None But Lucifer

A masterpiece of the science fiction/fantasy genre as it had developed before its Golden Age, during the '20's and '30's.

Horace Gold wrote it for John Campbell at Unknown Magazine, he collaborated with de Camp to arrive at the final manuscript, and it was published in installments in 1939. Never before issued as a book, though it was highly praised when it appeared in Unknown and has had an underground following ever since then.

Gold's novel is based on the Faust premise: William Hale, in the depths of the Depression in NY City, undertakes to outwit the Devil with a foolproof plan. The story unfolds in a series of vivid scenes and encounters. The premise is brilliant and it gives an unusual twist to its themes, as well as rendering in high detail and with a full cast of characters a wonderfully film noire metropolis, from the Salvation Army mission and the vagrant flophouse to the lavish apartments of the wealthy "captains of industry" of that time.