THE KING IN YELLOW
Book Details + Condition: F. Tennyson Neely Publisher (Chicago and New York). True First Edition / First Printing, 1895. Small octavo hardcover. Original pictorial green cloth, with front and spine panels stamped in brown; top edge gilt; edges untrimmed. Pagination: pp. [1-2] [1-9] 10-316 [317: advertisement] [318: blank]. Of the three printings with title pages dated 1895, this copy is accepted as the first. First edition/printing points include: no inserted frontispiece; page 318 is blank; lizard design is on the front cover; and sheets bulk 1.5 cm. This is Robert William Chambers' second book and first collection of short stories. It remains "[o]ne of the most important works of supernatural horror between Edgar Allan Poe and modern horror fiction" [Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror]. The work has been called "undoubtedly the best work that Chambers did. A landmark book in abandoning the ghosts of Victorian literary tradition and concentrating on the nightmare" [The Guide to Supernatural Fiction], as well as being one of the seminal works in the history of fantastic fiction. Stories include:
- The Repairer of Reputations
- The Mask
- The Court of the Dragon
- The Yellow Sign
- The Demoiselle d'Ys
- The Prophets' Paradise
- The Street of the Four Winds
- The Street of the First Shell
- The Street of Our Lady of the Fields
- Rue Barrée
From the massive occult collection of King Lawrence Parker - academic, dissertation author, and book collector extraordinaire. A clean and solid copy of a very scarce first printing, with firm binding; light shelf wear to boards, with some discoloration to rear; lightly bumped corners; Parker's bookplate to inside front board; interior is clean and free of markings.
