This was the only thing I won in that Waverly/Quinn auction of science fiction firsts, despite bidding on several other lots. It was a four book lot, the least of which (The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith) I already had and which will go in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Smith, Clark Ashton. Ebony and Crystal: Poems in Verse and Prose. Auburn Journal, 1922. First edition hardback, #522 of 525 signed, numbered copies, a Very Good copy with pronounced foxing to inside front and rear covers, cracked inner hinge and cloth pulled away from binding staples to rear (which, looking from the construction, I’m guessing is an endemic flaw for this book), slight bend at head and heel and slight wear at points, sans dust jacket, as issued. Currey, page 453. Not in Bleiler’s Guide to Supernatural Horror. Bleiler Checklist (1978), page 181. Sidney-Fryer, Emperor of Dreams, page 128-128.
Smith, Clark Ashton. Odes and Sonnets. The Book Club of San Francisco, 1918. First edition hardback, #70 of 300 copies, a Very Good copy with long, thin abrasion along outer front edge, pinhead black spot to spine, word “Clark” worn away from spine label, and two faint dime-sized splash marks to rear cover, sans dust jacket, as issued. Thin, oversized volume printed in three colors (red, green and black) on uncut sheets (so half the poems are rather difficult to read). Not in Currey. Not in Bleiler’s Guide to Supernatural Horror. Not in Bleiler’s Checklist (1978). Sidney-Fryer, Emperor of Dreams, page 127.
Smith, Clark Ashton. The Star-Treader and Other Poems. A.M. Robertson, 1912. First edition hardback original, a Near Fine+ copy with top front point bumped, a few traces of grubbiness to rear boards, and an Ex-Libris sticker inside front cover under flap, in a Very Good+ dusty jacket with slight loss at head and top points, a few spots of grubbiness hear and there, a crease to inside front flap at bottom, a thin line of abrasion at heel; quite a nice copy for a book more than 100 years old. Not in Currey. Not in Bleiler’s Guide to Supernatural Horror. Bleiler Checklist (1978), page 181. Sidney-Fryer, Emperor of Dreams, page 128.
All bought for $976 at auction, including buyer’s premium.
More from the Camelot Books sale. The trick here is that the title refers to both Richard Matheson and Richard Christian Matheson.
Matheson, Richard. Generations. Gauntlet Press, 2012. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Autobiographical novel. Bought for $9.98, marked down from $24.95.
Matheson, Richard. Matheson Uncollected Volume I. Gauntlet Press, 2008. First edition hardback, #105 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Bought for $30 marked down from $75.
Matheson, Richard. Matheson Uncollected Volume II. Gauntlet Press, 2010. First edition hardback, #129 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Bought for $30 marked down from $75.
Matheson, Richard. Other Kingdoms: Original Draft. Gauntlet Press, 2011. First edition hardback, #75 of 300 signed, numbered copies (though Matheson, ailing at the time, only initialed copies), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Bought for $20 marked down from $50.
Matheson, Richard. Through Channels. Footsteps Press, 1990. First edition chapbook original, #53 of 550 copies, a Fine copy, signed by Matheson, with gray full-page illustration laid in.
Matheson, Richard Christian. The Ritual of Illusion. PS Publishing, 2013. First edition hardback, #205 of 250 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in decorated boards and a Fine dust jacket. Bought for $19.80 marked down from $49.50.
The Clark Ashton Smith stuff I’m putting up tomorrow…
Camelot Books had a “Stocking Stuffer Sale” where they offered 50% off if you bought $500 or more (pre-discount), and 60% off if you bought $2,000 or more. The challenge was that the books had to retail for $75 or less.
Naturally I rose to the challenge.
I ended up buying 41 books, some of which will show up in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog. This is the first of several posts documenting which books are going to into my own library. (I’ll take a break on Monday to document something else that came in.)
First up: Joe R. Lansdale. Note that I had most of these titles, but not these states of the title.
Lansdale, Joe R. A Fist Full of Stories (And Articles). Cemetery Dance, 1996. First edition hardback, 420 of 500 signed, limited copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine slipcase. Supplements a trade copy and a traycased lettered copy. Bought for $26, marked down from $65.
Lansdale, Joe R. Coco Butternut. Subterranean Press, 2017. First edition hardback, 244 of 400 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Hap and Leonard novella. Supplements a trade copy. Bought for $18, marked down from $45.
Lansdale, Joe R. Honky Tonk Samurai. Gauntlet Press, 2017. First limited edition hardback, #60 of 500 signed, numbered copies. Supplements the Mulholland Books trade edition (which precedes). Bought for $24, marked down from $60.
Lansdale, Joe R, editor. The Horror Hall of Fame. Cemetery Dance, 2011. First edition hardback, one of 550 signed (by Lansdale) copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Bought for $26, marked down from $65.
Lansdale, Joe R., editor. The Horror Hall of Fame. Cemetery Dance, 2011. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Trade edition. Bought for $14, marked down from $35.
