No particular theme, just various books I picked up at Half Price Books over the last few months that I didn’t feel like breaking out into separate posts.
Archive for the ‘Science Fiction’ Category
Library Additions: Half Price Books Finds
Tuesday, June 18th, 2019Library Additions: Seven Signed PBOs (Allston, Harrison, Hawke, Powers)
Saturday, June 15th, 2019Five of these came from a friend who was culling his library of books signed to his late wife for $1-2 each, while two were Half Price Books buys. All but one of these are PBO firsts of one stripe or another:
I enjoyed the Nicholas Yermakov books I read, but never picked up any of his series work once he changed his name for Simon Hawke, so why not pick up some signed PBOs cheap?
Library Addition: Association Copy of Avram Davidson’s Redward Edward Papers Inscribed to Randall Garrett
Tuesday, May 28th, 2019This is something I located at a Half Price Books here in Austin:
Davidson, Avram. The Redward Edward Papers. Doubleday, 1978. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight bend at head and heel in a Near Fine dust jacket with very faint spotting, fading the red lettering on spine, slight age darkening to the white cover, and a few tiny specks of dust soiling. Inscribed to fellow science fiction and fantasy writer Randall Garrett on the front free endpaper: “June 25/78 Pacific Grove/Califo./For an old, good and helpful/friend,/Randall Garrett/with the Compliments/of the Author,/Avram Davidson.” Additionally signed by Davidson on the title page. Bought from Half Price Books for $45.
Garrett was author of the popular Lord Darcy series of fantasy detective novels, basically Sherlock Holmes with magic. He spent the last years of his life in Austin in what we would now call a “memory care facility” after a bout of viral meningitis.
Library Addition: Signed First of Gene Wolfe’s Innocents Aboard
Thursday, May 23rd, 2019Checking eBay after Gene Wolfe died, I came across a listing for a signed copy of Innocents Aboard, and wondered to myself “Is my copy signed?”
That’s when I found out that, much to my chagrin, I did not own a copy of Innocents Aboard at all.
Hence this:
Wolfe, Gene. Innocents Abroad. Tor, 2004. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Wolfe. Bought off eBay for $14.99 plus shipping.
Library Addition: Inscribed First of George Locke’s Voyages in Space
Sunday, May 19th, 2019Science fiction bibliographer, bookseller and publisher George Locke died earlier this year. I knew George a bit (as pretty much every bookseller in the field must have), and we had lunch together on my 2005 trip to the UK. George was universally acclaimed as one of the most knowledgeable booksellers and bibliographers the field has ever known, and I already owned a fair number of his books, almost all published by his own Ferret Fantasy imprint, most inscribed to me, including the three volume Spectrum of Fantasy series and the two volume By the World Forget/By The Book World Remembered pairing about Stuart Teitler and Lost Race novels.
Now I’ve picked up another:
Locke, George. Voyages in Space. Ferret Fantasy, 2015. First edition trade paperback original (simultaneous with a very small hardback run of only 28 copies), one of 500 copies, a Near Fine copy with slight wear along spine and what appears to be a spot of dampstaining at heel. Inscribed to Australian-born, Paris-resident science fiction, film and travel writer (and fellow book collector) John Baxter: “For John Baxter/With all good wishes and the/hope that you’ll run into one of the Olde/Aussie Interplanetaries when you next meet/the banana-benders!/George Locke”. (I also own Baxter’s The Inner Man: the life of J. G. Ballard.) Subtitled “A Bibliography of Interplanetary Fiction, 1801-1914.” Tymn Schlobin Currey, A Research Guide to Science Fiction Studies, 47. Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 4 7-7 (though only in passing, since the main entry is for Currey). Reginald, Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature 1975—1991, 28470. Bought from a UK bookdealer for £40 plus shipping.
RIP, George.
Library Addition: Lewis Shiner’s Outside the Gates of Eden
Thursday, May 16th, 2019This finally came in:
Shiner, Lewis. Outside the Gates of Eden. Subterranean, 2019. First edition hardback, #327 of 1,000 signed, numbered hardback copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, new and unread. Sweeping novel of rock music and the 1960s. Lew’s been working on this one a long time. To quote the publisher: “I consider Lewis Shiner’s Outside the Gates of Eden to be the best original novel SubPress will have published in our nearly twenty-five years of existence. At 880 pages, it’s also the longest. This is a book too important to miss.”
I will have a few copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, currently in progress (drop me a line if you want to be added to the mailing list).
Library Addition: Signed/Limited Ray Bradbury Chronicles Volume 6
Wednesday, May 15th, 2019Another signed Bradbury, and another volume in this series.
Bradbury, Ray, et. al. Ray Bradbury Chronicles Volume 6. Nantier Beall Minoustchine/Byron Preiss, no date (but 1994). First edition hardback, #828 of 1000 signed, numbered copies signed by Bradbury and the illustrators, a Fine- copy with a bit of spine lean (only noticeable because the book is so thin), in a Fine dust jacket. Bought for $26.10 plus shipping off eBay. Original published price was $45.
I now have Volumes 2, 6 and 7 of this series, but am still looking for the others…
Big Science Fiction Movie Memorabilia Auction Today
Tuesday, May 14th, 2019If you’re made of money, Bonhams is having a big science fiction movie memorabilia auction today, featuring lots of props and original movie posters.
I’m sure the original Darth Vader costume from The Empire Strikes Back will get a huge amount of attention, but for me the most exciting items are several props from Forbidden Planet, including the original saucer spaceship:
Plus the Krell door lock:
Sadly, I’m not made of money. But if you are, you might barely have time to register…
Library Addition: R. A. Lafferty’s The Man Who Walked Through Cracks
Wednesday, May 8th, 2019The latest volume of the Centipede Press Collected Lafferty series came in:
Lafferty, R. A. The Man Who Walked Through the Cracks: The Collected Short Fiction Volume Five. Centipede Press, 2019. First edition hardback, #40 of 300 signed, numbered copies, new and unread, still in publisher’s polybag. I have matching numbers of all five books in the series.
I will have precisely one copy of this (along with a matching copy of Volume 4) in the forthcoming Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Library Addition: Jack Gaughan Art Book
Friday, May 3rd, 2019Something I picked up relatively cheap.
(Gaughan, Jack) Ortiz, Luis. Outermost: The Art + Life of Jack Gaughan. Nonstop Press, 2010. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued, new and unread. Book on the renowned SF/F artist, including hundreds of examples of his art, in color throughout. Bought at a significant discount from the publisher.
I will have one copy to sell in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (in progress).