Here’s Marcus again and he’s holding his first edition copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination, illustrated by Harry Clark. Clarke was another of Caine’s favourite artists and many of the drawings that follow have previously been seen on this blog. Clarke’s illustrations in Poe’s Tales of Mystery are considered the best of any edition produced. According to the Public Domain Review:
…perhaps it is the Irishman Harry Clarke who has come closest to evoking the delirious claustrophobia and frightening inventiveness of “Poe-land”. For the 1919 edition of Tales Clarke created the twenty-four monochrome images featured below. Their nightmarish, hallucinatory quality makes you wonder if he was on something, until you remember the stories.
I couldn’t agree more. All 24 full-sized illustrations are included below the fold.
Illustrations via: The Public Domain Review
The 1923 edition of the book can be viewed at The Internet Archive. This edition includes 4 colour plates that were not part of the original 1919 edition. I haven’t included them here. They’re worth taking a look at and so are the smaller page illustrations.
Illustrations via: The Public Domain Review
Marcus Ranum says
This edition still shows up on ebay for under $100 if you are patient.