MURDOCH, Iris (1919-99). Sartre. Romantic Rationalist. [etc.]

MURDOCH, Iris (1919-99). Sartre. Romantic Rationalist. Cambridge: Bowes and Bowes, 1953. 8vo (179 x 110mm). Half title. Original pink cloth, spine lettered in gilt, dust-jacket with price of 7’6 unclipped (jacket chipped at corners with repair at head of backstrip on verso, backstrip faded). Provenance: newspaper article on Sartre and the existentialists tipped in at the end. FIRST EDITION of the author’s first published book, and the first critical work on Sartre in English. With the same author’s Under the Net (London, 1954), The Flight from the Enchanter (London, 1956, “Reprinted May 1956”), The Sandcastle (London, 1957, lacks dust-jacket), The Bell (London, 1958, [Burgess Ninety-Nine Novels p. 70]), A Severed Head (London, 1961, “Second impression June 1961”, with a 2-page autograph letter by the author to George Engle loosely-inserted [see illustration for content]), An Unofficial Rose (London, 1962), The Unicorn (London, 1963), The Italian Girl (London, 1964), The Red and the Green (London, 1965), The Time of the Angels (London, 1966), The Nice and the Good (London, 1968), Bruno’s Dream (London, 1969), A Fairly Honourable Defeat (London, 1970), An Accidental Man (London, 1971), The Black Prince (London, 1973, winner of ‘The James Tait Black Memorial Prize’), The Three Arrows and the Servants and the Snow. Plays (London, 1973), The Sacred & Profane Love Machine (London, 1974, winner of ‘The Whitbread Literary Award for Fiction’), A Word Child (London, 1975), Henry and Cato (London, 1976), The Sea, The Sea (London, 1978, winner of ‘The Booker Prize’), Nuns and Soldiers (London, 1980), The Philosopher’s Pupil (London, 1983), A Year of birds. Poems … Engravings by Reynolds Stone (London, Chatto & Windus, 1984, reprint, [first printed in a limited edition by The Compton Press in 1978]), The Good Apprentice (London, 1985), The Book and the Brotherhood (London, 1987), The Message to the Planet (London, 1989), Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals (London, 1992), The Green Knight (London, 1993), Jackson’s Dilemma (London, 1995) and Something Special. A short story (London, 1999 [but first published 1957]); and with 4 books about Iris Murdoch, namely A. S. Byatt’s Degrees of Freedom. The Novels of Iris Murdoch (London, 1965), John Bayley’s Iris. A Memoir (London, 1998), the same author’s Iris and the Friends (London, 1999), Peter J. Conradi’s Iris Murdoch. A Life (London, 2001) and A. N. Wilson’s Iris Murdoch as I Knew her (London, 2003), all FIRST EDITIONS IN DUST-JACKETS except where indicated (only The Sandcastle lacking its jacket). The lot includes A COMPLETE SET OF ALL IRIS MURDOCH’S NOVELS. Provenance: From the Library of the late Sir George Engle. Please note that only a part of this lot is illustrated. (36)