Posts Tagged ‘Hannes Bok’

Library Addition: Three Oversized Hardbacks

Monday, July 31st, 2023

Three more items from that Heritage Auctions lot.

  • Merritt, A (and Hannes Bok). The Black Wheel. New Collector’s Group, 1947. First edition hardback, in a first (Currey A) binding, #571 of 1,000 copies, a Near Fine- copy with slight bumping at head and heel, abrasions to title on front cover, inner hinge before title page just starting at top, with copyright correction pasted to copyright page. Novel started by Merritt and finished by Bok, who also illustrates the book. Currey, page 364. Chalker/Owings (2002), pages 608-9. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 308. Kemp, The Anthem Series, pages 384-385.

  • Merritt, A (and Hannes Bok). The Black Wheel. New Collector’s Group, 1947. First edition hardback, in a second state (Currey B) binding, a Very Good+ copy with BB-sized indention to front board (extending to front free endpaper), bumping at head, heel and points, large former owner plate for Robert C. Culp affixed to inside front cover, and foxing to interior gutters, and no number on copyright page, in a Near Fine FFF dust jacket (see Chalker/Owings for details, though they note the yellow jacket had “no illustrations,” which is clearly incorrect) with bumping at head, and a faint, dime-sized damp-staining drop and slight creasing to rear panel. Novel started by Merritt and finished by Bok, who also illustrates the book and the post-publication jacket. Currey, page 364. Chalker/Owings (2002), pages 608-9. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 308. Kemp, The Anthem Series, pages 384-385.

  • (Sime, Sydney H.) Skeeters, Paul W. (introduction by Ray Bradbury). Sidney H. Sime: Master of Fantasy. Ward Ritchie Press, 1978. First edition hardback, #178 of 200 copies signed by Skeeters and Bradbury, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Art book featuring Sime’s illustration work. This was a pleasant surprise, as I thought it was just a trade hardback lacking the dust jacket, but it’s actually the limited edition signed by Ray Bradbury, which alone is worth just shy of what I paid for the entire lot. Chalker/Owings, page 1072 (not a listing for the book, but a description of the post-publication dust jacket for the limited edition that George Locke printed up). Supplements a copy of the unsigned trade paperback edition.

  • Library Additions: Two Arkham House Books

    Monday, November 17th, 2014

    I picked up two early Arkham House books from two different sources:

  • Hodgson, William Hope. The House on the Borderland and Other Novels. First edition hardback, a Very Good+ copy with bumping at corners, small dust print at bottom page block outer edge, and faint foxing to gutters, in a Very Good+ dust jacket with 1/16″ chip at heel, wear at points (including a pinhead hole at lower front edge), and extremely mild sun-fading to the spine; it’s actually a wonderfully bright example of the Hannes Bok dust jacket, and the only better copies I’ve seen were at least three times the price. Includes the title novel, plus The Boats of the ‘Glen Carrig’, The Ghost Pirates, and The Night Land, all of which were previously published individually (and all of which now go for well over a grand). One of the four large-format Arkhams, the other being H.P. Lovecraft’s The Outsider and Others and Beyond the Wall of Sleep, and Robert E. Howard’s Skull-Face and Others, all three of which I still lack. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House, 16. Derleth, 30 Years of Arkham House, 16. Jaffrey, Horrors and Unpleasantries, 19. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 16. Blieler, Checklist of Science-Fiction and Supernatural Fiction (1978), page 101. Blieler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 821. Bought for £220 plus shipping off eBay.

    House Borderland Arkham

    IMG_0287

  • Walton, Evangeline. Witch House. Arkham House, 1945. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House, 11. Derleth, 30 Years of Arkham House, 11. Jaffrey, Horrors and Unpleasantries, 11. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 11. Blieler, Checklist of Science-Fiction and Supernatural Fiction (1978), page 202. Blieler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 1655. Crawford, Donahue and Grant, 333, page 67. Barron, Horror Literature: A Reader’s Guide, 3-203. Tymn, Horror Literature: A Core Collection and Reference Guide, 4-216. Bought for $47 off the Internet. It seems that every time I would see a copy at auction, I’d ask myself “Do I already have a copy of that?” Now I know the answer to that question…

    Witch House

  • Library Additions: A Random Assortment of Interesting Books

    Monday, June 17th, 2013

    Books and related items, and no particular theme, other than interesting firsts I picked up. Been dawdling about getting this documented, and now I need to put it up so I can catalog a major acquisition of books I made Friday…

  • Bok, Hannes. Bok 1. Glenn Nigra, 1975. Portfolio with 12 loose Hannes Bok illustration sheets, portfolio folder Fine- with bumping to corners, all illustrations Fine. Uneven shading in pic is a scanner artifact, as the portfolio folder is actually slightly too large to fit on the scanner.

  • De Camp, L. Sprague, and Fletcher Pratt. The Carnelian Cube. Gnome Press, 1948. First edition hardback, a Very Good+ copy with bumping at head and heel and wear at heel and tips, and slight dust soiling at head, in a Very Good- dust jacket with 1/4″ loss at head, and slightly less loss at heel and tips, significant fading to red ink on spine (the cube is barely carnelian anymore), partial stamp on rear flap, top front (non-price) flap trimmed at very tip, and general wear. The first Gnome Press book. Chalker & Owings, page 197. Earl Terry Kemp, The Anthem Series*, page 191. Currey (1978), page 132.

    Really only a placeholder copy, and I wouldn’t even have picked it up if it hadn’t been part of a lot with:

  • De Camp, L. Sprague, and Fletcher Pratt. Land of Unreason. Henry Holt and Company, 1942. First edition hardback, a Near Fine+ plus copy, with slight bumping at head and heel and slight dust soiling to page block at heel, in a Near Fine dust jacket with age darkening to rear cover. A very nice copy, and a splendid example of the Boris Artzybasheff dust jacket. Bought for $34 for this and the above (plus shipping and buyers premium) off Heritage Auctions.

  • McKillip, Patricia A. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. Atheneum, 1974. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with bend at head and heel in a Near Fine- dust jacket with crimping at head and heel, edgewear and a closed 1/4″ tear at top front cover. The very first winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. Pringle, Modern Fantasy 100, #54. Bought for $26 off the Internet.

  • Swanwick, Michael. It Came Upon a Midnight. Dragonstairs Press, 2011. First edition chapbook original, #81 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine- copy with one faint stray mark to front.

  • Swanwick, Michael. Midwinter Elves. Dragonstairs Press, 2012. First edition chapbook original, #15 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine- copy with small stain on rear.

  • Vance, Jack. The Eyes of the Overworld. Gregg Press, 1977. First hardback edition, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Sequel to The Dying earth featuring Cugel the Clever. Precedes the Underwood/Miller edition. Hewett, A26g. Currey (1978), page 498.

  • Wolfe, Gary K. American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s. The Library of America, 2012. First Edition hardback thus, being a two volume compilation of some of the best American SF novels of the 1950s: Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth’s The Space Merchants, Theodore Sturgeon’s More Than Human, Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow, Richard Matheson’s The Shrinking Man, Robert A. Heinlein’s Double Star, Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination, James Blish’s A Case of Conscience, Algis Budrys’ Who?, and Fritz Leiber’s The Big Time, both volumes Fine in Fine dust jackets, new and unread, in a Fine slipcase. This is an example of book collecting madness, since I either have first editions of, or have already read, all the books here except Who?, but I thought this was a handsome set when it came out, and snapped this up when it showed up at Half Price Books.

  • *This is a newly published reference work on SF specialty publishers. I hope to finish a review of it Real Soon Now, and I’ll have copies for sale through Lame Excuse Books.