Aiken (Joan) Smoke from Cromwell’s Time

and other stories
New York, Doubleday & Company, 1970.

First US edition, first printing. Inscribed presentation copy from the author to Richard [Dalby], with accompanying typed letter to the same signed by the author. 8vo. Original cloth-backed boards. Dust-jacket, priced $3.95.

A collection of short stories displaying Aiken’s characteristic blend of historical imagination, folklore tone, and quiet strangeness… An attractive association copy, having been sent by the author to the editor and literary researcher Richard Dalby, famous for his anthologies of ghost stories. Richard Dalby was a known collector and editor who had a significant professional relationship with Aiken, who frequently inscribed and signed her books for him. Aiken’s story ‘The Traitor’ appeared in Dalby’s 1992 anthology Modern Ghost Stories, and this letter would suggest that they were considering further stories by her to similarly anthologise.