Hell House by Richard Matheson (Suntup Editions)

Suntup Editions is publishing a new limited letterpress edition of Richard Matheson’s seminal horror novel Hell House from 1971. The story was the basis of the 1973 film The Legend of Hell House, and was referred to by Stephen King as “the scariest haunted house novel ever written”.

The new edition, set for release in summer of 2024, features illustrations from William Basso (who sadly passed away shortly after completing the illustrations), introduction by R.C. Matheson, foreword by Mike Flanagan, and afterword by Nancy A. Collins.

The edition is offered in three states: “Artist” (750 copies, with dust jacket), “Numbered” (250 copies, ostrich leg leather binding), and “Lettered” (26 copies, full ostrich leather binding with goatskin headbands in quarter goatskin box). Five orders of the book will also be selected at random to win a copy with a unique red colored spine.

The book was designed by Michael Russem (who has designed several other books for Suntup Editions) using the Fanwood typeface (based on Fairfield) for body text, and my own Margo typeface (based on classic film and bookjacket lettering) for titling, headings, and initials. I was happy to see Margo’s contextual alternate stairstep ‘ll’ pair make an appearance in the title.

The novel is broken up between dates and timestamped sections following the events of the story. Russem used large initial caps of Margo for new sections, however the initials appear partway into their respective lines, preceded by the smaller timestamp text. Stylized brackets from Monotype Bell enclose the running headers, facing ]out[, and page numbers, facing [in].

The book is available for preorder from Suntup Editions.