Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot

Softcover British edition published by Faber and Faber from 1989

This British edition of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot differs largely from most popular American versions because Edward Gorey didn't do the illustrations; instead, "Nicolas Bentley drew the pictures," according to the front cover. First published in 1939 with Bentley's illustrations, this book of whimsical cat poems is a lot lighter than most of T.S. Eliot's other work as it was written mostly for his godchildren. It also served as the basis for the musical Cats, although whoever adapted it definitely took a lot of creative liberties. This slim volume is entertaining for adults and children alike, and features a nice monogrammatic Faber cover with one of Bentley's illustrations.

The Devil's Home On Leave by Derek Raymond

First British paperback edition from 1985 published by Abacus

This is the second book by Derek Raymond, the pen-name of English author Robert Cook, in his Factory Series about an unnamed Detective Sergeant working in the Unexplained Deaths department. The Devil's Home On Leave follows the Detective trying to solve the murder of a body chopped up, boiled, and casually dispersed on the street amongst five plastic shopping bags. Featuring a gritty cast of London underworld characters, known as "Villains," and the Detectives who pursue them, Raymond's novel is filled with intrigue and written mostly using amazingly authentic British slang. Raymond himself was a British gangster at one point, among many other things in his lifetime, before later becoming a novelist, and is considered to be the founder of British Noir with this series. Although this is the second book of five in the Factory Series, The Devil's Home On Leave is the best one in my opinion.

Under the Volcano & The Voyage That Never Ends by Malcolm Lowry

1965 Hardcover edition published by J.B. Lippincott 

While Malcolm Lowry isn't one of my favorite writers, he was a pretty fascinating guy. Probably most well known for his vicious alcoholism, and Under the Volcano, which addresses it, Lowry didn't successfully publish very much in his lifetime although trying to for many, many years. Lowry spent around a decade and a half writing and trying to get Under the Volcano published, which is now considered one of the better books in the English language. I don't know if I'd go as far as that in my own estimation, but it is worth reading if you've never tackled it before. The above edition from the mid-1960's features great jacket design by David Lunn. Below is an out of print NYRB edition of The Voyage That Never Ends, a collection of Lowry's unpublished shorter works that give some interesting insight into the man's creative process.

First edition hardcover published by NYRB in 2007

The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle

First American paperback edition of The Black Cloud

The Black Cloud was Sir Fred Hoyle's first foray into science fiction and is one of the best books to emerge from the tail end of the Golden Age. Published in England in 1957, Hoyle's novel is about a large cloud that enters our solar system and appears to be heading to block all of the Earth's sunlight. I'll leave out the twists and turns that the team of scientists, who are the stars of the book, discover about the cloud, but it is an incredibly gripping, well-written story about a fictional fate for our lives on Earth. Part of what makes the book so great is that Hoyle was a renowned cosmologist and astronomer, and his knowledge of actual science informed his fiction amazingly, particularly in The Black Cloud. A noteworthy biographical fact is that Hoyle was responsible for coining the term "Big Bang" about the theory of how life on Earth began, which he ironically didn't believe in. The cover art, along with most sci-fi books from this period, is exceptional. Illustrated by Charles & Cuffari, the only other cover I've seen from them is the first edition of The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon from the mid-1960's, but beyond that they seem to have done nothing else book-related unfortunately.

Sunday by Simenon

First edition of Sunday

Above is a first British edition copy of Simenon's Sunday, first published in 1960 by Hamish Hamilton. While this isn't one of Simenon's best books in my opinion, it centers around a pretty decent love triangle and some class issues, which are always interesting. But better than this psychological novel is the amazing cover art by P. Youngman Carter. Carter (sometimes credited as just Youngman Carter) did the illustrations for a number of Simenon novels, as well as the covers for many other British mystery novels and editions from the 1930's up through the 1960's. It should also be said that they are not easy to find and usually worth a pretty penny.

The Underground City by H.L. Humes

British First Edition from 1958

This is H.L. Humes' first novel, published in America in 1958 by Random House and in Great Britain the same year by Heinemann. It is a sprawling World War II novel (758 pages!) about the French resistance, politics, war, life, and humanity—it is without question one of my favorite books. Humes was a co-founder of the Paris Review, among many other things, and this was the first of two books he published in his lifetime. I have had the extraordinary pleasure of archiving Humes' papers, which are now currently in the process of finding a home, and I think it's fair to say at this point that I know a great deal about the man and his works. 

A note to Humes from the Publicity Department at Random House (image courtesy of the Humes Archive) 

Part of a stellar review clipped from the Chicago Sunday Tribune (image courtesy of the Humes Archive)

Both his novels, The Underground City in particular, are incredibly under-read and unknown despite being very successful upon release. Humes later suffered a breakdown that in many ways he never recovered from in the mid-1960's, and stopped writing for the most part. Both his novels were reprinted 40 years later by Random House at the beginning of 2008, which you should go and buy without question.

An advanced reading copy of The Underground City

Currently in print new edition of The Underground City