Lansdale, Joe R, editor. Retro Pulp Tales. Subterranean Press, 2006. First edition hardback, 129 of 250 numbered copies signed by all the contributors, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine slipcase. Supplements a trade edition copy. Bought for $26, marked down from $65.
Finally, another Lansdale title came in during the same timeframe direct from the publisher:
Lansdale, Joe R, editor. Cosmic Interruptions. Short Scary Tales (SST) Publications, 2018. First edition hardback, #105 of 550 signed, numbered hardbacks, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. New short story collection from this UK publisher, weighing in at a hefty 528 pages. Also have copies for sale through Lame Excuse Books.
These were all books I picked up at various Houston Half Price Books stores the day after Thanksgiving. Those without prices were bought at half cover price.
Chabon, Michael. Moonglow. Harper, 2016. First edition hardback, one of an unstated number of signed limited copies sold by Powell’s Books, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket in a special slipcase, with a non-fiction Moonglow chapbook containing “The Box,” “The Facts,” and “The Interview” (Near Fine, with slight creasing) laid in. #63 in the Powells’ “Indiespensible” series, special signed editions sent out to book club members with various extras. Bought for $25.
Crais, Robert. The Wanted. Putnam, 2017. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Crais. I was looking through the discounted section of a Half Price Books, saw that this was a nice copy, thought to myself “I wonder if it’s signed,” picked it up, and it was. Hence George Locke’s dictum: “Don’t look for books, look at books.” Mystery novel. Bought for $3.00.
Duncan, Andy and Ellen Klages. Wakulla Springs. Tor, 2015. First edition hardback (evidently a reprint of an electronic version), a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, presumably as issued. Weird trim factor, being a small format hardback sightly smaller than a paperback. Bought for $4.99.
Howard, Robert E. Trails in Darkness. Baen, 1996. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with slight edgewear to top front cover and slight foxing to inside covers. Volume VII in the Robert E. Howard library.
Howard, Robert E. Beyond the Borders. Baen, 1996. First edition paperback original, a Fine copy. Volume VI in the Robert E. Howard library.
Kuttner, Henry (& C. L. Moore). Clash By Night. Hamlyn, 1980. First edition paperback original, a Very Good copy with a a long crease across the front cover. Short story collection. Kuttner’s name alone appears on the cover, but the title page also has C.L. Moore’s name, and all the stories are collaborations between the two.
Sammon, Paul M., editor. Splatterpunks: Extreme Horror. St. Martin’s Press, 1990. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight edgewear at head, heel and points. Signed by contributors Joe R. Lansdale, Ed Bryant, Nancy Collins and Chas. Balun. I had a copy of this (and I’m cited as an expert in here), but I didn’t get Ed Bryant to sign my copy, so this was a nice find. Bought for $12.49.
Since the Joel era already did Cave Dwellers, does that make ATOR the first movie they’re riffed twice? Edited to add: People on Facebook are telling me that Cave Dwellers is actually the second Ator movie, not the first.
Jonah should go on Conan, promise to show a clip from them riffing Atlantic Rim…and then it be a clip of them riffing the wheelchair falling scene from Mac and Me…
This is not a library addition, but rather describing a book I’ve owned since 1989. With all the attention paid the new Netflix series of the same name, I thought I would put up a post on my own first edition of the book.
Jackson, Shirley. The Haunting of Hill House. Viking, 1959. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with slight bumping at head and heel in a Very Good dust jacket with shallow chipping and wear at head, heel and points, slight cracking along folds, and slight dust staining to white rear cover, but otherwise intact. Arguably the most important horror novel of the 20th century. Bleiler, Supernatural Horror in Literature, 1766 (in the Supplemental Section on page 547). Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, page 121. Barron, Horror Literature, 4-155. Tymn, Horror Literature, 4-119. Magill, Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature, pages 710-714. Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction Writers Volume I, page 483. St. James Guide to Horror Writers, page 292. Basis of the the classic 1963 film The Haunting, the not-at-all classic 1999 remake of same, and the 2018 Netflix miniseries. Bought for $45 at the 1989 Boston Worldcon, the first book for which I ever paid more than $35.
I picked up two Centipede Press books, one off eBay and the other direct from the publisher:
Smith, Clark Ashton. In the Realms of Mystery and Wonder: Collected Prose Poems and Artwork of Clark Ashton Smith. Centipede Press, 2017. First edition hardback, #36 of 300 signed (by editor Scott Conners) and numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine slipcase. This actually sold out before I could pick it up, but I ended up buying this copy off eBay for $110.06, which is less than half the $225 offering price.
Wilson, Richard (John Pelan, editor). Masters of Science Fiction: Richard Wilson. Centipede Press, 2018. First edition hardback, #350 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, new and unread, still in shrinkwrap. A hefty 700 page short story collection from the Nebula-winning author of “Mother Goddess of the World.” Bought from the publisher at the usual dealer discount, and I’ll have a copy available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
