Posts Tagged ‘Books’

Library Additions: Two Dark Regions Press Firsts

Friday, November 5th, 2021

Dark Regions Press had a 50% off sale so I picked up a few things:

  • (Lovecraft, H.P.) Sammons, Brian M and Glynn Owen Barrass, editors. Summer of Lovecraft: Cosmic Horrors in the 1960s. Dark Regions Press, 2021. Trade paperback reprint (a POD edition), a Fine copy. Bought for $9.
  • Nolan, William F. Writing as Life. Dark Regions Press, 2021. First edition hardback, #34 of 200 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, still in shrinkwrap. Mixture of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and autobiography. Bought for $37.50.
  • Library Additions: Swanwick and Howard Chapbooks

    Wednesday, November 3rd, 2021

    Two chapbooks:

  • Howard, Robert E. Two Against Tyre. Dennis McHaney, 1975. First edition chapbook original, one of 1,500 copies (Currey state B), a Fine- copy with slight wear to black border at top front and slight dust staining along spine. Currey, page 252. Bought off a fellow Biblio dealer for $8.10.
  • Swanwick, Michael and Greer Gilman. The Lonely and the Rum: A Conversation. Dragonstairs Press, 2021. First edition chapbook original, #50 of 125 copies, a Fine copy with hand-made, uneven (I think intentionally) covers. Transcription of a conversation between Gilman and Swanwick on fantasy. Obtained directly from the publisher at the usual discount.

  • Library Addition: First Edition of J. G. Ballard’s Crash

    Thursday, October 21st, 2021

    Unless you count the withdrawn American edition of The Atrocity Exhibition (which is not the true first, as the Cape (which I have) precedes), the true first of J. G. Ballard’s Crash is (along with The Drowned World) among Ballard’s most expensive and difficult first editions. I’d been looking for an affordable copy of Crash for a while, and I finally found one:

    Ballard, J. G. Crash. Jonathan Cape, 1973. First edition hardback, an Ex-Library copy with all the usual flaws, including stamps to pages and page block edges, in a dust jacket that, while intact, has been glued to the book, with a long, thin library sticker across the front, spine, back and rear flap, and a large square library affixed to rear, plus some glue wrinkling; call it a Good/Good Ex-Lib copy. Goodard and Pringle, J. G. Ballard: The First Twenty Years 101. Currey, page 23. Bought off an Australian bookseller for $68 plus shipping.

    Library Addition: Signed, Limited Edition of Joe R. Lansdale’s The Sky Done Ripped

    Thursday, October 14th, 2021

    I think this ends this current run of Lansdale library additions. This one came from another publisher having a 50% off sale rather than a private collector.

    Lansdale, Joe R. The Sky Done Ripped. Subterranean Press, 2019. First edition hardback, #324 of 350 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine slipcase. Third book in the Ned the Seal trilogy. This edition features a collection of sketches at the back not in the trade edition. Supplements a signed copy of the trade edition. Bought for $47.50.

    Library Addition: Joe R. Lansdale’s Tight Little Stitches In A Dead Man’s Back

    Wednesday, October 13th, 2021

    Another book for my complete Lansdale collection from that same private collector:

    Lansdale, Joe. R. Tight Little Stitches In A Dead Man’s Back. Pulphouse, 1992. First edition hardback chapbook, #70 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Short story hardback issue #28. Story originally appeared in John Maclay’s Nukes anthology in 1986. This is the first separate edition. Bought from a private collector for $75 (which is considerably more than I paid for The Steel Valentine).

    I may have mentioned that I avoided the Pulphouse short story hardback line when it first came out, as I had a hard time thinking of them as real books rather than gimmicks, and didn’t expect them to hold their value. Now, after I’ve collected everything else by the author, I’ve been picking them up. Most can still be had cheap, but not this one.

