Poems in Prose

Sauk City: Arkham House, 1964. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/near fine. Utpatel, Frank. First printing, duodecimo size, 81 pp. Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961) was a prolific writer, best known for his contributions to the fantasy and horror story magazine "Weird Tales", alongside such writers as H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, and his contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos; in addition to fantasy and science fiction, Smith produced several volumes of poetry, and this collection features most of his prose poems.

Artist Frank Utpatel not only illustrates the dust jacket of this volume, but also provides full-page illustrations throughout the book, in his signature haunting and enigmatic style.

___DESCRIPTION: Full black cloth, gilt lettering on the spine, grey endpapers, frontispiece a black-and-white illustration by Frank Utpatel, title page with publisher's device, full-page black-and-white illustrations by Utpatel throughout; Linotype Garamond, Winnebago Eggshell paper, duodecimo size (7.5" by 5.25"), pagination: [i-v] vi-xxiv [1-3] 4-54 [55-57], 1016 copies printed per Derleth and 1000 copies per Sidney-Fryer, 1000 copies per the colophon. In a paper dust jacket with wraparound illustration by Utpatel, blue lettering on the front panel and spine, author and illustrator bios on the rear panel, a description of the book on the front flap, and a list of other books from the publisher on the rear flap; the dust jacket is unclipped with the original price of $4.00 on the front flap.

___CONDITION: A fine copy; the covers clean, the corners straight, the binding tight with solid hinges, the interior clean and bright, and free of prior owner markings; a hint of rubbing to the tail of the spine and bottom corners, and the corner of one illustration was turned down prior to cutting, ff. p. 34. The dust jacket is near fine, unclipped, clean but for a few stray marks, overall without wear, light creasing to the top edge of the rear flap, toning along the top edge.

___CITATIONS: Currey p. 453, Derleth no. 81, Sidney-Fryer pp. 159 and 160.

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