Gibbet Hill by Bram Stoker
Gibbet Hill is the third title in Short Stops, a series from Conversation Tree Press dedicated to bringing exceptional shorter works of fiction to life through beautifully bound, letterpress-printed, limited editions that begin shipping immediately upon announcement.
We’re also donating CA$10 for every copy sold to KidsAbility as part of our Bound for Good initiative.
Frontispiece by Vladimir Zimakov
“They stood one on each side of the memorial stone, looking almost like heraldic supporters, as each with a slim brown hand resting on an elbow of the stone, leaned her face on the hand while looking at me gravely with long, dark, fathomless eyes.”
With Gibbet Hill, Bram Stoker—the legendary author of Dracula—turns his gaze to the fog-draped hills and shadowed woodlands of Victorian England, crafting a quietly disquieting short story set in a landscape where history and atmosphere weigh heavily on the present.
What begins as a solitary walk through the countryside becomes increasingly strange, as the narrator encounters three unnerving children and is drawn into a ritualistic sequence of events that seem to blur the boundary between waking life and dream.
Originally published in a Christmas supplement of the Dublin Daily Express in 1890, Gibbet Hill remained entirely unknown—even to Stoker scholars and biographers—until it was rediscovered in October 2024 by Brian Cleary, an amateur researcher and Stoker enthusiast, at the National Library of Ireland.
Brian partnered with the Rotunda Foundation to publish an edition, with the proceeds going towards the Charlotte Tower Fund to fund research on infant hearing loss. In that same spirit of generosity, Conversation Tree Press is proud to support KidsAbility Foundation. As part of our Bound for Good program, C$10 from the sale of every copy of Gibbet Hill will be donated to their Complex Feeding Clinic, which helps children with significant medical and developmental challenges. See more below.
Edition Information
Please note: Due to an editorial oversight, some of the errors from the original 1890 newspaper publication of Gibbet Hill were unintentionally preserved in this edition—retaining more of its Victorian character than intended. As a result, they are discounted by US$10.
Gibbet Hill is a limited edition of 300 unnumbered copies, letterpress printed by Nomad Letterpress in England on Zerkall Bütten 8181 110gsm mould-made paper, an increasingly rare paper whose existence and availability for this edition was a pleasant surprise.
As some collectors may know, the Zerkall Mill produced some of the finest papers for years, with many of their ranges becoming staples among letterpress printers over that time. Unfortunately, a flood three years ago forced the closure of the mill and since then it’s been getting more and more difficult to find any.
The edition features a linocut illustration by Vladimir Zimakov and is quarter-bound in book cloth and custom hand-marbled paper from Daniela Prina. The endpapers are GF Smith Colorplan with a linen finish.
The author’s name and title are foil stamped on the spine in the same style as the two earlier Short Stops books, ensuring a uniform look across the series.
It measures 6 x 9 inches with 27 pages including front and back matter, and all copies are signed by the artist.
As with all of our books, this edition will not be reprinted.
US$115, discounted to US$105 plus shipping. CA$10 from the sale of each copy is being donated to KidsAbility.
CA$10 Donation for Every Copy Sold
We are donating C$10 from the sale of every copy of our edition of Gibbet Hill to the KidsAbility Foundation. The foundation raises funds for the KidsAbility Centre for Child Development, which provides vital services to children and youth with developmental, physical, and communication disabilities across Waterloo Region and Wellington County.
Proceeds from this edition will specifically support the Complex Feeding Clinic at KidsAbility’s Cambridge site, which helps children with severe feeding and swallowing challenges. Through a coordinated, single-visit approach involving an occupational therapist, speech-language therapist, and dietitian, the clinic provides timely, specialized care that improves nutrition, reduces family stress, and enhances quality of life for both children and caregivers.
