FORTY YEARS WITH THE DAMNED OR LIFE INSIDE THE EARTH. A NOVEL. [Chicago: Printed and Bound by Regan Printing House, 1895.]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] [1] 2-422, publisher's brown cloth, front and rear panels stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold, edges marbled, floral patterned endpapers. First edition. "An elaborate dream fantasy told through a series of stories within stories. The unnamed narrator recalls an incident that occurred in 1885 while he was hunting near Luray, Virginia. Resting near a cave entrance, he encountered a dark-skinned man with long white hair, dressed in golden robe and carrying a tall staff. The stranger, Joe, was a slave who escaped from a plantation in the Shenandoah River Valley in the 1840s, and FORTY YEARS WITH THE DAMNED is Joe’s account of how he and his wife Surene floated down an underground river and ended up in Hell where they lived for 40 years. Joe’s own tale contains several stories narrated by some of Hell’s own inhabitants, including a lengthy account of an ancient war between the Toltecs and the Aztecs. At one point, Joe also reveals that he is not a Negro but the child of Arabian parents who lived in Africa. The topology of Hell that Joe describes is the most interesting aspect of FORTY YEARS WITH THE DAMNED. Joe and Surene find themselves in the Valley of Resurrection, a paradise where nothing ever dies. The outer realm of Hell is populated with massive cities inhabited by redeemed souls who await their turn to ascend to Heaven. Satan and his demons are restricted to an island known as the Inferno located in the Sea of Redemption. Souls who are brought to Hell suffer torments for a forty-year period in the Inferno in order to be purified of their sins. Periodically, as instructed by Heaven, the redeemed souls mount armed attacks on Satan and his minions when they refuse to release those individuals whose period of suffering has ended. Joe recounts a massive battle between a host of angels and Satan’s demons involving giant airships that attempt to put out the Inferno by dropping loads of water directly onto its fires. Other elements of the fantastic include a visit Joe makes to Mars where he plays a key role in a political insurrection and an encounter with Circe and the Sirens at the edge of the world. Joe’s own experiences and the tales he hears from the souls in Hell, both redeemed and unredeemed, stress the futility of pursuing wealth and power. Corrupt, greedy kings are overthrown by mass revolutions of the starving classes, and the Utopian kingdoms established in their wake are essentially socialist paradises where everyone owns everything jointly. Portions of FORTY YEARS WITH THE DAMNED also touch upon the horrors of the Civil War and the various political problems caused by the conflict" (Boyd White). Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 007. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 19. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 105. The Stuart Teitler Collection of Lost Race Fiction, p. 2. Teitler and Locke, By the World Forgot (2013) 6. Bleiler (1978), p. 2. Reginald 00097. Not in Wright, American Fiction 1876-1900. Stuart Teitler's copy with his bookplate affixed to the front paste-down. This was the first copy Teitler added to his outstanding collection of lost race fiction (his replacement copy is now in the collection of American fiction at OSU). The book was printed on pulp paper and bound in sturdy cloth with flimsy endpapers. The binding has been professionally restored and the inner hinges strengthened. Gold stamping on spine panel dull, text block tanned. This is in much better condition than the few surviving copies of this very rare book. Enclosed in a quarter leather clamshell box with leather spine label. A high point of American eccentric fiction. (#171358).
Price: $6,500.00
No statement of printing.