In my experience, this is the hardest to find Hanley title. Someone got a real bargain here and I hope it was a fan.

An addenda to James Hanley's Bibliography.

I've been working on cataloguing a big collection of James Hanley material recently. Hanley (1901-85) was an Anglo-Irish writer who lived most of his life in Wales. He wrote mainly about The Sea; bleak tales where, if the characters aren't killed quickly by their decision to go to sea, their spirits are washed away one wave at a time. Hanley has a loyal following and a few of his books are very hard to come by now. Resurrexit Dominus, about a Priest feeling the pinch of his celibacy vow; A House in the Valley by "Patric Shone", about a boy being raised by his in-laws and Emily - one I've yet to read and haven't a clue as to what it's about - are amongst the hardest to find.

During library school I worked on an addenda to Hanley's excellent bibliography by Linnea Gibbs; describing some of the items she was unable to find and adding a very few titles that had eluded her. I've renewed my interest in the addenda and may publish some of the items on this blog in near future. We'll see...

Couldn't resist this.

I came across this great ad. for book tokens in a copy of Life and Letters To-day, an English literary review from May of 1940. I'm still cataloguing Hanley - this is Gibbs B51 "All the Drowned" if you're interested - but I've been looking through the journals for Interwar Europe stuff and the rise of the Nazis for my friend James. I sent him a couple of scans today on the invasion of Norway and the effect of exile on German literature.

10 months into Hitler's War and they're already bored? Can you imagine a similar marketing campaign for Iraq? "Dude, fighting for democracy can be so lame! Gameboy tokens rock!"

Not in Gibbs IV.

The House in The Valley was James Hanley's only novel under the pseudonym Patric Shone and is something of a rarity. This is the dustwrapper Gibbs was unable to see before publication of the bibliography, but the book itself is A35a.

This copy is signed "Patric Shone" in quite small script near the front ffep gutter; certainly an unusual location for a signature. It does however match the other signed copies I've seen as the S in Shone is an extension of the dot above the i in Patric.

Not in Gibbs special.

I got a note from Dr. Robin Wood - hurray for Google! - with whom I began a conversation on Hanley points back in 1999 when I started dealing books online. Although he doesn't see himself as a collector, he is a fan and has gone to quite some length to dig up uncatalogued Hanley material. Here's his partial "Not in Gibbs" list:

(1) Reviews in the North London newspaper The Recorder. An article 9/6/50 on Hanley by Emrys Jones: "Great Novelist Reviews the New Novels". Thereafter more or less weekly book reviews by Hanley until 5/4/52, when Emrys Jones takes over again. Dr. Wood did not make copies, or record details, as the reviews were generally prosaic and generally not of well known authors.

(2) Stage Plays

1972 Leave Us Alone --10 performances in London ( Cont. Brit. Dramatists 1972). According to Guernsey in The Best Plays of the Year 1972-3. Confirmation of the performances from Hanley's son Liam.

1973-74 Say Nothing for five months, at the Finnish National Theatre (Harington 23). Additional documentation, including reviews.

(3) BBC SOUND RECORDINGS (National sound archives):

Winter Journey LP 24037 a play 29/1/58
The Ocean T28269 novel adapted 4/5/58
One Way Only T32636 a play 1/12/67
A Dream Journey T37964 adapted from his novel 30/11/74
Another World T49571 a play by James Hanley 20/5/80.

I'd really like to assemble as complete a list of Hanley material as possible, so if you've found this site and got notes on a couple of Hanley oddities, do send them in.

Not in Gibbs III.

Another of the Not in Gibbs Hanley items. This one, a variant issue of A24c, the William Morrow, New York, first American edition of The Ocean. This is a paperback and, as you can see, the back cover is full of praise.

Of all of Hanley's books, I think this one has the most subsequent editions. I believe it's still in print from Harvill Press, London.

Not in Gibbs II.

Another "Not in Gibbs" Hanley item. This time, a binding variant - Gibbs calls for blue - of the first edition of A21People are Curious.