Posts Tagged ‘science fiction criticism’

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Library Additions: Four Critical Volumes on J.G. Ballard

Tuesday, May 29th, 2018

I heard about David Pringle’s ongoing Ballard/Moorcock chronology from him on Facebook, which lead me to tracking down these.

  • (Ballard, J.G.) McGrath, Rick, editor. The JG Ballard Book. The Terminal Press, 2013. First edition, first printing hardback (stated, though actually a POD book), a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Oversized hardback (about the size and thickness of a high school yearbook) chock full of various Ballard tidbits, including an interview with David Pringle, additions to the Goddard bibliography, pictures of Ballard’s house, maps to the Shanghai of his youth, with many pages in color, etc.
  • (Ballard, J.G.) McGrath, Rick, editor. Deep Ends The JG Ballard Anthology 2014. The Terminal Press, 2014. First edition, first printing hardback (stated, though actually a POD book), a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Oversized hardback chock full of various Ballard tidbits, including a previously unpublished Ballard work (“Crystal of the Sea”), a David Pringle interview with one of Ballard’s daughters, and a remembrance of another, plus sundry critical essays and (ahem) “Why I Want To Fuck Rupert Murdoch.”
  • (Ballard, J.G.) McGrath, Rick, editor. Deep Ends The JG Ballard Anthology 2015. The Terminal Press, 2015. First edition, first printing hardback (stated, though actually a POD book), a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Oversized hardback full of even more Ballard tidbits, including the first part of David Pringle’s extensive Moorcock/Ballard chronology (indeed, hearing about that is what first made me track these volumes down), plus lots of critical essays, including one on Ballard, Dick and Baudrillard.
  • (Ballard, J.G.) McGrath, Rick, editor. Deep Ends The JG Ballard Anthology 2016. The Terminal Press, 2016. First edition, first printing hardback (stated, though actually a POD book), a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Oversized hardback full of even more Ballard tidbits, including the second part of David Pringle’s extensive Moorcock/Ballard chronology, an English bookseller’s notes on selling Ballard, an interview conducted by Paul Di Filippo, etc.

    • Please note that copies of all four will be available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, which should go out this week.

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    Library Additions: Two John Clute Books

    Saturday, September 3rd, 2016

    Here’s the last two books from that Cold Tonnage 40% off sale:

  • Clute, John. Pardon This Intrusion: Fantastika in the World Storm. Beccon Publications, 2011. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Collection of reviews and essays.
  • Clute, John. Stay. Beccon Publications, 2014. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Collection of reviews and essays.

    • I now have all the Clute critical collections, as well as both his novels.

    And now that I’ve finished cataloging the Cold Tonnage purchase, instead of being 100 books behind in my cataloging, I’m only about 55…

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    Library Additions: Non-Fiction Books from Cold Tonnage’s £5 Sale

    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.

    Hipster Ariel

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    Library Additions: Two R. A. Lafferty-Related Works

    Monday, January 26th, 2015

    Pick up two new R.A. Lafferty items in the last week:

  • Lafferty, R.A. Sinbad: The Thirteenth Voyage. Broken Mirrors Press, 1989. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Traded a signed Howard Waldrop book to cover artist Lissanne Lake for it.

    Sinbad

  • (Lafferty, R. A.) Feast of Laughter Issue 1. Kistic Press, 2014. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. First volume in a new (and long overdue) series of non-fiction on Lafferty’s work. Bought from Amazon, because the publisher said it was cheaper that way than buying direct. (Indeed, it’s even available as a free download.) Oddly enough, Lissanne Lake did the cover for this as well…

    Feast of Laughter

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    Library Additions: Eight Hardback Starmont Reader’s Guides

    Monday, June 9th, 2014

    I recently picked up eight hardbacks in the Starmont Reader’s Guide line. For many authors, these were the only critical companions to their work ever published, and I get the impression that the hardback book runs for the critical titles were pretty miniscule (Chalker/Owings The Science Fantasy Publishers estimates 75-80 hardbacks) and mostly sold to libraries. Starmont was distributed by Borgo Press, and sometime you’ll see these titles listed under the Borgo imprint or with Borgo price stickers affixed.

    Some of these state First Edition and some don’t, but I’m assuming these are first printings unless they state otherwise (the Silverberg states Second Printing). All are essentially Fine- copies with slight rubbing, sans dust jackets, as issued.

  • (Bester, Alfred) Wendell, Carolyn. Alfred Bester: Starmont Reader Guide 6. Starmont House, 1982. Signed by Wendell.
  • (Clement, Hal) Hassler, Donald M. Hal Clement: Starmont Reader Guide 11. Starmont House, 1982. Signed by Hassler.
  • (Delany, Samuel R.) Weedman, Jane Branham. Samuel R. Delany: Starmont Reader Guide 10. Starmont House, 1982. Signed by Delany: “Samuel R. Delany/Madison/2006”.
  • (Farmer, Philip Jose) Brizzi, Mary T. Philip Jose Farmer: Starmont Reader Guide 3. Starmont House, 1980.
  • (Haldeman, Joe) Gordon, Joan. Joe Haldeman: Starmont Reader Guide 4. Starmont House, 1980. Signed by Haldeman (and also an unreadable signature that I take to be either Gordon’s or the cover artist).
  • (Silverberg, Robert) Clareson, Thomas D. Robert Silverberg: Starmont Reader Guide 18. Starmont House, 1983. Signed by Silverberg. Second Printing.
  • (Pohl, Frederik) Clareson, Thomas D. Frederik Pohl: Starmont Reader Guide 39. Starmont House, 1987. Signed by Pohl. By this time the press had moved to what Chalker/Owings called the “Ditky-Newcomer” printing process (basically high quality Xerography) with the characteristic flocked edges that would appear on Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine a year later.
  • (Tiptree, Jr., James) Siegel, Mark. James Tiptree, Jr.: Starmont Reader Guide 22. Starmont House, 1986.

    • As the seller said: “They never bound any two books the same way.” As you can see from the picture, some have the trade paperback cover affixed to the front, while others are simply cloth with the title, author and series number printed on the spine.

    P1000156

    Paid a total of $246.40, which went to SF writer Julian May, who is: A.) Still alive, and B.) The widow of Starmont House founder Ted Ditky.

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