Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Tuesday, May 25th, 2021
My long-term goal of obtaining a complete Arkham House collection gains another important volume:
Derleth, August. 100 Books by August Derleth. Arkham House, 1962. First edition hardback, one of only 200 hardback copies, a Near Fine- copy with wear at head, heel and points (and a few traces elsewhere) on the decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Inscribed by Derleth: “Best wishes,/August Derleth.” Bibliography. Simultaneous with a much larger paperback run. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House, 65. Jaffery, Horrors and Unpleasantries, 67. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 69. Derleth, Thirty Years of Arkham House, 65. Currey, page 155. Tymn Schlobin Currey, A Research Guide to Science Fiction Studies, 247. Chalker Owings, The Science-Fantasy Publishers, page 32 (which notes this was actually published in 1963). Bought off Biblio for $360.
Tags:Arkham House, August Derleth, bibliography, Books, Horror, signatures, small press publishers
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Thursday, May 20th, 2021
Here’s a Jack Vance limited edition that I’ve been looking to pick up for quite a while:
Vance, Jack. Cugel’s Saga. Underwood Miller, 1983. First limited edition hardback, a presentation copy of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine- copy with slight crimping at head, in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with some age darkening to the spine and touches of wear at head, heel and points, in a Fine- slipcase with a few traces of wear. Sequel to Eyes of the Overworld. Hewett A71b, which notes the slipcase was actually issued later than the book itself. Cunningham 19b, which notes that there were 50 PC copies. Bought off eBay for $202.50, which is about half of what normal copies usually go for, much less a presentation copy with the slipcase.
Tags:Books, Fantasy, Jack Vance, Science Fiction, small press publishers, Underwood/Miller
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Tuesday, May 18th, 2021
Two more signed Ellison firsts to replace unsigned copies.
Ellison, Harlan. Edgeworks 1: Over the Edge/An Edge in My Voice. White Wolf, 1996. First edition hardback thus (and first hardback edition of Over the Edge), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Ellison.
Ellison, Harlan. Edgeworks 2: Spider Kiss/Stalking the Nightmare. White Wolf, 1996. First edition hardback thus, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Ellison.
Tags:Books, Fantasy, Harlan Ellison, Horror, Science Fiction
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Thursday, May 13th, 2021
Another book in my quest to get a signed copy of every Ray Bradbury-related book:
(Bradbury, Ray) Nolan, William F. The Ray Bradbury Companion. Gale Research, 1975. First edition hardback (no statement of printing as per Currey), a Fine copy in a sound, Very Good slipcase from which numerous small (tackhead sized and smaller) pieces of the affixed wrap-around paper label have chipped away, plus a few other touches of dust and wear, sans dust jacket, as issued, signed by Bradbury on page 37. Critical companion on Bradbury’s work. Currey, page 59. Tymn, Schlobin, Currey, 221. Bought off eBay for $59.
Tags:Books, Ray Bradbury, reference works, Science Fiction, William F. Nolan
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Tuesday, May 11th, 2021
Here’s one of those books I heard good things about in my youth but never actually read:
Anderson, Poul. Flandry of Terra. Chilton, 1965. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with bumping at head and bumping and slight rubbing at heel, in a Fine- dust jacket with slight wrinkling at head and heel and a touch of rubbing, signed by Anderson. Currey, page 10. Anatomy of Wonder 4, 3-7. Bought off eBay for $22.50.
Tags:Books, Poul Anderson, Science Fiction, signatures
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Monday, May 3rd, 2021
Two more Borderlands Little Books:
(King, Stephen, and Peter Straub) Chizmar, Richard, and Johnathon Schaech. A Little Silver Book: A Screenplay Borderland Press, 2021. First edition hardback, #498 of 1,000 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. A screenplay based on Stephen King and Peter Straub’s Black House. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount.
Wagner, Karl Edward. A Little Ochre Book of Occult Stories. Borderlands Press, 2016. First edition hardback, #165 of 500 numbered copies signed by editor Stephen Jones. Short story collection. Bought for $30 off eBay.
