First published in 1897 by the J. B. Lippincott Company of Philadelphia, The Ape, the Idiot & Other People stands as a landmark work of American gothic, psychological horror, and turn-of-the-century weird fiction by West Coast author William Chambers Morrow. Associated with the famed Bohemian literary set of late nineteenth-century San Francisco alongside Ambrose Bierce, Morrow brought a stark, uncompromising realism to macabre themes, pioneering the American conte cruel. This classic anthology collects fourteen of his most celebrated and unsettling tales, including The Monster-Maker, His Unconquerable Enemy, and The Permanent Stiletto, works that helped define the dawn of speculative fiction in America. Bound in publisher's crimson buckram cloth, the cover displays an intricate, finely detailed dragon motif and ornate lettering stamped in brilliant gilt, accompanied by a top edge finished in bright gilt and untrimmed deckled edges on the fore-edge and tail. The volume exhibits light, authentic shelf wear and mild, uniform toning to the spine cloth, while remaining structurally sound with crisp, supple internal leaves and a firmly anchored binding. Acquired from the private collection of a noted Washington, D.C.-area anthropologist and bibliophile, this collectible volume measures approximately 7.5 inches in height, 5 inches in width, and 1.25 inches in depth, and weighs 1.8 pounds.