Three more books from the Subterranean Press PC sale. All these were long sold out from the publisher. As with Blood’s A Rover, Subterranean has provided plastic bags for both the traycase and the book inside the traycase for all of these.
All in all, these are a little plain compared to all the other items I’ve cataloged from the sale…
Another book from the Subterranean Press PC sale:
Gaiman, Neil. Smoke & Mirrors. Subterranean Press, 2014. First edition hardback thus, a PC copy of 500 numbered copies signed by Gaiman and illustrator Dave McKean. Preceded by both the Dreamhaven Angels and Visitations in 1993 and the Avon Smoke and Mirrors from 1998 (both of which I have). Includes new art by McKean. Sold out quickly the year of publication. Bought for $250 (the offering price).
Subterranean Press had one of their PC sales, where Publisher Copies of limited and lettered editions of their books (most long out of print) are offered up for sale during a brief window of time. I ended up buying a ridiculous amount of limited and lettered editions. I’ll be listing them here over the next week or so. Here’s the first:
Martin, George R. R. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Subterranean Press, 2016. First signed limited edition hardback, a Fine PC copy of 52 leatherbound lettered copies signed by Martin and illustrator Gary Gianni, in a Fine traycase, sans dust jacket, as issued. An elaborate production, with full color fold-out frontispiece artwork and inserted card-stock separator, and a high quality embossed leather binding. Long out of print from the publisher. (In fact, I’m not even sure they ever offered the lettered edition in their email newsletter.) Bought for $600, a substantial discount from the original $750 offering price.
If these seems like a rerun to you it’s because I bought another copy two years ago. However, this copy has a dust jacket:
Moore, Ward. Breathe the Air Again. Harper & Brothers, 1942. First edition hardback (stated), a Near Fine copy with dust staining at top and bottom page blocks and slight bend at head and heel in a Near Fine, price-clipped dust jacket with price stamp of “2.95” next to clip, slight grubbiness (most noticeable to back rear cover), plus shallow closed tears at head and heel; despite that, it’s a bright, vibrant example of a dust jacket for which I can find no other scan on the Internet. Interestingly, this copy has a different binding, and even appears to be a different trim size, than my other copy. I now believe my earlier copy is not only a library rebind, but one for which the page blocks were trimmed as part of the rebinding process. Reportedly a Picaresque mainstream novel of labor organizing. Bought off an Internet dealer for $265.50.
Current copy on the left, older copy on the right
Larry Niven falls into a sort of weird valley in my collecting history. I read a great deal of Niven in my youth and liked his work, but thought for novels he was better when he collaborated with Jerry Pournelle. By the time I started collecting first editions in the mid-1980s, his print runs had gotten pretty big, and I was more focused on collecting cyberpunk authors. Later, I started going back collecting writers from the Golden Age through the New Wave, Heinlein, Kuttner, Moore, Vance, Zelazny, Dick, etc. While I collected some of the Niven highpoints (such as the Gollancz Ringworld) and other works as targets of opportunity, I never made a particular effort to collect hardback firsts of his early works. (I’ll need to add that to my revised Books Wanted list, currently in progress.) When I picked up Burning City and Burning Tower, I saw that it was set in The Magic Goes Away universe, which I haven’t read and didn’t own. (I did pick up a TPO first of related book More Magic! for something like $2 way back when.) I’d had the impression it was a TPO only, but in fact there was a 1/1000 signed, numbered hardback published by Ace (which was not typically known for doing such editions), so I picked up a copy of that.
Niven, Larry. The Magic Goes Away. Ace, 1978. First edition hardback, #243 of 1000 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed and hand numbered (it looks like by Niven himself) on the front free endpaper. Bought off the Internet for $38.25
Another signed Ray Bradbury first, this one a lettered edition:
Bradbury, Ray. The Dragon Who Ate His Tail. Gauntlet Publications (they’re generally known as Gauntlet Press, but it says Gauntlet Publications on the copyright page), 2007. First edition hardback, a PC copy of 26 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy with pasted frontispiece in a Fine slipcase, sans dust jacket, as issued. Miscellany of short stories, a radio play, a fascimile typescript, Bradbury doodle art, etc. Bought from an Austin book dealer for $120.
This lettered edition seems absent from most reference sources, including the ISFDB.
Picked up another signed Ballard first:
Did you know that Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Michael Didra published a book on Arthur Conan Doyle? Neither did I until I saw a signed first available from The Mysterious Bookshop for cover price.
Dirda, Michael. On Conan Doyle. Princeton University Press, 2012. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with publisher’s information card laid in. Critical book on Arthur Conan Doyle, covering both Sherlock Holmes and his other works. Bought at a dealer discount.
Dirda is an astute literary critic who also covers science, and I’m passingly acquainted with him. (He’s also bought the occasional book from me.)
A new book from Subterranean Press and a trade first I just never managed to pick up.
I picked up two signed hardback graphic novels on eBay:
