Circus Horror Novel
The Unholy Three
Publication: New York: John Lane, 1917. First Edition.
Notes: A horror novel about criminal circus freaks. The book was filmed in 1925 as a silent film and in 1930 with sound, both starring Lon Chaney as the villain Professor Echo, a ventriloquist.
310, [2:blank] pages, including the preliminaries. Bound in tan cloth with a navy blue and green cover decoration, including a parrot. Spine tamped in blue. Co-published in London by John Lane / The Bodley Head and in Toronto by S. B. Gundy, presumably with dust jacket variations.
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing with the same date on the title page and the copyright page). A very good copy in a fair dust jacket, missing a one-inch triangular piece from the front panel, the bottom two inches of the spine, and small chips along the edges. The front panel of the jacket is detached and held together with old tape and a paper repair. Substantially complete.
Provenance: James Strand (one of the few books not stolen from his library), with his estate's Lovecraft-inspired bookplate on the front pastedown.
Item No: #365623
Price: $1,250