Paul Dobish checks in with his latest acquisitions in the quest to land Arkham House ephemera, in this case excavating in the fecund primordial mire that is The Due to the Death Series.

In Arkham House Ephemera: The Classic Years 1937-1973 you’ll find a selection of The Due to the Death Series, quick announcements made by the staff at Arkham House after the sudden passing of founder August Derleth in 1971. No telling precisely how many variants may exist. John D. Haefele and I knew of at least a dozen when we put together the book, but there well might be dozens more. “To cut to the chase,” I wrote, “five are shown full page, one after another.” I also slipped three more in toward the back, opposite the collation comparing our new Item numbers with placements in the earlier Phil Mays List and the one I did for Firsts: The Book Collectors Magazine in 2002.

Haefele was agreeable to only showing a few, since he thinks they are ugly — and they are, especially put up against the earlier run of sometimes exquisite ephemera Items. Get the idea across, let collectors know what they’re after and let them loose.

“Given how scarce the Due to the Death Series Items are,” with his new purchase Dobish hoped he “would go from having 2 of 5 known to having 3 of those 5.” He’s using the numbered series in Eph Book for that calculus — as I say, I snuck in three more toward the back, not numbered as Items but nonetheless in the book.

“I did go from having 2 to having 3,” Dobish reports, “but I still need the same 3 more, as there are now 6 known variants. I had hoped that the Item would allow me to remove *something* from my HH ephemera want list.”

I myself only have one of the Due to the Death Items pictured in the book — Item 129, shot from my copy. I do have one of the faint purple-spirit examples, not pictured. As you can see from the example Dobish just nabbed, yeah, kind of ugly. Little workhorses trying to move out books. The text in some examples has faded toward invisibility.

Dobish also reports:

Note that the end of the ‘pages 2-3’ section is dated “in Summer 1972” rather than “January 1972” or “Spring 1972” or “late Summer 1972” or “Fall 1972” or the other “Fall 1972.”

Based on its “date” it would seem to have been issued between HH-126 and HH-127.

Dobish is using HH for his numbering — for the Herron-Haefele list. I like the purity of the Item number blocks in the pictorial history, but hey, the info is out in the world, and meant for collectors and booksellers to use. If now it is HH, then HH it is.

Item 123 is the Stock List (Coming in 1971-72) in which the other two Items are tack-stapled. Or, per Dobish, HH-123.

“Note that this copy of HH-123,” he says, “has a FOR THE TRADE leaf stapled inside the front cover. This is the first such example that I have come across.” In Eph Book we do not note that FOR THE TRADE comes with that catalog, but once Derleth created the insert (Item 70) it could serve as a “floating” addition that could appear in almost any catalog.

Dobish wants to have a FOR THE TRADE in every Stock List it is known to appear, so on that angle alone he’s scored with this purchase.

I’m also confident that this copy of Item 123 was sent to a book dealer. First clew is the FOR THE TRADE slip. Those didn’t go to regular buyers. And the next clews are the “SHORT DISCOUNT” and “NO DISCOUNT” written on the Due to the Death notice.