My story “Novel Properties of Certain Complex Alkaloids” will be appearing in the Rayguns Over Texas anthology edited by Rick Klaw that’s to be published for LonestarCon 3, the 2013 San Antonio Worldcon. It’s sort of a Greg Egan story by way of Timothy Leary and H. P. Lovecraft…
Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Sold a Story to Rayguns Over Texas
Saturday, December 29th, 2012Galadriel As You’ve Never Seen Her Him Before
Wednesday, December 19th, 2012
Earlier this year, science fiction writer and North Carolina State University professor John Kessel declared that “I know the world does not care, but nobody could pay me enough money to go see The Hobbit. Well, maybe someone could, but nobody is going to.”
The Internet knows how to respond to such statements.
Soon a fundraiser for the SFWA Emergency Medical fund was launched, with various levels of funding support:
$250 — Prof. Kessel goes to see The Hobbit (the upcoming Peter Jackson version, in a movie theater before the end of the year, no cop-out home screenings of the Bass-Rankin animated classic)
$750 — Prof. Kessel will either before or after the film eat Denny’s The Hobbit-themed Ring Burger
$1000 — Prof. Kessel will dress as Gandalf when watching the film
$2500 — Prof. Kessel will dress as Galadriel when watching the film
And the result?
Well, feast your eyes:
The last picture is with John’s “Hobbit escort” Kate Maddalena, who took these pictures.
Click any picture to embiggen and more fully display all of John Kessel as Galadriel’s, um, glory.
If you’re impressed by this outstanding display of selflessness (or else you have a fetish for really tall, butch trannies), you too can donate to the SFWA Medical Fund.
You might also pick up one of John’s swell books, like Good News From Outer Space, Corrupting Dr. Nice, or his short story collection The Pure Product.
(And thanks to John and Kate Maddalena for permission to use these photos.)
Finally! Gene Wolfe Named Grandmaster!
Thursday, December 13th, 2012In a well-earned and long-overdue honor, SFWA has finally named Gene Wolfe a Nebula Grandmaster.
Congratulations to Gene for a lifetime of great work, and to SFWA for getting this one right.
(Hat tip: SF Signal.)
A Book Collector More Obsessive Than I
Monday, December 10th, 2012Poking around the Internet, I came across this description of the personal collection of American librarian Paula Peyraud, who assembled a vast and impressive collection of books, letters, and art for the Georgian period (1760–1820), including important work by Samuel Johnson, Jane Austen, and hundreds of less famous figures.
A more complete description of her collection can be found in this PDF, and if you’re interested in books and collecting it’s well worth a read. Though not my collecting vector, the collection Peyraud was amazing not only in quality (though she favored extensively hand-annotated works by contemporary figures over pristine copies), but also in the sheer vastness of her holdings. “By the time of Peyraud’s sad death in 2008, the complete collection ran to approximately half a million printed books.” Having assembled a bit over 1% of that number, the sheer size of her library (which she kept, meticulously cataloged, in a subterranean book gallery at the big family home she inherited) is stunning. I’m also tickled by the idea of an American librarian outbidding a Viscountess for a choice item.
Book Acquisition: Charnel House Edition of Tim Powers Hide Me Among the Graves
Tuesday, November 13th, 2012Powers, Tim. Hide Me Among the Graves. Charnel House, 2012. First limited edition, one of 124 signed, numbered copies in mica-flecked boards, a Fine copy, sans dj, as issued. The usual oversized, elaborate Charnel House production, ordered pre-publication.
Note: I have an additional copy I’ll be selling through Lame Excuse Books. Drop me a line if you’re interested. Sold
Book Acquisition: Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow
Wednesday, November 7th, 2012Nineteen times out of twenty, when you put in a lowball “what the hell” bid at an auction, you don’t win. You keep doing it because of that twentieth time.
This was one of those twentieth times.
Robert W. Chambers. The King In Yellow. F. Tennyson Neely (as part of their Neely’s Prismatic Library series), 1895. First edition, first printing of green cloth with brown lettering, with lizard design on cover and review of In the Quarter at rear. Rubbing and soiling to cloth with front hinge cracked, top front corner and bottom rear binding soft, and lacking front free endpaper. The auction description said fair, but save the front free endpaper, the book looks intact, so I would grade this Good only. Jones & Newman, Horror: 100 Best Books, item 19 (appreciation by H. P. Lovecraft). Beliler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, item 364. Bleiler, The Checklist of Science Fiction and Supernatural Fiction (1978), page 41. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, page 49. Barron, Horror Literature, item 2-12.
Short story collection, roughly half of which are weird tales, most of which reference the play The King in Yellow, which drives people mad. (If memory serves, those stories also count as science fiction, being set in a future dictatorship.) One of the most important supernatural works of the late 19th century, and a huge influence on H.P. Lovecraft, who incorporated elements from it into the Cthulhu Mythos.
