Posts Tagged ‘small press publishers’

Library Additions: Two Davidson and Swanwick Chapbooks

Sunday, August 15th, 2021

Two chapbooks, one old one new:

  • Davidson, Avram. And Don’t Forget The One Red Rose. Dryed Press, 1986. First edition chapbook original, one of 185 copies in wraps, a Fine copy. Won off eBay for $13 plus shipping. Now I need to track down one of the 15 hardbacks…

  • Swanwick, Michael. Five Rings. Dragonstairs Press, 2021. First edition chapbook original, #5 of 32 copies, a Fine copy. Five vignettes on the Olympics, “Gold,” “Silver,” “Bronze,” “Last Place” and “Also There.” Sold out within minutes of being made available for sale. I will have copies available in the forthcoming Lame Excuse Books catalog (which I hope to send out Wednesday).

  • Library Additions: Hippocampus Press Trade Paperbacks

    Friday, August 13th, 2021

    Ordered a bunch of books from Hippocampus Press, some of which came out under the radar last year. All of these state “First Edition” but are essentially POD books, and all were bought at the usual discount.

  • Chambers, Robert W. (S. T. Joshi, editor). The Harbor-Master: Best Weird Stories of Robert W. Chambers. Hippocampus Press, 2021. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Includes some supernatural stories not in The King in Yellow.
  • (Howard, Robert E.) Charles Hoffman and Marc Cerasini. Robert E. Howard: A Closer Look. Hippocampus Press, 2020. First edition trade paperback original thus, a Fine copy. Critical companion on Howard’s work greatly expanded and revised from a 1987 Starmont Reader’s Guide edition.
  • Lovecraft, H.P. (S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, editors). Letters to Alfred Galpin and Others. Hippocampus Press, 2020. First edition trade paperback original thus, a Fine copy. “A new edition, augmented here with over 200 new pages of material.” Primarily letters Lovecraft wrote to his amateur press association correspondents.
  • Lovecraft, H.P. (S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, editors). Letters to E. Hoffman Price and Richard F. Searight. Hippocampus Press, 2020. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Hoffman was an acclaimed Weird Tales writer in his own right, and also friends with Robert E. Howard (who is a frequent topic in these letters). Searlight also had pieces appear in Weird Tales.
  • Lovecraft, H.P. (S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, editors). Letters to Family and Family Friends Volume 1 with Letters to Family and Family Friends Volume 2. Hippocampus Press, 2020. First edition trade paperback originals, both Fine copies. Over 1,000 pages of letters, with page numbers across both volumes, plus a Glossary, an Index, etc.
  • Lovecraft, H.P. (S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, editors). Letters to Rheinhart Kleiner and Others. Hippocampus Press, 2020. First edition trade paperback original thus, a Fine copy. “A new edition, augmented here with nearly 250 new pages of material.” Letters Lovecraft wrote to one of his oldest friends, having known Kleiner since 1915. Other correspondence includes letters to other amateur journalists and members of the New York City-based Kalem Club.
  • Shirley, John. A Sorcerer of Atlantis with A Prince in the Kingdom of Ghosts. Hippocampus Press, 2021. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Shirley doing weird adventure pulp! The first story features two adventurers in Atlantis battling bizarre monsters accompanied by a Princess of Mu. The second features a murdered Korean American who finds himself a prince in the afterlife. Looks like great fun.
  • Smith, Clark Ashton, and August Derleth. Eccentric, Impractical Devils: The Letters of August Derleth and Clark Ashton Smith. (David E. Schultz and S.T. Joshi, editors). Hippocampus Press, 2020. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Derleth, of course, published many of Smith’s collections at Arkham House, and both men where appearing in the pages of Weird Tales in the 1920s, but they didn’t correspond until Lovecraft introduced them to each other in 1930.
  • (Smith, Clark Ashton) S.T. Joshi, David E. Schultz and Scott Conners. Clark Ashton Smith: A Comprehensive Bibliography. Hippocampus Press, 2020. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Much-needed comprehensive bibliography for Smith’s works, especially since Donald Sidney-Fryer’s Emperor of Dreams is not only out of date, but so poorly organized as to be nearly useless.
  • Copies of all of these will be available in the forthcoming Lame Excuse Books catalog (currently in progress).

