Letterpress Lovecraft

An amazing new edition of "The Colour out of Space" was recently published!

http://www.shelterbookworks.com/the-colour-out-of-space/

Looks stunning! Limited to 40 copies. About time Lovecraft gets the royal treatment :)

Very nice! I would be tempted if I had not already acquired the Centipede Press edition of Lovecraft's complete works.

2: I love Centipede Press. But these are two totally different animals. First off, the CP edition is not Lovecraft's complete works. It may include most of his famous stories, but far from his complete works (for example, he wrote a large amount of poetry). Anyway, beautiful letterpress with illustrations is far different than giant omnibus. Get both :)

>3 astropi: "I love Centipede Press. But these are two totally different animals." Indeed, the Centipede Press itself is working on an illustrated copy of At the Mountains of Madness that will include a limited edition letterpress version.

>4 kdweber: Very interesting!

There's also a letterpress edition of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" from the Heavenly Monkey Press, now OOP:
http://www.heavenlymonkey.com/Innsmouth.html

>4 kdweber: Do you have any more information about this, or perhaps a link? I looked on the Centipede Press website, and could not find anything related to it.

>7 ultrarightist: I received a small 20+ page illustrated prospectus with one of my CP orders a few months ago. I recently confirmed with Jerad that the project was still moving forward. No release dates of which I am aware.

>8 kdweber: Thank you

https://www.peganapress.com/h.p.-lovecraft.html

For those that may have missed this lovely edition.

So, I don't suppose our spammer, #11 "Alireza Asheri" was related to Abdul Alhazred :)

>12 astropi:

That way lies madness, my friend.

The artist that did the amazing letterpress Colour Out of Space published another book last year. It is $900, but its also 100 pages. It's honestly nice to see some larger works published by small independent presses!

http://www.shelterbookworks.com/

>14 astropi: What was the price of Color Out of Space if you remember?

>15 filox:

IIRC, it was about $600 or $650, enough to turn me off from purchasing a short Lovecraft story, despite the beautiful binding, illustrations and book design.

>15 filox: I honestly don't remember. I thought it was actually $450 or so, which is still arguably a crazy amount of money for a Lovecraft story. Totally worth it though, at least for those of us that love such works. With a limitation of 40, I can't see it ever depreciating in value. Nor have I seen any copies for sale in the second-hand market.

Still have the paypal email in my email archives, it was exactly $500. I'm in agreement with >17 astropi:, while I think the typography not exactly something that stands out with this production the quality and style of binding I believe more than makes up for it and would definitely be one of the last volumes in my collection to go where I in a dire position to flog everything off.

Count me in as another owner of this edition. It's one of my favorite books. The tracycase is also really well built.

There is a new edition of the 'The Shadow over Innsmouth' from Heavenly Monkey being published, with some extra content, in an absolutely beautiful quarter-leather binding - http://www.heavenlymonkey.com/Innsmouth2020.html

>20 jeremyjm: Maybe a "new" edition, but it's not new work.

Sixteen sets of unbound extra sheets from HM’s 2005 edition of The Shadow Over Innsmouth were found when the bindery closed...Some years after publishing Innsmouth, several dozen copies of the Necronomicon pamphlet were presented to HM, from the estate of the original printer, with the invitation to put them to some use.

This is a rebinding of extras of the original publication with the pamphlet added. It's also $2000. Looks lovely, but beyond the reach of most mortals I daresay.

And two grand for a short work is otherworldly. I love Lovecraft, but not THAT much.

>22 Glacierman: I would say it's definitely not a short work. The original HM Shadow was around 150 pages. With the pamphlet and a few extra you get another 15 or so. For a letterpress work, this is a lot. Still way too pricey for most of us, but it is a good length. I'd love to see more works of this length at "reasonable" prices.

I have managed to pick up both the Batrachian issue and the Ichthyic issue of the HM Shadow over Innsmouth on the secondary market. The cost of both of those purchases combined was far less than the $2k they're asking for here. With patience, one should be able to pick up at least the Batrachian issue at a pretty reasonable price.

That said, the binding and design is gorgeous and if it were priced right for my budget, I would snap it up.

Looks beautiful. Unfortunately, too pricey for me.

NOT letterpress, but Easton Press has released a beautifully illustrated Deluxe Limited Edition of
At the Mountains of Madness
https://www.eastonpress.com/deluxe-editions/at-the-mountains-of-madness-3806.htm...
Tempting...

>26 astropi: I like the looks of the illustrations in this one, but after 6+ years it sounds like the Centipede Press letterpress edition might actually be nearing production.

Jerad mentioned back in January that he was getting ready for print tests.

>26 astropi: I really like these illustrations as well -- thanks for the tip on this.

>27 NathanOv: I am so looking forward to the CP edition. Certainly a lot could have changed, but if it's anything like the original prospectus details, it will be a serious edition (and seriously expensive alas! At least the letterpress versions). But again, who knows how much could have changed . . .

>28 eanson: will you share the prospectus details?

>29 ultrarightist: Let me see if I can find it -- I don't have a copy myself, but someone (somewhere!) had posted it online awhile back and the details were really something. Of course it was years ago, so who knows how much has changed . . .

>6 kermaier: I don't care if this Heavenly Monkey Press particular edition is letterpress or not. It just looks awful. Sorry, make it lettepress and call it a day just wrong. It needs to have full package. Covers, illustrations etc.

>26 astropi: I don't know if its me but I can't find Lovecraft name on EP spine. That just wrong and this alone put me away from buying it. I like illustrations though

>32 horrorbooks:
The Lovecraft volume is one of 35 (so far) in a series that features the art and the artist’s signature. Many of them have the author’s name on the spine, but some do not. Lovecraft is in good company, though, as not even Jules Verne is acknowledged on the spine of “20,000 Leagues.”

>30 eanson: There will be an offset edition and a letterpress edition, the latter costing more than a couple thousand dollars, and likely have a small limitation like the first letterpress book they published.

Photos of the prospectus are available on FB (public link anyone can access):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2572580089680801/posts/2624977654441044/
This edition of At the Mountains of Madness features the original novel, a special selection of letters by HP Lovecraft to friends and associates, wherein he discusses the novel; nearly two dozen original artworks created solely for this edition; a special printing, never before published, of both HPL's original handwritten manuscript and first typescript of the novel; two essays about the novel and its history; and an interview with Guillermo del Toro, wherein he talks about ATMOM and HPL. The deluxe editions of this monumental work will be printed letterpress in an oversize format, and a smaller trade edition, printed offset, will also be available. All copies will be signed by most contributors."

