TALES OF TERROR - INSCRIBED, WITH A 3-PAGE ALS TO HIS PUBLISHER
Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Company / Tower Books, 1943. First Edition. Item #8614
First Printing. Octavo (21cm); dark sage green paper-covered boards, with titling and publisher's logo stamped in black on spine; dustjacket; [8],9-317,[3]pp. Inscribed by Karloff on the front endpaper: "To Don / with every good wish / Boris Karloff / Jan 5/44." Some external wear, shallow chipping to crown, hint of sunning to spine, with some mild bubbling to paper and lower front cover, offsetting and some mild discoloration to endpapers, and the usual tanning to the text edges; Very Good. Dustjacket is edgeworn, with corresponding tears and creasing to upper spine panel, a few tiny nick and tears, and a small splash mark to upper front flap; Very Good or better.
Offered together with a three-page ALS from Karloff to Dr. E.M. Sheare (the publisher of this volume), composed in black pen on three sheets of Arsenic and Old Lace letterhead (measuring ca.8.5" x 11") and dated about five months prior to publication (May 20, 1943); 49 lines (280 words), signed "as ever, Boris." Two old folds from mailing smoothed out, some very subtle toning to extremities, else Fine, together with the original mailing envelope. All housed in a custom quarter-morocco drop-backed clamshell case.
Scarce first printing of this cheaply-manufactured wartime anthology of "terror stories," all selected by Karloff, who has written a generous six-page introduction. The contents include contributions by Bram Stoker ("The Judge's House"), Ambrose Bierce ("The Damned Thing"), William Faulkner ("The Hound"), Edgar Allan Poe ("The Tell-Tale Heart"), Algernon Blackwood ("The Willows"), and Oliver Onions ("The Beckoning Fair One"), among others. The letter to his editor is particularly insightful, showing Karloff's strong opinions regarding what merited inclusion: "I am quite firm against Dunsany's "Where the Tides Ebb and Flow." It is beautiful and imaginative and all that but it no in [sic] sense fits our patterns...For reasons of space I think we could omit (I) Dunsany, (II) Woman at Seven Brothers (III) Shipment or Mute Fate or (IV) Breakdown / which is interesting but not terror. Hugh Binson's tale I consider a must, also The Waxwork - I've had three invitations to dinner without points on the telling of that one! I am enclosing the amended list for your consideration. By all means "The Beckoning Fair One" should be in last place in the book, on the score of length and excellence." Uncommon inscribed, with a lengthy contemporary ALS. 8614.
Price: $6,500.00