Lovecraft's Friend: Arthur Goodenough

“Songs of Four Decades” by Arthur H. Goodenough, published by W. Paul Cook/The Recluse Press (Athol, Massachusetts) in 1927, 5.75” x 8.5” hardcover (red cloth on boards with paper title plates on the cover and spine), no dust jacket, 160 pages.

W. Paul Cook, a writer who used the pen name Willis T. Crossman, was an amateur journalist and a companion of H.P. Lovecraft (he wrote a memorial volume on Lovecraft in 1940). He moved to Athol in 1912 and went to work for a local newspaper, whose presses he used to print assorted journals and books by himself and acquaintances. Cook founded the Recluse Press in 1926 (his most notable publication was a single issue of a magazine that published Lovecraft’s “"Supernatural Horror in Literature”).

Click this link to read an article on W. Paul Cook that appeared in the Barre Montpelier Times Argus.

Goodenough was a Brattleboro, Vermont, poet. The poems previously appeared in the Louisville Courier-Journal, Boston Ideas, the Boston Daily Post, the Brattleboro Reformer, the New England Homestead, and other publications.

Condition is very good: clean contents, scattered minor foxing, tight binding, firm hinges, owner's name (Malcolm M. Goodenough, dated 1961) on the front free endpaper.

Rare Item: The Ghost (W Paul Cook)

Rare item surfaces @ starting bid of $75.00.

THE GHOST Issue #5 July 1947. Final issue of this short lived amateur journal created by H P Lovecraft circle member W Paul Cook. Includes material by Cook, E Hoffman Price, Rheinhart Kleiner, Edward H Cole, H. C. Koenig on his weird fiction collection & more. Very scarce fan publication. Pieces lacking from spine, tears to oversized cover edges with few small chips, printed on good rag content, quality paper which but for a couple light bends is VG well preserved.

Frank Belknap Long (1926)

A rare copy of A Man From Genoa surfaces. Seller includes one of the poems.

With a preface by Samuel Loveman.

The Recluse Press,1926.

FIRST EDITION/FIRST PRINTING.HARDCOVER.

Penned name of former owner in the blank front end page.@" X 2" chip to top right area of the blank back end page.Pastedown title on front board.LIGHT rubbing to board tips.SOLID & CLEAN,BRIGHT & CRISP.GOOD +. 31 pages.SIGNED BY FRANK BELKNAP LONG.LONG'S FIRST PUBLISHED WORK.Twenty poems including one on reading Arthur Machen. LIMITED PRINTING OF 315 copies released ! The Recluse Press' First Title !
HERE is a LEGENDARY title in the flesh & SIGNED !!

.........THE PROPHET.....
"He stood by the river and whistled through his hands
And ibises from Egypt filled the morning lands;
They circled in the air,and their wings caught the sun
And they turned gold and crimson ere his song was done.
II knew he was a prophet,and I swore by my hat
To place on Hathor's altar a yellow tiger-cat:
But then he somehow heard me,and though I tried to fly
He turned and cursed,and I became-a shadow on the sky ! "

Sounds a bit like H.P.Lovecraft's NYARLARTHOTEP !
HERE is the Cthulhu Mythos author in his first rare work !

Songs of Four Decades: Arthur Goodenough

Well Chrispy lost another ebay auction. Heh. From the illustration, it looks like it's bound precisely as W Paul Cook bound Walter Coates book of poetry (that I do have).

I'll have a bit more on Goodenough later. Stay tuned in a few days.

Recluse Press (1926)

From time to time I like to snag images of Recluse Press titles - those printed by Lovecraft's friend W Paul Cook. Unfortunately, $500 for this copy is out of Chrispy's price range.

Read the notes by the seller: With a preface by Samuel Loveman.The Recluse Press,1926.FIRST EDITION/FIRST PRINTING.HARDCOVER.Penned name of former owner in the blank front end page.@" X 2" chip to top right area of the blank back end page.Pastedown title on front board.LIGHT rubbing to board tips.SOLID & CLEAN,BRIGHT & CRISP.GOOD +. 31 pages.SIGNED BY FRANK BELKNAP LONG.LONG'S FIRST PUBLISHED WORK.Twenty poems including one on reading Arthur Machen. LIMITED PRINTING OF 315 copies released ! The Recluse Press' First Title !
HERE is a LEGENDARY title in the flesh & SIGNED !!

.........THE PROPHET.....
"He stood by the river and whistled through his hands
And ibises from Egypt filled the morning lands;
They circled in the air,and their wings caught the sun
And they turned gold and crimson ere his song was done.
II knew he was a prophet,and I swore by my hat
To place on Hathor's altar a yellow tiger-cat:
But then he somehow heard me,and though I tried to fly
He turned and cursed,and I became-a shadow on
the sky ! "

Sounds a bit like H.P.Lovecraft's NYARLARTHOTEP !
HERE is the Cthulhu Mythos author in his first rare work !

Celebration of Lovecraft's Friends: W Paul Cook & Walter John Coates

I just received and am holding in my lap, the book printed in 1927: Land of Allen and other verse by Walter John Coates. The book is still sturdy after 80 years. The paper is heavy and edge cut irregularly. Some pages are cuth straight, others are ragged due to the orientation of the sheets printed. It smells of a bit of mildew - not overwhelming, but of age and history that it has endured but will not speak of.

Once a living man wrote the words within. Once a living man printed the pages. These collegaues created something and now it has passed to one who reveres it but is not worthy to hold it.

Coates dediactes it, "To the wife who has been my faithful companion for twenty years and to the friends who have kindled my idealism at the altar of poesy." One selected poem reads:

The Loved Immortals

Our spirits coexist with theirs. No bar
__Impassable those kindred souls may sever
__When God ordained of old to be together
As he ordained the orbit of each star
__Whoso wrought out mentality for eath
Wrought none impersonal or ill: the ages
__Are but successive epochs of rebirth
In which mankind (connoting fools and sages)
__In one great Likeness live this life below.
__The heights we climb, however fast or slow,
Were climbed before or will be climbed in time
__By kindred spirits in the grand relay
Of aging destiny. Full life sublime
__Is ours who live life fully, even today.

May 7, 1926

1928: The Shunned House 1st Edition (1952 Arkham House)

For only $13,500 !!

THE SHUNNED HOUSE
By H.P. Lovecraft
Athol, Massachusetts W. Paul Cook - Recluse Press 1928.
First Edition of the Authors First Book.
Of the first edition of 300 sets of sheets printed, the book was not issued during Lovecrafts lifetime and a number of unbound sheets were damaged and unused, this is one of 50 sets of folded unbound sheets that Arkham House started selling in circa 1952 with an Arkham House copyright notice affixed to the copyright page.
Enclosed in a custom full morocco clamshell box.
A cornerstone Lovecraft piece!