Samuel Loveman's Hermaphrodite On Auction

Description by seller:
"THE HERMAPHRODITE" - By Samuel Loveman
H. P. LOVECRAFT's Personal Copy
Inscribed from Publisher - W. Paul Cook to Howard P. Lovecraft
Books from Howard Phillips Lovecraft's library are heavily prized by collectors and because this title was printed and published by his close friend W. Paul Cook it becomes even more desireable. Willis Paul Cook also printed Lovecraft's stillborn book 1st book -"The Shunned House" - that was not published during either of their lifetimes.

The Hermaphrodite" was written by another of Lovecraft's friends, Samuel Loveman (Loveman lived with HPL in New York). Loveman was a fine poet who and also a friend of Clark Ashton Smith, introducing HPL to Smith's poetry in 1922.

With the multiple associations and the personal inscription from W. Paul Cook to Lovecraft, this makes for an especially desireable volume from Lovecraft's own library!

Lovecraft's Signature in his Copy of Arthur Machen Book

This is an interesting variation on HPL's traditional signature. You can compare it to other signature's in our HPLblog (use search feature for more information) that I conveniently include here.

The collaborating text reads:

This is H.P. Lovecraft's copy of Arthur Machen's Far Off Things (New York: Knopf, 1923), from Lovecraft's library. HPL's bookplate is on the inside front endpaper, and he has signed it on the inside right front-endpaper. There is another inscription of the Providence, Rhode Island book collector Carlton Calderara on the title page. The book is VG; it lacks a dj, the paper label on the spine is worn, there are scattered dustmarks (perhaps HPL's fingerprints) on the cloth covers; front hinge slightly cracked. An extraordinary association copy; copies of Lovecraft's signed books are becoming increasingly scarce, and ones connected with his love of weird fiction are almost impossible to find. Lovecraft discusses purchasing this copy in his Selected Letters (Arkham House).