Rare Book of the Day – Grimscribe: His Life and Works, Thomas Ligotti. First Edition.
Grimscribe: His Life and Works, Thomas Ligotti. First Edition.
Thomas Ligotti (born 1950) is another favorite of mine. His short stories belong to several genres, including gothic fiction, "philosophical horror", and weird fiction. (Think Lovecraft and Poe.) The Washington Post has even called him "the best kept secret in contemporary horror fiction." I'd have to agree, Ligotti's the real deal – dark, nihilistic, philosophical, and literary. He's famously reclusive, and for awhile his identity was a source for much speculation. Ligotti is a chronic sufferer from anxiety and anhedonia, and these are recurrent themes in his work. He avoids the explicit violence so common in horror, preferring to create a dark, pessimistic and dread-filled atmosphere through the use of subtlety and repition. He says, "I tend to stipulate in my work that the world by its nature already exists in a state of doom rather than being in the process of doom.”
This is the first American Edition of his second book, Grimscribe: His Life and Works. To quote from the jacket "Grimscribe is the faceless scientist of nightmare: an addict of the paranormal who relates his awesome adventures with the denizens of a shadow world that is at once half mad and inescapably ours." Great stuff guys.
Highly rEsteemed!
Great work.
Me: "wtf. A rare book blog? No way..."
later...
Me: "Ligotti? Gtfo..."
That cover pic is haunting.
Haha Ligotti is so awesome!