TIME AND THE GODS

1922. Sime, S. H.. [1 of 250 copies signed] With Ten Illustrations in Photogravure by S.H. Sime. London & New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1922. Original orange-ochre cloth with vellum spine and orange suede spine label.

Limited Signed Edition, this being copy #90 of 250 -- signed by Dunsany at the end of his Preface, and with each mystical plate signed by the illustrator Sidney H. Sime. This was Dunsany's second book, which had first been published in 1906 -- the year after his THE GODS OF PEG NA. It is a collection of short fantastical pieces, ending with the longer allegorical tale "The Journey of the King"... about a king who wanted to (truncated) know what lay beyond death. His various prophets spoke of different after-lives, but the king wants only eternal youth. The prophet Ulf tells him of Time, which serves yet frightens the gods. A dark figure then comes and takes the king on his journey -- death [Bleiler]. These Dunsany volumes are considered to have influenced such later writers as J.R.R. Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft, and Ursula K. LeGuin. This is a fine copy of this oversized volume, with scarcely any of the usual cover soil -- still with its original silk marker ribbon, and with the majority of the leaves still unopened. Bleiler 574; Currey p. 172. (Inventory #: 15651)