Rudwin, Maximilian J. “Devil Stories” [Alfred A. Knopf, 1921] First Edition

RUDWIN, Maximilian J. (Editor). Devil Stories: An Anthology. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1921. First edition. Original brick-red cloth with decorative black lettering and ornamentation to front board, black titles to spine. Light rubbing to boards and extremities, with some fading and discoloration to spine. Corners lightly bumped. Pages lightly toned, with occasional scattered spotting. Very Good, lacking dust jacket. An anthology of twenty stories exploring the Devil's appearances in literature, selected and edited by Maximilian J. Rudwin, a scholar of folklore and the supernatural. Arranged chronologically, the selections span several centuries and include works by Niccolò Machiavelli, Washington Irving, Nikolai Gogol, William Makepeace Thackeray, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, Guy de Maupassant, Anatole France, Maxim Gorky, and John Masefield. Among the stories are Poe's "Bon-Bon," Irving's "The Devil and Tom Walker," and Machiavelli's "Belphagor." Rudwin provides an extensive introduction examining the Devil's place in mythology, religion, and literature, together with critical notes on the individual selections. The volume was conceived as the first in a projected series of anthologies devoted to diabolical literature, collectively titled Devil Lore.