by Edgar Allan Poe, with illustrations by Harry Clarke

A sequel to No Reply’s The Masque of the Red Death, our Amontillado returns to a familiar author and artist with a livre d’artiste twist. The story is presented as a bottle of amontillado itself, with a clear slipcase and genuine letterpress wine label, containing flowing paste paper with latticework which evokes the brick, mortar, and nitre that Fortunato finds in lieu of what he seeks.

Poe is the quintessential American author. As one scholar put it, “Whether or not America has produced a greater genius than Poe, it would be hard to prove that it has produced one more original.” In Amontillado, he presents once again a story of captivating simplicity — a man bent on vengeance — wrapped in eerie profundity. Fortunato and Montresor, friends, rivals, entomber and entombed, carry the reader through their own descent, down to a final exhortation:

“For the love of God!”

ARTIST NOTES

Edgar Allan Poe needs no introduction. Illustrator Harry Clarke, however, might. Clarke was, primarily, a stained glass artist who dabbled with illustration throughout his career. In addition to Poe’s stories, he illustrated Goethe’s Faust, Hans Christian Anderson’s stories, and Charles Perrault’s fairy tales. He is under-appreciated today, and No Reply is proud to bring his work back into print.

EDITION NOTES

• The edition is limited to 400 copies, numbered 1 through 400.

• The sixteenth imprint of No Reply Press, December 2021.

• Printed by Phil Abel on Zerkall-bütten paper using a Heidelberg cylinder press.

• Bound in handmade paste paper wrappers.

• Housed in an acrylic slipcase with a genuine wine label.