Books

First edition, first printing, of the first book in the author's Howl series. It won the Phoenix Award in 2006, and it was adapted by Studio Ghibli into an animated film in 2004, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. A hugely influential fantasy writer, Diana Wynne Jones (1934-2011) was an important inspiration for Philip Pullman, Terry Pratchett, and J. K. Rowling. She was awarded the Karl Edward Wagner Prize for her contribution to the genre by the British Fantasy Society in 1999. The jacket notes that this is the "Reinforced Trade Issue", referring to the reinforced binding style, common in American publishing at the time, that allowed for increased durability in repeated handling. Octavo. Original blue quarter cloth, spine lettered in silver, purple boards, publisher's device to front cover in blind, purple endpapers. With dust jacket, illustrated by Joseph A. Smith. Ink initials to front free endpaper. Spine ends lightly sunned, a couple of marks to first and last pages; jacket price-clipped, else sharp: a near-fine copy in near-fine jacket.