O'SULLIVAN, Vincent. A Book of Bargains.

Back from the Dead

O'SULLIVAN, Vincent. A Book of Bargains. London: Leonard Smithers. 1896.

8vo. Publisher’s plum cloth, spine and upper board lettered directly in gilt, fore- and tail-edges uncut; pp. [5], [1 (blank)], 185, [3], with half-title; lithographic frontispiece by Aubrey Beardsley; publisher’s device to title; spine lightly sunned, a few small scuffs to spine and upper board, spine ends and corners rubbed; edges of textblock slightly dusty, flyleaves browned, internally clean and fresh; a very good copy.

First edition of this collection of supernatural short stories by the American-born poet and writer Vincent O’Sullivan, a friend of Smithers and Wilde, with a frontispiece by Beardsley.

Vincent O’Sullivan grew up in New York and completed his education in England. ‘The Bargain of Rupert Orange’, set in New York City, features a deal with the devil, and the following stories, ‘My Enemy and Myself’ (in which the protagonist gouges out a romantic rival’s eye and slits his throat) and ‘The Business of Madame Jahn’ (featuring a young Frenchman who had hanged himself), feature reanimated corpses. Of the present work, Beardsley wrote to Smithers that ‘I am much struck by O’Sullivan’s stories. I believe they will be a success’ (Letters, p. 163), and also produced a cover design for O’Sullivan’s Houses of Sin the following year. The frontispiece depicts Madame Jahn.

The primary binding bears the text ‘Leonard Smithers 1896’ at the foot of the spine, with later copies lettered ‘Leonard Smithers and Co 1896’, as here.

Gertner Zatlin 1069; Ross, Later Work 153; Samuels Lasner 109.

SKU: 2124723