The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker - Lettered Edition

PRE-ORDER PRICE: $5,950
PUBLICATION PRICE: $6,500

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As intense and disturbing as it is impossible to put down, The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker is a landmark work of modern horror—one that redefined the genre on its publication and continues to unsettle readers decades later.

When Frank Cotton’s dark appetites for pleasure and pain push him beyond moral and physical limits, a mysterious puzzle box becomes his gateway into a nightmarish netherworld inhabited by the Cenobites—extradimensional beings who traffic in experiences so extreme that the boundaries between ecstasy and agony dissolve. After Frank’s catastrophic fate, one woman remains obsessed with him: his brother’s wife, Julia, whose devotion drives her to acts of shocking brutality as she attempts to restore Frank piece by piece, no matter the human cost. 

First published in November 1986 by Dark Harvest in the third volume of its Night Visions anthology series, The Hellbound Heart was instantly praised by critics and readers alike as a groundbreaking achievement in horror fiction. Its impact only deepened when it was adapted into the 1987 film Hellraiser, also written and directed by Barker. The film’s success cemented the story’s place in popular culture and spawned multiple film sequels, before HarperPaperbacks issued the work as a standalone edition in 1991.

At once brutal and strangely intimate, this nerve-shattering novella is as much a meditation on obsession, longing, and the boundaries of the human heart as it is a work of pure horror. Unflinching in its vision and relentless in its execution, The Hellbound Heart endures as Barker’s masterwork of terror.

The limited edition of The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker is presented in three states: Lettered, Numbered and Classic editions.

LETTERED EDITION

• 6" x 9½" trim size.
• 176 Pages.
• Limited to 26 copies.
• Signed by Clive Barker, Phil Stokes and Sarah Stokes.
• Fourteen color illustrations by Clive Barker. 
• New exclusive afterword by Phil and Sarah Stokes.
• Each copy bound by hand by Graham Patten.
• Bonus material includes reproduction of Kirk Reinert’s first edition artwork, sketches of the Cenobite by Clive Barker, as well as scans of pages from the handwritten and typewritten manuscript.
• Bradel-style binding with Gothic-inspired wooden boards and custom metal corner furniture.
• Spine is covered in undyed veiny calf parchment, while the boards are clad in dark red, highly figured parchment that retains the natural markings of processing—an intentional nod to the visceral and unsettling tone of the text.
• Through elongated triangular apertures cut into the wooden boards, this parchment is visible, intersected by the metal fittings in a way that subtly recalls the tension and pulling of flesh described in the novel.
• Red suede endbands, dark brown suede doublures, and hand-dyed red-veined craquelé endpapers complete the interior, all created by the binder.
• Designed, cast in metal and printed letterpress from metal type on handmade Saint-Armand paper by David Wolfe at Wolfe Editions in Portland, Maine.
• Text pages set in Monotype Plantin. Titling faces are Castellar designed by John Peters and Caledonia designed by W.A. Dwiggins.
• Press work was accomplished on a Nebiolo cylinder press.
• Includes a fold-out of the Classic edition dust jacket art by Dave McKean.
• Housed n a bespoke wooden box, inspired by the craft of traditional Japanese wooden puzzle boxes. Constructed from black walnut, ziricote, and maple, the box features sliding and shifting panels that must be manipulated in the correct sequence to unlock and reveal the book within. Brass corner fittings accent the structure, and a concealed surprise awaits when the final move is made. This intricate, interactive enclosure serves as a tangible homage to Lemarchand’s box, embodying the allure and danger of solving a puzzle whose solution opens the door to another world.
• Bookmark with all pre-orders.

Published editions may differ slightly from mockups and prototype designs.
Illustrations © 2022 by Clive Barker.