Two more books from that private collection purchase, both of which are 1-to-1 swaps of Fine/Fine signed copies for Fine/Fine unsigned copies.
I was surprised that my existing Lord Kelvin’s Machine wasn’t signed, since Blaylock was a semi-regular Armadillocon attendee in the 1990s. i will have a number of Blaylock firsts (some signed) in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
I guess that technically one of these is a magazine, but it looks and feel just like a paperback.
I have cover scans, but for some reason BlueHost isn’t letting me upload pics right now, so you’ll have to wait to see them…
I have a signed first of Sorceror’s Son, so it made sense to add this.
Eisenstein, Phyllis. The Crystal Palace. Grafton Books, 1991. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Eisenstein. Sequel to Sorceror’s Son. The U.S. paperback precedes, but this was the first hardback. This was part of the last big Zelazny purchase in 2020 and I’ve just now gotten around to cataloging it. As I’ve said before, there are few price points more attractive than “you’ve already paid for it.”
Three Subterranean Press books that came in recently:
I will have copies of all of these in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Two signed Swanwick Dragonstairs chapbooks that came in separately:
Both of these sold out the same day they were offered for sale, and I will have copies of each available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Only theme here is that I bought all of these on a day trip to San Antonio:
Here’s a book I’ve been looking for quite a long time, even before Neil Gaiman recommended it.
Mirrlees, Hope. Lud-In-The-Mist. W. Collins & Sons, 1926. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with a couple of abrasion spots on front cover, slight bend and head and heel, and small bookseller sticker to bottom of rear inside cover, otherwise a nice, sharp copy in an immaculate facsimile dust jacket. Bleiler, Checklist (1978), page 141. Magill, Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature, pages 926-931. Barron, Fantasy Literature 3-250 (“A beautifully written allegory unashamedly celebrating the necessity of enchantment”). Tymn Zahorsky Boyer, Fantasy Literature pages 141-142. Widely considered one of the classic novels of pre-Tolkien fantasy. Bought for $395 plus shipping.
The final items from that Jack Vance lot.
Plus an old issue of Locus with an interview with Vance I’ll shove in the closet with the rest of the issues from back when I subscribed.
I hadn’t really been planning to track down Jack Vance fanzines, but now that I have these, I should probably look for issues of Honor to Finuka…
Three more items from that Heritage Auctions lot.
Another book from that Heritage lot. Random short story collections of Celtic fantasy are not exactly my usual line, but I’m keeping this one to solve the mystery of why it was published.
MacLeod, Fiona (pseudonym for William Sharp). The Hills of Ruel and Other Stories. Heinemann, 1921. First edition hardback, a Near Fine+ copy in decorated boards (the design matching the dust jacket) with sight bumping at head, heel and points and slight foxing to inside covers and endpapers in a Very Good- dust jacket with a 7/8″ chip at head, 1/2″ chip at heel, smaller losses at top and bottom edges and wear along outer edges. Beliler Checklist (1978) page 131.
The mystery is why Heinemann decided to do such an elaborate book for an author that is fairly obscure today. It’s oversized (10 1/4″ high, the extact same height as the Dark Harvest first edition of Dan Simmons’ Carrion Comfort) with multiple inserted plates (most in color) and decorated endpapers.
The art, by M. H. Lawrence, in a sort of arts-and-crafts-meets-Art-Deco tops out at “sort of OK.” M. H. Lawrence turns out to be Margery Lawrence, more famous as a writer, including the psychic detective stories collected in Number Seven Queer Street publish by Arkham House sister imprint Mycroft & Moran. Judging from the art here, concentrating on writing was probably the right choice.
Still, fiction works with multiple inserted plates are fairly rare, and today limited to pricey small press editions by the likes of Stephen King and George R. R. Martin. Why did Heinemann go to that extent for MacLeod/Sharp? (This was published 15 years after his death, and he’s clearly listed as being MacLeod on a page advertising MacLeod and Sharp books right before the first plate page.) Presumably Heinemann did well with him, as there are nine books by him and one about him (by his wife) listed there. Also, this ISFDB page says that this was done as a Christmas gift book, which explains the elaborate production.
As I’ve stated before, “you’ve already paid for it” is a pretty compelling argument for adding anything interesting to your library…