New, Rare and Interesting Items This Week at Miskatonic Bookstore

To get ordering information on any title just click on the cover art.

Many of the books we carry are rare and we have a very limited quantity.

All books are sold on a first come first serve basis.

For the esoteric minded reader:

Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum by Elias Ashmole (First Edition Hardcover)

The Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum is a major collection of English alchemical texts which encapsulate the arcana of the Magnum Opus in poetic form. Originally gathered from several rare medieval manuscripts by Elias Ashmole, the text represents the largest collection of verse treating of the production of the Philosopher’s Stone to be brought together in one volume.Ashmole’s pride in English literature is amplified by the consideration he gave to the project. In deciding which texts should be included in the book he details ancient British examples among the Druids & the Bardic Tradition and explains that poesy is much better than mere verse. Here we find well known names in the alchemical corpus among whom are included; Thomas Norton, George Ripley, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Daston, Pearce the Black Monke, Richard Carpenter, Abraham Andrews, Thomas Charnock, William Bloomefield, Edward Kelley, John Dee, Thomas Robinson, William Backhouse, John Gower, John Lydgate, W. Redman and several anonymous authors. This who’s who of English alchemists is placed in historical context by a Prolegomena by Ashmole, which supports his thesis that England may be proud of its alchemical literary heritage. In addition Ashmole has provided ample annotations and commentary to each of the texts as supplementary material in the concluding chapter of the book. The text has a new introduction by William Kiesel and a full bibliography of alchemical and bibliographic materials used in researching the text. This complete edition of the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum goes beyond the mere reprinting of the original pages as past facsimiles have done. Using the original errata sheets provided by Ashmole, the entire text has been corrected and reset in a more readable typeface and features clear reproductions of the original engravings produced by Robert Vaughan. In addition, this edition features a more complete version of the Breviary of Naturall Philosophy by Thomas Charnock by employing a complete manuscript of the text not available to Ashmole in 1652. This is the most ambitious publishing project embraced by Ouroboros Press in its years of laboring to bring source works of western esotericism to scholars and collectors alike. Over a dozen individuals and institutions worked hard to bring the book into this complete and corrected edition. This is fine esoteric book arts at its best, a volume Elias Ashmole himself would be proud of. Stout Octavo, 6 x 9 inches. 528 pages. Primary Typeface: Williams Caslon Text. Rubricated title page in red and black ink. Illustrated with alchemical engravings, ornamental grotesques, dragons, trees, and fleurons. Includes an 11 x 14 folding plate titled; George Ripley’s Wheel.

THE CATECHISM OF LUCIFER by Johannes Nefastos (Limited Edition Hardcover)

“Written as a counter-gospel for the Evangelical Lutheran catechism, but in addition to this, it represents a Gnostic form of Satanism on its own. In this book is outlined the path out of worldliness, out of theology mortally wounded by its false theodicy, even out of humanity taken as something small-minded, powerless and petty. The Catechism of Lucifer is founded upon the idea that by hating the perverted picture made of God by the Christian doctrine, we may truly attain higher possibilities for our Spiritual development and Empowerment. On this demanding but beautiful and meaningful path we are led by our innermost potential of ingeniosity, the divine Master Lucifer.

Book is in fine unread condition.

• Includes the following texts:
• The Ten Commandments of Lucifer
• The Satanic Credo in Three Creeds
• The Master’s Prayer in Six Articles
• Of Lucifer’s sacraments
• Of Demons
• Of Magic
• Of the Responsibility of the Individual
• Of Satan
• And many relevant quotations taken from the different sources of Star of Azazel’s literature.

Ixaxaar Occult Literature, 2013. First Edition Hardcover. Small Octavo. 82pp. Gilt decorated black faux leather, black textured endpapers, finished with a black silk ribbon and cream colour head- and tailbands, printed on embossed linen paper. Publisher’s printed bookmark loosely inserted.

