THE VAMPYRE, "A Tale by Lord Byron", in THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE No.63. Vol. XI.

The rare first appearance in print of the first modern vampire novel, with the subtitle naming Byron as its author. Six issues (January to June 1819) of 'The New Monthly Magazine' bound in one. Octavo. Twentieth century library binding of plain brown cloth with titles in gilt to the spine. The binding square and firm, the cloth clean. The contents, with the bookplate of Bath Reference Library to the front pastedown, their shelf stamp to the front endpaper and 'for reference only' stamp to the blank reverse of the frontispiece. Faint oval blindstamp of Bath Reference Library to the series title page (none of which affect 'The Vampyre' issue). The contents are a little toned with minor spotting to some margins. A very good copy.

The first outlines of 'The Vampyre' were conceived by Byron at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva in 1816, during the same celebrated night of competitive storytelling that Mary Shelley conceived 'Frankenstein'. Byron's physician, John Polidori, was present that night and later the same year produced an extended version. His "development" was "written on the Continent, and left with a lady at whose request it was undertaken; in the course of three mornings by her side it was produced, and left with her" (Polidori, p. 152). The manuscript lay unpublished for three years until Henry Colburn came into its possession, publishing it in this April 1819 issue of his New Monthly Magazine. The anonymous preface recounts the night of storytelling "undertaken by Lord B., the physician [Polidori], and Miss M. W. Godwin [Shelley]", and in a footnote, purportedly by the magazine's editor, it is noted that the story told by "Miss Godwin... has already appeared under the title of Frankenstein, or the modern Prometheus". This is one of the earliest published acknowledgements of Mary Shelley as the novel's author - the first, appeared in an advertisement for the present work just five days earlier (in the 27 March issue of the Literary Gazette). "When printed in the New Monthly Magazine, [The Vampyre] appeared to be relatively innocuous, but with Byron as the presumptive author the reaction in the highly sensitive literary world of the time was electric... The publisher of the New Monthly Magazine, when he inserted Byron's name in the place of Polidori's, was using a shoddy fabrication to promote the sale of his magazine and ultimately of the book, which followed almost immediately" (Viets, p83). The deception was resisted by Colburn's editor, Alaric Watts, who inserted a short statement on the first leaf of the magazine attesting to Polidori's authorship, "but to his astonishment, Colburn cancelled the leaf on the day previous to publication, and contrary to, and in direct hostility to Watts' positive order, fearing that this statement would prevent the sale of this work in a separate form, which was subsequently done" (John Murray, letter to Byron, 27 April 1819). Copies were consequently issued with the first leaf on a stub. The April 1819 issue is here bound with issues from January to June 1819. The May issue (on page 332), features a swift correction by Polidori writing that the editors were "mistaken in attributing that tale, in the present form, to Lord Byron. The fact is, that though the ground-work is certainly Lord Byron's, it's development is mine". Though 'The Vampyre' was successful, Polidori received neither recognition nor remuneration for it, and died two years later by suicide, drinking prussic acid. Polidori's tale brought the legend of the Vampire to modern times. Lord Ruthven (the vampire), a modern character with vices is likely modelled on Lord Byron himself. This story become the model for Bram Stoker, Sheridan LeFanu and others who would follow. This first appearance in print is rare in commerce; we trace no other copies in auction records. [John Polidori, The Diary, 1911; Henry R. Viets, The London Editions of Polidori's 'The Vampyre', Bibliographical Society of America, vol. 62, no. 2, 1969; Carol Senf, The Vampire in 19th Century English Literature].