    Library Addition: Bruce Sterling’s Robot Artists and Black Swans

    Saturday, August 7th, 2021

    The book acquisitions never stop here at Stately Person Manor:

    Sterling, Bruce. Robot Artists & Black Swans: The Italian Fantascienza Stories. Tachyon, 2021. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. His latest short story collection. Introduction by Neal Stephenson. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount. I’ll have copies of this available in the forthcoming Lame Excuse Books catalog (currently in progress).

    Library Additions: Five Joe R. Lansdale-Related Titles

    Monday, August 2nd, 2021

    Five more items for my Joe Lansdale collection:

  • Bryant, Tim, editor (with Joe R. Lansdale). Mule Tales. The Runaway Mule, 2012. First edition trade paperback original (a POD book), a Fine copy, new and unread. Anthology to benefit a now-defunct shop in Lansdale’s home town of Nacogdoches. Lansdale contributes six pieces. Bought from Amazon.
  • Case, Jim (pseudonym for Chet Cunningham and Joe R. Lansdale). Cody’s Army. Warner Books, 1986. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine- copy with a crease across the bottom corner and thin black lines at head, but otherwise tight and square. Military adventure novel. “The four man anti-terrorist guerilla unit.” Joe says he wrote one chapter in this. Stephen Mertz sold the series and had various writers work on different volumes, and confirmed Cunningham wrote this one except for one chapter from Lansdale. Bought off Amazon for $5, where the seller called it a “Fine” copy.
  • Lansdale, Joe R. The Drive-In. Centipede Press, 2015. First edition hardback thus, a signed, illustrated omnibus of The Drive-In, The Drive-In 2, and The Drive-In: The Bus Tour, one of 300 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, still in shrink wrap. I passed on picking this up when it first came out because I already had the PBO firsts of the first two, the hardback firsts of al three (two from Kinnell, the third from Subterranean), and The Complete Drive-In omnibus of all three from Underland Press. But this disappeared pretty quickly, and I decided to pick it up because I’m crazy Lansdale completist. Bought off a fellow dealer for $120.
  • Lansdale, Joe R. The Hungry Snow. Death’s Head Press, 2021. First edition trade paperback original (a side-sewn chapbook), #40 of 500 numbered copies, a Fine copy, new and unread, with Death’s Head Press bookmark and card laid in. A Reverend Jedidiah Mercer story. Illustrated by Tim Truman. Bought from the publisher at a very thin discount. I’ll have copies of this available in the forthcoming Lame Excuse Books catalog (currently in progress).

  • (Lansdale, Joe R.) Isajenko, Fred. The World Lansdalean: The Authorized Joe R. Lansdale Bibliography. Short, Scary Tales (SST) Publications, 2021. Uncorrected proof, trade paperback format, of the hardback first edition. Sent to me for spot-checking, and I sent them back a list of some things that were missing, etc. I will have copies of the published book available for sale through Lame Excuse Books when it’s released.

  • Library Additions: Two Centipede Press Books

    Friday, July 30th, 2021

    Two more books came in from Centipede Press:

  • Boyett, Stephen R. The Architect of Sleep. Centipede Press, 2021. First hardback edition, #355 of 400 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, still in shrinkwrap. Really interesting novel about a man transported to an alternate earth where raccoons evolved as the planet’s sentient life form. Originally published as an Ace paperback original back in 1986 and became something of a cult classic, and I’ve sold a lot of PBO copies of this and Ariel over the years (and indeed, if you just want to read it, I have copies available). Recommended. This signed edition is already sold out from the publisher. I’m hoping this new edition prods Boyett into revising and finishing the still-unpublished sequel, The Geography of Dreams.

