THE GHOST PIRATES ..

London: Stanley Paul & Co., 1909. First edition. Corner tips and spine ends soft, some patchy fade to green cloth (which is not unusual), still a bright very good to nearly fine copy. (28550). Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-276 + 12 pages of publisher's ads at rear, inserted frontispiece with illustration by Sidney H. Sime, original green cloth, front panel stamped in black, spine panel stamped in gold, bottom edge untrimmed. Inscribed and signed by Hodgson (as "Hope") and dated 1912 on the front free endpaper. Copies in this green cloth binding were probably issued after those bound in red cloth. "A ship bearing a mysterious curse slips into a hinterland between parallel worlds, where it becomes vulnerable to assault by bestial creatures from the other universe. Credibility is assured by virtue of the author's long experience at sea, and the suspense is handled with great skill. Though far less striking in its imagery than THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND (1908), it is superior in terms of its internal coherency, and is one of the great weird novels." - Barron (ed), Horror Literature 3-91. "Vivid, filled with the minutiae of a sailing vessel, this is one of the great sea novels. While in a sense it is derivative from THE INHERITORS by Conrad and Hueffer, it is highly original in detail and well done. Although it is overshadowed as visionary horror by the more spectacular THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND and THE NIGHT LAND, as a work of art, it is finer." - Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 816. Ashley, Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, pp. 94-5. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 424. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 114. Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, pp. 203-04. Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature II, pp. 601-04. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 3-105. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 101. Reginald 7282.