LOVECRAFT, H. P. (1890-1937). The Shunned House, Athol, Mass.: The Recluse Press, 1928 [but please see the important note in the full description below]. Original publisher's black cloth gilt, modern book box. Joshi A5. EXCEPTIONALLY RARE.

LOVECRAFT, H. P. (1890-1937).  The Shunned House ... With a Preface by Frank Belknap Long, Jr. Athol, Massachusetts: "Published by W. Paul Cook. The Recluse Press, 1928" [but please see the important note below relating to this imprint]. 8vo (187 x 130mm). Small woodcut typographical ornament on the title page, printed on paper watermarked "Canterbury Laid" (inconspicuous small rectangular hole at the lower gutter of the title page, very small triangular piece of the lower fore-corner of the title page cut away, 2 tiny marginal tears to the dedication and preface leaves, faint marginal spot on p.43). Original black publisher's [i.e. Arkham House] cloth, the spine lettered in gilt (the gilt lightly rubbed, but more heavily to the word "House" of "Arkham House"), housed in a black morocco-backed book box with a black morocco label on the upper cover lettered in gilt. Provenance: Spokane Community College (very faint, easily missed, stamps on the top and bottom edges); small unidentified pictorial label at the foot of the front pastedown of the box. Frank Belknap Long's preface to the book opens: "The Shunned House is a wonderful story. It is so far removed in theme from our familiar world of radios and politicians and adding machines that it does not touch, at any point, the ancillary stream of modern writing. I can discern in it, here and there, faint analogies to contemporary 'terror tales', to the work of Lord Dunsany and Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood, but in the main Mr. Lovecraft begins where other writers leave off ..." On the verso of the title, pasted over the original copyright details, is a printed note stating: "THE SHUNNED HOUSE [in bold], by H. P. Lovecraft. Copyright, 1936, by H. R. Barlow. Copyright, 1937, by Popular Fiction Publishing Company, for Weird Tales. Copyright, 1939, 1947, by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei for The Outsider and Others, Arkham House: 1939. Though the sheets of this story were printed and marked for copyright in 1928, the story was neither bound nor circulated at that time. A few copies were bound, put under copyright, and circulated by R. H. Barlow in 1936, but the first wide publication of the story was in the magazine, Weird Tales, in the following year. The story was originally set up and printed by the late W. Paul Cook, publisher of The Recluse." S. T. Joshi, the author of the now standard and most exhaustive bibliography of H. P. Lovecraft, opens his Introduction to the work with the words: "The difficulties involved in Lovecraft bibliography may perhaps be as formidable as those for any writer of the twentieth century ..." and this statement may be seen as particular pertinent to any discussion of "The Shunned House." The following is an edited extract from Joshi's extensive entry: "The legendary stillborn first 'book' by Lovecraft ... Cook printed approximately 300 copies in mid-1928 ... but bound none ... Paper bears the watermark 'Canterbury Laid' ... In 1934 Barlow received about 225 copies of the unbound sheets. It is rumoured that he bound only eight copies ... Of the 225 copies, Barlow apparently distributed only about 50, having found some unusable. COPIES BOUND OR DISTRIBUTED BY ARKHAM HOUSE ... Arkham House, when obtaining the remainder of the unbound sheets, bound or distributed 150 as follows: 50 unbound copies bear a printed label pasted over the original copyright notice; 100 are bound in black cloth bearing the printed copyright notice. Spine stamped in gold. The former were distributed ca. 1959; the latter ca. 1961. The Arkham House copyright label is in two states: the one for the unbound sheets prints books and other magazine titles in boldface; that for the bound sheets prints these titles in italics" (Joshi). Wikipedia states of the Arkham House issue: "The genuine item, watermarked 'Canterbury', is the rarest book associated with Arkham House (several variants exist involving the copyright notice). It is considered the 'holy grail' for Arkham House collectors ..." Bleiler The Guide to Supernatural Fiction (1983) 1037; Brennan H. P. Lovecraft: A Bibliography (1952), p.1; Currey Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors: A Bibliography (1979) p.325; Jaffery The Arkham House Companion (1992) 62; Joshi H. P. Lovecraft: A Comprehensive Bibliography (2009) A5; cf. Ransom Private Presses and their Books (1929) p.394 (citing Cook's 300 unbound copies printed in 1928). LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, THIS ONE OF 100 ISSUED BY ARKHAM HOUSE AND BOUND IN BLACK CLOTH. EXCEPTIONALLY RARE.