Here’s a fairly recent Moorcock rarity that had an insanely small print run.
Moorcock, Michael (edited by John Davey). Into The Media Web: Selected short non-fiction, 1956-2006. Savoy Books, 2010. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight bumping at head and heel in a Near Fine dust jacket with slight grubbiness, slight creasing at top front cover and a 1/8″ closed tear at top front fold, and slight bumping at heel. Inscribed by Moorcock to fellow writer (and New World contributor) John Baxter: “To John,/Some embarrassments/some bullshit and maybe/a little bit/of truth./All very/best, as/ever yours/Mike,” plus a signature dated “18th July ’10.” 300,000+ word, 717 page collection of non-fiction, including essays, reviews, etc. covering books, film, music, etc. (Here’s a post on the book’s design.) Reportedly had a hardback print run of less than 100 copies, though I haven’t nailed down exactly how many. Bought for £140 plus shipping.
You may remember that I also ended up with John Baxter’s copy of George Locke’s Voyages Into Space.
Tags: Books, Fantasy, John Baxter, Michael Moorcock, Movies, Music, Savoy Books, Science Fiction
I would have given you one rather than the odorous Baxter have your dosh! He did several interviews with me for his Ballard book, for which I helped him get a contract. The result was lazy, shallow, salacious and sensational and I felt betrayed. Martin Stone stopped having anything to do with him around the same time. I’m glad you got it relatively cheaply. I’ll re-sign it to you sometime!
Huh! Fair enough. I have the Baxter book on Ballard, but haven’t read it yet, and was unaware of the unfortunate quality. I assume the Deep Ends books are better?
I will say that Baxter seemed to have pretty good taste in what he collected.
Do you happen to remember what the print run for this hardback was?
There was a mess up at the printers. As I understand it they planned 200 hardbacks and a thousand trade paperbacks for the first printing but due to the mixup the hardbacks only were delivered. Dave Britton on a whim decided to keep it a rarity. God knows what it cost Savoy Mike Butterworth can be contacted via the Savoy website which contains a fair bit of info about their books, including The Exploits of Engelbrecht, Voyage to Arcturus and Monsieur Zenith, all of them outstanding productions. He probably remembers the exact story.
DEEP ENDS are pretty rigorous. David Pringle is the best researcher of Ballard I know and was closest to Ballard, too. I frequently trust his memory over my own.