Antiquarian Auctions

Auction #131 begins on 21 May 2026

Brennan (Joseph Payne)

NINE HORRORS, and a dream (Signed by the author)

Published: Arkham House, Sauk City, Wisconsin, 1958

Edition: First Edition

Reserve: $200

Approximately:

Estimate: $250/300

Bidding opens: 21 May 16:30 GMT

Bidding closes: 28 May 16:30 GMT

Ships from: South Africa

Lot 20 preview

Add to Watchlist

First Edition: 120 pages, woodcut printer's device on the title page, original black cloth titled gilt along the spine, a fine copy in the dust jacket - the jacket is printed on thick stock paper and spirit varnished, designed by Frank Utpatel with the price $3.00 at the top of the front flap. Signed by the author on the front free endpaper.

The colophon on the final unnumbered page reads, 'Twelve hundred copies of this book have been printed by the Collegiate Press, George Banta Publishing Company, Inc., Menasha, Wisconsin, from Linotype Garamond on Winnebago Eggshell. The binding cloth is Holliston Black Novelex.'

The bibliography records 1336 copies as the total edition the extra copies being explained as printer's overruns.

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Payne_Brennan) 'His 1958 collection Nine Horrors and a Dream, containing the stories "Slime" (which has been reprinted at least fifty times)  and "Canavan's Back Yard", is celebrated in an essay by Stephen Gallagher in the book Horror: 100 Best Books, edited by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman. Stephen King has called him "a master of the unashamed horror tale". Don D'Ammassa considers that "His stories were noteworthy for their effective development of suspense and terror without the excesses of violence which characterise modern horror fiction".

'Stefan Dziemianowicz comments of the collection Nine Horrors and a Dream that "All the stories in the book are notable for their simple, unaffected style, and their depiction of ordinary suburban and rural people contending with eruptions of the supernatural in their everyday lives." He concludes that "The timeless themes of his weird tales made him an important bridge between the pulp and the modern horror era. He was also a pioneer in horror's speciality press phenomenon".'

  • Overall Condition: Fine
  • Size: 8vo (191 x 131 mm)


You might also like

© 2026 Paul Mills trading as AntiquarianAuctions.com. All rights reserved. Use of this website is regulated by our website Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.