LOVECRAFT, H. P. (1890-1937) & August DERLETH (1909-71). The Lurker at the Threshold, Sauk City, Arkham House, 1945, 8vo, original black cloth gilt, dust-jacket. FIRST EDITION. Joshi I-D-i-20. RARE.

LOVECRAFT, H. P. (1890-1937) & August DERLETH (1909-71).  The Lurker at the Threshold. Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1945. 8vo (184 x 128mm). Half title, woodcut publisher's device on the title. Original black/dark blue cloth, the spine lettered and decorated in gilt, dust-jacket by Ronald Clyne with the price of $2.50 unclipped (the corners and edges of the jacket rubbed, a few marks from adhesive tape to the turn-ins of the jacket and to pastedowns). FIRST EDITION. A printed note at the end states: "Three thousand copies of this book have been printed by The Collegiate Press, George Banta Publishing Company, Menasha, Wisconsin, from linotype Baskerville on White Winnebago Eggshell. The binding cloth is Holliston Black Novelex." A printed note on the rear turn-in describes the inception of the novel: "Lovecraft wrote three short novels during his lifetime ... and left notes and plans for several more among his papers at the time of his untimely death. Among these were the pages of The Lurker at the Threshold, enough of which had been done to indicate the direction of the plot. Perhaps no one is better qualified to carry on the Lovecraft tradition than August Derleth, who has written many short stories and novellas in the Cthulhu Mythos. The combination in The Lurker in the Threshold is a felicitous one, and many readers will hope that it may be possible for him to complete other unfinished Lovecraft manuscripts." Please note that the original dust-jacket has been photographed in its modern protective archival Mylar wrapper, thereby avoiding any risk of damage through its temporary removal. Bleiler The Guide to Supernatural Fiction (1983) 1055; Jaffery The Arkham House Companion (1992) 14: "... a major addition to the Cthulhu Mythos ..."; Joshi H. P. Lovecraft. A Comprehensive Bibliography I-D-i-20: [From the introduction to the section of the bibliography titled "The Lovecraft-Derleth 'Posthumous Collaborations'"]: "... In some instances Derleth incorporated actual prose passages by Lovecraft into his stories. The Lurker at the Threshold (a 50,000-word novel) contains about 1,200 words by Lovecraft, most of it taken from a fragment entitled 'Of Evill [sic] Sorceries Done in New England', ... the balance from a fragment now titled 'The Rose Window'." RARE.