Wandrei, Donald. THE WEB OF EASTER ISLAND. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1948. 1st edition. With no mention of edition or printing printed on the copyright page, which indicates that this is the correct 1st edition, 1st printing for Arkham House books of that period. This is NOT a book-club book. This is NOT an ex-library book.
From the colophon page [page 193]:
“Three thousand copies of this book have been printed from linotype Baskerville by The Collegiate Press, George Banta Publishing Company, Menasha, Wisconsin. This book is printed on [Arkham House’s usual] Winnebago Eggshell. The binding cloth is [the very famous] Holliston Black Novelex.”
Buyer beware: there were no later Arkham House printings of THE WEB OF EASTER ISLAND. This is the real deal: the true 1st edition, 1st printing.
SCROLL DOWN THIS PAGE IMMEDIATELY TO SEE THE CONDITION OF THIS BOOK AND THIS DUST JACKET.
Donald Wandrei was born in 1908 in St. Paul, Minnesota and died in 1987 in St. Paul. He was the older brother of science fiction writer and artist Howard Wandrei. He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in English. In late 1927 he hitchhiked from Minnesota to Rhode Island to visit H.P. Lovecraft. Wandrei was a member of the famous “Lovecraft Circle” which included Frank Belknap Long, Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, Ray Bradbury, and others). Donald Wandrei and August Derleth famously co-founded Arkham House publishing to keep Lovecraft’s legacy alive. Since then Arkham House has published such great and famous authors as H.P. Lovecraft (of course), August Derleth, Donald Wandrei, Clark Ashton Smith, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Evangeline Walton, Algernon Blackwood, Carl Jacobi, Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, William Hope Hodgson, A.E. Van Vogt, and many, many others. In 1976 Wandrei met Philip Rahman at a convention. Rahman and Dennis Weiler founded the publishing firm of Fedogan and Bremer to issue work by Donald and Howard Wandrei as well as other classic pulp writers. Donald Wandrei was the author of such great and famous books as THE WEB OF EASTER ISLAND (offered here), ECSTASY & OTHER POEMS, POEMS FOR MIDNIGHT, COLLECTED POEMS, THE EYE AND THE FINGER, STRANGE HARVEST, COLOSSUS, and several others. THE WEB OF EASTER ISLAND is one of the scarce and important Arkham House books of the 1940’s.
Leon Nielsen (forward by Barry Abrahams). ARKHAM HOUSE BOOKS: A Collector’s Guide (2004): THE WEB OF EASTER ISLAND by Donald Wandrei. Novel in the Cthulhu mythos (1948). 3118 copies printed. Cover price: $3.00. 2004 estimated worth: $200.00.”
From the dust jacket: “ . . . THE WEB OF EASTER ISLAND . . . By DONALD WANDREI . . . Carter Graham uncovered a strange little image, unlike anything else on earth. It responded to cosmic forces and laws beyond those known to science, and with it, Graham set out to unravel that greatest of all mysteries -- man and his relation to the universe . . . But Graham lost the image. His search to regain it took him into far places, into the remote past of the burial chamber deep under Isling, into the corridor to other dimensions beneath the ruins of Stonehenge, into the invocation of the great originators of the Easter Island sculptures, into the far future and the people of the Towers of Departure . . . Readers of Donald Wandrei’s book of short stories, THE EYE AND THE FINGER, will find in his first novel the same poetic fantasy that distinguished so many of his tales. Here is one of the few novels ever written on a cosmic scale, with the entire universe its framework, all time and space its background, and all life its them. In this narrative, the sense of wonder and the liberation of dream lead to complete imaginative escape . . . of THE WEB OF EASTER ISLAND, read in manuscript, the late H.P. Lovecraft wrote: ‘You will like this novel -- especially the poetically cosmic second half, one chapter of which is a masterpiece of underground horror’ . . . “
From the rear panel of the dust jacket: “ . . . ABOUT DONALD WANDREI . . . Donald Wandrei was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1908. He served almost four years with the U.S. Army in World War II, and as a technical sergeant, Third Battalion, 259th Infantry, 65th Division, a unit of General Patton’s famous Third Army, too part in the final drive across Germany into Austria. He began his writing career as a poet, and has published two books of verse, ECSTASY and DARK ODYSSEY. He is the author of many short stories, principally in the fields of fantasy, science fiction, and the whodunit, published in Esquire, Weird Tales, Astounding, and other magazines. A collection of his tales, THE EYE AND THE FINGER, was published by Arkham House in 1944 . . . Mr. Wandrei’s principal hobbies are books, of which he has a large library of poetry, fantasy, science fiction, and art; and the New York stock market, which he follows regularly and successfully. He is single, and is currently at work on a play and a second fantastic novel, to follow another collection of his short stories of the weird and science fiction . . . “
I grade books and dust jackets: fine, near fine, very good, good, fair, and poor. I describe all faults. If you sell books on EBAY (or anywhere else), it is de rigueur not to list 1st printings of book club books as 1st editions (unless they ARE the 1st edition, which occurs only occasionally); also, a 1st edition, 7th printing, is not a 1st edition. Ex-library books must be noted as such since generally they are of little value to the collector of 1st editions. Condition is also very important to those collectors. Books and dust jackets must be described in full.
An ABOUT FINE book in a NEAR FINE dust jacket. The book is tight and square in its famous Holliston Black Novelex full cloth binding with gilt lettering on the spine of the book. There is no writing in the book; no bookplates; no remainder marks. The dust jacket is NOT price-clipped and shows the correct 1st issue price of $3.00. There are no chips or tears or wrinkles to the dust jacket. The spine panel of the dust jacket is not faded; often the dust jacket on copies of THE WEB OF EASTER ISLAND has a faded spine panel; that is not the case here.
The famous and fantastic dust jacket artwork is by legendary Arkham House artist Audrey Johnson.
This is certainly a collector’s copy of this scarce book. An important book in that the author, Donald Wandrei, was a co-founder (along with August Derleth) of the legendary small press, Arkham House.
I use the
EBAY shipping system to send out the majority of the books that I sell.
Insurance is included in the shipping charges for this book that the
buyer will be paying. One would assume that the buyer would want to
insure this book for its correct value.
A MUST FOR THE COLLECTOR OF HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT HORROR FICTION 1st EDITIONS AND/OR THE COLLECTOR OF SCARCE ARKHAM HOUSE 1st EDITIONS AND/OR THE COLLECTOR OF DONALD WANDREI 1st EDITIONS!
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Additional photos are available upon request.
I am continuing to list some of my best books (especially science fiction, fantasy, and horror 1st editions) on EBAY not so much as auctions (due to the fact that EBAY charges quite a bit to list items for reserve auctions), but more along the lines of listing my "catalogue" of books that I have for sale. I'm not going to "give" these books away, but my opening bids and Buy-It-Now prices are usually a fair amount below market value. Furthermore, however, for certain scarce books in great condition, I do expect to get close to what they're worth. Stay with me; I always have a number of important, collectible, cornerstone science fiction, fantasy, and horror 1st editions listed. Many thanks! All items are being offered for sale elsewhere; I reserve the right to end this listing early if this item sells elsewhere. __________________________________________________________________________________
I would like to round out this set by acquiring the #2/500 copy of ANCILLARY SWORD. If anyone has this copy and is willing to sell it on EBAY, I would be highly interested in obtaining it so that all my copies would have matching numbers. Many thanks. __________________________________________________________________________________
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