Sunday 31 October 2021

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Forgotten Tale of a Lovecraftian Witch Cult. A Limited Edition.

***SOLD OUT!***

She began to cry forth again.
"We'll burn his heart in pig's fat at the Sabbat!"...
— from 'Gods of Darkness' by F. Scott Fitzgerald



F. SCOTT FITZGERALD'S FORGOTTEN TALE OF A LOVECRAFTIAN WITCH CULT, NOT IN ANY EDITION OF HIS COLLECTED WORKS

A STRICTLY LIMITED EDITION OF 250 COPIES

***NOW SOLD OUT***

LIKE MOST OF OUR PREVIOUS LIMITED EDITIONS, GODS OF DARKNESS SOLD OUT QUICKLY. 
Limited copies remain of At the Door of Darkness, a forgotten episode from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, deleted from the published version, and now reconstructed from the original manuscript. Details here.



In the mid-1930s F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, wrote a short story set in medieval France, with a lead character, 'The Count of Darkness', based on the young Ernest Hemingway. It also featured a witch cult, drawn from a research source which greatly inspired the work of H.P. Lovecraft. Fitzgerald's agent, perhaps unsurprisingly, was somewhat nonplussed, but the story was sold for (belated) publication in a magazine. Since then, 'Gods of Darkness' has been forgotten by the reading public, and quietly ignored by Fitzgerald's estate: it has never been included in any collected edition of the author's work. Indeed to my knowledge it has never been reprinted anywhere... until now.

GODS OF DARKNESS
By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald's forgotten story of a medieval witch cult, drawn from a source that also inspired H.P. Lovecraft.

The story has never been collected in any edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's works, and is reprinted here for the first time.

With an extended afterword by Adam Newell, detailing the background to the story, and its fascinating links to the work of H.P. Lovecraft, with relevant excerpts from Lovecraft's writings.

A strictly limited, never-to-be-reprinted edition of 250 hand-numbered copies for sale.

Each copy features a tipped-in frontispiece illustration, based on an original linocut by Sharon Newell.

A5 format, 40pp (over 10,000 words in total), printed on uncoated stock, including a cover printed on heavy Tinteretto Gesso paper. With a frontispiece printed on 300gsm silk stock, tipped in by hand.

Our previous limited editions have tended to sell out, so don't miss out on this one...
The Slave Race, featuring Philip K. Dick's first SF tale (not in his Collected Stories), sold out in a matter of days (details here).
Our two Lawrence of Arabia titles (see details here and here), were described by the T. E. Lawrence Society as "a very beautiful publication" and "a valuable piece of ephemera for your collection". 
The Ghost of the Private Theatricals, a newly discovered tale of terror by Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein (details here), was featured in the Times Literary Supplement, and also sold out quickly, with copies going to every continent except Antarctica!
Limited copies remain of At the Door of Darkness, a forgotten episode from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, deleted from the published version, and now reconstructed from the original manuscript. Details here.


TO ORDER GODS OF DARKNESS

There are 250 hand-numbered copies, first come, first-served. There will be no reprint.

NOW SOLD OUT (in less than a fortnight...).



More photos:









The frontispiece is taken from an original linocut by Sharon Newell.
Here it is being carved.


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Many thanks as always to Sharon Newell for her superbly atmospheric linocut, which became the basis for the frontispiece, and to Martin Stiff for his mastery of design and layout. Special thanks are also due to Jeff Sypeck, without whom...
I'd also like to make it clear that this edition, published in the UK, was not licenced, prepared or approved by the Estate of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Photograph of Fitzgerald by Carl Van Vechten. Photograph of Lovecraft by Lucius B. Truesdell.

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