There's also another image that describes the making of the book.

From a 2020 newsletter:
"After that long list for forthcoming titles from last week’s newsletter, some of you asked, “Hey, what about At the Mountains of Madness?” Yes! That is still in the works. With new artwork by Michael Whelan, Travis Louie, Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell, Brom, Bob Eggleton, and many others, this is going to be one hell of a book. Oversize, letterpress, and lots of extras. I’ll try to get some updates to you as winter approaches. So, yes, it is still in the works. Really hoping for a 2022 pub date. The printer is local Denver-based letterpress shop that has been doing some terrific work for us lately. Stay tuned!"

>34 What_What: thanks for linking to that.

I couldn't access it without logging into my Facebook account first, so here are the photos in case others are interested:

>34 What_What: It’s in the prospectus, but just to highlight it separately:

The original limitation was to be 10 Roman numeral letterpress copies, 100 clothe-bound letterpress copies, and 300 offset trade editions.

Given it’s been a decade and there’s been consistent interest, however, I would not be surprised it the clothe-bound / numbered limitation increased. I guess it probably depends on how tied there hands are on contracts and signing agreements.

>33 jroger1: I see now. Thanks for your explanation. it was kind of weird for them not to have author's name on the spine, but I understand they doing some kind of artist series where they hire different illustrators. Well, correct me if I'm wrong.

>31 horrorbooks: That's your opinion and you are certainly entitled to it. That said, I'm guessing you do not own the book do you? First, the size and dimensions are exactly the same as the original publication. Secondly, it does have illustrations. In fact it has a a fold-out map of Innsmouth as well as 6 wood engravings inspired by images found in the paintings of Heironymous Bosch - I think this is an exquisite work and frankly has been underappreciated for a long time, but that time seems to be passed. At one point there were a few copies on the second-hand market for a few hundred dollars (a steal), but those dried-up years ago and not a single copy is found on abe or anywhere else I could see. Magnificent edition that any Lovecraft/horror fan will want to own.

>38 astropi: Glad you like it, but my opinion about it stands on the basis of pictures that I saw. I'm very happy that you think its magnificent edition. And, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I don't care about how much it cost, since I never buy books to resell them. I did not say it did not have illustrations. I simply don't like them. Again, matter of a personal taste. I also don't like EP and FS books, but its a different matter altogether.

>39 horrorbooks:
>38 astropi: It's a lovely, small publication. I don't remember what I paid for it but I don't think the original price was much over $100 for the cloth edition.

Here are a few pictures that do it more justice but a couple of them are from a different presentation.
http://www.heavenlymonkey.com/Innsmouth2020.html

I'm looking forward to the CP version!

>40 SDB2012: I am still upset to have somehow entirely missed this when it was (re)released in 2020. I imagine now it would go for 5-10x that.

>40 SDB2012: thanks for sharing. A long time ago, my wife purchased this limited edition of Lovecraft from FS with hand marbled end papers and creepy illustrations

https://postimg.cc/gallery/ctKhjB1

>34 What_What: Ah, many thanks there! That's exactly what I'd seen . . .

>35 abysswalker: Thank you! I had not seen the prospectus before you posted the photos. Interestingly, the prospectus is ~10 years old and describes the letterpress printing in the past tense. Did CP really print it ~10 years ago and hold it?

>38 astropi: I agree with your assessment of the book.

>42 horrorbooks: That's one of my favorite FS limited editions. The whole production is top-notch. The binding was controversial or disappointing for some but I love it. Letterpress and better paper would have been nice but we can't have everything at that price.

>46 SDB2012: and now the cheapest one is $1700 and goes up to $2999. Well, FS is not known for letterpress limited editions

>35 abysswalker: It's weird seeing my old bedspread (and fingertips!) pop up here in this forum where I occasionally lurk. Well, that's the internet for you. Everything comes back to haunt you. I'm still patiently waiting on Jerad's edition, as are most of us, I'm sure. As to him having already printed the pages all those years ago- all I can say is after I posted about the prospectus on Facebook, someone sent me a few sample letterpress pages of the book. Don't know if they were merely that- samples, and it hadn't gone past that stage or not, but- they look great, either way.

As to the Heavenly Monkey SOI edition(s): well, count me in the camp of Massive Fan. In over 30 years of book collecting- it may be my absolute favorite book on my shelves. It is just a perfectly sublime volume. Elegant, wonderfully designed, and the perfect size for this work- something a lot of folks get wrong. I've had the Batrachian for many years, and even (gulp) spent the most I ever have on a book- by thrice!- on that new 16 copy edition last year. And, while that new edition is a truly lovely thing- and, worth every penny to me- I'm still drawn to that exquisite, unassuming cloth bound Batrachian edition. If anyone gets a chance to buy one- I would highly recommend it.

A little OT in this thread, but: My Black Star Press (website and socials are nascent yet) is about to launch our Kickstarter for a beautifully designed (and printed letterpress) edition of The King In Yellow, if anyone is interested. It's been years in the making, but we are just about ready to hit "launch" and are very excited and hopeful of a successful campaign. I'll post about it in the proper area when the time comes.

>48 swintek: That’s exciting! I’ve been reading Alan Moore’s Providence- his take on the Lovecraft mythos- and The King in Yellow features heavily throughout. Really had me wishing there was a fine press edition of the book, so I’m totally on board with this!

>41 NathanOv: Yeah. Me too.

>48 swintek: Looking forward to seeing your work!

>48 swintek: Wow, exciting news on the King In Yellow! Do you have a Kickstarter account setup yet that we can follow for updates?

>49 SolerSystem: I'm a huge Alan Moore fan (my collection is a really good one- some very rare items), and, of course, absolutely love PROVIDENCE. I daresay reading that probably had no small hand in our decision to launch BSP with THE KING IN YELLOW. If we get this thing out of the gate as soon as we hope- we like the idea that our edition will be the first letterpress edition since the original! Every time I turn around now, there seems to be another letterpress Weird Fiction book about to be launched, so- its a race! Honestly, ours is so well-designed (we slaved over it for years) that I'm confident folks will want to have it on their shelves, even if there are others out there. Ok, back OT! I'll let folks know more in an appropriate thread here soon!

