A Touch of the Creature - Unpublished Stories by Charles Beaumont

Dustjacket art by Phil Parks
Autograph page art by Charles Beaumont
Introduction by Richard Matheson
Preface by Christopher Beaumont

A Touch of the Creature will show you who, exactly Charles Beaumont is, in thirteen new Beaumont tales -- never before published, never before collected, with loving testimonials from his number one son, Chris, and his number one cohort, Richard Matheson.

Table of Contents

• Introduction (A Touch of the Creature) • (2000) • essay by Richard Matheson
• Foreword (A Touch of the Creature) • (2000) • essay by Christopher Beaumont
• Adam's Off Ox • short story by Charles Beaumont
• A Long Way from Capri • short story by Charles Beaumont
• With the Family • short story by Charles Beaumont
• Moon in Gemini • short story by Charles Beaumont
• The Indian Piper • short story by Charles Beaumont
• Lachrymosa • short story by Charles Beaumont
• The Rival • short story by Charles Beaumont
• The Junemoon Spoon • short story by Charles Beaumont
• Time and Again • short story by Charles Beaumont
• A Friend of the Family • short story by Charles Beaumont
• Mr. Underhill • short story by Charles Beaumont
• Resurrection Island • (1999) • short story by Charles Beaumont
• The Pool • short story by Charles Beaumont
• Fallen Star • short story by Charles Beaumont
• A Note on A Touch of the Creature • essay by William Schafer 

Limited Edition: 1000 signed numbered copies, the Limited edition is signed by Christopher Beaumont.

Lettered Edition: Each Lettered copy is bound in leather and premium cloth, with an extra section containing nearly 9,000 words of unpublished fiction, and an original sketch by Charles Beaumont matted into each traycase.

Now that the formalities are out of the way, here is my (Tony's) take on the book.  As some of you know I've been digging out a lot of stuff and putting it on the webpage.  The lettered edition of this book is, in my opinion the finest and proably the rarest Subterranean Press Title out there, and here is why.  There are none and to my knowledge have only been one on the secondary market over the last 18 years, it was a private sale, and we purchased that copy and turned around a few years later and sold it.  The three copies  we offer here were obtained 1) the original lettered copy with art from the publisher when the book was published; 2) the PC with art was obtained from a contributor; and 3) the miniature PC copy was obtained from the publisher years ago in a trade.  These three books have been on our personal shelf for almost 20 years!

The original lettered books were quarter bound in leather with beautiful paper, as pictured over the boards.  the books themselves measure 5 3/4 x 8 5/8 just like the limited edition but to house the original art, yes art that was drawn by Charles Beaumont (Charles Leroy Nutt) obtained from his estate, the traycase had to be made oversized, it measures  11 x 13 x1 5/8. is covered in cloth with a leather name plate on the spine.  There were also a few PC copies for contributors which were identical to the regular PC's and contained the original art also.  In addition, a few more specially bound "Lettered PC" copies were produced but did not contain art so the traycase was produced normal size 6 1/2 x 9 5/8 x 1 /12 all pictured above to the right.

The lettered edition contained three additional stories, comprising 29 additional pages, these stories are:

• The Blind Lady
• The Philosophy of Murder
• The End Product

There were an undetermined number of PC copies bound as the limited state (meaning they are bound exactly like the llimited and NOT the marbled paper pictured below, they have the dustjacket as pictured above and contain the signed, by Charles Beaumont, limitation page with "PC" in the limitation line) but do contain the three stories mentioned above.

Below is pictured the full size Lettered copy for sale along with the "miniature PC"  Note the art housed in the miniture PC is identical to the larger piece, I copied it and placed it in the traycase, it looked "empty" without something.

Pictured below is the full size PC copy with original art, you will note the art appears to be signed by Beaumont as Charles Nutt, but I cannot find any examples but do not know why someone else would sign his art.