The Ghost Pirates.

Notes

First edition, first impression. Presentation copy of Hodgson's landmark work, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: "N. Rendall, Esq. from William Hope Hodgson - 'May we be friends e'en though we disagree'. Sept. 21st '09." Rare inscribed, with no other copies traced. Hailed as one of the best novel-length works of supernatural fiction in the English language, the sea adventure follows his earlier works The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" (1907) and The House on the Borderland (1908), both of which had supernatural or fantasy elements. In the preface, Hodgson writes that the book completes "what may be termed a trilogy; for, though different in scope, each of the three books deal with certain conceptions that have an elemental kinship". H. P. Lovecraft wrote of story, "The Ghost Pirates... is a powerful account of a doomed and haunted ship on its last voyage, and of the terrible sea-devils (of quasi-human aspect, and perhaps the spirits of bygone buccaneers) that besiege it and finally drag it down to an unknown fate. With its command of maritime knowledge, and its clever selection of hints and incidents suggestive of latent horrors in nature, this book at times reaches enviable peaks of power" ("The Weird Tradition in the British Isles").