Tags:Books, Borderlands Press, Fantasy, Horror, Karl Edward Wagner, Peter Straub, Richard Chizmar, small press publishers, Stephen King
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Thursday, April 29th, 2021
Here’s an item I picked up a while back that I’ve only just gotten around to blogging about:
(Moorcock, Michael) Cawthorn, James. The Stormbringer Sessions. Jayde Designs/Savoy Books, 2021. First edition hardback, an oversized graphic novel format. #30 of 100 numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine slipcase, with a sheet replicating the cover art laid in. A graphic novel reprinting Cawthorn’s rough sketches for Michael Moorcock’s Elric: The Book of Stormbringer, a much more complete and elaborate graphic novel adaptation of the concluding Elric book than the version published by Savoy Books in 1976. At £100 plus transatlantic shipping, it’s a pricey item, but with such a small limitation (with only an additional 100 trade copies) for a Moorcock item, I thought it was better to snap it up when I could (and indeed, all copies are now sold out).
The scan chops off the very bottom of the cover, because that was all that would fit on my scanner.
The slipcase is embossed with a red foil version of Moorcock’s eight-arrowed chaos symbol:
Tags:Books, James Cawthorn, Jayde Design, Limited Editions, Michael Moorcock
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Wednesday, April 28th, 2021
Picked up another signed Sturgeon first:
Sturgeon, Theodore. Without Sorcery. Prime Press, 1948. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with slight bumping at head, heel and points and a tickmark and circled “A+” next to “Maturity” on the title page, in a Very Good+ dust jacket with edgewear and crinkling at head, heel and points, rubbing along edges one thin streak of discoloration to spine (not affecting any text), slight haze rubbing to front cover, and age darkening and dust staining to white rear cover, signed by Sturgeon. Sturgeon’s first short story collection (and first “real” book). Diskin, Theodore Sturgeon: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography, A54. Currey, page 473 (state B, trade issue). Chalker/Owings, page 352. Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 129. Bleiler, Checklist (1978), page 189 (not in the 1948 edition). Locke, Anatomy of Wonder, page 208. Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 4, 3-173. Bought for $50 off eBay.
Tags:Books, Prime Press, Science Fiction, signatures, Theodore Sturgeon
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Thursday, April 22nd, 2021
Some nine years ago, I published this post on Andrew Ferguson’s NYRSF piece on unpublished R. A. Lafferty works. These included:
Loup Garou, a werewolf mystery
Civil Blood, an anti-communist novel
Antonio Vescovo, a very early novel described as “a cross between Rabelais and The Lives of the Saints”
Dark Shine, about gifted children and an evil protagonist, and
When All the World Was Young, a plague novel in which everyone over the age of 10 is killed.
I also knew about the unpublished “In a Green Tree” novels:
Grasshoppers and Wild Honey 1928-1942 (first two chapters published, the rest unpublished)
Deep Scars of the Thunder 1942-1960
Incidents of Travel in Flatland 1960-1978
(A project fifth volume, In the Akrokeraunian Mountains 1978-1990, was evidently started but never completed.)
I was also aware of the third and fourth volumes in the Coscuin Chronicles series:
Sardinian Summer
First and Last Island
However, this wiki (evidently created by Ferguson) includes still more novels I haven’t heard about before:
Esteban, “a historical novel tracking the life and travels of the African slave who was the first ‘white’ (i.e., non-Native) man to enter much of what would become the southwestern United States”
Fair Hills of Ocean, Oh!, “About a dolphin who is a quadruple-agent spy and the invasion of dry land by the king of the oceans.”
Iron Tongue of Midnight (I know nothing about, except it shares the same title as a 1988 Lafferty poem)
Mantis (evidently a mystery novel)
Not listed there, and only listed on a couple of dubious webpages, so I have my doubts as to whether it actually exists, is The Giant Ratchet of Sumatra (with Sharon Scott). There is a reference to a first chapter manuscript in the University of Tulsa archives, but I see no sign that it had ever been completed.
Excluding the dubious and unfinished, by my count that’s fourteen unpublished Lafferty novels…
Tags:Andrew Ferguson, Books, Fantasy, R. A. Lafferty, Science Fiction, unpublished works
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Tuesday, March 30th, 2021
The Carriger is the last book from the Subterranean PC sale, while the Hand and Smith are normal Lame Excuse Books stock purchases:
Carriger, Gail (pen name for Tofa Borregaard). Fan Service. Subterranean Press, 2019. First edition hardback, a PC copy of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. “Collected Supernatural Society Books.”
Hand, Elizabeth (edited by Bill Sheehan). The Best of Elizabeth Hand. Subterranean Press, 2021. First edition hardback, #225 of 1000 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
Smith, Michael Marshall. The Best of Michael Marshall Smith. Subterranean Press, 2021. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Trade edition.
Tags:Books, Elizabeth Hand, Fantasy, Gail Carriger, Michael Marshall Smith, Science Fiction, Subterranean Press
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