Picked up a few more items signed by Ray Bradbury:
I now have three of the Bradbury Christmas broadsheets (which he sent to friends as Christmas gifts/cards), all signed.
Posts Tagged ‘First Edition’
Library Additions: Three Signed Ray Bradbury Items
Tuesday, March 15th, 2016Library Additions: Three PS Publishing Limited Editions
Monday, February 22nd, 2016PS Publishing had a sale, and I picked up three limited editions of things I already had the trade editions of.
Library Additions: Fiction Books Bought from Cold Tonnage’s £5 Sale
Tuesday, February 16th, 2016Cold Tonnage Books had a sale where all £10 books were £5, so I picked up a fair number. This post covers fiction titles.
Library Addition: The Da Vinci Code
Monday, February 15th, 2016Only doing a separate blog post on this to illustrate a few points about bookselling and collecting.
Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code. Doubleday, 2003. First edition hardback (price of $24.95 on flap, “First Edition” and “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1” numberline on copyright page), a near Fine copy with owner blindstamp on front free endpaper, in a Fine- dust jacket with a small crease to bottom corner of front flap.
The multi-million bestseller. At one point people were getting big bucks for first printings. This copy? I bought it for $2 from the “Nostalgia Bargain” section of a Half Price Books.
Sic transit gloria mundi…
Library Addition: Tobias Buckell’s Xenowealth
Wednesday, February 10th, 2016I finally got my copy of Toby Buckell’s Xenowealth collection, a Kickstarter project I first backed in November of 2014.
Buckell, Tobias S. Xenowealth. Self-published, 2016. First edition hardback, one of an unspecified number signed by the author, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Short story collection set in the same universe as Crystal Rain. There were only 63 backers of the hardback level, so it’s possible the total print run for this edition is under 100 copies. Due to an error, my name was not listed among the backs on the acknowledgements page, but Toby sent me an extra copy each of the hardback and the trade paperback to make up for it.
Library Addition: Two Gnome Press Anthologies
Monday, February 8th, 2016I picked up two nice Gnome Press anthologies from a National Book Auction at quite a reasonable price.
Library Addition: First Edition of Samuel Butler’s Erewhon
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016I ignored a couple of my own collecting rules when picking this up, namely picking up a book from before my usual collecting period, and picking up a rebound copy. However, the book in question was important enough, and the price I paid cheap enough, that I don’t mind.
(Butler, Samuel). Erewhon or Over the Range. Trübner & Co., 1872. First edition hardback, a rebound copy in modern full leather (at least according to the auction description, but “modern” is a relative term; the new binding is worn enough that it appears to be at least 50 years old), original covers bound in rear of textblock, with heavy rubbing on joints and corners, hinges starting, minor scattered foxing on preliminary and terminal leaves, pages characteristically brittle, overall a Very Good rebind copy. Published anonymously, Erehwon (“nowhere” spelled backwards) is satire in the mode of Gullivers Travels, and one of the most important 19th century Utopian/Dystopian novels. Bleiler Checklist (1978), page 36. Bleiler Checklist (1948), page 68. Bleiler, SF: The Early Years, page 113. Reginald (Volume I), page 84. Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 4, 1-19. Magill, Survey of Science Fiction Literature Volume Two, page 729. Bought for $75 (including buyer’s premium) from Heritage Auctions.
And here’s a picture of the original boards bound into the back:
Note that E. F. Bleiler in SF: The Early Years says there was a second, corrected state printed the same year as the first edition. I have been unable to find points that distinguish between the first and second state, and the original boards bound into my edition seems to match those first editions copies I’ve been able to locate online.
I believe this is now the oldest book in my library, replacing a first edition of Camille Flammarion’s Urania (1890). Next oldest would be my first editions of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow and H. G. Wells’ Select Conversations with An Uncle (Now Extinct), both 1895.
Library Addition: Orbit 9 Inscribed to Robert and Virginia Heinlein
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016This is somewhere halfway between a mere curiosity and a really interesting association copy:
Knight, Damon, editor (Leon Stover, Gene Wolfe, R. A. Lafferty, etc.). Orbit 9. Putnam, 1971. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with a touch of edgewear at points in a Near Fine- dust jacket with slight edgewear and very slight darkening to white rear jacket. Inscribed by contributor Leon Stover: “For Robert & Virgina Heinlein/with thanks for/9 June 1984/Leon Stover.” Stover would not only later publish a critical book on Heinlein from Twayne, but was working on the official authorized biography of Heinlein before the latter’s death, a project cancelled after a falling out with Virginia Heinlein. Bought for $6.50 from Houston bookstore Kaboom Books.
Library Addition: Jay Franklin’s The Rat Race
Monday, January 25th, 2016Picked up another FPCI volume:
Franklin, Jay (AKA John Franklin Carter). The Rat Race. Fantasy Publishing Co. Inc., 1950. First edition hardback, one of 1,200 hardback copies (per Chalker/Owings), a Fine- copy in the second state (gray boards, red titling, per Kemp) binding, with slight bend at head and heel in a Near Fine+ second state (per Kemp) dust jacket that’s slightly misaligned (about 1/4″ more on rear than front flap), slight wear at extremities, and some indentations along rear spine gutter. Chalker/Owings, The Science-Fantasy Publishers (1991), page 171. Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 79. Bought for $19 (including dealer discount), plus a $5 show credit coupon, at the Austin Book and Paper Show.
I’m not actively targeting FPCI titles, per se, though I do pick them up as targets of opportunity. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the first state dust jacket offered for sale. I wonder what the story is behind the different jackets, but FPCI did a lot of odd things…