London: Robert Hale Limited, [1944]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-222 [223-224: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original red cloth, spine panel stamped in gold. First edition. Collection of short stories (here presented in the form of a novel) featuring Major Baruk, an Anglo-Arab soldier detective, most with Middle East settings. Published later in the U.S. as BIMBASHI BARUK OF EGYPT (1944). Day, p. 8.

New York: Gnome Press, Inc., Publishers, 1957. Octavo, boards. First edition. A supercomputer helps humans attain paranormal powers and longevity. Winner of the 1955 Hugo award for best novel. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-262. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 250. Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2255-59.

[London]: Macmillan, [1985]. Octavo, boards. First edition. The author's second book.

London: Chatto & Windus, 1903. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii [viii] [1] 2-357 [358-360: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank] + 32-page publisher's catalogue dated "May, 1903" on page [1] inserted at rear, title page printed in red and black, original pictorial burgundy cloth, front panel stamped in blue, green and gold, spine panel stamped in gold, t.e.g., bottom edge rough trimmed. First edition, first issue. "This story is compounded of distinct elements of mystery, adventure, and romance narrative. Briefly, it is the history of Edward Denman, heir to a treasure, of his romance - a most unsatisfactory one - with Lucy 'Hill,' and of the efforts of the ubiquitous Hagen clan to seize Denman's hidden treasure. Barnes, a railroad engineer, is a martyr to the romance, and suffers meekly thru the fabulous antics of his social superiors. The Denman treasure is walled in a vault with literally countless doors of impregnable construction. It proves impossible to locate the treasure by breaking open the doors, so the Hagens concentrate on finding the hidden code showing the number of the vault which holds the jewels. Their machinations involve marriages of convenience, mayhem, train-wrecks, maimings, and schemings against obstacles galore. Like many of Shiel's novels, the ending is disappointing because it seems so far from according with our natural expectations." - Morse (1980). Hubin (1994), p. 737. Morse, The Works of M. P. Shiel Updated (1980), pp. 139-40.

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1935. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-296 [297: "A Note About the Author"] [298-300: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original black cloth, printed paper labels affixed to front and spine panels, top edge stained blue. First U.S. edition. A terrifying journey into the earth's interior. The protagonist refuses to join the rigidly controlled society of the interior world's inhabitants and must find a route to the surface or perish. "... a totalitarian utopia where little individual emotions are absorbed by the love for the common good. There are only two classes: the leaders and the robotlike citizens, whose minds have been 'rearranged.'" - Gerber, Utopian Fantasy (1973), p. 152. Anatomy of Wonder (1981); 2-77; (1987) 2-86; (1995) 2-96; and (2004) II-836. Cawthorn and Moorcock, Fantasy: The 100 Best Books 49. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 609. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 169. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 208. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 151. Reginald 10999.

Reading, Pennsylvania: Fantasy Press, 1947. Octavo, cloth. First edition. One of 500 numbered copies signed by Bell. This copy is personalized to Parker Wheat, M.D., whose bookplate is affixed to the verso of the front free endpaper, In 333.

New York: Ballantine Books, [1953]. Octavo, boards. First U.S. edition. The author's fourth science fiction novel, the second using the John Wyndham pseudonym. Earth is invaded by beings from another planet who exist under conditions of enormous pressure in the deep sea. Issued earlier in Britain with textual differences as THE KRAKEN WAKES (1953). Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 3-412.

London: Selwyn & Blount, Ltd., n.d., [1933]. Octavo, pp. [1-10] 11-254 [255-256: blank] [note: first two leaves are blanks used as front paste-down and endpaper; last leaf is a blank used as rear paste-down], cloth. First edition. Ninth volume in the Anthology series "Not At Night." Presentation copy from contributor Clark Ashton Smith inscribed to Donald Wandrei, dated in 1934. Wonderful association copy preceding the Wandrei's work as co-founder/publisher of Arkham House of Smith's early fiction collections. This is also a significant volume as it has the first book appearance of the Robert E. Howard's Worms of the Earth (his second story to be published in a book). Collects fifteen stories by Hester Gaskell Holland, Oscar Cook, Henry S. Whitehead, Robert E. Howard-Worms of the Earth, Flavia Richardson (pseudonym of C.C. Thomson), Bassett Morgan, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, J. Dyott Matthews, J.D. Kerruish, Warden Ledge, Don C. Wiley, Guy Preston, Hugh B. Cave, Rosalie Muspratt and Clark Ashton Smith. Barron (ed), Horror Literature 3-195. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1593. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 4-301. Bleiler (1978), p. 193. Reginald 14081.

Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1886. Octavo, three volumes: pp. [i-v] vi [vii-viii] [1] 2-278; [i-v] vi [vii-viii] [1] 2-284; [i-v] vi [vii-viii] [1] 2-262] [263-264: ads] + 32-page publisher's catalogue dated "11/99" on page 32 inserted at rear, original decorated smooth blue-gray cloth, front panels stamped in brown and green, spine panels stamped in brown, green and gold, top edges untrimmed, fore-edges rough trimmed, slate coated endpapers. First edition. The British eccentric's most autobiographical fictional work, a sensation novel of political intrigues within an international order of occultists dedicated to socio-economic reforms. A roman a clef based on Oliphant's turbulent relations with American mystic Thomas Lake Harris and his utopian movement in upstate New York, a locale fermenting in the mid-nineteenth century with utopian and occult stirrings. "Oliphant, his mother and his fiancee all came under the sway of the charismatic (as well as sadistic and possibly mesmeric) Harris. Financial and sexual shenanigans -- colored with esoteric ideology -- ensued. Harris, the original of the Armenian eponym/hero of this novel, authored the influential treatise, ARCANA OF CHRISTIANITY (1858), whose interplanetary settings probably influenced (directly or indirectly) some of the interplanetary occult romances that appeared later in the century. Oliphant was a typical Victorian in many ways: expansive and eccentric, well-traveled, a man of letters and of action, his life encompassing much that was foolish as well as much that was fruitful." - Robert Eldridge. "How are we to regard this turgid, prolix, and almost lunatic novel? ... [It] is not truly fiction but a kind of personal history. The people, events, ideas, delusions are all real. The lunacy, if such we think it, was Oliphant's own." - Wolff, Strange Stories, p. 100. Margaret Oliphant, the Scottish author of much supernatural fiction, was his cousin. Sadleir 1842. Wolff 5211. NCBEL III 954.

Los Angeles: Fantasy Publishing Co., Inc., 1949. Octavo, cloth. First edition, first binding with "FPCI" printed at base of spine panel. Collects "The Kingslayer," "The Beast" and "The Invaders." The title story is a dystopian tale set in 3974 A.D. in which the Arbiter has absolute power throughout known space.

[Greensburg, Pa: Tribune Press Pub. Co.], n.d. [Circa, 1879]. Octavo, pp. [1-7] 8-247 [248: printer's imprint], original black cloth, spine panel stamped in gold. First edition. Formerly, H. P. Lovecraft's copy with his signature and date, "May 1928," on the front free endpaper. Samuel Loveman gave this book to Lovecraft. "Lost race adventure novel set in the Antarctic, about a matriarchy amidst super-scientific technology and prehistoric monsters." - Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 59. "Except for the Candidian humor of the escapades with the governing council, Cowan maintains a serious tone, thereby increasing the complexity of his satire. Only individual interpretation can determine whether he intended the work as a satire solely upon the concept of a communistic state or as a satire of all Utopias pictured in the popular literature of the period. In either event, REVI-LONA assumes an historical importance as one of the earliest attacks upon the romantic idealism of the late nineteenth century." - Clareson, The Emergence of American Science Fiction: 1880-1915, pp. 132-33. "Told in a very florid style that suggests that the author was a fan of Herman Melville's; sometimes overwritten to the point of being boring, but also with many interesting strokes of imagination. All in all a substantial work." - Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 488. S. T. Joshi, Lovecraft's Library: A Catalogue, Revised & Enlarged (2002) 198. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 2-49; (1981) 1-48; (1987) 1-27; and (1995) 1-27. Clareson, Science Fiction in America 1870s-1930s 198. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 270. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 47. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 66. Bleiler (1978), p. 51. Reginald 03485. Wright (III) 1224.

[Sauk City, Wisconsin]: Arkham House, 1941. Octavo, cloth. First edition. 1115 copies printed. The second Arkham House book and Derleth's first collection of supernatural fiction. Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror (1999) 4-47. Barron (ed), Horror Literature 3-62. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 518. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 4-97.

30 small quarto manuscript leaves (each approximately 22.2x,16.5 cm), two handwritten, the rest typewritten. A faint date "4/8/46" is written in pencil at the upper left corner of the first leaf, by whom or why is unknown. This is either an early draft written before submission or, if the penciled date is correct, a later version, revised after Shiel submitted the story to EQMM in 1945. The corrections in light blue ink are in John Gawsworth's hand, the other hand is Shiel's. This is one of the Shiel manuscripts known to have been in John Gawsworth's collection in the summer of 1947. It is recorded in Morse, The Works of M. P. Shiel Updated (1980) T-249 ("Lend-Lease: 30-page corrected, unpublished typescript"). "Lend-Lease" is the last of the four Prince Zaleski stories. It was written in October 1945 when Shiel was past eighty. It was first published in ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, January 1955 and first collected in PRINCE ZALESKI AND CUMMINGS KING MONK (1977). According to Frederic Dannay: "Like Poe, Shiel wearied of his eccentric sleuth and abandoned him. Fifty years later he revived Prince Zaleski especially for ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE -- but strangely enough, we did not know of the epic event until it was too late. The details were sent to us by John Gawsworth, a personal friend and at times a collaborator of Mr. Shiel's. As Gawsworth expressed it, the return of Prince Zaleski nearly cost Mr. Shiel his life ... As soon as the manuscript was finished, Mr. Shiel walked to Horsham to mail it to EQMM's First Annual Detective-Story Contest. The effort was too much for the grand old man: he fainted and was taken to a hospital. When he recovered Mr. Shiel was uncertain whether or not he had actually posted the manuscript. In any event, the story never reached ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, and no trace of the original was ever found" (Queen's Quorum, pp. 35-36).