>48 swintek: I will absolutely back a letterpress release of The King In Yellow, whether the individual story or the book of the same title. Used to have a second edition of that work, with the textured cover.

>53 swintek: great stuff. Are you going to be focusing on weird fiction?

>55 SDB2012: Absolutely! The "sophomore" release- a logical stone-classic WF choice- is already being designed.

@swintek exciting news! All of us are looking forward to hearing more!

As for the FS Lovecraft book. I think it's good. Notice I say "good" and not "great" nor "amazing". My own personal opinion. A few things

1)The FS released a "standard" edition of the book which is basically the same as the LE without the signed print, fake leather binding, nor solander box. Oh yeah, and it's available now for $140
https://www.foliosociety.com/usa/the-call-of-cthulhu-other-weird-stories-core.ht...

2)The signed print is nice, but there was nothing that floored me about it.. Honestly, I would have rather just had the artist's signature within the book instead of in a loose print, but that's just my opinion. I know signed prints have a long history in book collecting, but I always found them a bit superfluous.

3)The fake leather binding on the book (eco-leather) was a talking point on the FS forums. I had not issues with it, although that said I can understand why people were upset and do agree that traditional leather would have been more Lovecraftian in nature.

At the end of the day, all those "extra touches" did not justify the price increase in my mind. If it has been letterpress, it would surely have been in my forever collection. As it stands, I think the standard edition is absolutely the way to go. The cheapest copy is not $1700 as noted by >47 horrorbooks:, or to be precise, I should say it's $1700 Australian dollars which is about $1111 dollars.

Again, I'm not trying to start an argument or anything, just sharing my opinions.

>57 astropi: I know you like EP books and even trying to promote EP books in this and EP forum. FS limited edition is still much better than any Lovecraft books Easton Press published, including font that EP still needs to learn how to print, so people can actually read their books. After so many years in business, EP still struggles with font clarity as well as quality of their books. Well, I'm not a big fan of FS books, but can say that they are much better reading copies than EP. Just stating my humble opinion, and also not looking for arguments over this matter. And, yes agreed I do have letterpress Lovecraft books from small press publishers and like them better than FS limited edition of Lovecraft

>48 swintek: you can add me to the list of interested parties as well!

Heavenly Monkey -- The Dunwich Horror --







Pictures do not do justice. I'm sure someone with more camera skills than I will show you better pictures, but let this whet your whistle!

>60 astropi: I read my copy today for Halloween! I was delighted they got it out a little early, given its very much Lovecraft’s Halloween story.

The rougher, off-white handmade paper with the tactile medium-bite letterpress evokes such a perfect feel for the story, and I love the other little design elements like the drop caps and tail ornaments as well.

I was skeptical of the illustration concept, particularly the description that they were intended to fit the mood more than illustrate the story. However, my 3 illustrations within the story actually fit the content pretty perfectly. For example, I received the same illustration shown in your post, but it was opposite the description of the Horror’s tentacled body.

Why didn’t I order this?! If anyone here decides they are unhappy with their’s feel free to let me know. Haha

Received mine earlier this week. It's fantastic.

>61 NathanOv: Well said! I also own HM's The Shadow Over Innsmouth which is a lovely production. But, Dunwich is in a different category altogether. It's really a masterpiece of book design. The other Lovecraft work I am aware of that is of this caliber is The Colour Out of Space by Shelter Bookworks --



>62 Nightcrawl: Keep your eyes on the second-hand market. I imagine a copy or two will show up and I'm willing to bet they'll be snagged immediately.

>63 SDB2012: Indeed it is :)

I echo all the views expressed here. It is truly outstanding.

Very cool to see the final result, I bought a couple non-hm books from Rollin and he was kind enough to include a leaf from this production.

>62 Nightcrawl: I’ll second that.

There's already one on the second-hand market.

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?utm_source=vialibri&utm_mediu...

Seller is asking $1500 USD -- it will sell.

I read my copy earlier in the week and I concur that it is fantastic. An excellent example of the book arts, and the aquatint illustrations are wonderfully tactile.

>61 NathanOv: Barcham Green handmade paper is some of the finest paper ever made.

>67 astropi: That didn’t last long!

My copy of The Dunwich Horror finally arrived today, delayed by the random vagaries of inernational post, and I can only say "Wow!"
I also have a (Batrachian) copy of HM's The Shadow Over Innsmouth which, while possessing its own charms (though I'd love to have a copy of the Icthyic state), is not in the same class of production.
The Horror is a thing of beauty. :-)

Not letterpress (except for the Roulet edition covers), but possibly of interest all the same are the Helios House Press editions of The Shunned House and their forthcoming The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (currently undergoing crowdfunding). I have the former, it's a nicely made book, and am backing the latter.

>71 Shadekeep: Thanks for that! It looks lovely. My dream is that one day someone will publish a truly fine press edition of The Dream-Quest... sigh. It's my favorite work from Lovecraft.

>72 astropi: Perhaps CTP will include it in the Lovecraft volume(s) of their forthcoming Weird series

>73 ultrarightist: I would love if CTP did a "Dreamlands" anthology for their HP Lovecraft title, rather than just another of Joshi's "greatest hits" collections like he's done for half a dozen publishers.

I respect Joshi as an editor, but I'd like to see more creativity here, especially when there's the opportunity to do something much more thematic and have book design, illustration and story selections all coalesce together.

If they simply have to include the likes of Call of Cthulhu, they could also make it a "bas relief" collection with AtMoM, Dagon and Shadow Out of Time as well, which would lend itself to some interesting illustration.

>73 ultrarightist: That would be wonderful.

>74 NathanOv: Agreed. I feel the story gets overlooked far too often. There are a gazillion Lovecraft anthologies, some of them quality publications, like the FS's edition. But, I've never seen a fine press Dream-Quest.

Whatever fine press tackles it, I'd love for them to do all the Randolph Carter stories together. And while I'm making wishes, a volume devoted to Hodgson's Carnacki stories would be fantastic as well.

I'm a fan of Pickman's Model myself, although there are a great many of Lovecraft's stories I thoroughly enjoy...most of them, really.

>76 Shadekeep:. Oh, I agree wholeheartedly!!

