The Shunned House.: With a preface by Frank Belknap Long, Jr.

Athol, Mass.: W. Paul Cook, The Recluse Press,, 1928. One of Lovecraft's best stories First edition, first printing, of Lovecraft's first book, one of 100 bound in black cloth and distributed by Arkham House in 1961, from an edition limited to 300 copies only. "One of a handful of copies" (Currey) complete with the uncancelled original 1928 Cook copyright statement, the Arkham House copyright label pasted to the verso of the title, and the "Canterbury" watermark. "Though the sheets of this story were printed and marked for copyright in 1928, the story was neither bound nor circulated at that time" (title verso). Currey notes that "a few copies were circulated among members of the tiny Lovecraft circle prior to August Derleth's acquisition of approximately 150 useable sets of sheets from Robert Barlow, Lovecraft's literary executor". Bleiler estimates that, over the years, about half the original printing was destroyed or lost, "and that no more than 150 or so copies were ever distributed", adding "it may well be the most valuable genre book described in this study" (ibid.). Bleiler states that this haunted house story is "one of Lovecraft's best stories". Provenance: pictorial bookplate of Paul John Willis, a science fiction and fantasy writer who wrote and published the short-lived fanzine Anubis in the late 1960s and also contributed under the pseudonym "Philip Canning". Octavo. Black cloth, titles in gilt to spine. Housed in an early and attractively matching slipcase. Light rubbing to corners, two small marks to front board, gilt lettering to spine partly erased, faint uniform toning to contents, as often, a small crease to bottom of p. 7; a near-fine copy. Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction 1037; Currey 3605.