Bookish Horror
The Alabaster Hand and Other Ghost Stories
Notes: "Stories written while the author was a prisoner of war in Germany, 1943–1945...Intelligent stories, with curious antiquarian information, yet with formal problems. The author has difficulty in closing his stories and the reader is often left dissatisfied."—Bleiler, Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 1206.
Some of the stories have bookish themes. In one, an antiquarian bookseller is also a murderer; another centers on a medieval book of hours, a third is about a customer whose attempt to order an occult manuscript from a dealer's catalog.
Edition + Condition: First edition (states "First published..." on the copyright page). But for a previous owner's name on the front free endpaper, a near fine copy in a very good dust jacket tanned at the spine and with small chips at the edges. An attractive copy overall.
Publication: London: Denis Dobson, 1949.
Item No: #362672
Price: $200