IN THE MIDST OF LIFE: TALES OF SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1898. Small octavo, pp. [1-2] [i-ii] iii [iv] v-vi 1-362 [363-366: ads] [367-368: blank] [note: first and last leaves are blanks], original decorated maroon cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold. Enlarged edition. First printing of the enlarged edition of TALES OF SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS (1891), the first and best of two collections of Bierce's short fiction published during his lifetime. The enlarged edition adds three stories including the classic, "The Damned Thing," a chilling narrative of an encounter with a malignant being from another dimension. Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 1-13. Barron, ed., Fantasy and Horror (1999) 1-15, 1-16 and 1-17. Barron, ed., Horror Literature 2-7. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 162. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 073. Sullivan, ed., The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, pp. 33-4. Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature III, pp. 1436-40. Tymn, ed., Horror Literature 3-23. Bleiler (1978), p. 23. Wright (III) 523. BAL 1119. Starrett 15. Baird and Greenwood, An Annotated Bibliography of California Fiction 1664-1970 250. Cloth rubbed at edges, partial hairline crack along inner front hinge, review of the book clipped from a newspaper tipped onto first blank, dated "April, 1898" by an early owner on the front free endpaper, a one line note handwritten in ink at the top edge of the rear free endpaper that reads "Battle Scenes: pages -- 171 to 178," a good copy with bright cover stamping. (#171669).
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