The Vampyre | 1819, true first edition, first state of the first ever vampire story

A landmark of Gothic literature and one of the most important magazines ever printed. The earliest obtainable appearance of the first vampire story on the page and a turning point in the history of the fantastic.

The true first appearance of John Polidori’s The Vampyre, published in the April 1819 issue of The New Monthly Magazine and issued under the explosive and false attribution to Lord Byron. This is the earliest obtainable printing of the first vampire story in English literature, created during the same 1816 weekend at the Villa Diodati that produced Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. An excellent example.

On publication Henry Colburn credited Byron as author, a decision that ignited immediate fascination. Viets writes that the reaction at the time was electric and the misattribution generated controversy, celebrity and scandal in equal measure. Byron publicly denied authorship soon afterward, and the later book-form edition issued by Sherwood, Neely and Jones removed his name entirely. Although those Sherwood issues are often described as the first edition, this magazine printing is the true first appearance and far rarer. Only one other example is currently on the market and it is priced higher than this copy.

Without Polidori’s story there is no Dracula. The Vampyre has only grown in stature and its influence continues to widen. With renewed interest in early Gothic cinema and adaptations of Frankenstein, collectors and readers are increasingly drawn back to that weekend in 1816, when the modern vampire was born alongside Mary Shelley’s novel.

This April 1819 issue also contains the first published account of the Villa Diodati ghost-story challenge, the weekend that gave rise to both Frankenstein and The Vampyre. It represents the moment Gothic fiction changed direction and the vampire entered the English imagination. Few works have had a more lasting influence on literature, popular culture and the modern mythology of the undead.

A complete single issue of The New Monthly Magazine, Volume XI Number 63, with The Vampyre appearing at pp. 193–94 on the usual cancel leaf. Contemporary calf, rebacked, gilt spine with red morocco label, lightly rubbed. Light toning and occasional spotting to the text as expected. An excellent example.

Provenance adds a further layer of resonance. This copy bears the bookplate of Geoffrey Bond, the distinguished Byron collector whose library at Burgage Manor in Southwell focused on the world and writings of Lord Byron. For a work falsely attributed to Byron on publication and central to the mythology surrounding him, Bond’s ownership provides a fitting and highly desirable association.

Oliver adds: ‘This might just be the rarest work I ever offer as a dealer. The first ever vampire story and in its earliest obtainable form. Remarkable.’