THE INFERNAL COLOPATIRON: A Manual of Daemonic Theophany by S. Connolly (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

BACK IN STOCK!!! Selling quickly

Being a sacred grimoire of the walkers, detailing the olde ways of Demonolatry gate opening and the arte of daemonic theophany. Discusses centuries old, never before published Daemonolatry methods to produce Daemonic manifestations and includes the never before published Purswell ascension ritual, the pre-curser to the Dukanté version.

extured black faux leather, copper lettering to spine & copper sigil of Ocat, the “abyssal gatekeeper of the dead”, on upper board. Sigils and illustrations. Bibliography. Edition limited to 220 hand-numbered copies, consecrated and sigilised by the author, thus the limitation page may have an oleum smear from the anointing oil, or ink smudges from the blood infused ink. Called by the publisher: “A sacred grimoire of the walkers, detailing the olde ways of Demonolatry gate opening and the arte of daemonic theophany. The author discusses centuries old, never before published Daemonolatry methods to produce Daemonic manifestations and includes the previously unpublished Purswell ascension ritual, the pre-curser to the Dukanté version.” We note that each copy has printed within it a curse that is said to activate if someone steals or reproduces the book in any manner, including internet uploads. Not to be reprinted.

Book is in new unread condition

For the Horror Fiction connoisseur:

BRIDES OF THE IMPALER by Edward Lee (Signed Deluxe Leather Bound Lettered Edition in Traycase)

Traycased Hardcover Lettered Edition of 52 signed and lettered copies bound in leather with a satin ribbon page marker.

Book is in fine condition in a like traycase

About the Book:
Cristina Nichols fears the future, through the harrowing whispers of her past. She longs to forget the depraved abuses she suffered in her youth that left her afraid of love and passion. But something, somewhere, is suddenly tantalizing her, beckoning into a muse of carnal revelation and ecstatic fulfillment…

SECRET PASSIONS…

Deep in the cryptic New York City brownstone, something awakens, brimming with hot, real breath, libidinous longings and desires of the flesh the likes of which Cristina cannot conceive…

A SECRET LUST BURIED FOR AGES…

In the basement she finds it, the sinister evil finally unbound, reaching forth in vampiric bloodlust to prey upon her most forbidden fantasies and plummet her body and soul into a chasm of wantonness as black as the most timeless sin…

IMPALER

The secret will drench your desires in blood…

SERPENT GIRL by Ray Garton (Signed Lettered Edition Hardcover)

Steven Benedetti’s work has him driving the lonely highways at night, as it so often does. But tonight he passes a carnival and decides to stop for a break. At the carnival, Benedetti meets the Serpent Girl, a woman who stirs him like no other woman has, a woman who, like Benedetti, has a secret. They hit the night roads together and begin a journey that will change Benedetti forever.

Traycased Lettered Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies bound in leather with a satin ribbon page marker and extra full-color artwork

THE HORROR HALL OF FAME: THE STOKER WINNERS edited by Joe R. Lansdale (Deluxe Signed Leather Bound Lettered Edition in Traycase)

Traycased Lettered Edition of 52 (signed by the editor) and lettered copies bound in leather with a satin ribbon page and additional color artwork

Book is in fine condition in like traycase

Featuring full color cover artwork by Alan M. Clark and black & white interior artwork for every story by acclaimed artist Glenn Chadbourne

About the Book:
This landmark anthology collects for the first-time ever the Bram Stoker Award-winning short stories and novellas from legendary authors such as George R.R. Martin, Robert Bloch, Harlan Ellison, Jack Ketchum, Joe R. Lansdale, David Morrell, Alan Rodgers, and many, many others! The Stoker Award is presented annually by the Horror Writers Association, and this volume represents the very best fiction in the horror field!

