THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM. London: William Rider and Son, Limited, [1911]. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-viii 1-328 [note: text ends on page 324, pages 325-328 are publisher's ads] + undated 16-page publisher's catalogue inserted at rear, six inserted plates with illustrations in color by Pamela Colman Smith, original red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold and blind. First edition, first printing. Sheets bulk 3.5 cm (3 mm more than most copies we've seen), page 325 advertises CHEIRO'S MEMOIRS noted as "ready shortly." Earliest form of the publisher's inserted catalogue giving publisher's address as "164 Aldersgate Street, London, E.C." (later catalogue has "Cathedral House, Paternoster Row, London, E.C."). "The Freudian, bloodcurdling LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM features a monstrous worm secreted for thousands of years in a bottomless well and able to metamorphose into a woman. It has several parallels to DRACULA (with Sir Nathaniel de Salis assuming the Van Helsing role) and contains some of Stoker's most graphic and grisly moments of horror." – Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p. 406. Ashley, Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, pp. 167-68. Barron (ed), Horror Literature 3-190. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1550. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 207. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 3-236. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 187. Reginald 13731. Dalby 21a. Publisher's "presentation copy" stamp on the title page. Top edge of text block dusty, a bit of tanning to half title leaf, last leaf of publisher's catalogue (interaction with free endpapers), and frontispiece tissue guard, a bright, fine copy. A lovely copy. (#156395).
Price: $2,500.00
No statement of printing.