I will say they struck gold with House on the Borderland. That is perhaps my favorite "Weird Tales" work of all time -- hard to say. Certainly one of my favorites! I read it after reading a bunch of Lovecraft, Bierce, etc. and it really stood out. It was almost gothic in nature, but had elements of science and mythology. I also loved his Sargasso Sea Stories which I hope CTP also publishes :)

>74 NathanOv: >77 Glacierman: Just so! There's a lot of ways you could frame an HPL collection without rolling out the standard playlist every time. For example, a volume of stories centering on accursed buildings (The Haunter in The Dark, The Horror at Red Hook, The Outsider, etc) might be one way to tie together a theme and an art style, while exposing readers to a different slate of titles. Or you could do all the stories that involve a farm and the countryside, or all the ones with a nautical slant, or all the ones involving medical/scientific horrors. Any of these would make a welcome change to me.

>79 Shadekeep: Exactly! That's exactly the approach I'd love to see instead. I just think there are plenty of options out there for "samplers" of these authors, and if you're trying to unify the book design and illustration, the stories should be somewhat unified as well.

>74 NathanOv: I too would like to see a thematic treatment by CTP that lends itself to thematic treatment of the illustrations in the same style and ideally by the same artist. I am leery of CTP doing the Dreamlands theme, though, because I have collected the Dark Dreamlands set from Pegana Press and they are superb.

>78 astropi: Agreed, but I'm also looking forward to some fine press treatment of Machen and Blackwood, neither of which has been afforded it to date, I believe.

>81 ultrarightist: Well, there certainly would be some overlap there. Though Pegana hasn't struck strictly to the "Dreamlands" stories, and also is quite unlikely to ever do The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath. >76th idea of a Randolph Carter anthology would be a way to avoid complete overlap though, or would bundling Kadath with some of the other bas relief stories. It really is at the intersection of a lot of Lovecraft's work.

>83 NathanOv: You could also get Dream Quest into a volume with Call of Cthulhu and Pickman's Model under the "tortured artist" theme. I'd probably add Haunter of the Dark to that one as well.

>84 Shadekeep: And then hire a tortured artist to illustrate it ;-)

>85 ultrarightist: Precisely! Or you could find one you like and then torture them. 😁

Re: Heavenly Monkey's Dunwich Horror: I received this last week and have just had time to properly look it over. It's exceptional! I can't wait to sit down and read it later today. Since- as usual- the book was announced and sold out before I knew of it's existence, I had to rely on a (very helpful) dealer to get a copy for me, aftermarket. Does anyone happen to know the publication prices of the various editions? Or, indeed, have some kind of prospectus that was emailed?

Thanks, Astopi, for the pics above. Very nice to see all of those wonderful, various editions stacked together like that.

Just an update that the Helios House Press edition of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath: An Illustrated Edition mentioned here >71 Shadekeep: is finally going to the printers. It's been a wait on this one, happy to see it nearing the finish.

>88 Shadekeep: Thanks. Looks nice, but are their books printed offset?

>89 astropi: They are, but when I posted it originally I figured it was of enough interest to HPL fans that they might want to check it out anyway.

>90 Shadekeep: I appreciate it. That said, I would like to keep this thread to only letterpress publications related to Lovecraft :)

>91 astropi: I refer my honorable colleague to >26 astropi: 😉

But yes, happy to honor this request. I wouldn't have posted anything about the Helios House Press edition except that I already had a while back and thus figured the update might appeal to any folks tracking that edition. I do hope there's more proper letterpress HPL in the pipeline!

>92 Shadekeep: I'm... a... monster, don't look at me!
haha, touche. Yeah, when I first saw your post I kept looking to see if it was letterpress... sigh. We need a letterpress The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath -- my favorite work of his.

>93 astropi: We really do need a letterpress Kadath. It just feels like the right medium for the work, especially as it's also the closest to a pastoral that we have from HPL.

>94 Shadekeep: I was speaking with a small fine press publisher about this some years ago, and I encouraged them to pursue it, noting people would definitely purchase this! Alas, nothing has yet to materialize...

I met and chatted with Amy Borezo at CODEX and suggested that she consider doing another Lovecraft, although I didn’t specify any stories. She asked me what I thought the current market value of her Colout Out of Space would be, and off the cuff I suggested at least $2,000. Then I looked it up on Vialibri and saw a copy for sale with an asking price of $7,000.

Clearly there’s a hot market for fine press Lovecraft!

I think the Shelter Bookworks Lovecraft is the only fine press Lovecraft worth collecting. It cuts through all the other clichéd approaches where very little real thought has gone into it. Lovecraft lends very well to a more abstract approach once you boil it down. It's also routed in the shifting colours of the landscape Lovecraft would be familiar with. So it's both routed in Lovecraft and the artist's local landscape and the abstract and indescribable aspect of cosmic horror. A forward thinking fine press book.

With that said that price tag is ridiculous. A value only proves itself accurate once it's been realised as sold. The only price that's proved itself to date is the original publication price not a seller's inflated plucking figures out of the air price which will never be realised.

>97 LT79-1: I wouldn’t be so quick to write off HM’s Lovecraft works. Particularly The Dunwich Horror. Roland did a fantastic job with that one. It is an extremely well considered design, from the binding, endpapers, illustrations, to the choice of paper, font, and decorations. Even the inside lining of the slipcase, hand-marbled paper, lends to the otherworldly design of the book. The hand printing is also flawless.

>98 Nightcrawl: I do like the binding on that one. And I should note, it's just my opinion above. I know others will think the exact opposite!

>97 LT79-1: Disagree. As someone that is clearly interested in letterpress works and Lovecraft, I think Heavenly Monkey's "The Dunwich Horror" is just as wonderful as "The Colour Out of Space". Also Pegana Press has published gorgeous works of Lovecraft as well.

With that said that price tag is ridiculous...The only price that's proved itself to date is the original publication price
What? I don't understand that. A price is not "ridiculous" just because you can't afford it. It may be much higher than the original publication price, which is what often happens with very collectible books. Also, most book sellers want to make a profit of course, but they typically don't price books so far beyond the market rate that people will just scoff at them. I looked up the seller in question, they have a a 5-star rating and seem genuine.
https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Colour-Out-Space-Lovecraft-H-P/320...

>100 astropi: As i said above it's an opinion. I find Shelter Bookworks approach innovative. It makes me think. The others don't, even though I find them well crafted. You're not the only one interested in Lovecraft and letterpress.