    Library Addition: The Gonzo Tapes (Lansdale, Waldrop, Barrett)

    Monday, October 11th, 2021

    Another private collector Lansdale purchase:

    Lansdale, Joe R., Howard Waldrop and Neal Barrett, Jr. The Gonzo Tapes. Scorpio Inc., no date (Howard says he recorded his October 7, 1992; since they were first sold at Armadillocon, and that year’s Armadillocon started just two days later, I’m guessing it was released at the 1993 Armadillocon). First edition cassette tape package, containing three cassettes with two stories each being read by authors Joe R. Lansdale (“Steppin’ Out, Summer 1968” and “By Bizarre Hands”), Howard Waldrop (“French Scenes” and “The Passing of the Western”) and Neal Barrett, Jr. (“Winter on the Belle Forche” and “Class of ’61”), along with a single trifold sheet attached to the inside of the front case lid with adhesive to the back, a Fine copy. Bought from that same private collector for $10.

    Neal Barrett’s wife Ruth was the driving force behind this project. According to Howard, these all sold out at the Armadillocon they were released at, but I know copies were easy to find for many years after. Now, however, you don’t see them much anymore, and there’s precious little information about this on the Internet…

    Library Additions: Three Lansdale Chapbooks

    Friday, October 8th, 2021

    Three Joe R. Lansdale chapbooks purchased from that same private collector:

  • Lansdale, Joe R. On The Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks. Roadkill Press, 1991. First separate edition chapbook, #488 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy. Originally appeared in the 1989 Skipp & Spector anthology The Book of the Dead. Bought from a private collector for $25.
  • Lansdale, Joe R. The Orbit #1. Subterranean Press, no date (but 1999). First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy. “The Official Joe R. Lansdale Newsletter.” First of two put out. With:
  • Lansdale, Joe R. The Orbit #2. Subterranean Press, no date (but 1999). First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy. Second and last issue. Bought for $15 for the pair off a private collector.

  • Library Addition: Lettered Edition of Joe R. Lansdale’s The Bottoms

    Thursday, September 30th, 2021

    Still another Lansdale lettered edition bought from that same private collector:

    Lansdale, Joe R. The Bottoms. Subterranean Press, 2000. First edition hardback, letter R of 26 signed, lettered copies, a Fine leatherbound copy in a Fine dust jacket and Fine traycase with full color illustration mounted inside front lid. The Subterranean edition was the true first edition, preceding the Mysterious Press edition by several months. Edgar Award winner for Best Novel. Bought for $300 from a private collector, which is just twice list price for the regular numbered edition.

    The plastic illustration protector shows both glare and the shadow of my hands holding the iPhone to get the photo. (Also some glare off the dust jacket protector on the book itself.)

    Library Addition: Lettered Edition of Joe R. Lansdale’s The Long Ones

    Wednesday, September 29th, 2021

    Another lettered copy purchased from that private collector:

    Lansdale, Joe R. The Long Ones. Necro Publications, 1999. First edition hardback, letter R of 26 signed, leatherbound lettered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine traycase, sans dust jacket, as issued. In addition to the leather binding and traycase, this edition features an inserted (not attached) printed ribbon with title and author, a color frontispiece illustration, and several inserted black and white illustrations not in the ordinary numbered edition. Bought from a private collector for $300.

    Library Addition: Lettered Edition of Joe R. Lansdale’s Blood Dance

    Tuesday, September 28th, 2021

    Another purchase from that same private collector as the two previous Lansdale lettered editions:

    Lansdale, Joe R. Blood Dance. Subterranean Press, 2000. First edition hardback, letter R of 18 signed, lettered copies, a Fine copy in a beautiful full-cloth binding and a Fine traycase with an additional Mark A. Nelson illustration mounted on the inside front cover, sans dust jacket, as issued. The Lost Lansdale Volume Three. Bought for $250 off a private collector.

    Note: The bottom right of the illustration looks strange due to reflections off the protective plastic covering over the illustration.