Another signed eBay purchase:
Farmer, Philip Jose. The Classic Philip Jose Farmer: 1954—1962. Crown, 1984. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Farmer. Volume 4 in the Crown SF Classics series. Bought for $21.50 off eBay.
Tracked down an Iain Banks chapbook I lacked.
Banks, Iain M. Cleaning Up. Birmingham Science Fiction Group, 1987. First edition chapbook, a Fine- copy with one small phantom indentation to top rear and a touch of soiling. Issued for Novacon 17. Bought online for £24.99 plus shipping.
Three items, all picked up separately, all by or about Harlan Ellison, and all signed.
Our long wait is now over: Sharknado 5 now has it’s official subtitle: Global Swarming.
Tagline: Make America Bait Again.
More:
Alongside the announcement of the movie’s official title, the network revealed Sharknado 5’s list of cameos, which include Tony Hawk, Olivia Newton-John, Chloe Lattanzi, Fabio, Clay Aiken, Bret Michaels, Charo, Gilbert Gottfried, Margaret Cho, Al Roker, Kathie Lee Gifford, Hoda Kotb, Greg Louganis, Tom Daley, Gus Kenworthy, Jeff Rossen, Porsha Williams, Tiffany “New York” Pollard, Chris Kattan, Cat Greenleaf, Ross Mullan and Dan Fogler.
Finally, something to bring our divided nation together!
(Hat tip: Bill Crider.)
A limited edition SF art book I picked up relatively cheap:
Freas, Frank Kelly. The Art of Science Fiction. Donning, 1977. First edition hardback, #234 of 1,000 copies with a signature plate signed by Freas pasted inside the front cover, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Bought for $50 off eBay.
This appears to be the very first SF book published by either Donning or Donning/Starblaze, the latter of which was quite an active imprint until tapering off in the late 1980s.
Another odd Jack-Vance related item:
Fabian, Stephen. Crystal of a Hundred Dreams: A Portfolio by Stephen E. Fabian. Underwood/Miller, 1979. First edition oversized softbound art portfolio, one of 550 sets produced, a Fine copy, still in shrinkwrap. Illustrations from the U/M Jack Vance books The Eyes of the Overworld, The Seventeen Virgins and The Bagful of Dreams. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 431 (where they note it’s “Uncommon,” most sets having been broken up and framed). Bought for $55 from a fellow Jack Vance collector.
Hard to get a good pick, since it’s too big for the scanner and I kept getting light bounce from the shrinkwrap….
Another reference work to file right next to the same author’s Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana:
Nevins, Jess. The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Pulp heroes. Lulu Press, 2017. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Non-fiction reference work covering fantastic pulp heroes from 1902—1945. Bought for $22.49 the first week of publication.
Lulu Press is a POD outfit, and this work will evidently be incorporated into a larger, electronic-only encyclopedia of pulp heroes (fantastic and otherwise) forthcoming from Amazon.
I used to subscribe to the hardback edition of Postscripts way back when, and have had three stories in various issues, so I try to pick up any issues I’m missing, and the price was certainly right.
Crowther, Peter and Nick Gevers. Postscripts 30/31: Memoryville Blues. PS Publishing, 2013. First edition hardback, #173 of 200 copies signed by all the contributors, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine slipcase, new and unread. Bought off eBay for $15, which works out to less than a dollar a signature…
Not particularly an Atwood fan, but I got it very cheap for a signed, limited edition by a major author:
Atwood, Margaret. The Year of the Flood. Bloomsbury (UK), 2009. First edition hardback, # 653 of 1,000 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in decorated boards with silver gilt edges, in a Fine slipcase, sans dust jacket, as issued. Bought for $7.50 at Half Price Books, marked down from $15 with a 50% off coupon. (I suspect that Half Price got a few copies quietly remaindered from the publisher, as they often do for UK books.)
That’s a picture of the front of the slipcase, as there’s no writing on the book itself except on the spine.
According to the ISFDB, this limited edition is a true first (simultaneous with the trade hardback and trade paperback states), and was originally issued at £75, so I got it for less than 1/10th cover price…
Another addition to my science fiction story/poem postcard collection:
Le Guin, Ursula. To Siva the Unmaker. Science Fiction Poetry Association, 1980. First edition postcard, a near Fine copy with a faint dime-sized stain. Signed by Le Guin. Bought for $15 off eBay.
I have two other Le Guin postcards, but this is the only one that’s signed.