• Table of Contents:
• “Introduction” by Joe R. Lansdale
• “The Scent of Vinegar” by Robert Bloch
• “The Calling” by David B. Silva
• “Chatting With Anubis” by Harlan Ellison
• “The Pear-Shaped Man” by George R.R. Martin
• “The Night They Missed the Horror Show” by Joe R. Lansdale
• “Lady Madonna” by Nancy Holder
• “The Box” by Jack Ketchum
• “Stephen” by Elizabeth Massie
• “The Red Tower” by Thomas Ligotti
• “The Boy Who Came Back From the Dead” by Alan Rodgers
• “The Night We Buried Road Dog” by Jack Cady
• “Metalica” by P.D. Cacek
• “Orange is for Anguish, Blue is for Insanity” by David Morrell

LAST EXIT FOR THE LOST by Tim Lebbon (Deluxe Signed Leather Bound Lettered Edition in Custom Traycase)

Traycased Lettered Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies bound in leather

Book is in fine condition in like traycase

cover artwork by Les Edwards

About the Book:
From multi award-winning and New York Times bestselling writer Tim Lebbon comes this huge collection of the very best of his short fiction.

His first short fiction collection As the Sun Goes Down (Night Shade Book), attracted rave reviews. Now, Last Exit for the Lost collects the best of Lebbon’s output from 2000 to the present day. Weighing in at over 560 pages and containing 150,000 words of fiction, it also features two brand new, never-before-published stories: the novelette The Evolutionary, and the novella Nothing Heavenly.

• In Kissing at Shadows, a man makes a yearly journey through an apocalyptic landscape to visit the memory of his wife…
• In The Stuff of the Stars, Leaking, a dead sea creature washed up on a remote beach proves to be more mysterious than it first appears…
• A man loses his son… and he will do anything to get him back In Perpetuity…
• In The Horror of the Many Faces, Watson witnesses his friend Sherlock Holmes committing horrendous crimes that the great man himself would have trouble solving…
• A boy meets a mysterious stranger who can heal dead animals in The Evolutionary… but is there some fearful design to their meeting…?
• And captured by angels or demons, a prisoner can find Nothing Heavenly in either…

Lebbon has been described as “…the most exciting voice in the horror genre since Poppy Z Brite and Bentley Little”, “…the most exciting new name in horror for years”, and “…one of the very few genuinely talented British writers of thought-provoking horror and dark fantasy”.

If you’re brave enough to step through this Last Exit, you’ll see why…

STORIES FROM THE PLAGUE YEARS by Michael Marano (Deluxe Signed Leather Bound Lettered Edition in Custom Traycase)

Traycased Lettered Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies bound in leather with a satin ribbon page marker

Book is in fine condition in a like traycase

Introduction by John Shirley

About the Book:
Stories from the Plague Years is the first fiction collection from award-winning fantasy author Michael Marano.

Nine tales are arranged in a haunting symphony that guides readers through a tour of the darkest landscapes of human existence. Here, fury and hate grow so strong, they cannot be held within one man’s body, and manifest themselves to devastating effect. Cities contain second, unseen cities populated by the vengeful ghosts of those who died too soon. Countries fall to famine and war.

But these are also the tales of love lasting beyond death, love existing beyond all hope, and friendships never forgotten. Included are the widely praised stories “Winter Requiem,” “The Siege,” and the controversial “Burden,” as well as two original novellas.

Marano, acclaimed for his evocative voice, paints lush portraits both terrifying and tender, injecting even the darkest of fantasies with a punk rock sensibility and a touch of the humane. With Stories from the Plague Years, he presents snapshots of a time when our world collided with evil, sickness, and self-destruction and left behind lasting scars on those who dared to survive.

KING BLOOD by Simon Clark (Deluxe Signed Leather Bound Lettered Edition in Traycase)

Traycased Hardcover Lettered Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies bound in leather and Smyth sewn with a satin ribbon page marker

About the Book:

Warm
Rick Kennedy feels pretty good. Tonight there’s going to be the party of the summer. The brother he hasn’t seen for years has just flown in, and this is the night Rick plans to do something about Kate Robinson — the beautiful girl he just can’t get out of his mind. In the pleasant village of Fairburn the evening air is warm…

Warmer
And this is the night that Rick encounters the mysterious stranger in the woods.

