Pseudonym Physick Edward Harold (9 results)

Octavo, pp. [1-2] [1-6] 7 [8] 9 [10] 11-14 [15-16] 17-255 [256: blank]. illustrations, cloth. Reprint. UK issue with John Baker imprint on spine panel and UK dust jacket. Text offset from the 1955 Werner Laurie edition. A fine copy in nearly fine dust jacket with touch of dust soiling. (#94705).

Small octavo, pp. [1-7] 8-9 [10-11] 12 [13] 14-43 [44: ad], inserted frontispiece with illustration by Violet Helm, title page printed in red and black, original purple cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, fore-edges untrimmed. First edition. The author's first book. A presentation copy with signed inscription by the author on the front free endpaper: "J. Anderson Smith, / from / E. H. Visiak / 6-iv-1915." An important association copy as Smith is the friend to whom Visiak dedicated his masterpiece MEDUSA in 1929. This book also had a paperbound issue as part of "The Satchel Series." Small spot on front cover and faint stain to fore-edge of front free endpaper and fore-edge of frontispiece, otherwise a nice clean copy. (#156864). Signed.

Single page printed in black. Signed by the author. Measuring 31 x 20 cms. A very good copy, previously folded across the middle and with some creasing to the edges. Apparently the second impression, printed as such to the lower right corner. Signed by E. H. Visiak in blue ink underneath his printed name. Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers. Signed by Author(s).

Small octavo, pp. [1-7] 8-9 [10-11] 12 [13] 14-43 [44: ad], inserted frontispiece with illustration by Violet Helm, title page printed in red and black, original gray wrappers printed in black. First edition. The author's first book. Published simultaneously in cloth and in paper as part of the publisher's "The Satchel Series," this being one of the paperbound copies. Small armorial bookplate of Catherine Stubbs affixed to the half title page. Overlapping edges just a bit creased and nicked, spine panel tanned, a very nice copy of this delicate little booklet. (#156907).

Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Included. London, Victor Gollancz Limited, 1946 (reissue)/ 1929. Octavo, 160 pages. Cloth; a fine copy with the unclipped dustwrapper slightly marked and unevenly sunned, with the head of the spine and rear panel a little creased, with two short tears. Number 3 in the publisher's Connoisseur's Library of Strange Fiction. This new edition features a preface by Professor Denis Saurat.

First Centipede Press edition. Original quarter black faux leather over illustrated paper covered boards, with titles in silver to the spine. Red ribbon page marker. Illustrated in colour and black and white throughout. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm, bright and fresh, with just a touch of rubbing at the corners. The contents are clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Issued in a limited edition of just 200 copies, this generously illustrated Centipede Press edition prints Visiak's classic novel of cosmic horror in entirety, and adds 13 never previously collected short stories, one essay and an introduction by Colin Wilson. Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers.

First edition (expanded). Octavo, pictorial boards. 200 copies printed. In addition to the novel this editions includes twelve short stories, previously uncollected and an essay ("The Significance of Horror Fiction"). The author's short fiction had been previously published in various U.K. anthologies. New introduction by Colin Wilson. "Visiak is now remembered by macabre enthusiasts for his genuinely original novel MEDUSA (1929). A weird story of a voyage to unknown waters, it earned a dreadful review from the LONDON TIMES when it first appeared, which helped it sink without a trace (the same paper forty years later in Visiak's obituary referred to the book as 'a tour-de-force')" - Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p. 444. MEDUSA "is a hard to categorize as Lindsay's A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS (1920). The tale moves gradually, in a slow crescendo, from its beginnings in a normal-seeming nineteenth-century England through adventures at sea and finally into a literal pit of fantasy -- a vast circular hole occupied by the eponymous sea monster which eats sexually aware men alive. The protagonist is a young boy who remains sexually innocent, though haunted by other guilts: he survives while his companions perish." - Clute and Grant (eds), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997), p. 987. [Reference: Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 3-352. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1636. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 219. Bleiler (1978), p. 200. Reginald 14688]. A fine copy, no jacket as issued. (35957).

Small octavo, pp. [1-9] 10 [11] 12-194 [195-196: ads] [note: first leaf is a blank], one illustration by N. W. Physick, title page printed in red and black, original maroon cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, fore and bottom edges untrimmed. First edition. The author's first novel. Visiak's "best work shadows SF, horror and fantasy modes, employing speculative metaphysics in a manner similar to the fiction of his friend David Lindsay. In stories of this sort, the consensual word is argued -- sometimes in passages of considerable length -- as being an expression of the dream world, or world of archetypes. Such texts do not easily fit into template definitions of the various genres of the fantastic . THE HAUNTED ISLAND is clearly fantastic, and engagingly deploys ghosts and magic in a tale of pirates set on a mysterious island in the 17th century." - Clute and Grant (eds), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, p. 987. Ashley, Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, p. 175. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 219 (describing a similar copy). Bleiler (1978), p. 200. Reginald 14687. See Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p. 444 for a concise summary of Visiak's contributions to the horror genre. Corner tips a bit soft, a very good copy with bright cover stamping. A scarce book. (#171554).

AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED, Dated 17 VII 1956, on the author's printed letterhead, return address "21 Adelaide Crescent, Hove, Sussex". 80 words, signed in initials "E.H.V.". "My Dear John, You may have wondered at my silence about my Milton proofs. The explanation is thatthe publication has been postponed until february, and this has given me the chance of working over and adding to the whole book, with much retyping, alas! - expensive both to pocket and no less failing eyesight. Yet well worth while. I hope very much that you are better. I have been all engrossed - but not forgetting my old friend and helper, As Ever, E.H.V." Folded once for mailing, near fine. E.H. Visiak (pseudonym of Edward Harold Physick 1878-1972); the author of 5 books of poems 1910-1919 (mostly nautical and weird) and the fantasy novels The Haunted Island (1910) & Medusa: A Story of Mystery (1929). Visiak was a scholar, critic and authority on John Milton, the book in question is most likely Visiak's work THE PORTENT OF MILTON: Some Aspects of His Genius (1958).