DRACULA

First edition, first printing. Publisher's original yellow cloth with red titles to the upper board and spine. Deckled edges. A genuinely good copy, the binding firm with bumping and fraying to the spine tips and corners. The yellow cloth, with a nick at the head of the spine and a tear to the middle of the read spine fold, is somewhat darkened and has a contemporary bookseller's label (the original retailer) to the upper board. The contents, with some cracking to the front and rear inner hinges, the front endpaper, nicked at the edges and with a small ink name to the upper right corner, are otherwise clean throughout. The publisher's blank terminal leaf is present, as called for. A decent example in entirely original condition, scarce thus. Housed in a bespoke, quarter black morocco solander case.

A masterpiece of gothic horror and whilst not the first, it is all most certainly the most famous of all works of vampire fiction. The present example has a pleasing Scottish provenance. The booksellers Douglas and Foulis was formed in Edinburgh in 1877 by the successful publisher David Douglas and his business partner Thomas Foulis. The firm also operated a popular circulating library which lasted until Douglas' death in 1916. The first edition of Dracula, published in June 1897, is identified by being printed on heavy paper stock, the text block bulking over an inch and with an integral blank leaf at the rear. Later editions, despite having the appearance of the first edition in title page and the majority of contents, are printed on thinner paper and have (in place of the integral blank), a publisher's catalogue, of which there are several variations, inserted at the rear. The heavy paper stock of the first edition, combined with the fragile yellow cloth binding contributes significantly to the generally woeful condition or prevalence of extensive repairs and interventions exhibited in the few examples that come to market. (Bleiler; Reginald 13726; Dalby 10a; A Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone).