[JAMES, MONTAGUE RHODES ]. Ghost-Stories of an Antiquary. With Four illustrations by the Late James McBryde. London: Edward Arnold, 1915.
Hardcover. Ninth impression. Full leather. Octavo (205 x 150 mm.), pp. [xi], 270. Finely bound in contemporary dark burgundy calf, signed by Deighton Bell & Co. Five raised spine bands, the compartments gilt ruled, tooled and lettered, covers with gilt ruled frame, edges with gilt dotted roll, both covers with gilt blocked crest of Christ's College (Cambridge University), top edge gilt. Marbled endpapers, half-title present, four illustrated plates by James McBryde. Condition: GOOD to VERY GOOD. Binding tight and secure, minor rubbing to extremities. Contents very clean indeed with some browning to fore edge. Without previous ownership markings. Scarce.
Notes: This is famously the first work of fiction by the highly regarded scholar and antiquarian Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936), who is now regarded as one of the greatest ghost-story writers of all time. He began writing after entering Cambridge in 1882, quickly becoming known for his candlelit readings to fellow scholars. Several of his stories were printed in general magazines before publisher Edward Arnold presented this collection of eight tales. The popularity of the collection was such that it led to fan requests for more, among these were the prince of Wales and Theodore Roosevelt. The illustrator, James McBryde, close friend of the author, was employed to provide the drawings but he died before publication. Arnold suggested another illustrator, however, James, a close friend of McBryde's, was adamant that he could not be replaced and the work was published with just the four completed illustrations as a tribute to his friend. The fourth plate in the book (facing p. 222) was the last McBryde prepared before his death. He wrote excitedly to James on 6 May 1904, "I have finished the Whistle ghost. I covered yards of paper to put in the moon shadows correctly and it is certainly the best thing I have ever drawn". Among the eight extremely creepy stories in this volume is the frequently anthologized tale, "The Mezzotint". In a fine tribute to an author who had not written in the genre before, Kunitz & Haycraft (Twentieth Century Authors) wrote that the author had "surpassed most writers of ghost stories in the eeriness of his atmosphere, the individual and peculiarly creepy quality of his plots, and the vindictiveness and maligancy of his ghosts." [Bleiler, 279, 911].