Bought for just over $60 (including buyer’s premium and shipping) at auction. Earlier than the period I usual collect for, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to pick up a keystone work (even a considerably less than perfect copy) at a bargain price.
Book Signature Faker Allan Formhals Found Guilty
Saturday, October 27th, 2012An antiques dealer accused of selling books signed with fake signatures of famous figures on eBay has been found guilty of some of the charges he faced.
Allan Formhals, 66, of Milford on Sea in Hampshire, was found guilty of eight counts of fraud and two of possessing articles for the use in fraud.
He was cleared of two counts of fraud and the jury was unable to reach a verdict on three further counts.
Book Auction Watch: Graham Greene’s Inscribed First Edition of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012Bloomsbury Auctions is offering up several notable modern first editions on Thursday, October 25th. Among the items offered: Graham Greene’s inscribed first edition of Lord of the Flies. That’s not quite in the same league as Lord Byron’s inscribed copy of Frankenstein, but it’s still an impressive association copy.
There are a few other SF/F/H first editions of note: A nice set of J. R. R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings (all first printings, but the last a 3rd state book and 2nd state dust jacket), a signed first of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, Richard Adams’ Watership Down, Robert Bloch’s Psycho, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (not stated, but Currey D binding) and Dark Carnival, an inscribed copy of Roald Dahl’s first book The Gremlins, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Stephen King’s Carrie (signed), and several other King books, George Orwell’s Animal Farm and both cover variants of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the UK first of John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids (the U.S. Doubleday edition actually precedes) and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Other notable first editions include Samuel Beckett’s first published work, Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, Agatha Christie’s most famous novel (in its original, politically incorrect title), F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Ian Fleming’s Casino Royal (as well as the rare first-state binding of The Man With the Golden Gun, plus Hemingway’s first two books, and bunches more.
Forged Book Signatures in the UK?
Tuesday, October 16th, 2012One problem book collectors face in assembling a collection is the possibility that some books sold as signed by the author actually have forged signatures. (This is why I won’t buy a book with a Philip K. Dick or Robert Heinlein signature unless it’s a dealer I trust or has some sort of providence.) Because such fraud is hard to prove, and the average amount lost to any single book signature fraud is probably well south of $2,000, I imagine the crime ranks only slightly higher for police fraud squads than busting counterfeit Pog rings, and such fraud is seldom prosecuted.
But “seldom” doesn’t mean “never.” In England, book dealer Allan Formhals has gone on trial for 15 counts of fraud, “accused of selling books on eBay signed with fake autographs of public figures including Winston Churchill, Robert Louis Stevenson and Pablo Picasso…Police also found the forged signatures of JRR Tolkien, Oliver Cromwell, Elizabeth I and Marie Antoinette at Mr Formhal’s home, the court was told.”
This is why you should be suspicious of anyone who promotes “flatsigned” books (i.e., only a signature and no inscription) as being superior, since such signatures are easier to forge. “The longer the author inscription the better” has been the usual tradition in bookselling, and I see no reason to abandon it now.
But at least science fiction collectors should take heart that it could be worse, as fake signatures are a much greater problem in the realm of sports memorabilia, where such fraud is a constant problem.
The Formhals trial is still ongoing.
Lawrence Person’s Library: Reference Books (Part 5: Magill’s Sets)
Sunday, September 30th, 2012Back when I edited Nova Express, I tried to pick up all the important SF reference works I could afford that I could lay my hands on. Among those were two extensive Magill’s references sets: Survey of Science Fiction Literature and Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature. Each covers hundreds of key works, alphabetized by title, providing title, author, year of publication, type (novel, etc.), time, setting, key characters, a summary of the book that touches in some measure on its major themes, and a short secondary bibliography. Several notable science fiction writers, editors and critics contributed entries, including Brian Aldiss, John Clute, David Pringle, Brian Stableford and Jack Williamson.
In some ways, the material in these books have been superseded by the aggregate knowledge contained in the Internet. But it’s still a useful reference source. If i want to know, say, what Harry E. Martinson’s Aniara is about, I can read the short entry here rather than the entire book-length poem and be reasonably sure that it’s accurate.
I kept my eyes out for those sets, and picked them up off eBay when affordable copies appeared. I also picked up two more Magill’s sets at a library sale dirt cheap (I think $10 for each set) and those are on the same top shelf.
On the end of the row in the picture is an Ex-Library copy of the first edition of Neil Barron’s Anatomy of Wonder.
There are two other Magill SF/F reference sets I don’t own: Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature from 1996, which culls and condenses the two five volume sets down to a single four volume set, and Classics of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature from 2002, which condenses them down still further into a two volume set with still more additional material, including my own entry on Patrick O’Leary’s Door Number Three. I believe that Classics of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature is the only thing I’m in for which I lack a contributor’s copy.
In Anatomy of Wonder 4, Neil Barron calls Survey of Science Fiction Literature “an essential tool, although its price will limit it to larger libraries.” Well, I guess mine qualifies…