Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Monday, April 18th, 2016
Another signed Ray Bradbury first, this one a collection of essays:
Bradbury, Ray. Yestermorrow. Joshua Odell Editions/Capra Press, 1991. First edition hardback (“First Edition” stated and numberline ending in 1), a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a tiny bit of dust jacket crimping at head and heel. Inscribed by Bradbury: “Matthew!/Ray Bradbury/ 4/30/94”. Bought off eBay for $20, which is 5¢ over cover price.
Tags:Books, Ray Bradbury, Science Fiction, signed
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Tuesday, April 5th, 2016
Bought another signed Ray Bradbury Christmas broadsheet:
Bradbury, Ray. Christmas Greetings 2008 (Imagine that you have been dead). Privately printed, 2008. First edition Christmas broadsheet, a Fine- copy with slight corner bumping. Signed by Bradbury. Bought for $25 off eBay.
Tags:Books, Ray Bradbury, Science Fiction, signed
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Thursday, March 17th, 2016
Multiple items of interest to the fanatical H.P. Lovecraft collector are coming up for auction soon:
A 31-page collaborative manuscript between Lovecraft and celebrated magician/escape artist Harry Houdini will come up for auction at Chicago’s Potter & Potter on April 9. It will start at an opening bid of $13,000, though the estimate is in the $25,000—$40,000 range. And it could go for a lot more, given that Houdini has his own fanatical collectors.
There are also numerous Lovecraft items, most from Stu Schiff’s collection, coming up at Heritage Auctions on April 6. Including:
Ten autographed letters from Lovecraft, totaling 46 pages, most of which remain unpublished. Bidding starts at $10,000.
An original typescript for Lovecraft’s story “The Festival”, with Lovecraft’s handwritten title page and hand-corrections. Bidding starts at $2,000.
A copy of the Visionary Publishing Shadow Over Innsmouth, with an errata sheet containing further hand-corrections by Lovecraft laid in. Current bid is $1000.
Donald Wandrei’s copy of The Outsider and Others, and probably the finest copy I’ve ever seen to boot. Current bid is $5,000.
They even have the passport of Sonia Haft Greene Lovecraft (to which he had a brief, unsuccessful marriage) which L. W. Currey offered up a while back. Current bid is $550.
If you’re a serious Lovecraft collector, April looks like it’s going to be quite expensive…
Tags:book auction, Books, Cthulhu, H. P. Lovecraft, Harry Houdini, Heritage Auctions, Horror
Posted in Books, Horror | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 15th, 2016
Picked up a few more items signed by Ray Bradbury:
Bradbury, Ray. A Christmas Wish 1988 (If Only We Had Taller Been). Privately printed, 1988. First edition Christmas broadsheet, a Fine copy. Inscribed by Bradbury: “For Rev. Gerald Watt, C.R./With fond good wishes/for/1989/Ray Bradbury.” Bought for $28 off eBay.
Bradbury, Ray. A Christmas Wish 1989 (The Bread of Beggars, The Wine of Christ). Privately printed, 1989. First edition Christmas broadsheet, a Fine copy. Inscribed by Bradbury: “For Rev. Watt. Thanks for Asking!/Love!/Ray/Bradbury/ 5/6/90.” Bought for $29 off eBay.
(Bradbury, Ray) Weist, Jerry. Bradbury: An Illustrated Life. William Morrow, 2002. First edition hardback (precedes the Donald M. Grant limited edition by two years), a Fine-/Fine- copy with very slight bumping at head and heel. Inscribed by Bradbury: “To all the/Grand Tubers;Ray Bradbury.” Oversized illustrated history of Bradbury’s work. Bought for $27.10 off eBay.
I now have three of the Bradbury Christmas broadsheets (which he sent to friends as Christmas gifts/cards), all signed.
Tags:Books, broadsheet, First Edition, poetry, Ray Bradbury, Science Fiction, signed
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Thursday, March 3rd, 2016
I bought a lot of Jack Vance books from an Australian book auction. I’ll be selling the rest of the books from the lot in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, but here are the two books from the lot that are going in my own library:
Vance, Jack. Cugal’s Saga. Timescape, 1983. First edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Third book in the Dying Earth series (or fourth, if you count Michael Shea’s A Quest for Simbilis). Hewett, A71. Preceded the Underwood/Miller limited edition by six months.
Vance, Jack. The Houses of Iszm. Underwood/Miller, 1983. First hardback edition, one of 482 trade copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Hewett, A12h.
