THE OLD COBBLESTONE HOUSE: A GHOST STORY. Rochester, N.Y. The Craftsman Press, 1917. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-127 [128: blank], original pictorial red cloth, front panel stamped in black and silver, spine panel stamped in black. First edition. Domestic novella, with an unspecified rural setting, and a rationalized ghost story taking up much of the story. In what is revealed after the fact to be a dream, Katherine goes into the future and visits the old cobblestone house, now gone to seed and occupied by the ghosts of its former occupants, the Corvine family. The air is thick with them and the old woman who lives there is on amicable terms with them. They are presented to the reader in a matter-of-fact way. When Katherine wakes up, she and the Corvine's heir, Nick, finally come to an understanding of the heart. Even within its deliberately non-sensational approach, the storytelling is a little flat and, at times, confusing. Still, a curiosity. What's perhaps most curious is that the book, with "A Ghost Story," stamped on its front cover has eluded genre bibliographers. Almost certainly self-published. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978), Day (1963), or Reginald (1979; 1992). Smith, American Fiction, 1900-1925 S-595. Touch of rubbing to cloth at spine ends, several small private owner's stamps, one on fly title, another on page 100, else a near fine copy with bright cover stamping. (#111377).
Price: $150.00
No statement of printing on copyright page.