The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fantazius Mallare, by Ben Hecht

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Title: Fantazius Mallare
A Mysterious Oath

Author: Ben Hecht

Illustrator: Wallace Smith

Release Date: November 14, 2008 [EBook #27261]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Autograph: To my friend Harry Ridings
Ben Hecht 2 Oct]

_Limited edition for private circulation only, consisting of two
thousand and twenty-five numbered copies. Only two thousand
copies for sale. Published September 1922._

No. 832.

PRESS OF
PRINTING
SERVICE
COMPANY
[Illustration: Printer's device]
CHICAGO

COPYRIGHT NINETEEN-TWENTY-TWO
COVICI - McGEE
Chicago

All Rights Reserved

FANTAZIUS MALLARE

_A Mysterious Oath_

BEN HECHT

[Illustration: Publisher's device]

Drawings
WALLACE SMITH

_Chicago_
COVICI - MCGEE
1922

Drawings

Opposite
Page

First Drawing 20
Second Drawing 42
Third Drawing 58
Fourth Drawing 74
Fifth Drawing 88
Sixth Drawing 94
Seventh Drawing 106
Eighth Drawing 132
Ninth Drawing 168
Tenth Drawing 174

[Illustration]

DEDICATION

_This dark and wayward book is affectionately dedicated to my
enemies--to the curious ones who take fanatic pride in disliking me; to
the baffling ones who remain enthusiastically ignorant of my existence;
to the moral ones upon whom Beauty exercises a lascivious and corrupting
influence; to the moral ones who have relentlessly chased God out of
their bedrooms; to the moral ones who cringe before Nature, who flatten
them