1889 Rare Book - The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym by Edgar Allan Poe
Author: Edgar Allan Poe. Illustrated by A. D. McCormick.
Title: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym: A Romance.
Publisher: New York: New Amsterdam Book Company, [circa 1889].
Language: Text in English.
Size: 8." × 5.5".
Pages: vi-265 pages + publisher's ad.
Binding: Very good original publisher’s deep red ribbed cloth binding with gilt lettering to spine and upper cover, featuring a striking gilt sunrise motif on the front board (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. Upper edge gilt.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing or staining - as shown, ownership inscription (“Florence M. Davison, No. 101”) on the front free endpaper - as shown).
Illustrations: Illustrated throughout with eight dramatic full-page black-and-white plates by A. D. McCormick, including the frontispiece “The Death-Ship”.
Estimate: (USD 250–350).
The book: A handsome and well-preserved late 19th-century American illustrated edition of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Edgar Allan Poe’s only full-length novel and one of the earliest works of nautical adventure fiction with distinctly Gothic undertones. This New Amsterdam Book Company issue presents Poe’s haunting and mysterious tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and Antarctic exploration with a series of evocative illustrations by A. D. McCormick, whose atmospheric black-and-white plates amplify the novel’s eerie tone and sense of peril.
The book’s binding, with its radiant gilt sunrise design, evokes both the promise and foreboding that define Poe’s polar voyage — a narrative that influenced generations of writers from Herman Melville to Jules Verne and H.P. Lovecraft. An exceptional example of Poe’s imaginative power in a collectible decorative Victorian binding.
The author: Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) remains one of America’s most influential literary figures — poet, critic, and master of the macabre. Best known for The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe’s works explored the boundaries of human reason, emotion, and terror. Arthur Gordon Pym (1838) represents his singular foray into long-form fiction, blending realism, symbolism, and speculative imagination in a narrative that continues to intrigue readers and scholars alike.
The illustrator: A. D. McCormick (1860–1943) was a British painter and illustrator celebrated for his adventure and maritime scenes. His dynamic compositions, marked by careful detail and tonal contrast, lend Poe’s dark seafaring vision a vivid visual life — from raging tempests to ghostly ships emerging through mist.