The first of two posts on recent Subterranean Press books that have come in.
Posts Tagged ‘small press publishers’
Library Additions: Four Subterranean Firsts (Blumlein, Carriger, Gallagher)
Wednesday, March 20th, 2024Library Addition: The Dagon Collection
Friday, March 15th, 2024Here’s another Lovecraft-themed anthology from PS in the mold of Pedersen’s earlier The Starry Wisdom Library.
Pedersen, Nate, editor. The Dagon Collection: An Auction Catalogue of Items Recovered in the Federal Raid on Innsmouth, Mass. PS Publishing, 2024. First edition hardback in decorated boards, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Anthology in the form of a mock auction catalog of Cthulhu Mythos related items from the Esoteric Order of Dagon, with contributions from F. Paul Wilson, Ramsey Campbell, etc.
I will have a small number of copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Library Addition: Michael Swanwick’s Phases Of The Sun/Phases of the Moon
Wednesday, March 6th, 2024Another short-run Dragonstairs chapbook I managed to grab:
Swanwick, Michael. Phases of the Sun/Phases of the Moon. Dragonstairs Press, 2020 (not offered for sale until 2024). First edition accordion-fold chapbook original (Phases of the Sun goes one way, and then you flip it over and Phases of the Moon goes the other), a Fine copy. Bought for $60 from Dragonstairs and sold out within two minutes.
Library Additions: Two Thomas Disch Firsts
Monday, March 4th, 2024These were part of an auction lot:
Library Additions: Four John Crowley Firsts
Monday, February 26th, 2024These four books were offered as The John Crowley Conway Miscellany set on Kickstarter. Each has a different trim size.
The four books together can be laid out to form a single image. Because the books are too large to fit on my scanner, I have copied the image from the Kickstarter page.
I will have a small number of sets of these (with the signature plate) in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Library Addition: Joe R. Lansdale’s The Senior Girls Bayonet Drill Team
Monday, February 19th, 2024Another signed Subterranean Lansdale first.
Lansdale, Joe R. The Senior Girls Bayonet Drill Team. Subterranean, 2023 (stated; received early 2024). First edition hardback, #371 of 1250 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. The latest Lansdale short story collection. I’ll have copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Library Additions: Two Cemetery Dance Books
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024These were both bought off eBay.
Library Additions: Five Half Price Books Finds
Saturday, December 30th, 2023All of these were Half Price Books finds, all firsts, and all but the Sagan and Wong came from Austin stores. The Sagan and Wong came from Dallas Metroplex area stores, but I pulled them into this post because they go in bookcases I’m reorganizing.
Unusually for Half Price Books, three of these titles had aftermarket labels over the UPC code that needed a fair amount of Bestine and elbow grease to remove…
Library Addition: Two Subterranean Press Firsts
Friday, December 22nd, 2023These came in a while back, but I haven’t had room to shelve them until I finished finishing my latest bookcase.
Library Addition: Slipcased Edition of Dan Simmons’ Entropy’s Bed At Midnight
Friday, October 27th, 2023Another purchase from that same private collector, and another case of “I already have this book, but not in this state.”
Simmons, Dan. Entropy’s Bed at Midnight. Lord John Press, 1990. First edition hardback, #93 of 100 signed, limited copies, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued, in a Fine slipcase. Reginald, Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, 1975-1991 33966 (but not this state). Supplements a signed, non-slipcased 1/300 edition.
Lord John Press is an interesting press. They started out as primarily a literary small press (John Updike was a particular favorite), but did several science fiction, horror and mystery firsts along the way, including Stephen King’s Dolan’s Cadillac, which (of course) sold out almost instantly.
About the time Carrion Comfort and Hyperion came out so close together, Simmons (like Clive Barker before him) got tagged as “The Next Stephen King,” and there was briefly a small press frenzy for publishing his work. I think Lord John did fine on this one, but some of the other Simmons titles they did (Children of the Night and The Hollow Man in particular) helped burst the small press bubble in the early 90s. They did too many copies in too many different states at too high price points, with the result that they sat on dealer’s shelves for decades. That, the wild overproduction of Pulphouse, and the unwise shift of Dark Harvest to mysteries, along with the founders of Phantasia Press and Underwood-Miller stepping away, helped dampen the small press boom in the early 1990s.
I will have one copy of the 1/300 signed limited edition of Entropy’s Bed at Midnight in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, currently in progress.