A Dance to the Music of Time: A Question of Upbringing; A Buyer's Market; The Acceptance World; At Lady Molly's; Casanova's Chinese Restaurant; The Kindly Ones; The Valley of Bones; The Soldier's Art; The Military Philosophers; Books Do Furnish a Room; Temporary Kings; Hearing Secret Harmonies.

First editions of each volume in the author's acclaimed Dance to the Music of Time series, each inscribed by him to his lifelong friend. Octavo, twelve volumes, original publisher’s cloth. Every volume is inscribed by Powell to his lifelong friend the artist and cartoonist Osbert Lancaster, each inscription dated within the year of publication on the front free endpaper, four of them additionally signed on the title page. The first seven volumes are inscribed to Lancaster and his first wife, Karen Harris, until her death in 1964, The Soldier’s Art to Lancaster alone, and the final four to Lancaster and his second wife, Anne Scott-James. Powell and Lancaster met through the literary circles of Oxford and remained close for much of their lives, and Lancaster provided the cover illustrations for the first seven Penguin editions of the sequence before being replaced in that role by the publisher, much to Powell’s dismay. Each volume is very good to near fine in near fine dust jackets. A remarkable association set, uniting Powell’s masterpiece with the friend who illustrated it, inscribed across nearly a quarter of a century.