# Is "The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants" by Ramsey Campbell a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants by Ramsey Campbell (Arkham House: Publishers, Sauk City, Wisconsin, 1964) is identified by: Arkham House, Sauk City, 1964, in a single print run of 2,009 copies; Arkham never reprinted the title, so no second printing of this text in this form exists and every copy of the 1964 book is a first. US precedence with no competing edition: a British author's debut published by a Wisconsin small press, with no contemporaneous UK edition of the 1964 text.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Arkham House, Sauk City, 1964, in a single print run of 2,009 copies
- Arkham never reprinted the title, so no second printing of this text in this form exists and every copy of the 1964 book is a first
- No statement of printing appears on the copyright page (confirmed by L.W. Currey, ABAA) — the absence of a printing statement is itself the expected state, not a defect
- Octavo, cloth-bound, xii + 207 pp., with dust-jacket art by Frank Utpatel
- Dealer descriptions also record a map of the stories' Severn Valley setting printed on the endpapers
- The jacket should carry the price at the flap
- Publisher imprint reads Arkham House: Publishers, Sauk City, Wisconsin

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ramsey Campbell |
| Publisher | Arkham House: Publishers, Sauk City, Wisconsin |
| Year | 1964 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Arkham House, Sauk City, 1964, in a single print run of 2,009 copies |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Arkham House, Sauk City, 1964, in a single print run of 2,009 copies; Arkham never reprinted the title, so no second printing of this text in this form exists and every copy of the 1964 book is a first. No statement of printing appears on the copyright page (confirmed by L.W. Currey, ABAA) — the absence of a printing statement is itself the expected state, not a defect. Octavo, cloth-bound, xii + 207 pp., with dust-jacket art by Frank Utpatel. Dealer descriptions also record a map of the stories' Severn Valley setting printed on the endpapers. The jacket should carry the price at the flap; Arkham jackets of this period are very frequently price-clipped, and clipping alone says nothing about edition. Campbell's first book, written and published when he was eighteen. Bibliographic references: Jaffery, The Arkham House Companion, item #79; Tymn (ed.), Horror Literature 4-60.

## Is this the true first?
US precedence with no competing edition: a British author's debut published by a Wisconsin small press, with no contemporaneous UK edition of the 1964 text. Two 'first thus' traps to reject: Cold Print (Scream/Press, US, 1985) reprints the collection with three stories omitted, and the Headline (UK, 1993) expanded Cold Print restores them — both are reprint gatherings, not this book. PS Publishing (UK, 2011) issued an expanded and illustrated reissue retitled The Inhabitant of the Lake and Other Unwelcome Tenants, adding the stories' early drafts as written before Campbell revised them to August Derleth's suggestions plus Derleth/Campbell correspondence; it is a materially different text and is not the first edition.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Arkham House did not issue book-club editions and did not reprint this title, so there is no book-club or later-Arkham state to confuse with the first — the 2,009-copy run is the whole of it. The reprint states to watch are the Scream/Press 1985 and Headline 1993 Cold Print gatherings and the PS Publishing 2011 expanded reissue. A price-clipped jacket is a condition matter on Arkham books, not a book-club tell.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants* by Ramsey Campbell a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-inhabitant-of-the-lake-and-less-welcome-tenants
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.