Knox-Little (W.J.) The Child of Stafferton.
£125
A Chapter from a Family Chronicle
London, Chapman & Hall, 1889.
One-shilling edition. 8vo. Original pictorial boards, priced one shilling.
An early edition, originally published the previous year, of this ghostly tale about a family curse, written by the Rector of St Alban’s, Manchester and later Canon of Worcester Cathedral, author also of The Broken Vow (1887). Scarce in the original boards.
In stock
Minor foxing, hinges reinforced, ink names and bookplate to front endpapers; covers worn, some marking.
Bookplate of Anne & F.G. Renier.
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First edition thus.
London. Reader's Library, [1934 according to COPAC but could be earlier]
Death by poisoning in a locked bedroom at Staups, an isolated manor house on the Yorkshire Moors. Weird elements, a supposedly cursed jewel and sacrificial knives looted from the temple of Aztec descendants living in Central America, Author’s first crime novel, published in the UK by Bles in 1927.
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London, Herbert Jenkins, [c.1934].
First edition, second impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 2/6.
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Weird & Supernatural
London, Stanley Paul, 1909.
First edition. 8vo. Original (variant) blue cloth.
A key work in Hope Hodgson's canon, here in a seemingly unknown variant binding (the normal is red cloth, with green also being recorded). The tale recounts a ship crew's strange & terrifying experience as their reality comes into contact with an alternative, darker mirror world. Bleiler was a huge fan of Hope Hodgson, calling his novels "visionary accounts that have no real parallels in English literature". Of this particular title he noted:
"One of the great sea novels. highly original in detail and well done. Although it is overshadowed as visionary horror by the more spectacular The House on the Borderland and The Night Land, as a work of art, it is finer." (The Guide to Supernatural Fiction).
A revised version of the ending was anthologised, under the title "The Silent Ship".
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London, Methuen, 1918.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale blue cloth, lettered in black.
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