MACHEN, Arthur (pseudonym of JONES, Arthur Llewellyn, 1863-1947). The Three Impostors or The Transmutations. London and Boston: John Lane and Roberts Bros., 1895. 8vo. 290, [31, ads] pp. Publisher's full dark green cloth, with decorations designed by Aubrey Beardsley (boards and spine decoratively stamped in gray, spine lettered in gilt), fore-edge and lower edge of text untrimmed, as issued. THE RARE FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED TO A PREVIOUS CO-WORKER AT A RARE BOOKSHOP/PUBLISHER WHERE BOTH WORKED: "F. A. C. Bathurst / Arthur Machen - an old assistant to the firm of Robson and Kerslake - 1888- - 1889". Robson and Kerslake was a bookseller and publisher, where Machen worked briefly as a cataloguer. Bathurst came in around that time as a manager - he would later become a prominent collector. 

This episodic novel is about a secret society that commits secret acts of debauchery. This novel is divided into sections; two of those sections, "The Novel of the Black Seal" and "The Novel of the White Powder" influenced the writing of H. P. Lovecraft (these sections "perhaps represent the highwater mark of Machen's skill as a terror-weaver"), with "The Novel of the Black Seal" becoming models for "The Call of Cthulthu," "The Dunwich Horror," and "The Whisperer in Darkness." This same section influenced Robert E. Howard. 

Spine toned and rubbed, light rubbing to boards, lower corners bumped, endleaves toned and foxed, text toned. Very good. Housed in modern blue-gray cloth clamshell case.