accents, distinctive raised spine hubs, specially milled acid-neutral paper, Smyth-sewn pages, gilded page edges. Permanent satin ribbon page-marker. Signed by author. Rare book sells:

This is an amazing book covering the 2nd World War in the Pacific. The story is told from the point of view of an American and a Japanese family tied together; the rivalry of war strains the close bond between the American McGlynn family and the Japanese Toda family. The novel "is about the war in the Pacific, starting with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and ending with the dropping of the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, told through the stories of two fictional families: the McGlynns (an American family) and the Todas (a Japanese family). It starts in 1936 in Tokyo at the wedding of Tadashi Toda and Floss McGlynn. It is a beautiful event, marking the union of two successful families from two very different cultures. Hanging over their heads, however, is the growing war in Europe and the potential entrance of Japan into the war. Even though the reader knows what is coming next, Toland manages to make the events at Pearl Harbor seem intense and suspenseful. Will, the eldest son of Professor Frank McGlynn, is a naval officer who is taken prisoner by the Japanese. Mark, the youngest son, enlists in the Marines. Maggie, Mark's twin sister, is a foreign news correspondent. Shogo Toda, the Todas' middle son, is a Japanese army officer. Sumiko, the daughter, is a nurse. Amongst the fictional characters, we are also introduced to many real people: President Franklin Roosevelt, General Douglas MacArthur, Emperor Hirohito, and Ernie Pyle, just to name a few." Franklin Library, 1985. Fine, Leather Bound, Accented in 22kt gold. Printed on archival paper with gilded edges. The endsheets are of moire fabric with a silk ribbon page marker. Smyth sewing and concealed muslin joints. 8" x 9". Signed by John Toland.

First published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into haves and have-nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision. Wheatfield, tree, and smallholding woodcut etching in gold on tan and red sky dyed leather is the striking cover design of this Franklin Library, 1988 edition. Hardcover leather bound, 424 pages. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs. With gilt decorations and patterns to front and rear panels. All page edges gilt. Spine with 2 raised bands, gilt lettering and gilt patterns. Pink moiré (silk textures) endpapers. Pink tissue page-marker ribbon. EPHEMERA : Signed letter by Joseph Sloves, publisher of The Franklin Library, on the launch of publication.