["Dagon", in] The Vagrant.: Number Eleven. - 1919

[Athol, Massachusetts:] W. Paul Cook,, November 1919. The herald of Cthulhu First appearance in print of Dagon, the first of Lovecraft's tales to introduce a Cthulhu Mythos element by way of the sea deity Dagon. The Vagrant was an amateur press magazine specialising in the supernatural produced by William Paul Cook between 1915 and 1927, with a total of 15 issues. This issue also contains Cook's critical review of Lovecraft, "Howard P. Lovecraft's Fiction", in which he notes that "with Dagon in this issue of The Vagrant, Mr. Lovecraft steps into his own as a writer of fiction" and compares Lovecraft's prose to that of Poe, Maupassant, and Bierce. Cook later founded The Recluse Press, which printed (although did not bind and publish) Lovecraft's first book The Shunned House in 1928. Dagon was published in book form in collection The Outsider and Others by Arkham House in 1939, and again as Dagon and other Macabre Tales in 1965. Octavo. Original brown paper wrappers, staple bound, titles in black to front cover. Housed in a custom card chemise and red morocco-backed solander box. Short closed tear to head of spine, contents toned and slightly brittle; else a near-fine, remarkably bright copy of this fragile publication. Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction, pp. 319-28.