Bound for Good is a Conversation Tree Press initiative that channels our shared love of books into meaningful support for our local community, raising funds for charities making a tangible impact here in Waterloo Region—our home. Thanks to the generosity of our collectors, our previous campaign raised C$3,890. With this edition, we are hoping to raise another C$3,000.
About Short Stops
Books in our Short Stops series are a little different from our other editions that come in multiple states. They:
- Are announced and offered for sale when they are completely finished and in hand, with shipping beginning on the same day we begin accepting orders.
- Feature shorter works of fiction.
- Have a trim size of 6in by 9in, slightly smaller than our other 6.7in by 9.5in books, like our upcoming edition of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.
- Have no rights associated with them and do not include a slipcase.
- Always be offered to current Deluxe and Lettered rights-holders first, even though they have no rights attached to them. Rights holders may skip it entirely without losing rights to the next book from the Press, and having a copy of the most recently published book in the Short Stops series does not give any rights to the next in the series.
We’re working on several other Short Stop titles which will serve as steady companions to our larger, multi-state editions.
Availability
Copies of Gibbet Hill are now available to collectors who pre-ordered Deluxe copies of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas numbered #1-150 and all Lettered copies. An email has been sent with a private link to order and copies will begin shipping tomorrow. If you did not receive an email and you believe you should have, please let me know.
The private pre-order period ends at 10am ET on Thursday May 8th, at which time remaining copies will become available to the public.
All copies ship from Ontario, Canada. At the time of writing there are no tariffs on books sent to the U.S. from Canada.
For logistical and practical reasons we cannot combine orders for this title. Thank you for your understanding.
Artwork by Vladimir Zimakov
Vladimir Zimakov is a Boston-based artist, designer, printmaker and illustrator, specializing in techniques such as charcoal drawing, relief printmaking, silkscreen and letterpress among other traditional and digital media. He is the Professor of Art and Design and the Director of the Wedeman Art Gallery at Lasell University, located in Newton, MA.
Vladimir’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in America and Europe. The limited edition books that he created can be found in the collections of Columbia, NYU, Stanford, Tufts and other major university libraries. He is actively involved in the book art and design community and regularly participates in artists’ book and printmaking events in the US and abroad.
Custom Hand-Marbled Paper by Daniela Prina
The custom hand-marbled paper was created by Daniela Prina of Papiers Prina in Belgium.
It features an organic, sinuous pattern that echoes the rural landscape of the story and subtly alludes to the movement of a snake. The palette was carefully chosen to reflect the atmosphere and themes of the tale: carbon black lends structure while evoking the noir tone; dusky grey captures the mist and melancholy of the hill’s history; and forest green conjures the dense, untamed woodland setting. Muted ochre and burnt umber suggest worn paths, soil, and crumbling remnants of the past, while shadowy plum—with a hint of metallic sheen—adds a mysterious, twilight quality. Finally, bloodstone red introduces a dark, rusty note of danger and unease, grounding the design in the story’s quietly unsettling undercurrent.
Typography
I’ve typeset Gibbet Hill in Victoria Rushton’s Embury Text and Jonathan Barnbrook’s Priori Serif.
Printing
The text of the edition was letterpress printed by Pat Randle and Ellen Bills of Nomad Letterpress using their Heidelberg cylinder press, while the artwork was printed on their FAG Control 900 proofing press.
Nomad Letterpress has a long history of printing books and periodicals for a number of fine press publishers along with their own publications. They have also printed a number of our own editions, including Joe Hill’s Faun, and our upcoming edition of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.
Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker (1847–1912) was an Irish author and theatre manager best known for his enduring Gothic masterpiece, Dracula (1897). Born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College, Stoker spent much of his professional life in London as the business manager of the Lyceum Theatre. Though Dracula has overshadowed much of his other work, Stoker published a number of novels, short stories, and essays that reflect his deep interest in folklore, the supernatural, and the anxieties of the Victorian age. His writing continues to resonate more than a century later, offering a window into the fears and fascinations of his time.