AICKMAN, Robert ~ Tales of Love and Death.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Victor Gollancz Ltd, London: 1977.

8vo., black publisher's boards lettered in gilt to spine; in the yellow, black and white dustwrapper (unclipped, £4.75 net) with Gollancz's 'Fantasy and Macabre' vignette to foot; THE BOOK essentially fine, just a touch spotted to the upper edge; THE WRAPPER just touched by sun at the spine, otherwise also fine. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First UK edition, first printing. A collection of seven short "strange stories" from supernatural writer Robert Aickman, a longstanding member of the Ghost Club, who himself had experienced paranormal activity, and became involved in several investigations involving hauntings. Here, a man marries into an undertaker's family, an old woman begins to rot away while her mirror remains youthful (reminiscent of Dorian Grey), and twin boys grow to unnatural dimensions. "I believe in what the Germans term Ehrfurcht", Aickman once wrote in response to winning the World Fantasy Award, "reverence for things one cannot understand. Faust's error was an aspiration to understand, and therefore master, things which, by God or by nature, are set beyond the human compass." A fine copy.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Fine
JACKET: Fine