What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

This is a Science Fiction novella or novelette about an extra-terrestrial idol or artefact "somehow" coming to life and gaining consciousness!

I'm pretty sure it was 1st published in the 40s.

Was it by Lester del Rey ? Can't remember.

The edition I read was a paperback with a maroon cover, I think, with some illustration I can't remember.

I'd give it a 5/5 and read it again, if I found it.

I can think of two:
First, Tommyknockers by Stephen King, in which a long-buried spaceship somehow "wakens".

The second involved something found that came from the Lost City of Atlantis. Somehow it came to life and there was a journey back to Atlantis? (I'd love to find that one).

Thanks for the useful suggestion, but I'm sure the one I'm looking for is "wonder" not "horror".

Lester del Rey's earliest novel was in the 1950s. He did have a short story collection first published in 1948 called "...And Some Were Human" and had some short stories included in other collections.

Thanks. However, it could have a new stand alone edition of an old story, or the author might not be Del Rey after all.

Found it! The story was by Del Rey after all.

It was his novelette "The Smallest God" - first published in the January 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.
I read it in his 1975 collection The Early Del Rey ,Vol. 1


I found the story again while browsing through Terry Carr's anthology Classic Science Fiction: The First Golden Age at the library

Thanks, Uflinks. I'll move everything for you.