KRASSNOFF, Peter N. “The Black Mass” [Duffield & Green, 1931] Russian Satanism

PETER N. KRASSNOFF. The Black Mass.

New York: Duffield & Green, 1931. First edition. 8.75" x 6.25", 130pp. Illustrated by Rhea Wells. Original red cloth, spine lettered in black, with publisher’s illustrated dust jacket printed in black and yellow. Jacket design depicting a stylized Black Mass scene; spine panel with chalice motif. Jacket chipped at spine ends with loss at spine foot, creasing and edge wear, and some surface soiling; book with light shelf wear, spine slightly toned, binding sound and square; contents clean with no markings observed. Very Good in a Good dust jacket.

A sensational interwar novel by General Peter N. Krassnoff, a former Don Cossack leader and anti-Bolshevik commander who emigrated following the Russian Civil War. The Black Mass blends political disillusionment, mysticism, and moral transgression, reflecting the anxieties of displaced Russian émigré culture in the early 20th century. The striking Rhea Wells illustrations and bold jacket design place the book firmly within the visual and literary currents of late-1920s and early-1930s occult-inflected popular fiction, a period when spiritualism, Satanic symbolism, and reactionary politics frequently intersected in print. Copies retaining the original dust jacket are increasingly scarce.