FINGERS OF FEAR.
New York: Covici, Friede, Publishes, [1937]. Octavo, pp. [1-6] [1-2] 3-309 [310-314: blank] [note: first and last two leaves are blanks], jacket illustration by Arthur Hawkins, Jr., original green cloth, spine panel stamped in black, top edge stained yellow, other edges rough trimmed. First edition. A tale of mystery and horror set in New England at the ancestral home of the Ormes family "which, lost in one of the wildest and most isolated reaches of the Berkshires, was the topic of whispered and fearful comment by the natives for miles around." "... an outrageous horror novel done with admirable panache. A brief plot synopsis would be impossible (not to mention improbable), but hauntings, vampirism, incest, lycanthropy, dead babies, and sexual deviance provide only some of the mayhem confronting the cowardly hero at Ormesby. The book can be read straight, or straight up, but it certainly makes a stylish, literate exercise in grand guignol horror." - Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p. 300. "Piles horror upon horror until there is not a shiver left in the reader's spine." - New York Times. "Horror laid on thick ... Written forty years too early. Today it would make a fine horror film." - Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1233. Carter, The Vampire in Literature, p. 84. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 148. Reginald 10683. Hubin (1994), p. 602. Bookplate of noted fan, collector and publisher Oswald Train affixed to front paste down, penciled date and inscription to front free end paper, light wear to spine ends and corner tips, a clean, very good copy in a very good dust jacket (designed by Hawkins) with rubbing to folds mild loss at corner tips, chipping with loss at spine ends, mild age darkening to spine. (23957). Item #23957
Price: $1,250.00