Antiquarian Auctions

Auction #131 begins on 21 May 2026

Derleth (August)

THE MASK OF CTHULHU (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 21 preview

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First Edition: 201 pages, original black cloth titled gilt along the spine, woodcut printer's device on the title page, a fine copy in the dust jacket - the jacket is printed on thick stock paper and spirit varnished, designed by R. Taylor with the price $3.50 at the top of the front flap. Signed by the author on the front free endpaper.

The colophon on the final unnumbered page reads, 'Two thousand 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 2051 copies as the total edition the 51 copy difference 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".

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


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