First edition, first printing, presentation copy inscribed with an original poem to the publisher's wife, with the inscription on the front free endpaper reading "To Laura McElwee, Cordially, August Derleth, May 1940" and the poem "The lost child, / less than the dry leaf blown / along the walls". The recipient was the the wife of Ritten House publisher William J. McElwee. The author August Derleth (1909-1971) was a hugely prolific writer and friend of H. P. Lovecraft. This book, his third collection of poems, was published the year after Derleth founded Arkham House for the purposes of publishing works of the Cthulu Mythos (a term Derleth himself coined).
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