I have a complete collection of Greg Bear’s first edition hardbacks (though I do still need to pick up a copy of the recently published Hull Zero Three). However, until recently I was missing two Bear books, one very easy to find (Foundation and Chaos, a copy of which I just picked up at one-quarter the publisher’s price), and the other one, the Cheap Street Sleepside Story, very expensive. However, I finally picked up a copy from a noted SF dealer having a 50% off sale (the same dealer I bought the first edition of Nineteen Eighty-Four from) for $175.
Here are some pictures. The open book and traycase are too large to fit on my scanner, and the visible weave of the cloth made it hard to get a good picture without getting moire patterns:
Full description:
Bear, Greg. Sleepside Story. Cheap Street, 1988. First edition hardback, one of 127 total copies, of which this is one of 52 copies signed by Bear and artist Judy King-Rieniets comprising the “Publisher’s Edition,” done in two-part red and black Japanese cloth, a fine copy in Japanese cloth tray case, without dust jacket, as issued.
For those unaware of the press, Cheap Street was the imprint of Nan and George O’Nale, founded in 1980, doing very small runs of beautiful, hand-bound books. (Jack Chalker noted that they were the only publishers that refused to provide information for The Science Fantasy Publishers, the massive book on SF small presses that he and Mark Ownings compiled, and described them as temperamental, secretive, and hostile, at least to him. Like many of Jack’s descriptions in The Science Fantasy Publishers, there are probably several grains of truth to that view which also need to be taken with several grains of salt…) The last science fiction book they did was Howard Waldrop’s Flying Saucer Rock and Roll (which I also have), though Howard tells me they did one non-SF book after that, a book of jokes related to the Forest Service (which George O’Nale had evidently worked for). Unfortunately, in 2003 the O’Nale’s committed double-suicide, leaving behind careful instructions as to where their bodies would be found and for the disposition of their estate.
I don’t have a complete Cheap Street set, though I do have a goodly number, and hope to pick up the rest when I can find them at attractive prices.
Edited to Add: This first issue of Andrew Porter’s fanzine Monadock reprints the Roanoke Times piece on the O’Nale suicide, the original of which no longer appears to be up on the Roanoke Times website.
Tags: Book Collecting, Books, Cheap Street, Greg Bear, Jack Chalker, Nan and George O'Nale, Science Fiction
[…] My most recent acquisition of particular note is the new Tim Powers book Deliver Us From Evil from Charnel House. It’s quite an elaborate production, on par with some of Cheap Street’s books. […]
[…] Bear, Greg. Sleepside Story. Cheap Street, 1988. One of 52 signed and numbered, traycased “publisher’s edition” copies, a fine copy in tray case, sans dust jacket. See here for details. […]
George O’Nale didn’t work for the U.S. Forest Service — he worked at a local hospital. George & Jan’s antipathy towards the USFS came from the fact that their property near New Castle, VA (about half an acre, if I remember properly) backed up on the Jefferson National Forest, through which the Apalachian Trail runs; the Service was planning on giving a permit for a high-voltage power line to run along the ridge behind their house.
George learned letterpress printing (he was always vague about where and when), so he and Jan bought a Vandercook 7 letterpress and printed all their books in the back room of their cabin — a room about 8 x 12 feet! Jan did the book design and they chose the very best materials for their editions.
It really, really pissed me off when I learned that they’d killed themselves.
Fascinating information and a lovely photo! George and Jan were relatives of mine, though almost no one in the family was aware of them until after their death. Thanks for, in some small way helping me get to know them better.