A rare opportunity to own one of the most extensive collections of Dracula and vampire literature in the world.
Matilda Bisang is selling her late husband, Robert Eighteen-Bisang’s, extensive collection of Dracula and vampire literature. Matilda’s primary intent is to sell the collection in one lot, but she is willing to sell in separate groups, including books, magazines, comics, memorabilia, films, and an additional 500 or so non-fiction works, such as anthropology, literary criticism, psychology, and his own books relating to vampirism in various cultural contexts.
My name is Greg Kammer; I am helping Matilda Bisang with this exciting project. Most of Robert’s collection was compiled several years ago. We are currently verifying the major contents of the collection with a more detailed inventory. Many of the rarest items are being professionally photographed. Some of the collection is included on this website for you to explore.
If you are interested in seeing the collection in person, purchasing this collection in whole or parts, have questions about the collection, or would like more information, please use the email link above to contact Matilda Bisang through me. We are looking forward to hearing from you.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION
There are approximately 3000+ items of fiction, ranging from pulp fiction to periodicals to mass-market paperbacks to older and modern first editions or later printings. The primary early book is a first edition—a fair copy only—of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). Numerous later printings, states, and issues follow, along with many of the contemporary imitators and subsequent works produced in response to the popularity of the original story. Robert concentrated on the theme of the alienated “outsider” as exemplified in Stoker’s character—and transmuted today into the alienated adolescent of recent vampire-related fiction and film.
The collection of comic books and pulp periodicals, comics, and pulp fiction is extensive and would on its own be a source of much unexplored literature associated with the vampire motif. Assembling it has been one of Robert’s passions. The condition of these materials is good-very good.
There are approximately 3,000+ comic books, including the Tomb of Dracula Marvel Comics Series #1-70, and they include 150 pre-code (1954) comic books. Most are collectible and include graphic novels.
The collection contains an additional 500 or more non-fiction works, such as anthropology, literary criticism, psychology, and his own books relating to vampirism in various cultural contexts. Nearly all this material is relatively modern or new.
The strength of the collection, it seems to me, lay in its extensive holding of works illustrating the dispersion of the vampire motif in sensationalist fiction and modern subcultures, ranging from rare pulp periodicals such as Weird Tales to comic books, mass-market paperbacks, LGBTQ2+ and pornographic treatments, manga, and spin-offs from modern and contemporary movies and television, e.g., Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, and the like. Much of this…/2 Vampire—p. 2 material is fugitive or ephemeral; much is dramatically illustrated. Many new works, such as Anne Rice’s, are represented in fine first editions, for the most part, with many of them inscribed to Robert himself.
Included in the collection are also a few items relating to the early Dracula films, and many of the more modern films, such as Interview with the Vampire, are represented by VHS and other formats, along with posters and other ephemeral advertising art. The small group of known “standard” rarities I was shown were mostly fair-good copies—though some had accompanying jackets or paper wraps that were manifestly very uncommon in commerce. Robert’s detailed knowledge of the literature—he is a recognized expert on Bram Stoker—and his worldwide contacts in the rare book trade have facilitated his acquisition of many extraordinarily rare subcult books and variants on the vampire motif, much more difficult to find and identify than the standards of the genre, though perhaps commanding prices more in the $500-$1000 range than much higher.