Tags:Books, Dying Earth, First Edition, Jack Vance, Science Fiction, Underwood/Miller
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Friday, February 19th, 2016
“Harper Lee, whose first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, about racial injustice in a small Alabama town, sold more than 10 million copies and became one of the most beloved and most taught works of fiction ever written by an American, died on Friday in Monroeville, Ala., where she lived. She was 89.”
The list of credible candidates for the great American novel of the 20th century is a short one, and To Kill A Mockingbird is one of the top contenders. If you haven’t read it, make that the next book on your stack; it’s that good.
Tags:Books, Harper Lee, Obituary
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Wednesday, February 17th, 2016
A follow-up to yesterday’s post, here are the non-fiction books I bought in that Cold Tonnage £5 sale:
Adams, Douglas and John Lloyd. The Deeper Meaning of Liff. Pan Books, 1990. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Near Fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
Carr, Terry. Fandom Harvest. Laissez Faire Productions AB, 1986. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. According to Chalker/Owings (1991), page 538, only 250 hardbacks were done.
(Hitchcock, Alfred) Paul Condon and Jim Sangster. The Complete Hitchcock. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy.
(Lovecraft, H.P.) Eddy, Muriel, and C.M. Eddy, Jr. The Gentlemen from Angell Street: Memories of H. P. Lovecraft. Fenham Publishing, 2001. First edition trade paperback original thus, containing additional material not in the 1961 edition, a Fine copy.
Tymn, Marshall B. American Fantasy and Science Fiction: Toward a Bibliography of Works Published in the United States, 1949—1973. Fax Collector’s Editions, 1979. Paperback original, a Very Good+ copy with spine creasing and wear along the spine. Though Tymn authored or co-authored a number of important reference works, this, an attempt to update Bleiler’s Checklist with modern works, limited only to those published in hardback, is generally not numbered among them, as it was largely superseded by Currey and Reginald the same year of publication. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 178, are not kind: “Alas, it’s useless, one of the most worthless pieces of bibliography in the past 20 years or so.” There was a hardback, but Chalker/Ownings says it was just attaching a premade casing to the paperback. Not in Keith L. Justice’s Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Reference.
Wake, Paul, Steve Andrews and Ariel (yes, just “Ariel,” no last name; I can only assume it’s edited by the mermaid from that Disney movie). Waterstone’s Guide to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. Waterstone Guides, 1998. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. There are some good contributors in here (like John Clute), but the author entries are distributed somewhat randomly. Waterstone’s is a UK bookstore chain, and I imagine these are pretty common on the other side of the pond. Here? Not so much.
Tags:Alfred Hitchcock, Books, C.M. and Muriel E. Eddy, Cold Tonnage, H. P. Lovecraft, Movies, Science Fiction, science fiction bibliography, science fiction criticism, Terry Carr
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 16th, 2016
Cold Tonnage Books had a sale where all £10 books were £5, so I picked up a fair number. This post covers fiction titles.
Aylett, Steve. The Inflatable Volunteer. Phoenix House, 1999. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with a publicity postcard signed by Aylett laid in.
Aylett, Steve. Toxicology. Gollancz, 2002. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with a postcard laid in.
Blish, James. A Dusk of Idols and Other Stories. Severn House, 1996. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
Constantine, Storm. The Monstrous Regiment. Orbit, 1989. Trade paperback original, a Fine- copy with a touch of edgewear at head and heel, signed by Constantine.
Ellison, Harlan. Edgeworks 2: Spider Kiss/Stalking the Nightmare. White Wolf, 1996. First edition hardback omnibus thus, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. When the Edgeworks series first came out, I didn’t pick them up because I already had all the individual works they contained. But at £5 it’s worth picking up for title variant completeness…
Newman, Kim. Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles. Titan Books, 2011. Fine, signed by Newman.
Tags:Books, Cold Tonnage, First Edition, Harlan Ellison, James Blish, Kim Newman, Science Fiction, signed, Steve Aylett, Storm Constantine
Posted in Books, Science Fiction | 3 Comments »
Monday, February 15th, 2016
Only doing a separate blog post on this to illustrate a few points about bookselling and collecting.
Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code. Doubleday, 2003. First edition hardback (price of $24.95 on flap, “First Edition” and “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1” numberline on copyright page), a near Fine copy with owner blindstamp on front free endpaper, in a Fine- dust jacket with a small crease to bottom corner of front flap.
The multi-million bestseller. At one point people were getting big bucks for first printings. This copy? I bought it for $2 from the “Nostalgia Bargain” section of a Half Price Books.
Sic transit gloria mundi…
Tags:Books, Dan Brown, First Edition
Posted in Books | 3 Comments »
