I was recently able to pick up two rare Jack Vance first editions, one of them one of his most difficulty hardbacks, the other a recent chapbook not even my hardcore Jack Vance collecting friends had heard of.
Not in any standard online reference sources. I found it via a Google image search for “Jack Vance chapbooks”. I can’t help thinking that this is going to drive some Jack Vance completists absolutely bonkers.
Background
In The Wizard of Oz (the movie), protagonist Dorothy wakes up at the end and finds out her entire trip to Oz was just a dream.
In Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Merricat, the first-person protagonist, believes she can work a sort of sympathetic magic through wards and charms to keep the world at bay. When these charms are breached by an interloper, the outside world (and disaster) come crashing in. Also, one character believes Merricat is a ghost and never interacts with her, and by the end of the novel, several characters in the village she and her sister Constance live in have come to believe they are a witches.
Problem
Is either of these novels a fantasy, neither, or both? Explain your answer.
This will make up 10% of your grade.
Joe R. Lansdale is one of the many authors I collect, who’s a damn fine writer in addition to being a friend and mentor. But for more than two decades, one of Joe’s rarest hardbacks continued to elude me.
Until now.
Lansdale, Joe R. (writing as Ray Slater). Texas Night Riders. Chivers Press/Curley Publishing, 1991. First hardback edition (preceded by the 1983 Leisure Books paperback original), an ex-library copy with minimal markings (a stamp on front free endpaper), otherwise VG in decorated boards with bumping along extremities, sans dust jacket, as issued. Part of the Large Print Atlantic Western line. Hankow, A Checklist of Joe R. Lansdale, A3b.
Pseudonymous western novel, and Joe’s third published book. My understanding is that the overwhelming majority of all large print editions are sold to the library market. Easily the rarest Lansdale hardback, and possibly the second rarest Lansdale book behind Molly’s Sexual Follies (which I also have).
Since this is so bibliographically rare, I thought I would scan the back cover, title page, and copyright page for fellow Lansdale bibliophiles and librarians.
I’m going to have a review of John Dies at the End up over at Locus Online tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s the trailer:
The movie is based on David Wong’s novel of the same name, the protagonist of which is named David Wong. A sequel, This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It, is now out, and even has its own trailer:
The movie is only showing in a few theaters nationwide (including the Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter Lane in Austin), but it’s also available for video download through Amazon and elsewhere.
No particular theme, just a few books fellow science fiction bibliophiles might find of interest.
Any year is a good year to read Gene Wolfe, but it seems that right now we’re in a Gene Wolfe Year, or even a Gene Wolfe Sesquiennial, which started with his induction into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame and continued with him being named Nebula Grandmaster.
Then Michael Andre-Driussi (the author of Lexicon Urthus and other useful Wolfe critical works) published this:
And sent me a review copy, which I hope to get to shortly. I also have copies of Gate of Horn, Book of Silk for sale through Lame Excuse Books; just drop me a line if you want one.
And this just arrived in the mail:
That’s Shadows of the New Sun: Stories in Honor of Gene Wolfe, edited by Bill Fawcett and J.E. Mooney, which is due out in August. Complete contents here.
We’ll see if I can’t review both of those here in the coming months.
Ironically, I’m actually reading another Wolfe-related book with the same title right now: Peter Wright’s Shadows of the New Sun: Wolfe on Writing/Writers on Wolfe, which includes the interview I did with him for Nova Express. When I had lunch with him at the Chicago Worldcon, Gene said even he didn’t have a copy of the Wright book.
Hopefully Gene will be able to come to the San Antonio Worldcon. He said he was going to try to make it.
For a mere $3,000, the passport of H.P. Lovecraft’s ex-wife Sonia Haft Greene Lovecraft can be yours!
As a one-of-a-kind item, that’s actually cheaper than many of Lovecraft’s rarer books…
I managed to pick up three relatively uncommon Clark Ashton Smith items from Heritage Auction’s weekly book auction:
I’d long heard that Roy A. Squires’ small press chapbooks were very well made, and I finally was able to snag a couple of them at a reasonable price.
I bought the Cockcroft because, well, I’m slightly fanatical about collecting bibliographic material, but also because I was hoping it might have some things not in Emperor of Dreams, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. I really would like a better Smith bibliography, as Emperor of Dreams is perhaps the most confusingly organized bibliography I’ve ever seen.
Unlike a complete H. P. Lovecraft collection, a complete Clark Ashton Smith collection is probably within my means, but it’s a pretty long-term goal…
I just received word from Jessica Reisman:
Molly let me know that Steve passed last night at about 10:40 pm, eastern. His family was with him.
I’ll miss him.
As will we all.
Utley announced to his friends that he had been diagnosed with Type 4 cancer in his intestines, liver, and lungs, and a lesion on his brain on December 27, 2012. On January 7, he sent out an email saying that he was losing his motor skills and designated Jessica as his literary executor (and hopefully she’ll be able to get some of his swell stories back in print). On the morning of January 12 he slipped into a coma and died that night.
Jessica Reisman sent this out with permission to pass it on, so I’m putting it here:
Hi all,
I’m passing on this news somewhat piecemeal, but trying to let enough people know who I think would want to know. Please pass it on as you feel appropriate.
Steve was fairly recently diagnosed with stage four cancer and a lesion on his brain and it’s progressed quickly. I heard from Molly this morning that he’s fallen into a coma and the doctor estimates two days. His mother and brother and ex-wife Molly are there with him.
Very sorry to be the bearer of this news.
Jessica
Utley was one of the original Turkey City writers, along with Chad Oliver, Tom Reamy, Howard Waldrop, etc.
Between this and Jay Lake’s latest bout, it hasn’t been a good cancer year for SF writers…