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Octavo, pp. [1-10] 1-348 [349] [350: blank], original decorated red cloth, front panel stamped in gold and blind, spine panel stamped in gold. First edition. A collection of nine stories, several of novelette length. Three are supernatural: "Mr. Eberdeen's House," "The Little Family" and "Riders in the Dark." The first is an intricate and enigmatic haunted house story that was selected for inclusion in THE BEST STORIES OF 1915, the first of a series of influential anthologies edited by Edward J. O'Brien. "The Little Family" is a somewhat saccharine story about -- imaginary beings? animals from literature come to life? hallucinations? a pair of dotty old men? -- which closes with a ghost encounter. "Riders in the Dark" is a rather murky time-slip fantasy -- or is it a case of psychological projections, what Freud would have called "hysteria"? (The story is related by an alienist.) In the 1920 anthology of BEST SHORT STORIES, O'Brien praises this collection of Johnson's short fiction: "With the publication of this volume, Mr. Johnson at last takes his rightful place among the best of the American short story writers who wish to continue the tradition of Henry James. In subtlety of portraiture he is the equal of Edith Wharton, and he excels her in ease and in his ability to subdue his substance to the environment in which it is set. He surpasses Mrs. [Katherine Fullerton] Gerould by reason of the variety of his subject matter, and as a stylist he is equal to Anne Douglas Sedgwick. I have published two of these stories in previous volumes of this series, and there are at least four other stories in the volume which I should have liked to reprint" (Edward J. O'Brien, The Best Short Stories of 1920, pp. 399-400). Smith, American Fiction, 1901-1925 J-92. Scarborough, The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction, p. 124. Montague Summers, introduction to The Supernatural Omnibus (1931), p. 34. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978) or Reginald (1979; 1992) or Day, Supplemental Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Touch of foxing to top and fore edges of text block, else a fine copy in nearly fine printed dust jacket with faint stain to front cover near spine fold and several tiny edge tears with small internal mends with archival tape. A scarce book. (#170671).
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