Hot
Soon he wakes to find 30,000 refugees choking the streets. People are running for their lives. Only there’s nowhere to run.

Hotter
The ground heats up inexorably. Roads melt. Cities erupt into flame. Lakes boil. Pockets of natural gas explode like nuclear bombs and geysers of scalding water flood through whole communities.

Burning
Survivors search desperately for refuge in a landscape burning forever hotter beneath their feet. But they have yet to confront the Grey Men — and the demons inside themselves…

New, Rare and Notable

In stock and shipping:

HIS NAME WAS DEATH by Fredric Brown (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

This is an advanced order.

Any lucky amateur can do away with family. But it takes a professional to kill an almost perfect stranger. Fiendishly convoluted, His Name Was Death is a tale of geometrically multiplying homicides and a foolproof murder whose repercussions keep spreading to consume victim after victim.
Wickedly funny, His Name Was Death is widely considered to be one of Fredric Brown’s best suspense novels. This edition features a new introduction by Ed Gorman, a color cover by Gwabryel, and is signed by Gorman and Gwabryel.
Full color dustjacket on Mohawk Carnival Felt with black Brillianta cloth, ribbon marker, and a return of our full color illustration inlay on the front board. Each signature page has a drawing by Gwabryel.

Limited to 200 copies, each signed by Ed Gorman and illustrator Gwabryel.
Introduction by Ed Gorman.
Includes two bonus short stories.
Gwabryel has drawn a remarque on each of the signature pages.
Ribbon marker, color dustjacket, head and tail bands, rayon cloth construction and a full-color image inlay on the front board

 

The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini and Other Strange Stories by Reggie Oliver (Signed Trade Paperback)

Variety and originality of setting, strength of characterisation, stylistic elegance and narrative power are qualities for which Reggie Oliver has become well-known in his five volumes of ‘strange stories’. All are present in this groundbreaking debut volume, first published in 2003. It was a nominee for best collection of 2003 in the International Horror Guild Awards.
A doomed relationship in a seaside town that persists after death. . . . A convent in which there is always the unacknowledged presence of an extra nun. . . . A balding actor who acquires a mysterious wig after his rival goes missing. . . . A brilliant inventor who becomes trapped inside his own sinister computer game. . . . A sixteenth-century cardinal who is tormented by dreams of the sect he has persecuted.

Reggie Oliver is an English playwright, biographer and writer of ghost stories. His work has appeared in a number of anthologies, including the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror.
The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini and Other Strange Stories contains: “Author’s Note”, “Beside the Shrill Sea”, “Feng Shui”, “In Arcadia”, “Evil Eye”, “Miss Marchant’s Cause”, “Tiger in the Snow”, “Garden Gods”, “The Black Cathedral” ,”The Boy in Green Velvet”, “The Golden Basilica”, “Death Mask”, “The Seventeenth Sister”, “The Copper Wig”, “The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini”.

The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini and Other Strange Stories is a paperback of 333 pages, printed lithographically.

 

Some Edward Lee Rarities!

MASKS by Edward Lee and Jack Ketchum (Signed Deluxe Lettered Edition)

A beautiful and very rare copy of the Lettered Edition of MASKS by Edward Lee and Jack Ketchum.

This is a very rare “PC” copy of the hardcover lettered edition of MASKS. This edition is also inscribed on the title page by Jack Ketchum and signed “Dallas” his real name rather than his pseudonym Jack Ketchum. This edition is also signed by Edward Lee, and illustrator Erik Wilson.

Book is in fine unread condition.

