(#157687) DARK COMPANIONS. Ramsey Campbell.

DARK COMPANIONS. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., [1982]. Octavo, cloth-backed boards. First edition. A presentation copy with signed inscription by Campbell to David G. Hartwell on the title page: "For David -- / some pretty / good stuff ... / all the best! / Ramsey." Campbell's fourth -- and one of his best -- collections of short fiction; twenty-one stories, including "The Chimney," winner of the 1978 World Fantasy Award for best short story and "Mackintosh Willy," winner of the 1980 World Fantasy Award for best short story. "Although he has only a fraction of the popular appeal of Stephen King or Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell is likely to be remembered as the leading horror writer of his generation, and perhaps the most significant writer in the field since Lovecraft ... Campbell is the poet of urban squalor and decay; only he can instill horror in the commonest objects of our daily existence: plastic bags ('In the Bag'), garbage ('Litter'), a raincoat ('Old Clothes'). One of Campbell's most horrifying stories, 'Mackintosh Willy' (included in DARK COMPANIONS, one of his best collections), tells of the loathsome death of a derelict in a bicycle shelter and his resurrection as he terrorizes a gang of boys who have mutilated his corpse ... If Campbell's cheerlessly dark vision robs him of immediate popularity, it (along with his impeccable craftsmanship and powerful imagination) should ultimately grant him a high, perhaps unassailable, place in the literature of the supernatural." - S. T. Joshi. One of the major short story collections of the 1980s. Barron (ed), Horror Literature 4-63. Winter list, p. 268. See Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror (1999) 6-65. A fine copy in fine dust jacket. (#157687).

Price: $350.00

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First printing has code "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1" on copyright page.