Two signed Bloch firsts, picked up from different sources:
Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Library Additions: Two Signed Robert Bloch Firsts
Thursday, December 9th, 2021Library Additions: Three Signed Orson Scott Card Alvin Maker Firsts
Wednesday, December 8th, 2021Orson Scott Card is a writer I lost interest in collecting after reading Xenocide (sucks) and Prentice Alvin (not great). But I chanced across these quite cheap on eBay and picked them up.
All bought for $5 a book, so effectively 1/5th cover price for the later volumes. Heartfire I didn’t have (the romance novel title and cover were additionally off-putting), while Alvin Journeyman and Prentice Alvin replace unsigned copies. I already had copies of Seventh Son and Red Prophet inscribed to me by Card at Sercon 2 in Austin in 1988, so I’ll have signed copies of those two (part of the same lot) available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Card fell out of favor not only with myself, but with other SF readers, some for reasons related to the quality of his writing (see above), some for the fact that he was just putting out too many books in too many series to keep track of (I never read the Homecoming series, but a friend that did was not enthused), and some for political reasons extrinsic to the quality of his work (people who demand fealty to “social justice” seem quite intolerant of Mormonism).
I picked up a good bit of Card’s early hardback firsts before I stopped reading him, and I’ve heard good things about Hart’s Hope, so I may try to read that next year.
Library Additions: Several Roger Zelazny Paperbacks, Most Signed
Monday, December 6th, 2021These were all more books from that final Bob Pylant Zelazny purchase in 2019. I checked the Zelazny paperbacks against the ones I already had and determined that, yes, indeed, there were volumes I wanted to add to my own library. Most are PBOs and almost all are signed. All of these supplement signed hardback firsts, etc.
Library Additions: Three Signed Ray Bradbury Firsts
Thursday, December 2nd, 2021Three more additions to my mad quest to collect signed firsts of every Ray Bradbury book.
(I think that’s a stray dog hair in the upper left…)
Library Addition: Joe R. Lansdale’s Apache Witch
Wednesday, December 1st, 2021Another Lansdale limited edition:
Lansdale, Joe R. Apache Witch. Independent Legions/The Last Bookstore, 2021. First edition hardback, #33 of 180 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Poetry collection (Lansdale’s first). Bought directly from the publisher. I will have copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Library Addition: Lettered Edition of Joe R. Lansdale’s The Horror Hall of Fame
Tuesday, November 30th, 2021Another Lansdale lettered edition picked up cheap-ish:
Lansdale, Joe R., editor. The Horror Hall of Fame: The Stoker Winners. Cemetery Dance, 2021. First edition hardback, #WW of 52 signed (by Lansdale), lettered, traycased copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine traycase. Anthology of Stoker Award winning stories from Robert Bloch, George R. R. Martin, Harlan Ellison, etc. Isajenko, World Lasdalean, D13aiii. Supplements trade and limited edition copies. Bought off eBay for $125 plus shipping.
Library Addition: Two Signed Lansdale Firsts
Monday, November 29th, 2021Picked up from Armadillocon last month.
Lansdale, Joe R. Cold in July with Savage Season. Mark V. Ziesing, 1989/1990. First hardback edition and first edition hardbacks, Fine- (Cold in July)/Near Fine+ (Savage Season) with faint spotting at head, heel and on pageblock, in Fine dust wrappers, and a Fine- slipcase with a touch of wear, each inscribed to late Texas writer Carrier Richerson. While these are the trade hardbacks, one thing Ziesing did for this and the Waldrop set was offer the trade editions in overrun slipcases (something to check for if you’re buying a set). Supplements a PC limited set I got for helping transcribe Cold in July for Ziesing. Isajenko, World Lansdelean A011b and A013a. Bought at Armadillocon for $32.
The blotching on Cold in July is just dust jacket protector reflections.
Library Addition: Signed First of Harlan Ellison’s Jokes Without Punchlines
Monday, November 22nd, 2021Here’s a verging-on-obscure Ellison item: A chapbook given out as a promotional item at a bookseller’s convention in 1995.
Ellison, Harlan. Jokes Without Punchlines. White Wolf, 1995. First edition perfect-bound chapbook original, a Fine copy, signed by Ellison on the rear cover. A promotional item for the 1995 American Booksellers Association Show in Chicago, released on June 3, 1995, to promote White Wolf’s Edgeworks line of Ellison hardback reprints. They were supposed to reprint all of Ellison’s books in a uniform edition, but only put out four volumes before they pissed off Ellison so badly that he refused to work with them any more. (Sound familiar?) The introduction in which he talks about how much he hates Chicago has apparently never been reprinted. Fingerprints on the Sky, XIII, page 121. Bought off eBay for $40.
Library Addition: Two SST Joe R. Lansdale Limiteds
Thursday, November 18th, 2021Two more SST Lansdale limiteds came out a while back, and I’m just now getting around to listing them.
I will have copies of both these available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Library Addition: Tiger! The Tiger Tank: A British View
Thursday, November 11th, 2021Every now and then, I do buy books that aren’t science fiction, fantasy or horror-related. In this case, I became aware (possibly from one of their YouTube videos) that the British Tank Museum in Bovington (which I visited in 2014) was doing a new book on the Tiger tank, and went “Yes, I do want that!”
Fletcher, David, editor. Tiger! The Tiger Tank: A British View. The Tank Museum, 2021. First revised edition hardback, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. A considerably revised edition of a book first published in 1986, featuring extensive British intelligence documentation and analysis gathered on captured Tiger 131 (still, I think, the only fully running, intact, surviving Tiger 1 from World War II, and the Tiger seen in Fury). The paperback version of this book is available through the Tank Museum, but this hardback was done as a Kickstarter-like deal through them, and my name can be found on page 255. Bought for £32.94, including transatlantic shipping.
