Tales of Mystery & Imagination | Edgar Allan Poe | Illustrated by Harry Clarke | 1933

Many of the great illustrators have taken a crack at the weird and wonderful world of Edgar Allan Poe, but perhaps no one’s illustrations are as striking or as gruesome as Harry Clarke’s. You can see the influence of Aubrey Beardsley and the burgeoning Art Deco movement, but no other illustrator captures the madness and horror of Poe’s tales quite so vividly. Initially he made 24 monochrome illustrations in 1919. Each one took Clarke FOUR DAYS to complete, notes biographer Nicola Gordon Bowe. The first edition and its reprints were so popular, Clarke added 8 color plates in a revised edition published in 1923. I am lucky enough to have a copy of my own, but this one is for you, a 1933 edition. All prints are present, the 8 colored prints tipped in. Condition is very good overall with some wear to the cover, which looks like it was exposed to damp at some point. The textblock and prints are in very good shape.