The Shunned House

Overview:

• Title: The Shunned House
• Author: H. P. Lovecraft
• Year: 1961
• Publisher: Recluse Press
• Price: $17.50
• Pages: 59
• Binding: Hardcover
• Type: Chapter Book
• Title Reference: The Shunned House
• Notes: "The Shunned House" was written in 1924 but rejected by Weird Tales. It was then offered to W. Paul Cook who printed 300 sets of sheets (some sources say 250). Most sources state that Cook never bound them. Lovecraft himself hand-bound at least one copy in a personally crafted manila folder for presentation, though none of the cited sources mention this. Circa 1933, Cook gave Robert Barlow (Lovecraft's literary executor) 265 sets, a few of which were bound. For the next 20+ years copies were distributed in loose leaf by various parties. In the 50s, August Derleth purchased from Cook the remaining sets (approx. 150), and began distributing them through Arkham House. In 1961 he bound 100 copies in boards similar to Arkham House editions and sold them for $17.50 each. (this publication record).
  Most Arkham House copies were distributed with a copyright cancel pasted over the Cook copyright. This cancel lists copyrights for 1936, 1937, 1939 and 1947. The spine of the bound copies lists the publisher as Arkham House.
  Reginald1 states that no copies were bound until 1936, and that the majority of the press run was stored and later bound by Arkham House in 1962. All other sources give the date as 1961.
  Derleth lists this in Thirty Years of Arkham House but does not number it.
  Joshi Sixty Years of Arkham House: 61A.
  Jaffery The Arkham House Companion: 64.
  Nielsen Arkham House Books: 65.