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Two items related to Dracula
Edward Gorey.

Includes: Dracula: A Toy Theatre. The sets and costumes of the Broadway production of the play, designed by Edward Gorey. 20 pp. 38.5x25.5 cm. (15¼x10”), spiral bound wrappers. First Edition. Scribner’s, 1979. * Playbill. Martin Beck Theatre: Dracula. Wrappers. An original playbill from the 1977 Broadway production of Stoker’s novel, the set and costumes for which were designed by Gorey. From the 1977 opening season of the production.

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The House of Souls
Arthur Machen. E. Grant Richards, 1908. First Edition.

B-A Note: Note to self: More research on Machen needed.

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Dracula
Bram Stoker. New York, Doubleday & McClure Co., 1899. First American Edition.

The rare first American edition of this immortal classic and cornerstone of supernatural fiction. Cover art, with Dracula’s castle high atop a hill with bats flying and the gilt-stamped sun setting. 7¼x5, original decorative tan cloth, front cover stamped and lettered in dark blue, gilt and green.

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sadburro:

The first edition of Huseyin Rahmi Gurpinar’s Gulyabani, the first Ottoman horror novel.

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Libro de indicios y tormentos; que contiene toda la practica criminal, y modo de sustanciar el processo indicativamente, hasta descubrir el delito y delinquente, y ponerle en estado de condenarle, o absolverle.
Quevedo y Hoyos, Antonio de. Madrid: Imp. de F. Martinez, 1632

A detailed explanation of the uses of interrogation and torture in criminal cases: obtaining permission to use torture, what level to be used for specific crimes, the procedures to be used, required witnesses, admissibility or inadmissiblity of confessions, and considerable legal minutia to be observed to keep matters legal. It is also made clear that there should be the expectation that in some instances the interrogation or torture will lead to absolving the accused.

A volume on torture that appears to have been much consulted.

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Jeffery’s edition of the Castle of Otranto, a gothic story
Walpole, Horace. London: Pr. by Cooper & Graham for the publisher, 1796. 8vo (20.5 cm, 8.1”). xvi, 152, [2] pp.; 7 plts.

First Jeffery’s edition of the foundational novel of the Gothic movement in English literature, originally printed in 1764. This classic, enormously influential supernatural romance appears here printed on wove paper watermarked Whatman, 1794; the volume is illustrated with a frontispiece and six stipple-engraved, color-printed plates “à la poupée,” which bear titles in Italian — the better to further the original dodge of this being a medieval tale “translated by William Marshal from the Italian of Onuphrio Muralto,” a pretense long since abandoned by the time of this edition.

B-A Note: A later version of the same book, from 1800, is listed here.

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POE, Edgar Allan. Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. London: George G. Harrap & Co., Ltd., 1935. Quarto, original full vellum gilt.

Signed limited first edition, number 322 of 460 copies signed by illustrator Arthur Rackham. With twelve mounted color plates, seventeen black and white plates, numerous in-text drawings, and wonderfully frightening decorated endpapers. Included among the 25 Poe tales are such classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Purloined Letter. Without original slipcase. A fine copy, rare in this condition.

Illustration from The Pit and the Pendulum:

B-A Note: Many thanks to Mlle. Ghoul for sending me the link to this. It’s gorgeous!

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The Five of Cups
Caitlin R. Kiernan. Subterranean Press, 2003.

Deluxe Limited Edition, 1 of 52 signed and lettered copies, housed in a handcrafted traycase, with additional material not in the limited edition. This is letter ‘T’ Signed by Cailtlin R. Kiernan.

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Supernaturall Sights and Apparitions Seen in London, June 30. 1644. interpreted. With a Mathematicall Discourse of the now imminent Conjunction of Jupiter and Mars, 26. July, 1644.
William Lilly,16 pages. 4to, 19th-century boards with morocco lettering piece.

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An Interpretation of the Number 666
Francis Potter. Oxford: Leonard Lichfield, 1642 .

Woodcut numerological text diagrams; engraved illustration of altar on page 175. [18], 214, [2] pages, including engraved title by William Marshall; lacks final blank. 4to, old mottled sheep, backstrip lacking, covers detached; contents generally clean. 19th-century stamp of William H. Floyd on title verso.

First edition of a treatise on the Number of the Beast, applying considerable ingenuity in finding ways to associate the square root of 666 with the Roman Catholic Church. Wing P3028

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Fear And Trembling : Shivery Stories selected by Alfred Hitchcock.
Dell Mapback #264, 1948

First Edition Paperpack, 1st Printing. Vintage Paperback Original (PBO): Alfred Hitchcock - Fear and Trembling: Shivery Stories. Contains: Cassius by Henry S. Whitehead; The Tarn by Hugh Walpole; Little Memento by John Collier; Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad by M. R. James; One Summer Night by Ambrose Bierce; Telling by Elizabeth Bowen; The Jar by Ray Bradbury; The Bad Lands by John Metcalfe; Ghost Hunt by H. R. Wakefield; Skule Skerry by John Buchan; The Red Room by H. G. Wells; The Sack of Emeralds by Lord Dunsany; and The Night Reveals by William Irish (Cornell Woolrich.)

Signed directly in book by the legendary Ray Bradbury.

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Dracula : Universal Photoplay Edition
Bram Stoker. Grosset & Dunlap, 1931.

Original Photoplay Edition. Red cloth covers with bright black titles, spine cover cracking though no loss. Facsimile of the rarely seen original dust jacket in mint condition. Photoplay edition issued to coincide with the release of the classic Universal film. The film was directed by Tod Browning which made Bela Lugosi an international star and the most famous cinematic vampire of all time. Includes four (4) black and white illustrations from the Universal picture produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr. First spoken line in film was spoken by Carla Laemmle (actress niece of the legendary creator of Universal horror films, Carl Laemmle, Jr.) Bio sheet hand signed in person by Carla Laemmle laid-in. 354 pages plus 2 page ad.

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ghoulnextdoor:

Author Lavater, Ludwig, 1527-1586. Title De spectris, lemuribus et magnis atque insolitis fragoribus. English

Of ghostes and spirites walking by nyght, : and of strange noyses, crackes, and sundry forewarnynges, whiche commonly happen before the death of menne, great slaughters, [and] alterations of kyngdomes. / One booke, written by Lewes Lauaterus of Tigurine. And translated into Englyshe by R.H. Publ. Info. Printed at London : By Henry Benneyman for Richard VVatkyns, 1572. Phys. Descr [16], 220 p. ; 4to.

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Stoneground Ghost Tales
E.G. Swain. Cambridge, Heffers, 1912. First UK Edition. Original blue pictorial cloth.

E.G. Swain was Vicar of Stanground in Britain’s East Anglia, and a friend of M.R. James. In 1912 he published a collection of stories featuring the Revd Mr Batchel, a mild-mannered clergyman who is constantly running across supernatural happenings in his parish. These charming ghost stories, written by Swain as a tribute to his friend Monty James, have been favourites of ghost story fans for many years.