Regarding value, it has no sale history from what I can see. That's a price for when it's been exchanged a few times on the market. It's been sat there at that price for over a year, maybe more. Value is a dialogue not a monologue. Somebody has to want to buy it at that price. If it was good value it would be sold. Many books sit for long periods overpriced and unsold. And I'd appreciate it if you don't speculate on what I can afford as you have no idea.

>101 LT79-1: Okay, let me restate, just because a price is much higher than you think it should be, does not make it "ridiculous". It's supply and demand. Also, nothing wrong with rare inventory sitting at for years. Someone will very likely eventually purchase it.
Value is a dialogue not a monologue.
Perhaps, but you're not the only voice.
If it was good value it would be sold.
Nope, that is a common misconception that is often associated with the "Efficient Market Hypothesis". There has been a lot of research on this. Just one example --
https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2023/03/24/debunking-the-myth-of-market-...
and it works both ways. Books "that are a steal" can also sit on the market for years. When it comes to markets including niche markets like collectible books there is no "if it was a great price it would already have been sold" -- again, that's just a common misconception.

>100 astropi: It's a digression from Lovecraft but the ABE star-rating has always struck me as singularly unhelpful and counter-intuitive. It looks at a single criterion which has little to do with the assessment of quality and doesn't concern itself with most of what a potential customer would find important.
Thus you can have the absurd situation where, for instance, one of London's most respected dealers with probably the finest stock of press books, by the ABE parameters is only a 1-star seller.
As regards pricing, back in the day a Press and a dealer would often be selling a book for the same price. However, the dealer would have bought it from the Press with a trade discount so selling at published price the value of the discount essentially became the dealer's profit margin.
In such circumstances buying from the Press would often be preferable as there was often the likelihood of unsolicited extras being included in the package. In practice, however, many a Press was so badly geared-up towards taking payments, or even how to make an order, that buying from the dealer was simply logistically easier.
One final observation, it is a truism of the secondhand market that 99% of all books (or some such figure) are never subsequently worth more than their original published price, and it seems optimistic that all press books should be considered as being among the 1% (though I concede they have a better chance of being so).

>103 duncjl: That is an interesting point. If I understand correctly, the rating is based upon successful orders. So as long as there is no return (I think abe only allows returns for damaged books or books that are not correctly listed) or cancelled orders the seller can maintain a 5-star rating. I guess my question would be what "assessment of quality" are we looking for? I think in terms of "quality books" that is up to the buyer to decide. You would hope a seller would obviously ship a "valuable" book very well padded. Again, should it arrive damaged, that would be grounds for a return.

I definitely agree that most secondhand books are worse less than their retail price. However, most if not all of us on this forum do not purchase "regular" books. I believe fine press books are (someone correct me if I'm mistaken) not even 1% of the market. So we are truly niche! Hence, many books sought after from members on this forum appreciate, sometimes very much so. Lovecraft is not only iconic, but his popularity has skyrocketed over the years and he has gone mainstream (movies, games, etc) and so I'm honestly not surprised a very limited and beautiful work such as Colour Out of Space has gone up a lot. Although, if I'm being honest, I would have also guessed as >96 Another_Bibliomane: and said around $2k. But then again, things like this also happen (not a book, but wow) --
https://www.ebay.com/itm/157726412389

>104 astropi: Yes, I think the main problem is with dealers' admin and their stock being variously marketed (eg. multiple online sites, fairs and often a physical shop). Not infrequently I have bought at a fair or elsewhere only for the same copy to remain listed on ABE for weeks afterwards, simply because it hasn't been manually deleted. Thus anybody subsequently placing an order will be disappointed and have their order cancelled, with the aggregate knock-on effect to the star rating.

>104 astropi: None of the information on that blog explains the specific valuation of this book. Why $7000. Why that price? Why not $10,000 or $3000? It's not science. I want to know the logic of that specific price. I reckon if I contacted the seller and offered $2,500 he would sell.

"Someone will very likely eventually purchase it."

You don't know that. It might, it might not.

At some point, regardless of the irrationality of the crowd a book will have a ceiling and it just won't sell.

"Books "that are a steal" can also sit on the market for years."

They can. But what usually shifts them is a prominent member in this community bringing the book to the attention of other collectors and singing its praises. Oracle was renowned for this. I've seen it happen frequently on this forum within this small community.

Another point is the Alchemist is an exceptionally popular book but the standard didn't sell out straight away and many copies of different editions sit on ebay unsold despite its wider popularity. So popularity doesn't necessarily play into it with Lovecraft.

>105 duncjl: I can see that happening. You could argue a seller should know their inventory, but mistakes happen :)

>106 LT79-1: I obviously don't know for 100%, but as I said someone will "very likely" purchase it.
So popularity doesn't necessarily play into it with Lovecraft.
That is just wrong. You don't have to take my word for it, here's the AI overview --

>107 astropi: Again, none of this is science. His wider popularity does not mean a $7000 niche fine press book will sell at that specific price. AI does not have a crystal ball to definitively predict this. If it sells it sells. We'll have to agree to disagree.

Well, if AI said so…

Typing "Let's see what the glorified autocorrect says on the matter..." on a book website. As the youths used to say - oof.

I still say "oof"!

>106 LT79-1: Another goal of pricing may be to use anchoring as a marketing tool. Anchoring means that the first price people see shapes how they judge later prices. On a wine list, a very expensive bottle can make a $95 bottle seem reasonable by comparison, even if the expensive bottle rarely sells. Same thing for books. A price is not just about value.

>112 abysswalker: How does that work though? Will the same seller be on the lookout for a second copy and throw that into the mix under an alias with the inflated book still anchoring? Basically to get more for both eventually. Or will they just play the long game and wait for another seller to undercut them with the knowledge they've still brought the price up for that anchoring book? I find it all a bit shady to be honest but I suppose sellers need to earn a living.

I'm probably not the one to get into the weeds with these kinds of debates and I regret bringing it up as it's not my area of interest. I always look to the publish price as a guide immaterial of anything else that takes place in between the initial sale and me purchasing it on the secondary market. I don't think I've ever paid beyond the publish price for a book as I refuse to get drawn into that game. I find I can still have a wonderful collection without needing to wade into that arena.

>103 duncjl: Just in to say that I too find the Abe star rankings vexatious. They reflect very little about the actual quality of the seller and the accuracy of their listings.

>109 St._Troy: Well, if AI said so…
While not perfect, I will take the word of AI over a random person on the internet any day. AI basically reads through lot a of literature and arrives at a logical conclusion. Basically, what a rational person would do. It also provides the resources as to why it came to that conclusion.