  • Foster, Alan Dean. The Director Should’ve Shot You: Memoirs of the Film Trade. Centipede Press, 2021. First hardback edition, #430 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, still in shrinkwrap. I haven’t read any Foster novels since one of the early Pip and Flinx books way back in my misspent youth, but this one interests me. As the king of media tie-in novels, from Star Wars to Alien to Krull, Foster has worked on a lot of big hits (and misses), and in this book he dishes on all the behind-the-scenes drama he witnessed in in his career. This signed edition is already sold out from the publisher.

    The white square visible on the front is a numbered card inside the shrink wrap that will get laid in when it’s opened.

  • I will have copies of both of these in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (currently in progress).

    Library Addition: Charnel House Edition of Harlan Ellison’s The Glass Teat & The Other Glass Teat

    Thursday, July 29th, 2021

    When this book originally came out at $600, I went “I want that…but not at that price point.” Now Charnel House has used the last 100 sheet sets of the original printing to come out with this 10th Anniversary Edition at a price I could afford:

    Ellison, Harlan. The Glass Teat & The Other Glass Teat. Charnel House, 2011. First hardback edition, #182 of 250 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issue, with a CD of Harlan reading “Welcome to the Gulag,” the introduction written for this edition laid in. All Ellison’s TV essays and reviews written for The Los Angeles Free Press. Not having a copy of the original binding, I can’t tell you how this 10th Anniversary edition binding differs from the original. Bought from the publisher at a discount.

    I will have a single copy of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (currently in progress).

    Library Addition: Lee Child’s A Little Gold Book of Unconsidered Trifles

    Wednesday, July 28th, 2021

    Another book in the Borderlands Little Book series:

    Child, Lee. A Little Gold Book of Unconsidered Trifles. Borderlands Press, 2021. First edition hardback, #498 of 600 signed and numbered copies, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Mixture of fiction and non-fiction by the best-selling author of the Jack Reacher series, some original to this volume, including a piece from Esquire. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount. Right on the verge of selling out, and may be out of print by the time you read this.

    I will have copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (currently in progress).

    Library Addition: The Best of Harry Turtledove

    Tuesday, July 27th, 2021

    This came in a while back, but was at the bottom of a stack.

    Turtledove, Harry. The Best of Harry Turtledove. Subterranean Press, 2021. First edition hardback, #268 of 1,000 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, new and unread.

    I will have copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (currently in progress).

    Library Addition: Centipede Press First Edition of Philip K. Dick’s The Cosmic Puppets / Dr. Futurity / Vulcan’s Hammer

    Monday, July 5th, 2021

    When Centipede Press announced they were going to do a trio of Philip K. Dick novels as a hardcover set in an edition of 300, I knew there were going to disappear quickly, so I snapped a set up:

    Dick, Philip K. The Cosmic Puppets with Dr. Futurity with Vulcan’s Hammer. Centipede Press, 2021. First editions thus for The Cosmic Puppets and Vulcan’s Hammer, first hardback edition for Dr. Futurity, each #92 of 300 signed, numbered copies, each signed by Michael Swanwick, Peter Strain, and Chris Moore, each Fine copies in Fine dust jackets and a Fine slipcase, still in shrinkwrap. (The lines you see over the top and bottom of Vulcan’s Hammer are the shrinkwrap join lines.) The Cosmic Puppets was done as a Severn House hardback, and Vulcan’s Hammer as a Gregg Press hardback, and I have both of those, but I thought it behooved me to pick up the first hardback of Dr. Futurity, even though I had to pay cover price for the set. And indeed, it was pretty much out-of-print immediately upon publication.

    And if they make this into a regular series of PKD books, I guess I’ll have to pick up those too…

    Library Addition: Signed First of Complete Short Fiction of Peter Straub

    Thursday, July 1st, 2021

    This is a book set that was originally due out a year ago and, like so many other things, got delayed.

    Straub, Peter. The Complete Short Fiction of Peter Straub Volume One and The Complete Short Fiction of Peter Straub Volume Two. Borderlands Press, 2021. First edition hardbacks, #321 of 350 signed, numbered copies, Fine copies in Fine dust jackets. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount. I believe that is already out of print, but I will have copies available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (due Real Soon Now).