Peter Rugg, The Missing Man

Austin, William

Published by Franklin P. Rice, Worcester (Mass.), 1882

Austin, William. Peter Rugg, The Missing Man. With a Notice of the Author. Worcester (Mass.): Franklin P. Rice, Publisher, 1882. First separate edition. Printed in an edition of 50 copies (see note below). Small folio, pp. [1-2] [1-3] 4 [5-7] 8-64 [65-66: blank] [note: binding is side-stitched]. Original plain buff wrappers, front cover printed in black ("PETER RUGG."), title page printed in black and red, fore-and bottom edges rough-trimmed. The spine appears to have been professionally and discreetly re-backed at some point. Faint dark stain on p. 9, otherwise, a very good copy of a rare book. #1911. $750. This novelette is an important document in the early development of American supernatural fiction, and has been frequently anthologized or republished. At least six other book editions of the tale followed the present one between 1890 and 1970. It was first published in The New England Galaxy in 1824. Its first book publication was in the 1827 issue of The Literary Gem, a gift book. The story provides a local setting (Boston and New England) for this variation on the Flying Dutchman motif, itself a relation of the older figure of the Wandering Jew. Austin wrote several other tales in a style noted by Thomas Wentworth Higginson and others as prefiguring that of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Bleiler (in The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, #70) notes the probable influence on Austin of German Romanticism, which pervaded New England writers around this time, especially the transcendentalist group. The doomed hero had uttered a rash oath once when eager to return from Concord to Boston one night. "An old-fashioned chaise, containing a man and a little girl, are often seen about the roads of the East Coast, slightly ahead of a storm which seems to follow them. The man always asks how far it is to Boston, and (seemingly under some sort of glamour) will not recognize that he is usually going the wrong way and is far from Boston." He never gets there. "Clearly he had become one of the damned . Austin's novelette is an impressive little piece of quasi-realistic, imaginative writing. Its author seems to have influenced both Poe and Hawthorne, and it is obvious enough that he in turn was influenced by the Legend of the Wandering Jew, which, as we shall see, enjoyed a hey-day during the 1820s." -- George K. Anderson, The Legend of the Wandering Jew, p. 9. Brian Stableford, in Barron (ed.) Fantasy Literature 2-11, notes the author's "strong affinities with Washington Irving's items of quasi-folkloristic Americana." Bleiler (see above) describes the present Rice edition -- admittedly unexamined by him -- as consisting of 50 copies but does not give the source of this information. The book is not listed in Wright III, though the story is listed in Wright I, for its inclusion in a Henry St. Clair anthology. Bleiler (1978), p. 12. Reginald 00643, describing binding as cloth, but citing publisher as "F. P. Rice" -- as Bleiler does above -- whereas the title page of this book clearly states, "Franklin P. Rice", which suggests their other information may have been second-hand and therefore not entirely reliable. WorldCat also cites the publisher in this abbreviated form. Images on abebooks[dot]com of other titles from this publisher all depict slim pamphlets in usually rather plain wrappers. Franklin Rice was an antiquary in Worcester, writing on various subjects of local historical interest and operating a small private press during the 1880s. The present title seems to have been the only work of fiction that caught his interest. Although held by at least a half-dozen academic libraries, the book is unquestionably rare in trade. Seller Inventory # 1911

Bibliographic Details

Title: Peter Rugg, The Missing Man
Publisher: Franklin P. Rice, Worcester (Mass.)
Publication Date: 1882
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Edition: First Edition.