OF PIGS & SPIDERS by Edward Lee, John Pelan, David Niall Wilson, Brett Savory (Signed Deluxe Lettered Edition)

One of only 52 signed lettered edition hardcover copies. This is letter “II” of 52. This copy is signed by all contributors. Book is in fine unread condition.

For Mature Audiences Only. These two tales take an untraditional look at cute and cuddly barnyard animals. Wilson and Savory’s “That’s Some Pig” combines a dysfunctional family, stuffed animals, disembowelment and green jello. Lee and Pelan’s “Charlie’s Web” poignantly deals with Chaldean sorcery, alternative sex practices, and a plumber’s nightmare in a white trash hell. Not for the squeamish. Barf bag not included.

 

KILL THE ENEMY and BOMB by Edward Lee (2 volume slipcased hardcover edition)

Hardcover set consists of two separate chapbooks, “Bomb” and “Kill the Enemy”, with the extra story “Driving”, housed in a custom slipcase and limited to 75 copies.

Both books are numbered 15 of 75 and are housed in a custom slipcase.

Bomb -and- Kill the Enemy by Edward Lee
Cover Art by Glenn Chadbourne

The next chapbooks in our chapbook line…..
The first, “Bomb” is Ed Lee’s first, last and only Love Story!
The second chapbook, “Kill the Enemy”, a wonderful never-before-published story about the horrors of war. The second chapbook also includes an extra story only available in the hardcover edition entitled “Driving”

 

THE DUNWICH ROMANCE by Edward Lee Limited Edition Now Shipping

THE DUNWICH ROMANCE by Edward Lee    Is a signed limited edition hardcover of only 300 signed and numbered copies. Now in stock and shipping!

“To boil the seas. To smash the forests. To crush the cities.”

Wilbur Whateley has the power to do all these things.  Dunwich folk believe the backwoods cretin to be just another inbred hill-freak, but he’s actually the scion of deviant and unhallowed gods; his purpose on this earth is to fill it with a horror which will eradicate all mankind.  See, Wilbur is inclined to agree with his otherworldly father, that human beings are filthy, wretched, nearly brainless animals who do not deserve to live.

But he’s also half human, and as time goes by he finds himself longing for the one thing he’s not likely ever to possess: love.

Wilbur will find it, however, in the last week of his life–a love so pure, so honest, so incontestably sincere that it almost changes his mind about the unworthiness of mankind.

Almost.

“Yog-Sothoth be praised…”

Only hardcore horror scribe Edward Lee would dare sequelize Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror in a manner so explicit and so sublimely obscene.  Where Lovecraft revealed his horrors in between the lines, Lee puts them under a most perverse microscope to exploit every abominable, erotic, and lust-soused detail, and hook-drags the reader through a screaming black arcade of jerkwater sex, articulate gore, and unmitigated grotesquerie.

THE DUNWICH ROMANCE
A novel of unutterable horror and undiluted love.

Spontaneous Myth: A New Appearance of The Orang Minyak

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. H. P. Lovecraft

Folklorists have thoroughly studied the origins of mythology. An event can spontaneously generate a story from a combination of a culture’s anthropological or sociological preconceptions. In turn, a collection of these “mythemes” (Or mythological themes) can be collected in a variety of ways to tell whole stories that can be basis of the underpinnings of the entire community. If one reverses this, one understands the key to individual culture.

It can be mundane such as why wear white at weddings, or why one culture adores tattoos and another abhors them.

A recent story by Rashvinjeet S.Bedi of the Star/Asia News Network (Sunday, Jan 01, 2012) shows how a myth is created from random elements. In most cases, humans have a condition whereby we see patterns where there are none. We tend to fear randomness. There must be a reason why Joe got eaten by a shark, but Charlie became a wealthy CEO. Indeed, Joe may have gotten drunk and fallen into the shark tank at the aquarium, while Joe graduated summa cum laude from Harvard, but barring this, randomness just happens. This we can’t stand.

