LLOYD, John Uri (1849-1936). Etidorhpa; or, The End of the Earth. The Strange History of a Mysterious Being and the Account of a Remarkable Journey. Cincinnati: self-published, 1895.
4to. Frontispiece, numerous plates, and illustrations in the text by J. Augustus Knapp; printed acknowledgment slip tipped in. Original pictorial cloth, beveled boards, stamped in gilt and silver, top edge gilt (rubbing at ends and corners, few hinges over-opened). Provenance: Charles S. Kline, listed subscriber (complimentary book label with limitation, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR).
FIRST EDITION, LIMITED ISSUE, number 317 of an unidentified limitation of the “Author’s Edition, Limited”, SIGNED AGAIN BY THE AUTHOR at the conclusion of the 2pp. facsimile autograph note to subscribers.
Lloyd was a chemist and drug manufacturer of some renown in Cincinnati and endowed what is now one of the outstanding collections of works on plant pharmacology at the Lloyd Library. One of the more curious and weird tales of American fantastic literature to come out of the 19th century, scholars have recently postulated that this work may have been influenced by the author’s experimentation with hallucinogens (a footnote by Lloyd implies the possibility that in his researches he stumbled upon a vegetable derivative capable of inducing visions, but felt duty bound to protect humanity from its effects by concealing his discovery). Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction 1028. A Horowitz high spot.