Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
DE LA MARE, Walter.. THE RETURN.. Edward Arnold, London, 1910.
Price: US$95.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Octavo, publisher's original dark green cloth titled in gilt on spine panel, titles in white on upper cover. 312 pp + 8 pp publisher's catalogue bound in at rear. This is the first edition, first impression, second issue binding, with the inserted publisher's catalogue at the rear. Hairline crack to inner front hinge, tiny stains on endpapers, small rubbed area on front panel, light wear to cloth at spine tips, corners slightly rolled. A clean, very good, sound copy. A weird supernatural story. A man is possessed by the spirit of a long-dead 18th-century pirate, a suicide. The man begins to take on the pirate's physical appearance. One of de la Mares finest occult tales. De la Mare "make[s] a significant contribution to the supernatural genre by exploring new areas of the relationship between the everyday world, the magical and the macabre ." - Neil Wilson, Shadows in the Attic [2000]. Note: The author revised the text in 1922, toning down the supernaturalism, and this text was the basis of reprints until the 1997 Dover reissue which utilized the text of the first edition.
Seller: Thompson Rare Books - ABAC / ILAB, Hornby Island, BC, Canada
De la Mare, Walter. THE RETURN .. Edward Arnold, London, 1910.
Price: US$100.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-312 + 8-page undated publisher's catalogue inserted at rear, original dark green cloth, front panel stamped in white, spine panel stamped in gold, bottom edge untrimmed. First edition. Second issue with inserted publisher's catalogue. The author's fourth book and second novel. "The protagonist goes to sleep in a graveyard and takes on the appearance of an eighteenth-century suicide; rejected by his family and friends he is forced to reconstruct his identity, uncertain whether he must become a psychological as well as a physical replica of the dead man. An unusual exercise in speculative existentialism." - Barron (ed), Horror Literature 3-58. "Most interesting, handled more directly than is usually the case with de la Mare, although much is still left to the reader's imagination." - Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 499. The author revised the text in 1922, toning down the supernaturalism, and this text was the basis of reprints until the recent (1997) Dover reissue which utilized the text of the first edition. Ashley, Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, pp. 65-6. Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, pp. 117-21. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 4-89. Wilson, Shadows in the Attic, p. 177. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 59. Reginald 04032. Spine leaned, cloth rubbed at edges, spine panel a bit sunned, mild tanning and foxing to endpapers, a sound, good or better copy. (#172027)
Seller: Currey, L.W. Inc. ABAA/ILAB, Elizabethtown, NY, U.S.A.
De La Mare, Walter. THE RETURN. Edward Arnold, London, United Kingdom, 1910.
Price: US$303.16 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First UK Edition, First Print. This is a true first edition, first printing (first impression) Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-312. Scarce first issue without the catalogue to the rear. Spine dulled, light offsetting, mild spotting to preliminary leaves. Clean pages and a tight binding. a very good plus, bright copy of the scarce first issue, first state. Signed via a laid in short typed letter with an autograph from the author to a correspondent.
Seller: Kelleher Rare Books, Naas, IE, Ireland
De la Mare, Walter. THE RETURN .. Edward Arnold, London, 1910.
Price: US$350.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-312 + 8-page undated publisher's catalogue inserted at rear, original dark green cloth, front panel stamped in white, spine panel stamped in gold, bottom edge untrimmed. First edition. Second issue with inserted publisher's catalogue. The author's fourth book and second novel. "The protagonist goes to sleep in a graveyard and takes on the appearance of an eighteenth-century suicide; rejected by his family and friends he is forced to reconstruct his identity, uncertain whether he must become a psychological as well as a physical replica of the dead man. An unusual exercise in speculative existentialism." - Barron (ed), Horror Literature 3-58. "Most interesting, handled more directly than is usually the case with de la Mare, although much is still left to the reader's imagination." - Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 499. The author revised the text in 1922, toning down the supernaturalism, and this text was the basis of reprints until the recent (1997) Dover reissue which utilized the text of the first edition. Ashley, Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, pp. 65-6. Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, pp. 117-21. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 4-89. Wilson, Shadows in the Attic, p. 177. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 59. Reginald 04032. Spine lightly leaned, mild foxing to preliminary leaves, a nearly fine, bright copy. A superior copy of a somewhat elusive book rarely found in nice condition. (#77253)
Seller: Currey, L.W. Inc. ABAA/ILAB, Elizabethtown, NY, U.S.A.