# Is "The Shadow over Innsmouth" by H. P. Lovecraft a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Shadow over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft (Visionary Publishing Co., Everett, PA, 1936) is identified by: First edition: Everett, Pennsylvania, Visionary Publishing Co. The census claim is confirmed and can be tightened.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition: Everett, Pennsylvania, Visionary Publishing Co
- (William L. Crawford), 1936
- The copyright page reads 'Published, April, 1936,' but the book did not actually appear until November 1936 — the stated month is not a printing state, it is simply wrong
- Octavo, collating pp. [1-16: blank] [1-12] 13-158 [159-176: blank], the first and last leaves used as pastedowns, with four black-and-white illustrations by Frank A. Utpatel
- Original black cloth, front and spine panels stamped in silver
- Currey records two bindings (A and B) distinguished by the front-panel title lettering, one binding having the title in upper and lower case, with no priority established between them
- Publisher imprint reads Visionary Publishing Co., Everett, PA

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | H. P. Lovecraft |
| Publisher | Visionary Publishing Co., Everett, PA |
| Year | 1936 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition: Everett, Pennsylvania, Visionary Publishing Co |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First edition: Everett, Pennsylvania, Visionary Publishing Co. (William L. Crawford), 1936. The copyright page reads 'Published, April, 1936,' but the book did not actually appear until November 1936 — the stated month is not a printing state, it is simply wrong. Octavo, collating pp. [1-16: blank] [1-12] 13-158 [159-176: blank], the first and last leaves used as pastedowns, with four black-and-white illustrations by Frank A. Utpatel. Original black cloth, front and spine panels stamped in silver; Currey records two bindings (A and B) distinguished by the front-panel title lettering, one binding having the title in upper and lower case, with no priority established between them. Roughly 400 copies were printed and only about 200 bound, the remaining sheets destroyed later. The errata leaf and the printed dust jacket were both produced after publication, so many genuine copies lack one or both, and their absence is not a demotion; Currey records more than one jacket — a pictorial jacket and a plain white jacket lettered in silver — again without established priority. The text is notoriously corrupt (Lovecraft counted about thirty misprints and the errata slip itself was faulty), and hand-binding errors occur, including a recorded copy with four leaves of signature 3 reversed and out of sequence. No number line or printing statement of any kind.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is confirmed and can be tightened. The Visionary 1936 book is the sole edition and the first appearance of the text anywhere; there is no UK, US-vs-UK, or original-language precedence question. The Weird Tales appearance of January 1942 is posthumous, abridged and unauthorized, and is later in every sense. One correction of framing: The Shunned House was printed in 1928, within Lovecraft's lifetime, but was never bound or published then — so the precise claim is that Innsmouth is the only bound book of Lovecraft's fiction published in his lifetime (he died in March 1937), not the only book printed.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition exists and none is possible for a 200-copy binding. Everything later is a reprint: Arkham House's collected volumes from 1939 onward, and the very large modern reprint and facsimile literature, all of which are 'first thus' at best. Any copy in a binding other than black cloth silver-stamped, or bearing a publisher other than Visionary Publishing Co., Everett, PA, is not the first.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Shadow over Innsmouth* by H. P. Lovecraft a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-shadow-over-innsmouth
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.