Violet Books

Oscar Wilde's The Caterville Ghost (Boston: Luce, 1906) provides a superior specimen of art nouveau decorative binding (gold, pale green, black & white on grey cloth, depicting the ghost with whirling hair). The small book is illustrated throughout. The story, of course, is deservedly a classic of humor and the supernatural, and has been twice filmed besides.

George Sterling's The House of Orchids (San Francisco: Robertson, 1911) is displayed for your dilectation in an appropriately Decadent art nouveau binding. It's a collection of poetry, much of it weird. Sterling was early in his writing career a protege of Ambrose Bierce. He in turn, toward the end of his career, had as his protege the Weird Tales giant Clark Ashton Smith.

F(ryniwyd) Tennyson Jesse is perhaps best remembered by collectors of weird fiction for her occult detective The Solange Stories (Macmillan, 1931) but for my money a far better collection is Beggars on Horseback Doran, 1915) shown here in its first edition pictorial binding. The color frontispiece is the same illustration of a young faun, from a painting by the author. The volume consists of decadent supernatural tales about pale bohemian artist types, highly recommendable if you're ever lucky enough to spot a copy.

Violet Tweedale's Found Dead and Other True Ghost Stories (London: Herbert Jenkins, 1928), in spite of it's subtitle and an "autobiographical" approach to the stories, is in reality a collection of six literary ghost novelettes, far more substantial than "true" ghost stories. Tweedale wrote both "true" ghost stories and "literary" ghosts and horror tales. The two categories occasionally cannot be told apart.

Edith Towsend Everett's nearly impossible-to-find collection A Duel with Destiny and Other Stories (Philadelphia: Drexel Biddle, 1898) is no lost classic, but it's beautifully enough bound, and the title story at least is a vampiric femme fatale horror story of decided merit, with a melodramatic frontispiece in a style reminiscent of old shilling shockers or penny dreadfuls.

Gertrude Hall's The One Hundred and Other Stories (New York & London: Harper & Brothers, 1898) has an art neauveau paper dolls & title binding identical on both front & back of the cloth. All three of Gertrude Hall's collections include fantasies or supernatural stories in the mixes. This volume has a spooky frontispiece depicting the ghost from "Paula in Italy." Her other two collections were Foam of the Sea & Other Tales (Boston: Roberts, 1895) and Far from Today (Roberts, 1892).

Anna Nicholas's An Idyll of the Wabash and Other Stories (Bowen Merrill, 1898) was blessed with a lovely art nouveau binding. The author was an Indiana "local color" specialist who obtained a transient national fame at the very end of the Local Color Fiction craze across America. Included in this volume is one weird tale, "An Occult Experience." In her later collection The Making of Thomas Barton (Bobbs Merrill, 1913) she included two more ghost stories.

Mrs. Baillie Reynold's The Spell of Sarnia is shown here in the Burt edition issued from 1925 Doran first edition plates. The story is a Weird Romance of the Isle of Guernsey (or Sarnia) set early in the century when old, virtually medieval standards of life had remained unchanged since the Normandy invasion, and both white and black magic still held sway.

John Philip Sousa -- yes that John Philip Sousa -- had a bestselling novella with several editions, and it played well into his greater fame as a composer. The Fifth String (Indianapolis: Bowen Merrill, 1902) is shown here in the most attractivew of its editions, an embossed art nouveau winged violin in tree. There are also a tissued illustration plates by Howard Chandler Christy within. The Hoffmann influence is palpable in this occult/mystic novella of the music of death.

S. Louis Geraud edited Uncanny Stories: Weird Happenings to "Daily News" Readers (Ln: Fleetgate [1927]) and quickly followed up with True Ghost Stories: Actual Experiences of "Daily News" Readers that same year. These volumes consisted of ghost stories, true and false vignettes, and even jokes on the topic, as sent in sent to the London Daily News readership. Geraud added aong introduction.

What a wonderful art nouveau binding was given Our Lady of Waters by George F. Duysters (New York: New Amsterdam Books, 1903). This collection of weird tales of Spanish America is, if my memory isn't fooling me, identical in content to Opals from a Mexican Mine issued by the same publisher as by George De Villiere in 1896. They are quite stunningly good tales & only the book's great rarity makes the author pretty much unknown even to long-time collectors.

Robert W. Chambers' The Tree of Heaven (New York: Appleton, 1907) is shown here in it's first edition art nouveau binding. There are a handful supernatural shorts included in this mix, none of which attempt to be "scarey" however. A typical tale regards telepathic communication between lovers who have not yet met, so not the intensity of his remarkable The King in Yellow, but not without charm.