The King in Yellow

Chicago, IL: F. Tennyson Neely Publishers. Very Good. 1895. 1st Edition; 1st Printing. Hardcover. SIGNED EDITION. This copy has been signed by Vincent Starrett on the reverse of the front endpaper, and also includes Vincent Starrett's bookplate on the front pastedown page. "Small octavo, pp. [1-2] [1-9] 10-316 [317: ad] [318: blank], pictorial cloth in green, with a rectangular patch in brown, with a lizard and Neely's Prismatic Library as part of the interior. The top edge of the text block has gilding, The frontis and bottom edges of the text block are untrimmed. There are three printings with title pages dated 1895, this particular one is generally accepted as the first. There is no inserted frontispiece and page [318] is blank. The sheet bulk is 1.5 cm. " This book is in Very Good condition and is lacking the scarce dust jacket. The book cover has spots of foxing and the green cloth has darkened a bit in general. The text pages are clean and bright. "The book countains nine short stories and a sequence of poems; while the first stories belong to the genres of supernatural horror and weird fiction, The King in Yellow progressively transitions towards a more light-hearted tone, ending with romantic stories devoid of horror or supernatural elements. The horror stories are highly esteemed, and it has been described by critics such as E. F. Bleiler and T. E. D. Klein as a classic in the field of the supernatural. Lin Carter called it "an absolute masterpiece, probably the single greatest book of weird fantasy written in this country between the death of Poe and the rise of Lovecraft", and it was an influence on Lovecraft himself. " (from Wikipedia). It appears that H. P. Lovecraft read this book and found it inspiring of his own works, especially in regards to the Cthulu Mythos. ; Signed by Associated .