WILLIAM AUSTIN, THE CREATOR OF PETER RUGG: BEING A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WILLIAM AUSTIN, TOGETHER WITH THE BEST OF HIS SHORT STORIES. Collected and Edited by His Grandson Walter Austin. Boston: Marshall Jones Company, 1925. Octavo, pp. [1-2] [i-iv] v-vii [viii] ix [x] [1-2] 3-338 [339-340: blank] [note: first and last leaves are blanks], eleven inserted plates, original dark blue cloth stamped in gold and blind. First edition. A 200-page biography of Austin by his grandson, plus a reprinting of four of his stories, including his best known, "Peter Rugg, the Missing Man," a famous -- and still highly readable -- American short story first published in the NEW ENGLAND GALAXY in 1824 and reprinted in THE LITERARY GEM FOR 1827. There was a 50-copy paperbound separate edition of "Peter Rugg" issued in 1882, but it is virtually unobtainable. "A local version of the Flying Dutchman motif." - Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 70. "The Man With the Cloaks" is also supernatural. Includes bibliography, index, illustrations. A useful book about a minor author. Attebery, The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature, p. 29. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 2-11. Clute and Grant (eds), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, p. 72. Bleiler (1978), p. 12. Reginald 00643. Some scattered foxing to text block and several plates, else a tight, very good copy. (#119365).
Price: $45.00
No statement of printing.