Minneapolis: Angel Bomb Press, 2022. Deluxe Edition. Number 31 of 50 copies, signed by the artist. This story was originally published in "Astounding Science-Fiction" in August 1938 under the pseudonym Don A. Stuart. It was later adapted into multiple film versions, the most recent being "The Thing" in 2011. This horrific tale of alien encounters and Antarctic exploration is presented here in a fine letterpress edition with nineteen striking, color illustrations by Todd Thyberg. It is in a special binding of quarter tan goatskin over blue Japanese cloth covered boards. It is housed in blue cloth covered tryptich folding case with an interior folder holding a suite of five letterpress illustrations, each signed and dated by the artist. The case is made to look like a government file with maps lining the interior and an official resin medallion stating "Secondary Polar Expedition: Antarctica" to the front panel. The interior maps have been hand-altered with pencil notes of expedition locations. The book, maps, and illustrations were letterpress printed with Ehrhardt Monotype and Haboro Contrast types on Classic Crest Bare White eggshell paper. Polymer plates by the Boxcar Press. Binding by the Campbell Logan Bindery featuring a hand cast, hand painted resin medallion by the artist on the front of the case. 60 pages. PRI/072423. Fine. More

London: The Richards Press, 1956. Hardcover. Fourth Printing. English radio broadcaster and novelist Algernon Blackwood (1869 - 1951) is perhaps best known for his ghost stories. Originally published in 1906, this is a new edition of his first collection of Ghost Stories, which includes ten tales. Bound in red cloth boards with black title to spine. In light blue dust jacket with white title to spine and front panels. Browning to spine panel, rubbing to panels, short closed tears, and wear to edges of jacket. Foxing to edges of textblock and offsetting to endpapers, else clean. 316 pages. OCC/082423. Very Good / Very Good. More

Riverside CA: Bo Press Miniature Books, [2015]. Hardcover. Pat Sweet describes herself as creating illuminated miniature books of curiosity, humor, and delight. She creates both miniature (under 3 inches) and macro-miniature (under 1 inch) books. She also makes miniature pocket globes, astronomical instruments, orreries, tellurions, and occasional oddities. "Catalog #305 from 1889" with Price List laid in. This inventive book is purportedly an actual catalog from Nightengale & Sons business. From the book artist: "The history of the Nightengale company began in the late16th century, when they supplied Dr. John Dee and Edward Kelley with 'shew-stones' or crystal balls. The company flourished during the European alchemy boom of the late16th and early 17th century, and expanded into optical tools and occult mathematical devices as alchemy gave way to modern chemistry and the beginnings of Mad Science. In the 19th century, they achieved, if not fame, at least notoriety, as purveyors of a line of monster abatement equipment.. They also began courting collectors of antique metaphysical artifacts, and at one point had almost cornered the market in rare editions of C'thuliana. After the turn of the 20th century, Enoch Nightengale, then president of the company, became so concerned about the advent of modern rationalism that Nightengale's catalogues became difficult to come by, passing from hand to hand among the adept, with word-of-mouth their only advertising. The 1889 catalogue is the last to have achieved a general circulation, and even copies of this edition are increasingly difficult to come by. To have discovered a copy with the laid-in price list is very unusual indeed. Traces of Nightengale's continued existence occasionally turn up. Some printed items bearing their name have come to light from the Infernal Regions (see Welcome To Hell!), and their label is sometimes found on the Vampire Hunter Kits of Bo Press Miniature Books. It is to be hoped that a company as old and storied as Nightengale's is still around in some nearby dimension, ready to supply . . .the explorer of uncanny places, magimetician, philosopher, alchemist, monster hunter, or wizard." This copy is bound in Nightengale's distinctive white-on-black skeleton paper and is printed on Mohawn superfine paper. In fine condition. 80 pages 2.5 x 2 inches. PRI/090523. Fine. More

Riverside, CA: Bo Press Miniature Books, (2013). Hardcover. Pat Sweet describes herself as creating illuminated miniature books of curiosity, humor, and delight. She creates both miniature (under 3 inches) and macro-miniature (under 1 inch) books. She also makes miniature pocket globes, astronomical instruments, orreries, tellurions, and occasional oddities. One of 50 copies. Signed by the book artist. "We all know how the story goes: Jonathan Harker leaves the inn at the beginning of 'Dracula', and is dropped off at the crossroads by the coachman, who is afraid to take him any further.  But there is another part of the story, one that Stoker's editor (so the story goes) persuaded him to omit. In this version, Harker demands to be taken down a side road that leads to a long-abandoned village, with dire results. This is the story of that dangerous digression: 'Dracula's Guest', published posthumously in 1914. It may have been a part of the novel, or it may not. The narrator is never named, and seems unlike the characterization of Harker in the novel. You can be the judge" (book artist). Designed, printed, and bound by Pat Sweet. Includes 5 illustrations. and endpapers decorated with a flying bat's wing. Bound in black and gold Japanese chiyogami paper with blood red cloth spine. 74 pages. Measures 2 1/16 inches x 1 1/2 inches. ARTB/090523. Fine. More

