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.

Limited to 100 Copies: A Forgotten Episode from Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Now Reconstructed from the Original Manuscript

"This comedy of light at the door of darkness" — Joseph Conrad, from the text deleted from the published version of Heart of Darkness The frontispiece and title page of this limited edition. See below for more photos. NOW SOLD OUT AT THE DOOR OF DARKNESS By Joseph Conrad A forgotten episode from Heart of Darkness, cut from the published version, now reconstructed from the original manuscript A strictly limited, never-to-be-reprinted edition of 100 hand-numbered copies for sale With an original, individually hand-printed linocut frontispiece tipped in to each copy Our previous limited editions have all sold out, so don't miss out on this one... 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! Heart of Darkness is Joseph Conrad's most celebrated story, both as a work of literature, and as the inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola's classic film Apocalypse Now. Originally published in 1899, the novella's dark tale of madness in the jungle was based on the author's own experience of travelling up the Congo river a decade before. Conrad’s journey began when he came ashore on 12 June 1890 at Boma, the seat of government of what was then the Congo Free State. He drew on his experiences in Boma to write an extended passage in Heart of Darkness, detailing the true beginning of Marlow's river voyage — but this episode, full of fascinating detail, was deleted from the printed version of the story, and has now become quite literally a footnote, mentioned in a few academic editions, but otherwise forgotten. This limited edition finally brings the full text of this 'deleted scene' into print, reconstructed from the original manuscript. Each copy of the edition features an original, individually hand-printed tipped-in linocut frontispiece by Sharon Newell, inspired by the baobab tree at Boma, as described by Conrad in the text deleted from the published version of Heart of Darkness. A5 format, printed on uncoated 160gsm paper, 20pp plus a cover printed on heavy Rives Shetland paper. Includes both a transcription of the deleted text from the manuscript, and the heavily edited passage as eventually published in the printed version. A detailed Introduction by Adam Newell gives the background to the text, and reveals an intriguing connection between this lost episode and Apocalypse Now... Features photos of the five relevant pages of Conrad's original manuscript, and rare historical images of Boma, identifying the locations described by Conrad.

More photos below:

Each copy comes with a hand-printed linocut by Sharon Newell - here's one with the actual lino to the right.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As always, I have Sharon Newell to thank for her wonderful linocuts, and Martin Stiff of Amazing15 for his brilliant design and layout. Acknowledgment also to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, which holds Conrad's manuscript.

The Secret Garden First Edition

As is often the case with such lovely books, between me taking these photos and posting them, this book has already sold... but I'll put them up anyway, as a record of the wonderful Rackham-esque illustrations by Charles (Heath) Robinson (brother of William) in this, the first edition of Frances Hodgson Burnett's beloved classic.

Ever Heard of Beatrix Potter's Adult Fairy Tale, Sister Anne?

... Nope, me neither.

Beatrix Potter's final book, Sister Anne, has been all but forgotten. Narration by talking mice aside, there are no cute animals: it's actually a re-telling of the Bluebeard story (about a serial wife-murderer...). The book was published in the USA (and the USA only) in 1932. I don't think it's ever been reprinted. One of the reasons why it's been overlooked is because the illustrations are not Potter's: providing them was too much for the ageing Beatrix, so the task fell to Katharine Sturges.

A copy of the first (and presumably only) edition arrived on my desk this week. It's actually the first 'state' of the first edition, with the frontispiece illustration mistakenly tipped in opposite page 7, instead of the title page, where later copies had it.

Apparently Potter herself didn't rate Sister Anne, and her biographer Margaret Lane didn't mince her words either, calling it a "pretentious failure." It's a pretty looking volume though, and very rare...

Here, for possibly the first time on the internet, is a look at all Sturges's illustrations for Sister Anne.