Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination. by Poe, Edgar Allan; Illustrations by Arthur Rackham - 1935

London: George G. Harrap & Company, 1935. First signed limited edition of this Arthur Rackham. Quarto, original full vellum, titles and tooling to the spine and front panel, top edge gilt, pictorial endpapers. Illustrations by Arthur Rackham including 12 tipped-in color plates, 17 black & white illustrations. Signed by Arthur Rackham on the limitation page, as issued. In the original publisher's slipcase with printed spine label, one of 460 copies. In near fine condition with a touch of rubbing. Uncommon in this condition and in the original slipcase. The title "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" was first used by The World's Classics and printed by Grant Richard in 1902. The title of this collection was then adopted by Padraic Colum in 1908 in view of the growing reputation of Poe's taste for suspense, especially in the context of what his French critic M. Brunetiere called events "on the margin" of life. The original collection, in keeping with its title, deliberately excluded Poe's poems, comedies and essays. There are twenty-five tales including The Pit and the Pendulum, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Fall of the House of Usher and The Descent into the Maelstrom.