Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana

8vo. With an original leaf from the 1819 first American edition of The Vampyre published in Philadelphia by M. Thomas, tipped in. Original cloth-backed pictorial boards.

THE FIRST MODERN VAMPIRE STORY.

LIMITED EDITION, number 7 of 19 copies with an original leaf from the first American edition of The Vampyre, from a total edition of 100. Considered to be the forerunner of the modern vampire fiction genre, Polidori's tale was adapted from that told by Lord Byron during the famous contest held between Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and his future wife Mary, who would conceive Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus during this same contest. It was first published on 1 April 1819 in the New Monthly Magazine and was falsely attributed to Byron; this error was repeated in its first printing in book form later that year, though corrected in later editions. The story was an immediate success and an American edition was quickly rushed into print. For unknown reasons only one complete copy of the first American edition as printed by Thomas is known to exist, with the present leaf book representing one of a limited number of fragments otherwise available. We trace only one other record of the Gubblecote Press edition with the original leaf intact at auction. Not in Disbound and Dispersed.