THE POEMS AND STORIES OF FITZ-JAMES O'BRIEN. Collected and Edited, with a Sketch of the Author, by William Winter. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1881. Octavo, pp. [1-2: blank] [i-v] vi-viii [ix] x-xi [xii-xv] xvi-xxviii [xxix-xxxi] xxxii-lxii [1-3] 4-485 [486: blank] [487-488: blank leaf excised or pasted under rear endpaper], flyleaf at front, inserted frontispiece (portrait of the author) with tissue guard, three additional inserted plates, one with tissue guard, inserted facsimile, other illustrations in the text, original decorated dark blue cloth, front and rear panels ruled in blind, spine panel stamped in gold and ruled in blind, brown coated endpapers. First edition. The author's posthumously published only book, collecting material first published in periodicals in the late 1850s and early 1860s. 994 copies of the 1530 printed were bound and the remaining sheets were junked three years after publication. O'Brien (1828-1862) was an important contributor to the type of fantasy tale exemplified by Poe and Bierce. His finest and best known story, "The Diamond Lens," is included in this collection. Also found here are two ghost stories, "The Lost Room" and "The Pot of Tulips." "Although he has been compared favorably to Poe, Hawthorne, and Bierce, O'Brien has a Gothic style uniquely his own and a seriousness of theme to go with it." Barron (ed), Fantasy & Horror (1999) 1-112; 1-113. O'Brien's "importance rests on a handful of brilliantly original SF tales, which were influential not only on subsequent sf but also on the development of the short-story genre." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. [884]. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 1-33, 1-34 and 1-35; (1981) 1-132; (1987) 1-72; (1995) 1-72; and (2004) II-825. Ashley, Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, p. 140. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 2-134. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1246. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1699. Clareson, The Emergence of American Science Fiction: 1880-1915, pp. 39-42. Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p. 304. Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature IV, pp. 1657-61. Survey of Science Fiction Literature IV, pp. 1944-47. Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, p. 33. Bleiler (1978), p. 149. Reginald 10892. BAL 15183. Lower corners bumped, spine panel a bit dull, mild wear to spine ends, some rubbing along outer joints, top edge of pages dusty, a very good copy. (#156115).
Price: $850.00
No statement of printing.