DUNSANY, Lord (Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany, 1878-1957). The Gods of Pegana. [With]: A Tipped-in Signed Letter Describing His First Collection of Jorkens Tales. London: Elkin Mathews, 1905. 8vo. [viii], 1-94, [1, colophon] pp. Illustrated in photogravure by S. H. Sime. Publisher's boards with cloth shelf back lettered in dark brown and illustrated with a drummer. STELLAR FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING OF DUNSANY'S FIRST BOOK, WITH A SIGNED 3 PP LETTER TIPPED-IN TO FRONT FLYLEAF. The  7 x 4 1/2" letter, dated on "Dec. 4 1930" to a "Mr. Wilson," describes the forthcoming appearance of Dunsany's first book of Joseph Jorkens tales in 1931: "...They are tales of the wilder & remoter parts of the earth, mostly those to which I have been taken by big-game hunting, & are all told by a drunken old man in a club, who has a reputation for being a liar." Letter is written in a secretarial hand (possibly Lady Dunsany) and signed by Lord Dunsany.

Lord Dunsany, "unquestionably one of the most important writers of heroic fantasy of the century," published more than 90 volumes in his lifetime, including plays, novels, short stories, and essays, influencing authors as diverse as J. R. R. Tolkien, Jorge Luis Borges, Clive Barker, and Ursula K. Le Guin. This title was his first volume, introducing the deities of his fictional world Pegana, a "marvelous creation of an alien cosmology" (Bleiler).  "In The Gods of Pegāna I tried to account for the ocean and the moon. I don't know whether anyone else has ever tried that before," Dunsany said. Facsimile publisher's bookmark laid-in. 

Removed bookplate to front pastedown. Else a fine copy, almost as new.