"The Adder"

by Fred Chappell

originally published Deathrealm, Summer 1989

Our nameless narrator is an antique book dealer.  And so is his uncle, Alvin.  One day Uncle Alvin calls him up, saying he wants to pay a visit.  He has something very rare, and he can't talk about it over the phone.

That very rare thing is a handwritten manuscript of Al Azif, aka The Necronomicon.  In Arabic.  He wants it stashed while he goes to the Library of Congress to make arrangements with them to get it into their collection.  But he warns NN - the manuscript is "like an adder - first it poisons, then it devours".  He advises him to store it well clear of anything of value.
NN stores it with some cheap knock-off editions of Milton.

Soon after, he makes an alarming discovery - Milton's words in the cheap knock-off edition are changing.  What's more, they're changing in all other editions - from classic poetry to doggerel.   What's more, the manuscript seems to be restoring itself - less faded, less aged, becoming like new.  Alarmed, NN lets Unc know, and tosses the ms into an otherwise empty safe.

Unc comes by and does a ritual involving another rare book - one that goes unnamed - but is apparently a kind of anti-Necronomicon, which restores Milton's poetry to its original state. But while they're talking, a fly lands on the damp ink of the ms, and flies off.

 This is actually an amusing and witty story.  It would take a real devotee of the written word to mark the decay of Milton's poetry as the first sign of apocalypse.  And, despite its obviously humorous intent, there are dark implications in the finale.