The Shunned House
$4,500 · Offered by Biblio · No longer available
Athol, MA [but possibly England]: W. Paul Cook, The Recluse Press [but actually unknown], 1965. Near Fine. Forged edition. 59 pp. Bound in publisher's quarter red morocco over red cloth with spine lettered in gilt; presumably to be confused with the specially bound copy that Robert Barlow presented to Lovecraft in 1935. Near Fine with light rubbing to cloth, front hinge starting and minor toning to contents. Copy of William A. Strutz, noted bibliophile and collector, with his bookplate on front pastedown; he purchased it from The Times Bookshop in London. A well-known mid-1960s forgery of the first edition of the famous horror author's first book. The novelette about a bewitched house was initially supposed to be published in The Recluse, a journal published by Paul W. Cook. The Shunned House was not included in the journal, though, which only ever printed one issue. Cook instead printed 300 sets of sheets of the story to be issued as a small book, though these sheets were never bound and the story never published. The Shunned House wasn't officially published until 1961 when August Derleth bound 100 sets of sheets at Arkham House; this edition is purporting to be of that group of copies. Meets all forgery points including the watermark of the paper reading "Chantry," and the Arkham House copyright label pasted on the copyright page, not over Cook's original copyright, but over a blank area. The text is offset-printed instead of the letter press printing of the genuine Reclus
- Publisher: W. Paul Cook, The Recluse Press [but actually unknown]
- Year: 1965
- Binding: unknown
Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.