TALES BEFORE MIDNIGHT. New York, Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., [1939]. Octavo, pp. [1-10] [1-2] 3-274 [275-278: blank] [note: last two leaves are blanks], original navy blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in silver, top edge stained light blue, fore-edge untrimmed, bottom edge rough-trimmed. First edition. First printing with "F&R" monogram on copyright page. A presentation copy with signed inscription by Benet on the front free endpaper: "For John Carter, / another one from / Stephen Vincent Benet." Collects twelve stories including "Johnny Pye and the Fool-Killer," a moral fantasy about personified death, "O'Halloran's Luck," a leprechaun story, and "Doc Mellhorn and the Pearly Gates," an ironic posthumous fantasy. "Good stories." - Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 128. Companion volume to Benet's earlier collection, THIRTEEN O'CLOCK: STORIES OF SEVERAL WORLDS (1937). Barron, Fantasy Literature 3-25. Bleiler (1978), p. 20. Reginald 01093. Slight spine lean, top edge stain faded, endpapers tanned, mostly along gutter margins, a very good copy in good decorated dust jacket which is split along the front spine fold. (#161259).
Price: $150.00
First printing has "F&R" monogram on copyright page.