A beauty comes to the shelves

I somehow - can't recall how - learned that a new edition of William Peter Blatty's novel The Ninth Configuration was forthcoming. Not just any new edition, but one that packages the novel with its earlier incarnation, Twinkle Twinkle "Killer" Kane, and includes an essay by film historian Mark Kermode (lifted from his intro to the published screenplay of The Ninth Configuration).

Just received the book and it's better than I had dreamed of. For one, it's a gorgeous hardcover edition that includes marvelous illustrations and a number of covers used for both Ninth Configuration and Twinkle Twinkle "Killer" Kane throughout its printing history. But the icing on the cake is that the book is a limited edition of 200 - each numbered and also signed by William Peter Blatty. My copy is number 20.

This is just amazing. I'll still keep my old paperbacks (so I can re-read the books) but this is truly treasure for the shelves. Thanks to the good folks at Centipede Press for putting this edition together.