[POE, EDGAR ALLAN]. Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Illustrated by Harry Clarke. London: George Harrap & Co., 1919.
Hardcover. First trade edition. Full cloth. Quarto (280 x 210 x 40mm), pp. 381, [2], [1, blank]. Bound in publisher's original sage-green buckram over boards, front cover pictorially stamped and lettered in black, spine pictorially stamped in black and lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, fore edge and bottom edge unevenly cut, half-title present, twenty-four black and white plates and ten decorative tail-pieces and vignettes repeated throughout the text (two of which were used several times in Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen). Condition: Good to very good. Collated complete, binding tight and secure, covers largely clean with slight mark to spine, spine ends slightly rolled, contents clean with some light browning and foxing, plates excellent, without dust jacket.
Notes: "Mr. Harry Clarke has allowed himself full liberty in attempting to express the features of Poe's Tales which differentiate them from others. In his drawings, the morbid imaginings of Poe's extraordinary genius are depicted without any attempt to soften their weird effects upon most readers. At the same time the drawings are extremely beautiful. They exhibit a wealth of delicate and intricate design such as few other, if any, living artists can command" (Harrap's advertising feature in the Bookman's Christmas Supplement, quoted in Bowe, p. 52). [Bowe, p. 149, no. 3. Steenson A2.b].
