August 2022 Catalogue

– 46 – N e w A c q u i s i t i o n s Extraordinarily Fine Copy Of The Notoriously Rare First Edition Of H.P. Lovecraft’s First Book, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, 1936—One Of Only 200 Copies 55. LOVECRAFT, Howard Phillips. The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Everett, PA, 1936. Octavo, original black cloth, dust jacket. $6800. Extremely rare first edition of Lovecraft’s first published book, with four dramatic black-and-white illustrations by Frank Utpatel. Only 400 copies were printed, of which about 200 copies were bound and the remainder destroyed. This copy with the rare errata leaf and an exceptionally fine dust jacket, apparently from the publisher’s private reserve. “A fine story of supernatural adventure and discovery” (Bleiler, 1039). “For Lovecraft, the terror of the newly discovered, the apparently infinite universe, the questioning of all established beliefs, the disintegration of the social structures cherished by those who had gone before and the confused kaleidoscope of things to come…Lovecraftwas the Columbus of themalignant universe—Stephen King and his contemporaries are but those who follow” (Horror: 100 Best Books, 133-35). This was Lovecraft’s first published book, the only one published before his death in March 1937. The dust jacket on this copy is the rare variant on plain white paper stock with silver lettering on the front cover and spine, matching the lettering on the cloth, and no illustration (Currey’s variant 3). There is no priority established for the dust jacket variants, but it has been observed that this variant of the dust jacket was the one on the copies in the publisher’s private reserve of this book. With rare errata leaf. Book about fine, with minor wrinkling to cloth along spine, as often, and exceptional given the materials used. Very faint stain to rear flap of dust jacket. A fine copy of this important Lovecraft rarity.

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