FIRSTS: LONDON'S RARE BOOK FAIR

FRIDAY JUNE 7 TO SUNDAY JUNE 9 AT BATTERSEA EVOLUTION

It's that time again. The premier event in London's rare book calendar is upon us once more, and we will be taking our shiniest things to to the Fair, held once more at Battersea Evolution, the exhibition centre in London's beautiful Battersea Park. Highlights we will be bringing include:

-- KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING. George Orwell's copy, signed by both Orwell and his mother;

-- LOOK BACK IN ANGER. Richard Burton's scripts for the film, in two different drafts;

-- A SIGNED AND DATED DRAWING BY JOHN LENNON. Given as a thank-you gift to the documentary film maker Tony Palmer fifty years ago this year.

-- TRAINSPOTTING. The extremely rare hardcover edition, and a very fine copy.

You can browse a much fuller list of the books we will be bringing HERE, and you can visit the website of the Fair itself HERE.

We very much look forward to seeing you in Battersea -- we'll be at Stand P08.

THE ARCHIVE OF ALAN RICKMAN

Neil Pearson Rare Books is thrilled to announce the acquisition of the archive of one of Britain's most brilliant and best-loved actors: the late, very great, Alan Rickman.

Currently being catalogued and prepared for sale, the archive begins with Rickman's days in amateur dramatics and drama school, covers his early professional work in repertory theatre and television, and then goes on to cover his stellar performances for the Royal Court, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the West End and Broadway.

Rickman's film career is equally well documented: all of his working scripts are present, including TRULY, MADLY DEEPLY; ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES; SENSE AND SENSIBILITY; the entire HARRY POTTER series; and, of course, DIE HARD.

Rickman's scripts are profusely annotated and amended by him, evidence of a highly detailed working method learned at the Royal Court, and adhered to through a long, distinguished career on both sides of the Atlantic, on stage and screen, and on both sides of the camera.

As well as Rickman's working texts, the archive contains a wealth of correspondence and documentation, private photographs and public relations material, film and theatre props, and awards. Crowningly, it also contains the appointment books and personal diaries kept by Rickman across his entire career. 

A magnificent and complete scholarly resource, the brochure for the Alan Rickman Archive can be viewed HERE, and the complete inventory can be accessed HERE.

Welcome to Neil Pearson Rare Books 

Neil Pearson has collected rare books for thirty years: his specialism is nineteenth and twentieth century first edition literature, with a particular interest in the expatriate literary movement of Paris between the wars. He is the author of Obelisk (Liverpool University Press, 2007), a history of the notorious Paris imprint which in the 1930s published the early work of, among others, Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell and Anaïs Nin. In 2011 he researched, compiled and wrote They Were What They Were: A Catalogue of Early Gay Fiction, 1862 -1960. More information about both of these titles can be found here.

After buying books for so many years, he is delighted finally to be selling some.