>113 LT79-1: I always look to the publish price as a guide immaterial of anything else that takes place in between the initial sale and me purchasing it on the secondary market. I don't think I've ever paid beyond the publish price for a book as I refuse to get drawn into that game.
It's not a "game" it's economics. And hey, you're welcome to do whatever pleases you. However, you're also missing a great deal of wonderful books since many of them appreciate in value. The vast majority of us have had to pay, sometimes substantially more, for books that we missed out at some point. Again, you're welcome to do what you want. However, you speak as if you are an authority on the matter when you now admit you don't even purchase books that have appreciated in value, and you say things that are demonstrably wrong.

>115 astropi: “AI basically reads through lot a of literature and arrives at a logical conclusion.”

AI simulates both of those things while actually doing neither.

>115 astropi: AI is essentially fancy auto-complete. It does not "arrive at a logical conclusion", it arrives at a probabilistic conclusion. Basically, each word that it generates is just the most likely word to follow all of the previous words in its buffer. AI hallucinates not because it didn't follow logic correctly or something, it hallucinates because it randomly generated the incorrect next token. The assumption that AI does what a "what a rational person would do" is incorrect and dangerous. This is not to say generative AI can't be a useful tool, its just not some oracle of truth.

>116 St._Troy: What do you mean by "simulate"? AI uses Natural Language Processing while analyzing huge datasets -- much larger than a person could sift through in their entire life.
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/natural-language-processing
If you want to get into semantics or metaphysics about whether it's "thinking" please feel free. Regardless, it absolutely arrives at a logical conclusion by pattern analysis -- which is what people do.
https://slate.greyb.com/blog/ai-literature-review/

So dismissing AI and trying to sound clever by saying things like "Well, if AI said so…" is silly at best. AI is certainly an emerging and understandably somewhat frightening technology with huge potential. However, the world is using it and will be going to use it more and more because it is a powerful and efficient tool.

>117 921Jack: Fair point. Although saying that AI is "fancy auto-complete" is debatable. But absolutely, it arrives at a probabilistic conclusion. Which is basically what people to as well. Perhaps I should say the pattern recognition that AI uses to reach a conclusion, at least when reviewing literature, is basically the conclusion a "rational person" would arrive at. There seem to be two major camps. The first just take AI at face value. The second are skeptical of anything from AI, even though a decent AI will always provide references, not unlike a well written Wikipedia article. I think a middle-ground is warranted.

>115 astropi: I'm not sure why purchasing overpriced books would suddenly make me an authority. It would make me a chump. You have made comments on this forum about books being overpriced. So why is it OK for you to do it? But then comment I can't afford books for having the same opinion on a different book. A totally unnecessary comment.

"you now admit you don't even purchase books that have appreciated in value,"

I look for deals and undervalued books so many of my books have appreciated in value and others probably slightly lost. Not that this is the be all and end all for me. The love of books is reward.

"you say things that are demonstrably wrong."

I certainly do get many things wrong. And I'm here to learn. You've just not convinced me. You've insulted me.

>120 LT79-1: I'm not sure why purchasing overpriced books would suddenly make me an authority. It would make me a chump.
You seem to be implying that those of us, which I suspect is the majority, who have had to purchase books on the second-hand market for (sometimes substantially) more than the original price are "chumps". That, is insulting.

You have made comments on this forum about books being overpriced.
Mostly, I've made comments along the lines of "that's way beyond my budget etc" which is not quite the same as the book is "overpriced". For the record that did rub some people the wrong way and I try to respect that. And you are certainly welcome to say the book is overpriced, etc. However, calling prices "ridiculous" implies that the book is not worth anywhere near that amount. And again, it's fair to say "I think that price is way beyond what I would pay for it" as opposed to say "that's ridiculous! only a chump would pay that!" which is what you're saying.

>121 astropi: no I'm referring specifically to books with way overblown prices. They do exist. Don't draw others in.

You have used the word overpriced. I remember you doing this. And you've caused a number of arguments on prices. I'm on the receiving end of one now for using a word you don't like. I'm not going to tie myself up in endless subclauses to express a simple sentiment on a book.

Now I'm done. I've had quite enough of your gaslighting.

>107 astropi: To be fair, AI recently told me I could visit my bank's branch in a city that doesn't, in fact, exist.

But regardless of hallucinations, why provide an AI overview when you can think and write for yourself?

>123 Shotcaller: Not in response to this thread, but a few weeks ago, I asked AI to let me know the 5 finest letterpress printers in the world.
It kicked off with Arion Press and then the Stamperia Valdonega, which was very encouraging and suggested the task had been properly understood.
Next came the Tipoteca Italiana, which looks interesting (essentially a museum devoted to printing) but nevertheless a very left field choice and unfamiliar to me.
Fourth was the New North Press, a letterpress workshop in north London.
And finally not a single printer but the worldwide Adana community.

I suspect that rather like a vox pop which can get diametrically opposed responses from the same person, depending on how a question is phrased; AI's usefulness is as much about the precise wording of the prompt as it is about the quality of the particular model.

>123 Shotcaller: Fair question. Main reason LT79-1 did not seem to believe what I said, so I thought I would show it the AI overview which I thought was well done -- no hallucinations. If they think I'm mistaken that's one thing, but AI does again search though numerous sources to reach a conclusion. And hey, I'm always open to changing my mind provided I can see evidence/sources (none were provided).

>124 duncjl: AI's usefulness is as much about the precise wording of the prompt as it is about the quality of the particular model.
Absolutely.
https://mitsloanedtech.mit.edu/ai/basics/effective-prompts/
And I had to also try what you did :)
I asked Claude 4.6 "the five finest letterpress studios in the world" and it came up with this --


Then I asked "five finest letterpress studios that produce books" and here is what I got --


Note that it has the South African flag although it correctly notes that BP is in Canada :)
When I told it about the flat, it noted --

>125 astropi: Presumably the South African flag is an hallucination! (Posted before seeing your edit). That's a very polite AI, what agent is it?

>126 duncjl: Ask AI
https://askaichat.app/

Personally, I already spend too much time reading AI output as a part of my job to also want to do it in my free time.

