CHAMBERS, Robert W. "The King in Yellow" [Harper & Brothers, 1902]

CHAMBERS, Robert W. The King in Yellow.

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1902. First illustrated edition. 7.5" x 5.25", 274pp + 4pp publisher's catalogue with 7 illustrated plates. Yellow cloth with black decorations and white titling. Lacking dust jacket. Titling beginning to fade, head/tail of spine rubbed, and just a handful of light spots noted in text. Binding secure and no writing. Very Good ex jacket.

The King in Yellow profoundly influenced H. P. Lovecraft, who praised its atmosphere of cosmic dread and incorporated its themes of madness, forbidden knowledge, and interlinked mythos into his own fiction. Lovecraft’s concept of the “Yellow Sign” and his fictional play within The Whisperer in Darkness echo Chambers’ creation directly. The book is now regarded as a cornerstone of weird fiction, bridging the Decadent movement and early 20th-century cosmic horror.