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1890. Hardcover. An interesting selection of ghost stories in translation (from the original French, German, Spanish, and Italian) including: The Horla, Siesta, The Tall Woman, On the River, Maese Pérez the Organist, Fioraccio, and the Silent Woman. Dark blue cloth boards with gilt title to front board and spine. Silver borders and decoration to front board. Chipping to spine ends and minor wear to corners and board edges. Dampstain to bottom edge of rear board and to bottom margins of many pages. Toning to margins and old price in blue pencil to front pastedown, else clean. 225 pages. OCC/072123. Very Good. More

Athens: Dorothy Simpson Krause, 2021. A unique book with original watercolors. Dorothy Krause is a painter, collage artist and printmaker who incorporates digital mixed media into her art. Her work is exhibited regularly in galleries and museums and featured in numerous current periodicals and books. In her artist's statement she says: "My work includes large scale mixed media pieces, artist books and book-like objects that bridge between these two forms. It embeds archetypal symbols and fragments of image and text in multiple layers of texture and meaning. It combines the humblest of materials, plaster, tar, wax and pigment, with the latest in technology to evoke the past and herald the future. My art-making is an integrated mode of inquiry that links concept and media in an ongoing dialogue – a visible means of exploring meaning. In 2019, when the artist was in Athens, she began a book with watercolors of the landscape and collaged images of Athena. Returning home, she decided to explore her relation to the archetype and wrote a narrative, contrasting her comments with excerpts from Jean Shinoda Bolen’s Goddesses in Everywoman. Because she felt it presumptuous to compare herself to Athena, she printed narrative from Bolen's book on 4 vellum sheets and "hid" them by inserting them between the drum-leaf pages. Channeling Athena has 10 watercolor and collaged pages, and the 4 vellum inserts in a drum-leaf binding with a cover of vintage white leather over board. Affixed to the cover is a cream colored plaster medallion with a raised profile of a Greek head and the letters AOE ("Of the Athenians"). A lovely book in fine condition. Measures 7.5 x 6" inches. Unpaginated. ARTB/051923. More

Berryville, VA: Virginia Book Company, 1966. Paperback. Revised Edition. Originally published in 1930. Marguerite Dupont Lee (1862 - 1936) was born into the wealthly Dupont family of Delware. She was always interested in the psychic phenomena such as ghosts and wrote several books on the subject including this one. She was a suffragette and later in life did much charity work including opening a settlement house in Georgetown. The stories in this book are organized by region and county, and each is accompanied by a black and white photographic illustration. Bound in cream paper wrappers with black title to spine and front board. Color pastedown photographic illustration to front cover. Browning to spine, foxing and dampstaining to covers. Dampstaining to top margins of a few pages and occasional spots of foxing throughout. Several pages have hand-written edits. A good reading copy of this ghostly collection that includes ghosts from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, sailors, slaves, and many more. 255 pages. OCC/082423. Very Good. More

Baltimore: The Williams and Wilkins Company, 1931. Hardcover. A facsimile reproduction from Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum. The Ordinall of Alchimy is a "work with subtle humor or delicious naïveté, and though the historian my find it of small value as a chemical document, its sprightliness of style, its somewhat archaic - yet not difficult - language, and its atmosphere of romance, combine to make it a delightful book to read. And, however reluctant we may be to admit it, it does present a good picture of the average alchemist of the fifteenth century" (introduction). Marbled paper covered boards with remnants of a brown leather spine. The leather on the spine has mostly chipped away revealing the signatures. The boards remain tightly attached to textblock. Minor wear to the edges of the boards. Foxing to the interior. Written in verse. Includes annotations and discourses at the rear. A good reading copy of this interesting work. 125 pages. OCC/072023. Good. More

Freeville, NY: Carol Schwartzott, 2019. Paperback. Number 3 of 10 copies. Signed by the artist. Bound in an accordion structure with hand colored, collaged elements including palmistry diagrams on each page. Includes two pages of text, Nine illustrations, and colophon. Housed in a altered Altoid box that has been collaged with a map of Europe and other papers on both interior and exterior. The box is titled in gold on the front panel. The book and box both come in a handmade navy blue felt carrying case with pink ribbon pull ties. Unpaginated. [18 pages.] Size: book is about 3.5 x 2 inches; box is about 3.75 x 2.25 inches. ARTB/051023. Fine. More