To get back on topic, I tend to agree with >97 LT79-1: LT79-1 regarding letterpress editions of Lovecraft.
But obviously, that is a totally personal opinion. It has an original design that stands out for linking the text and illustration and the entire object of the book into one package really successfully. HM's Lovecraft editions seem more traditionally fine press in their design and production. Is that a problem? No, of course not, but to my eye they miss the spark that Shelter Bookwork's edition has.

I haven't purchased it, but honestly, I think Angel Bomb's edition of "The Beast in the Cave" has a lot going for it as well. It, too, has a lot of originality going for it in its design and format that links it back to Lovecraft's pulpiness in a way totally different from Shelter Bookwork's edition. Is it grandiose fine pressmanship in the way HM's editions are? Again no, but I also don't think that's what LT79-1 meant when he started the discussion.

>128 921Jack: What I was trying to get at was once you strip the tentacles and what not away (which appear in most Lovecraft editions) you are left with this awful abstraction underneath. This indescribable horror which you can't really represent with conventional art. All that stage set was stripped away in the SB edition. You're left with these abstract shifting colours. But they are also the colours of the artist's local landscape close to the area Lovecraft could have walked and colours he might have seen with his own eyes to inspire the story. It connects the horror, the landscape, the artist and Lovecraft into the letterpress printed book .

I'll take a look at The Beast in the Cave. I didn't know about that one.

>123 Shotcaller: "AI recently told me I could visit my bank's branch in a city that doesn't, in fact, exist."

Are you certain that city doesn't exist? You didn't cite any sources; I suspect you haven't analyzed sufficiently large datasets.

I wonder if any of the visionaries out there have put money on the Houston Outlaws (an NHL team that...doesn't yet exist) winning the 2042 Stanley Cup, as predicted by Chat-GPT.

Off-topic digression by an decades-long IT guy, feel free to skip. But I just want to state that: LLM ≠ AI

What folks are calling AI is not in fact the AI grail that computer tech has pursued for decades, but rather something that outwardly resembles what we expected AI to look like. They are LLMs, which are data lakes with a Markov chain process sitting on top of it that looks for adjacency and context to determine how to formulate replies. It is not a true AI in that it does not tokenise concepts (it does not understand what a book is, or what the color blue is, or what death is, only the contexts in which these terms occur). Nor does is have chains of logic and inference likes a Bayesian belief network (those "neural nets" that were all the rage a few decades back). It literally knows nothing and is entirely dependent on the quality of its data lake to determine the utility of its outputs.

Does this make it worthless? No. But it does make it highly conditional, and personally I don't use it for anything. (I wrote my own Markov chain processor on the Amiga in the 1990s, so the tech doesn't impress me.) If the training data for an LLM happened to include a number of websites that feature the line "parrots are a species of pineapple", then it would state with absolute confidence that this is true, because it has no internal concept of what either of those nouns represent. It only knows context and syntax patterns. Until a system is able to tokenise concepts it will not be AI, and LLMs do not do that.

One further digression is that while the current LLM models are great at training robots to move and perform actions, these are not represented by internal concept tokens either. So to the robot there is no conceptual difference between chopping an onion and stabbing a human, both are just the output of a series of motion patterns it has acquired. Think about that before embracing the tech unquestioningly.

>133 Shadekeep: The AI agent having broadly failed on its textual challenge (see 124 above) as my first experiment, my second experiment was a visual challenge, but sadly the image it created of Jerry Garcia with a full quota of fingers again failed the test. I haven't bothered giving it a third chance!

>133 Shadekeep: I've been thinking a lot about Anathem By Neal Stephenson lately. In that one of the concepts is companies washing the internet with data that is wrong in subtle ways, and selling services which can probabilistically determine what data online is more likely to be trustworthy. AI research has found that it really doesn't take a huge number of articles to effect an LLM's output. If I'm a advertiser at a random company, what is to stop me from generating thousands of random blogs praising my company in slightly different ways and disparaging my competitors, back dating the articles to say they were published before LLM's output became sensible, and letting that pollute the LLM's response? Or, as a country, letting the AI consume huge amounts of propaganda or nationalistic writings, affecting not only your own citizens but people around the world in ways much more subtle than a big ad? Presumably this is happening now in on a fun twist on SEO that seems so much more impactful.

>135 921Jack: Oh yes, there are numerous different efforts out there to game LLMs into delivering biased or erroneous results. I am particularly fond of solutions like Nightshade that "poison" images and texts in a way that has no effect on human consumers but causes the LLMs to produce aberrant results. As someone who has had his photo site brought down multiple times by LLM crawlers trying to steal content, I am delighted that folks are fighting back in ways that impact the unprincipled companies behind the tech.

Whoa, this topic really digressed. Interesting for sure but maybe we should bring it back to letterpress Lovecraft?

I’d like to refer back to the comment that the $7,000 asking price is so ridiculous that an offer of $2,500 would be likely to be accepted.

“ I reckon if I contacted the seller and offered $2,500 he would sell.”

In many years of collecting, almost always asking for a discount, I don’t think I’ve ever managed to get more than 20% off an asking price from a dealer, and 10% is much more typical.

Clearly this dealer, with access to all of the same information that we have access to, and perhaps more, has concluded that Colour Out of Space is worth close to $7K. I’d love to see the poster make that offer and see what happens. In fact I’ll offer to buy it at a 10% premium from them if they manage it.

>138 Another_Bibliomane:

"She asked me what I thought the current market value of her Colour Out of Space would be, and off the cuff I suggested at least $2,000."

"Although, if I'm being honest, I would have also guessed as >96 Another_Bibliomane: Another_Bibliomane: and said around $2k."

At least I stuck an extra half a K on the end for good will. Both your initial instincts were spot on. That's the real price it should max out at. Not the bloated price.

I'm sure Barbarian Press' Pericles sold on the second hand market for 7k ish. A book that's regarded as being one of the cream of the crop of the last 20 years or so. I don't think one member on this forum even mentioned COOS in that epic quarter of a century thread. But suddenly because a seller says it's worth 7k it's worth 7k. I don't think so. And I say all this as a big fan of Shelter Bookworks COOS. It's conceptually a fantastic book.

You are 100% correct on seller offers. The most discount I've received is 30%. They would undoubtedly refuse a 2.5k offer. And you could be proven 100% correct on the 7k sale price. I'm OK with eventually being proven wrong on that.

I'm absolutely flat out done with this topic now. If I knew it would kick off like this I'd have kept my mouth shut. AI or economics 101 lecturing will be going on deaf ears.