Perhaps the best teller of these mythological tales – stories where normal people just have very horrific things happen – has been Brian Keene. But pick Ray Garton, or Ed Lee, or Michael Laimo, or so many others. It is the basis of our modern horror story since Shirley Jackson taught us that horror is right next door.

Enter the Orang Minyak.

A 1958 poster with an earlier era's Orang MInyak

Allegedly one 2 AM morning in Kampung Laksamana in Gombak around 40 residents divided into groups armed with lights and sticks were searching their village for a so-called Orang Minyak (oily man).

In fact they believed that two paranormal creatures had scurried about for 10 days.

1. Some claim to have seen and heard the orang minyak
2. Others say the thing is clad only underwear drenched in black shiny oil.
3. Still others say (like Spring Heel Jack f ancient London) jumps from one roof to another and vanishes into thin air within seconds.
4. One man claims “It is tall, stocky and bald”, while another is “thin and curly haired”. “It was breathing really loudly, like a cow.’

The myth begins to expand by adding cultural ritual, “the orang minyak conducts its ritual of reciting jampi (mantra) and having an oil bath.”

Then a location is given. “the villagers stumbled across the spot after chasing the orang minyak into some bushes…”

Justification? “There was a large oil patch there”.

More detail is added from other random events “… the next night, they found a packet of fried rice and noodles at the very same spot… later the food was gone … eaten by the orang minyak.”

Then a deep myth connects to these various elements. Or more likely, spliced onto a legend. “According to popular legend, the orang minyak is a person who has undertaken the study of black magic and as a rite of passage, and has to rape a certain number of anak dara (virgins) to pass that course.” A sort of gang initiation, one supposes.

Then comes the fear. “The villagers are worried because almost every house in the neighbourhood houses a young girl.”

To reinforce the story, “a 17-year-old girl did not only see the orang minyak a few times, but also felt ‘someone” caressing her and calling her to go out of the house’.” This may have been a simple psychopompic nightmare, an incubus dream, but it has now been spliced into the deeper legend adds to the new mythological beast.

Then another arbitrary story is added. “It reportedly also locked the family members outside the house on Christmas eve”.

Then this addition, “We saw a black heap underneath the kitchen table. When other residents poked it with a bamboo stick, we could see blood stains … It then fled to a neighbour’s house.”

The fear was real. One villager left. Or did he? Maybe it was an FOAF (friend of a friend story, which can never be verified.) “Unfortunately, all attempts by Sunday Star to contact him were unsuccessful.”

Often a myth or ghost tale is negatively reinforced by a skeptical authority figure. “… some of these stories sound incredible and illogical … it is hard to find any Kampung Laksamana resident who doesn’t believe in it …”

It isn’t true, but since everyone believes it is a higher level of truth. “During the Christmas weekend, some 200 people patrolled the street …”

There we have within a matter of less than a month, not only a new myth created, but carried on a national wire service. Myths are some of the most primal and powerful stories humans have, and they spread like wildfire. However, when they land elsewhrere, they easily morph to fit the new culture.

a classic Malaysian television version

For at least 2500 years, the “ghostly hitchhiker” myth has persisted. In Roman days (and there may be a few cases in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament) the hitchhiker, usually a girl, was found on a cart. In the mid-19th century, trains often had mysterious people appear and disappear. Then in the automobile age, the modern classic appeared. A teen-aged girl standing by the roadside suddenly was in the back seat of the speeding car. Later this became very elaborate, whereby a girl appeared to a boy, who took her home. She would leave a sweater, or other very identifiable garment. Then, having fallen in love, tried to relocate the address and either a cemetery was now there with the girl’s name on a tombstone, or inside the home a mother would say, “Yes, that is my daughter’s sweater, but she has been dead many years.”

It is a small step from a mythic story to a horror story, so perhaps one day the Orang Minyak will star in a new horror novel?

Professor Jan Harold Brunvand of the Univ. of Utah has written many books. He often documents the "vanishing hitchhiker".