The Vampire in Europe (SIGNED) by Summers, Montague (Rev.) - 1929

London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co, 1929. First Edition. Very good. 8vo. xii, 330 pp. Illustrated with 8 full-page plates. Original red cloth (lacking dust-wrapper). Spine and top of back cover sunned, two tiny holes in the cloth near spine-title resemble a cute little vampire bite. In very good condition, the text clean, unmarked, and NOT foxed in contrast with other copies on the market (with or without Summers' signature). NOT ex-library! Excellent copy of the first edition, with a tipped-in bookplate SIGNED by the incomparable Montague Summers, a self-professed Catholic priest, occultist, scholar-bibliographer, researcher of sex psychology, and eccentric medievalist. Occult books by Montague Summers which bear his signature are rare on the market.

Despite the notoriety of the author, "The Vampire in Europe" is in fact a very useful and detailed investigation of the subject in all its ramifications; as a record of folk beliefs about vampirism, it remains a work of continued reference.

Our copy contains evidence of an enterprising bibliophilic campaign undertaken by one James W. Carlin, who apparently sent his personalized bookplates to some of his favorite authors. The bookplate reads: "JWC - For James W. Carlin's copy of [_______] this Bookplate is signed by [_______]. In our copy, the name of the book ("The Vampire in Europe") was written by Carlin (Montague Summers signed his own name of course). We have seen another volume bearing Carlin's bookplate, namely Edna St. Vincent Millay's "The Buck in the Snow & Other Poems" (New York, 1923) -- signed by the author of course -- now with a bookseller in Flagstaff, AZ.

Curiously, our volume contains a second Carlin bookplate, likewise signed by Summers. However, it is not for "The Vampire in Europe" but for Summers' "The Black Mass." We are unable to explain why a signed bookplate for the second Summers title was likewise affixed herein. Cryptically, we are obliged to ask: "Where has 'The Black Mass' gone?"

Summers' expertise in the occult was confirmed with his 1926 publication on the "History of Demonology and Witchcraft," followed by idiosyncratic studies of witches, werewolves, and vampires (as here). As an editor he also introduced the public to Matthew Hopkins' "The Discovery of Witches" and was the first to translate the "Malleus Maleficarum" into English. He was an early champion of the Gothic novel, and contributed to its study several works of lasting reference such as "The Gothic Quest: a History of the Gothic Novel" (1938) and "A Gothic Bibliography" (1940). He also edited obscure Gothic horror short stories and novels, and published biographies of Jane Austen and Ann Radcliffe.

NB: We have provided a number of images of this book; to these images we have added a reproduction of a photograph of Montague Summers which does NOT form part of the book, but is supplied merely for reference purposes, and because we like it so much.