Anyone looking for a nice minor piece should check out Saturnalia from Deep Wood Press. It's small but affordable, and handsomely made.

>141 Shadekeep: Wonderful, thank you!

>133 Shadekeep: as someone who recently discovered the utility of AI coding assistants (for general knowledge production, not just programming), I think a lot of people are reasoning based on some outdated assumptions. (By coding assistant I mean here something like Codex, Claude Code, or Gemini CLI running a frontier model, not the older Copilot style summary and autocomplete suggestion type tool.)

First, the output is determined not just by the training data, but also by the appropriateness of the prompt given the strengths of the model and the desired output.

Second, people seem to often apply what seems to me a strange quality metric. Something like, "How well does this tool work when I give it a bad prompt?" That's a reasonable question if you want to know how far LLMs are from some Asimovian ideal, but not if you want to know whether or not they will make one more effective and by how much, which seems like the question of more immediate interest. Who cares whether they model concepts internally the same way we do if they give you a useful output?

I'll teach you all a magic spell. Rather than write "do whatever" the next time you interact with an LLM, instead write "improve the following prompt: do whatever" and then the model will tell you the way it thinks you should talk to it to achieve your goal. And it will usually be right, especially with a small amount of practice (the user's practice writing prompts). This procedure allows one to bootstrap a rough draft of your intent into an operational set of more specific effective instructions, teaches one very quickly the way to interact effectively with the model, and allows one to catch and correct misunderstandings earlier in the process.

If it gives you a bad output, don't fight with it to try to force it to "understand" you, instead ask it to examine the output and tell you how it fell short of its best inference about your intent. Again, current frontier models will usually be correct at identifying the delta between actual and desired. If you agree with it, the next prompt is to ask it how you should ask it to get what it thinks you actually want. And then you give it that prompt verbatim.

The tool can't read the user's mind, and it's not a single entity with inner life that one is "talking" to. Instead it's an optimization engine for navigating a fitness landscape of outputs where the user needs to define what good looks like or rely on least common denominator averages.

>143 abysswalker: Why has no one defined “good” well? I’m still getting hallucinations relatively often with the commercially available models.

>144 Shotcaller: because "good" depends on the user's goal and problem space. There is no universally applicable approach for nontrivial objectives.

That said, as the tools mature, I suspect that special case optimizations will emerge for the most common failure modes. Like drawing hands.

Even dealing with humans, one has to spend a lot of time and effort to effectively communicate goals and intentions (and it often doesn't work).

DM me an example or two that you're getting hallucinations with and I'll show you how to prompt effectively to avoid them. I'm doing academic work where citation hallucination has traditionally been one of the harder examples of this issue to solve, it's rarely a problem anymore. I don't want to pollute this conversation with too many off topic examples though.

>143 abysswalker: Granted, but my point was not about the utility of LLMs. It's that they are not AI, and never will be without the capacity for conceptual tokens or some analogous model.

Back on topic, it's easy to forget that HPL was also a poet, and indeed produced a large body of poetic works. It seems like this, or a curated selection from it, might make an interesting letterpress project. It could be illustrated in an abstract style similar to what >97 LT79-1: describes, or even with photogravure, if illustrations are deemed desirable. And it gives the printer a lot of leeway for both project length and design approaches.

>145 abysswalker: I appreciate it, but I don't know that I'm interested in learning how to prompt effectively.

Looks like Suntup is taking on The Colour Out of Space:

While this author was known for vivid visions and nightmarish depictions, this famous story featured a hue beyond description. The edition is available in three states: Lettered, Numbered and Artist. The Lettered edition is limited to 26 copies, the Numbered edition is limited to 250 copies and the Artist edition is limited to 500 copies. All copies are printed letterpress and signed by the artist. The Lettered and Numbered editions are also signed by the author of the introduction.

>146 Shadekeep: Several of Lovecraft’s prose poems got the letterpress treatment by Roy Squires in the early 1970s.

>149 Another_Bibliomane: Nice, and it looks like he printed a number of the other Mythos Circle members as well, plus some good choices of more recent authors: https://www.thompsonrarebooks.com/images/upload/cat203_2.pdf

Definitely warming to the idea of a new collection of HPL poetry. Perhaps I'll look through his output and see what might go into it, even if just as an academic exercise.

>150 Shadekeep: as I launch my new imprint, Lovecraft is high on my list. In particular I’ve been thinking about taking on The Fungi from Yoggoth.

>151 Another_Bibliomane: That would be a frankly brilliant choice and one I could get behind wholeheartedly.

The Colour Out of Space is of course a classic. >151 Another_Bibliomane: that would be fabulous! But if we're talking fungi The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" would be my #1 pick -- we need more letterpress Hodgson :)

And can someone please, with cherry on top, finally do a letterpress The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath -- and if you do that, then --

Just adding this here --



The Artist Edition sold out within a few hours, I suspect the Numbered and Lettered will also sell out very quickly. Lovecraft sells!

I’ve concluded there’s a blood pact among fine presses to never publish At the Mountains of Madness

>155 greenwald1: Centipede Press is working on a letterpress At the Mountains of Madness with illustrations by Michael Whelan -- will be epic! Don't know yet the price, but ain't gonna be cheap.

>156 astropi: yeah it’s been in the works for seemingly ten years by now, at this point it’s a believe it when I see it sort of thing.

It would definitely be highly sought after. From what little I can recall it’s only a 100 print run, so the few that make it past subscribers could command huge prices.

My working theory is Jerad was only belatedly informed of the blood pact and since been appropriately sanctioned.

>155 greenwald1: I have to imagine that CTP's Lovecraft volumes of its Weird series will include At the Mountains of Madness

>157 greenwald1: Whelan has posted illustrations of the work he has done for the book, so it's definitely going to get done -- the question is when, how many copies, and how much? I really hope the print run is not merely 100, because I can only imagine the prices on the secondary market...

>158 ultrarightist: I'd much rather it include The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. That said, Mountains of Madness is much more popular, but in my opinion not as imaginative nor unique as Kadath. Mountains was inspired in large part by Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, and when you read both it's so clear. Well, I suppose I shouldn't complain and just be happy we're getting more letterpress Lovecraft :)

>159 astropi: Let's hope for both!

>159 astropi: hopefully it ends up higher!

Children of the Kingdom was only 100 copies. Don’t know if he’s published any other letterpress .