Frankenstein books

In honour of this spooky month, I'm going to showcase all of my vintage horror/monster-related books throughout October.


Today is the grand finale. Feast your eyes upon my glorious Frankenstein collection. Frankenstein is by far by favourite horror book. Actually, it's my favourite book full stop. It is a phenomenal piece of literature that has a myriad of interpretations. Despite the fact it was written almost 200 years ago, it is a story that continues to consistently remain relevant. Without further ado, I present my well-loved vintage Frankensteins.


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Top Left: 1968
Top Right: 1965
Bottom Left: 1969
Bottom Right: 1963

A peek inside the 1963 copy

I love how Signet Classics have a line drawing and bio of the author on the first page

Cinema of the Fantastic book

In honour of this spooky month, I'm going to showcase all of my vintage horror/monster-related books throughout October.


This is a large hardcover which is "an excursion into the world of horror, the bizarre, the grotesque, the incredible and satanic".

Cinema of the Fantastic, Chris Steinbrunner and Burt Goldblatt, 1972

A very sinister screen shot of Metropolis

I found it very difficult to capture the true colours of this book without the dust jacket, but it's a neon lime green. Fantastic indeed!

Dracula and Frankenstein book

In honour of this spooky month, I'm going to showcase all of my vintage horror/monster-related books throughout October.


This book here was quite the find. It is a large double Dracula / Frankenstein hardcover. The illustrations on the dust jacket are gorgeous.
These two monsters have numerous connections and seem indelibly tied together throughout history. As mentioned in a previous blog post, it has been speculated that the historic versions of Frankenstein and Dracula may have battled in the 1400s. The conception of the Frankenstein and Dracula tales came out of the same story writing contest in the haunted summer of 1816 at the Villa Diodati. Universal Studio's film versions of Dracula and Frankenstein both came out in 1931 and unarguably created cinematic history. Plus both Drac and Frank have deliciously sugary children's cereals themed after them.

Dracula / Frankenstein, Bram Stoker / Mary Shelly. There is no date of publication anywhere on this book! Very frustrating, but it does say that it is a book club edition.

He looks so sad

Here is what the book looks like naked. Scandalous. 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow book

In honour of this spooky month, I'm going to showcase all of my vintage horror/monster-related books throughout October.


Here is a book which features that eerie classic about the Headless Horseman. Interesting fact that I recently discovered: the town in which "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is set was named Tarrytown, but changed the name to "Sleepy Hollow" in 1996. I really want to go there for Halloween one year. Check this video out to see what a cool little village Sleepy Hollow is: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=648463022940&ref=mf

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Selections from Washington Irving, Washington Irving, edited and with an intro by Austin McC. Fox, 1962

Detail of the Headless Horseman galloping through the haunted woods, chasing poor ole Ichabod Crane.

Love it when there's a little line drawing illustration of the author at the start of a book.

The spooky font nicely sets the tone for the chilling tale about to follow

One of the "other selections" included in this volume is Irving's Rip Van Winkle. Here is a small illustration of the bearded old codger

Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine

In honour of this spooky month, I'm going to showcase all of my vintage horror/monster-related books throughout October.


Today I am showing off the only copy of "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine that I own. I'd like to find more, but this one is actually pretty neat because literally the day after I posted the blog I wrote about Basil Gogos (which can be found here) I came across the very copy of the magazine I posted a picture of. I found it at an antique market and it was only a buck. I am a massive fan of Gogos' monster art and am hugely influenced by it. The bold colours and creepy subject matter are thrilling to say the least. This magazine has some pretty good articles, especially an interesting one on Bela Lugosi (Dracula), but what I am most entertained by is the back few pages of ads featuring such wonders as spooky paperbacks, rubber masks, make-your-own-monster kits and more. Not gonna lie; I really, really, really want everything on these pages. 

Famous Monsters of Filmland, April 1975, #115. Cover art: Basil Gogos

Part of what I love about this old magazine is all the ads at the back of it, tempting the reader with countless other monstrous media.

It wasn't until I was taking pictures of this that I realized - I actually have this Monsters Who's Who book. 

"BUY THESE OR DIE!"

In Search of Frankenstein book

In honour of this spooky month, I'm going to showcase all of my vintage horror/monster-related books throughout October.

Here is a very interesting one called "In Search of Frankenstein" which tracks how Frankenstein came to be written, looking back on Mary Shelly's life, who her parents were, who her husband and friends were, places she traveled, important scientific discoveries up to that point and various other elements which may have impacted her famous frightening novel. Frankenstein combines myth with personal, literary, social, philosophical and scientific history and this book puts a magnifying glass on where many of Shelly's influences may have derived.  
One of the most interesting parts of this book is the author's speculation that "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" may have some genuine historical basis. There really was a German family of Frankensteins (that lived in Castle Frankenstein!) who existed at the same time as the historical Dracula (mid 1400s). Some of the Frankensteins travelled through Transylvania with a mission of Christianizing heathens in Eastern Europe (at the point of the sword). As the book says: "Since Dracula was, in essence, an opponent of the German political and economic penetration of Eastern Europe - he impaled the Germans of Transylvania in large numbers - ...it is by no means impossible that the historical Dracula may have met a real Frankenstein in battle... a Frankenstein may even have ended his career impaled on Dracula's stake!". That is some bloody good stuff.   

In Search of Frankenstein, Radu Florescu, 1975

Amazing font

Photos! Castle Frankenstein!

Edgar Allan Poe books

In honour of this spooky month, I'm going to showcase all of my vintage horror/monster-related books throughout October.

Behold, my treasured Poe collection:

Top left: Poe A Critical Study, Edward H. Davidson, 1964
Top Right: Writers and Critics Edgar Allan Poe, Geoffrey Rans, 1965
Bottom Left: Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, Collected and edited with an intro and commentary by Harold Beaver, 1976
Bottom Right: The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales,  Edgar Allan Poe, 1960

I absolutely adore both of these covers. The cover on the left shows a detail from Odilon Redon's 'L'oeil comme un balloon bizarre se dirige vers L'INFINI', a lithograph inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, in the Bilbliotheque Nationale, Paris. The cover art on the book on the right is probably my favourite Signet Classic cover. I'm a huge fan of Signet Classic covers as it is and this one really stands out to me. The font, the illustration, and the colours are just my taste. 

The first page of The Fall of the House of Usher. I think most Signet Classics have a simple illustration of the author and a brief bio at the start. I dig it. 

Love it when there is a little pen/ink illustration inside a book

Chapter one of Writers and Critics Edgar Allan Poe

So, this one is not a vintage book and I'm really limiting these blogs to just my vintage ones, but I thought it made for a pretty neat photo so am sneaking it in. This is of my large volume of Poe's complete tales and poems.

The Phantom of the Opera book

In honour of this spooky month, I'm going to showcase all of my vintage horror/monster-related books throughout October.

Here is the Phantom of the Opera in all of his hardcover glory. 

The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux, 1985 

There is a very interesting forward that looks back on the history of the Phantom in literature, theatre and film.

Sans dust jacket