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 ‘Horror’ Category
Library Additions: Half Price Books Finds
Tuesday, June 18th, 2019Library Addition: Thomas Ligotti’s A Little White Book of Screams and Whispers
Wednesday, June 12th, 2019Bought this from the publisher at the usual discount:
Ligotti, Thomas. A Little White Book of Screams and Whispers. Borderlands Press, 2019. First edition hardback, a #501 of 600 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. A “compilation of Interviews with Ligotti that have never been collected or reprinted.” Out of print before publication.
The shadow on the spine is a scanner artifact.
Library Addition: Manly Wade Wellman’s Clash on the Catawba
Tuesday, June 11th, 2019Picked up the third book in Manly Wade Wellman’s Revolutionary War YA series:
Wellman, Manly Wade. Clash on the Catawba. Ives Washburn, 1962. First edition hardback (no statement of printing, as per Currey), a Fine- copy, with a little bend at head and heel, in a Near Fine dust jacket with extremely shallow loss at head and heel and wear at points, plus bottom front flap corner (non-priced corner) clipped, which I’ve seen on several other Washburn titles, otherwise bright and unfaded. Third in a four-volume Revolutionary War YA series, preceded by Rifles at Ramsour’s Mill and Battle for King’s Mountain, and followed by The South Fork Rangers, all of which I have. Currey, page 512. Bought off the Internet for $20 plus shipping.
Library Addition: Signed First of Gahan Wilson’s Everybody’s Favorite Duck
Tuesday, May 21st, 2019Another signed first, this by an author more famous as an illustrator:
Wilson, Gahan. Everybody’s Favorite Duck. Mysterious Press, 1988. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Inscribed by Wilson: “To/David-/Gahan/Wilson/and/the/duck” with an arrow pointing to a drawing of a duck. Looks like a literary mystery/adventure pastiche of multiple authors, much in the manner of Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October (or vice versa, as this precedes the Zelazny by five years), which, interestingly enough, was also illustrated by Gahan Wilson. Bought off the Internet for $17.
This is the second book I own remarqued by Wilson, the first being the lettered state of the Subterranean Press edition of Neil Gaiman’s M is for Magic, which has a drawing of a bat.
Sadly, Wilson is evidently suffering from dementia and not publishing cartoons anymore.
Library Addition: Limited Box Edition of Michael Swanwick’s Cigar Box Faust
Saturday, April 27th, 2019Here’s another weird Dragonstairs Swanwick production:
Swanwick, Michael. Cigar Box Faust. Dragonstairs Press, 2019. First separate edition and first edition thus, preceded by the 2003 Tachyon chapbook Cigar Box Faust and Other Miniatures, one of only 40 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in special cigar box. Here’s the description from the Dragonstairs Press site:
Now you can produce your own performance of Cigar Box Faust. Dragonstairs Press is offering everything you need to mount your own production! The theater (a cigar box), the cast (a cigar in the title role and a cigar cutter as Mephistopheles, the sun, moon, and stars– well, cutouts and glitter), an mp3 file of Swanwick reading the text, and a chapbook of the script (a limited edition, signed by Michael Swanwick and numbered)!
As received, there was a tremendous quantity of loose glitter in the package, which is why it is now safely sealed in the polybag.
I will have precisely one for sale in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Library Addition: Manly Wade Wellman Associational Copy
Monday, April 22nd, 2019Picked up another Manly Wade Wellman associational copy at a bargain price:
Wellman, Manly Wade. Harper’s Ferry Prize of War. MacNally of Charlotte, 1960. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight wear at heel and head in a Near Fine dust jacket with slight spine fading, a tiny bit of loss at tips, and a touch of edgewear at head and heel. Inscribed by Wellman to his brother and fellow author Paul I. Wellman on the pictorial front free endpaper: “author time to Paul/the old War Chief of the/Tribe/Centia Campa/from/Manly”. Civil War history book. Bought off eBay for $20.
This is the second Manly Wade Wellman associational copy inscribed to Paul I. Wellman that I own, the other being Third String Center.
Library Addition: Signed/Limited Edition of Lansdale’s Dark at Heart
Wednesday, April 17th, 2019Another addition to the Lansdale collection:
Lansdale, Joe R. and Karen, editors. Dark at Heart. Dark Harvest, 1992. First edition hardback, #120 of 400 copies signed by all the contributors, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with just a couple of touches of edgewear at top front (and a $45 price sticker on inside front flap, as per Chalker/Owings), in a Fine slipcase. Anthology of “dark suspense.” Includes some signatures I didn’t have in my collection heretofore, like Ardath Mayhar’s. Chalker/Owings (2002), page 1049. Nova Express Lansdale Bibliography, 1A.2. Hankow, A Checklist of Joe R. Lansdale, AA4a. Bought for $17.26 plus shipping off eBay, less than half the publication price of $45.
Chalker/Owings noted that the move into mystery is what killed off Dark Harvest, though I suspect they did OK on this (Lansdale’s a strong seller).
Library Additions: Two Signed/Limited Pulphouse Issues
Wednesday, March 20th, 2019I have a complete run of the trade edition of Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine I picked up as they were coming out. Recently I saw a couple of issues of the signed edition of same cheap, so I picked them up at prices that were actually less than what the trade edition retailed for.
Pulphouse wildly overproduced and over-saturated the market in the early 1990s, but I always thought the hardback magazine itself featured solid stories.
Library Addition: Signed First of Robert Bloch’s Screams
Wednesday, February 27th, 2019This is an upgrade, replacing an unsigned copy of he trade edition with a signed copy of the trade edition:
Bloch, Robert. Screams. Underwood -Miller, 1989. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with a $39.95 overprint pricing sticker on flap (as issued). Signed by Bloch. Omnibus edition of The Will To Kill, Firebug, and The Star Stalker, being the first hardback editions of each. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 440. Bought off eBay for $25.
Obituary: GAK
Wednesday, February 20th, 2019Only in reading the February Ansible did I learn that artist GAK died mid-January. His real name was evidently Gregg Kanefsky (edited to add: probably not; that seems to be a different GAK), though I also knew him as Glenn Denny Gak (the name he used on Facebook), and an obituary linked from his Facebook page referenced Glenn A. Klinger. He was obviously a man of many mysteries.
Back when I edited Nova Express, GAK became my go-to guy for cover art. His spikey style seemed a good fit for what I wanted to publish. Among his best covers was the one for the Tim Powers issue:
As well as the one for the Neil Gaiman issue, the original artwork for which I have matted and hanging in my house above a copy of the issue:
After Nova Express, he went on to illustrate a number of horor works, including the Dead Cat Bounce series.
I only met GAK once, at the 2002 World Fantasy Convention in Minneapolis, where I had dinner with him and Nova contributor Hank Wagner. I had no idea he was sick until I read that he had died.
Here’s his ISFDB listing.
One more for the road:
