Posts Tagged ‘Arkham House’
Monday, November 17th, 2014
I picked up two early Arkham House books from two different sources:
Hodgson, William Hope. The House on the Borderland and Other Novels. First edition hardback, a Very Good+ copy with bumping at corners, small dust print at bottom page block outer edge, and faint foxing to gutters, in a Very Good+ dust jacket with 1/16″ chip at heel, wear at points (including a pinhead hole at lower front edge), and extremely mild sun-fading to the spine; it’s actually a wonderfully bright example of the Hannes Bok dust jacket, and the only better copies I’ve seen were at least three times the price. Includes the title novel, plus The Boats of the ‘Glen Carrig’, The Ghost Pirates, and The Night Land, all of which were previously published individually (and all of which now go for well over a grand). One of the four large-format Arkhams, the other being H.P. Lovecraft’s The Outsider and Others and Beyond the Wall of Sleep, and Robert E. Howard’s Skull-Face and Others, all three of which I still lack. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House, 16. Derleth, 30 Years of Arkham House, 16. Jaffrey, Horrors and Unpleasantries, 19. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 16. Blieler, Checklist of Science-Fiction and Supernatural Fiction (1978), page 101. Blieler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 821. Bought for £220 plus shipping off eBay.
Walton, Evangeline. Witch House. Arkham House, 1945. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House, 11. Derleth, 30 Years of Arkham House, 11. Jaffrey, Horrors and Unpleasantries, 11. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 11. Blieler, Checklist of Science-Fiction and Supernatural Fiction (1978), page 202. Blieler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 1655. Crawford, Donahue and Grant, 333, page 67. Barron, Horror Literature: A Reader’s Guide, 3-203. Tymn, Horror Literature: A Core Collection and Reference Guide, 4-216. Bought for $47 off the Internet. It seems that every time I would see a copy at auction, I’d ask myself “Do I already have a copy of that?” Now I know the answer to that question…
Tags:Arkham House, Books, Evangeline Walton, First Edition, Hannes Bok, Horror, Science Fiction, William Hope Hodgson
Posted in Books, Horror, Science Fiction, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, December 20th, 2013
Another book from my recent buying spree, an early Arkham House title:
Smith, Clark Ashton. Lost Worlds. Arkham House, 1944. First edition hardback, a Near Fine+ copy with slight crimping at head and heel, bump to top front corner, usual age darkening to pages, and a trace of foxing to gutters, in a Near Fine dust jacket with age darkening to light-colored portion of spine, short closed tear and associated 1/2″ wrinkle crease at head, a tiny bit of rubbing at heel, and age darkening around edges and crease folds. Smith’s second prose collection and the seventh Arkham House book published. Currey (1978), page 453. Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy One, page 200. Bleiler, Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 1485. Tymn, 4-202. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House 7. Derleth, 30 Years of Arkham House, 7. Jaffery (1982), 7. Nielsen, 7. Bought for $172 off the Internet.
Tags:Arkham House, Books, Clark Ashton Smith, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Horror, pics, Science Fiction | 1 Comment »
Sunday, June 3rd, 2012
Don Webb once said that “If you are obsessed with a writer, you own more in print about him than the total number of words in print by him.” In which case I guess I’m obsessed by H. P. Lovecraft (who is also who Don was talking about). However, while I do like Lovecraft, it’s really only because I’m obsessed about books in general, part of which is obtaining reference books about authors I like. Is it my fault there are just so many books on Lovecraft out there? I don’t have all of them, but I do have a goodly number.
For In-print items, I’ve provided links to either the Lame Excuse Books page for things I have in stock, or Amazon links for those I don’t.
Here’s a long view of everything that would fit laid out on a single tabletop:
(Lovecraft, H.P.) Bell, Joseph. Les Bibliotheques Volumes 1-8. Soft Books, 1984-1987. Eight side-stapled A4-sized chapbooks, featuring a miscellaneous selection of Lovecraft material (including fiction, poems, letters, etc. from Lovecraft), the bulk of which is taken up by a chronology of his publications.
(Lovecraft, H.P.) Migliore, Andrew, and John Strysik. The Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H.P. Lovecraft. Night Shade Press, 2010. First printing trade paperback original of this enlarged and updated edition. Normally sits among my film reference works.
Next comes a few Arkham House-related books I’m including here. (I already covered S. T. Joshi’s Sixty Years of Arkham House during my first reference book roundup.)
Jaffery, Sheldon. Horrors and Unpleasantries: A Bibliographical History and Collectors Price Guide to Arkham House. Popular Press, 1982. First edition hardback. Largely superseded by Joshi’s Sixty Years, it still has information not replicated there, including how the secret reprint edition of August Derleth’s own Someone in the Dark came to pass.
Nielsen, Leon. Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide. McFarland & Company, 2004. Trade paperback original. Goes a little farther than Joshi. Mostly superfluous if you have Joshi and Jaffrey, but useful if you don’t.
Derleth, August. Thirty Years of Arkham House: 1939-1969. Arkham House, 1970. First edition hardback. The official history up to that date. (I do not own a copy of Derleth’s Arkham House: The First 20 Years; it’s pretty pricey for a superseded paperback reference work, and insanely pricey for one of the 80 hardback copies…)
Finally, we get to the actual Lovecraft section, which starts off with several titles by HPL himself:
Lovecraft, H. P. Supernatural Horror in Literature. Ben Abramson, 1945. First separate edition, hardback (Currey A), sans dust jacket, as issued. His famous essay.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz) Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters. Ohio University Press, 2000. Hardback first edition. What the title says: chronological autobiographical information culled from Lovecraft’s voluminous correspondence.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi) Collected Essay Volume 1: Amateur Journalism. Hippocampus Press, 2004. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi) Collected Essay Volume 2: Literary Criticism. Hippocampus Press, 2004. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi) Collected Essay Volume 3: Science. Hippocampus Press, 2005. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi) Collected Essay Volume 4: Travel. Hippocampus Press, 2005. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi) Collected Essay Volume 5: Philosophy, Autobiography & Miscellany. Hippocampus Press, 2006. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei) Selected Letters I. Arkham House, 1965. Hardback first edition. Many later Lovecratt scholars have criticized the way the letters in these and subsequent volumes have been edited.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei) Selected Letters II. Arkham House, 1968. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei) Selected Letters IIII. Arkham House, 1971. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by August Derleth and James Turner) Selected Letters IV. Arkham House, 1976. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by August Derleth and James Turner) Selected Letters V. Arkham House, 1976. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. and Donald Wandrei (edited by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz) Mysteries of Time and Spirit: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Donald Wandrei. Night Shade Books, 2002. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz) Letters from New York. Night Shade Books, 2005. Hardback first edition.
Howard, Robert E. and H. P. Lovecraft. A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. Hippocampus Press, 2009. First edition hardbacks, two volumes. Shelved in my Robert E. Howard section.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by L. Sprague de Camp) To Quebec and the Stars. Donald M. Grant, 1976. Hardback first edition. (Out of order in the pictures because it’s oversized and shelved one shelf down from where it should be.)
Next comes books about Lovecraft by other authors.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Joshi, S. T. H. P. Lovecraft and Lovecraft Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography. Kent State University Press, 1981. Hardback first edition, sans dust jacket, as issued. If you haven’t figured out already by the number of times his name has already appeared on this list, Joshi is the Lovecraft obsessive that puts all the other Lovecraft obsessives in the shade. I have several criticisms of his Sixty Years of Arkham House, and disagree with significant bits and pieces of his critical approach to Lovecraft’s. But when comes to excessive knowledge of Lovecraft’s life and work, he has no equal, and this bibliography is ridiculously comprehensive up through the period covered. There were 14 Lovecraft books (including some chapbooks, pamphlets, etc.) printed before The Outsider and Others, each of which is either insanely expensive or simply not available anywhere at any price.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Joshi, S. T. I Am Providence: the Life and Times of H P Lovecraft. Hippocampus Press, 2010. First edition hardback, two volumes. Back in 1996, Necronomicon Press published Joshi’s H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, a definitive biography which was about 700 pages long, with very small margins, in a hardback edition of 250 copies which went out of print before just about anyone knew about it. (You can still get the trade paperback edition.) Well, guess what? Joshi had to leave out about 150,000 words of material for space constraints. That, plus everything he’s learned since 1996, is packed into these two volumse. (I see some people online are asking $550 for this set. I have sets available for $95, which is half-off cover price. [Sorry, sold out. – LP])
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Joshi, S. T. and David E. Schultz. An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press, 2001. Hardback first edition, in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Includes things both in Lovecraft’s fiction and his life.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) de Camp, L. Sprague Lovecraft: A Life. Doubleday, 1975. Hardback first edition, inscribed by de Camp, remainder speckling at heel, otherwise Fine in a Fine dust jacket. Considered the standard biography before Joshi went to work; not so much anymore.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Long, Frank Belknap. Howard Philips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Night Side Arkham House, 1975. Hardback first edition. Biography of Lovecraft by a close friend and fellow writer.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Cannon, Peter, editor. Lovecraft Remembered. Arkham House, 1998. Hardback first edition with review slip laid in. Collection of remembrances of both Lovecraft and his writing by numerous contemporaries, much of it original published in very obscure journals or small-run pamphlets.
(Lovecraft, H.P.) Carter, Lin. Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos. Starmont House/Borgo Press, [1992]. First hardback edition, Fine in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued.
(Lovecraft, H.P.) Cannon, Peter. H. P. Lovecraft. Twayne, 1989. Hardback first edition (a reasonably clean ex-library copy). Part of the Twayn’s United States Authors Series.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Joshi, S. T. H. P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism. Ohio University Press, 1980. Hardback first edition. Variety of essays on Lovecraft’s work.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Mark Owings and Irving Binkin, catalogers. A Catalog of Lovecraftiana: The Grill Binkin Collection. Mirage Press, 1975. Hardback first edition, Fine sans dust jacket, as issued. Catalog of perhaps the most extensive Lovecraft collection ever in existence.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) St. Armand, Barton Levi. The Roots of Horror in the Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft. Dragon Press, 1977. Hardback first edition, Fine sans dust jacket, as issued. Critical work.
And a few works on the Cthulhu Mythos more generally:
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Jarocha-Ernst, Chris. A Cthulhu Mythos Bibliography and Concordance. Armitage House, 1999. First edition trade paperback original.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Harms, Daniel. Encyclopedia Cthulhuiana. Chaosium, 1994. Trade paperback original.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Harms, Daniel. The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia. Elder Signs Press, 2008. First edition hardback, one of 200 signed, numbered copies. “Updated and Expanded Third Edition,” and the first hardback edition.
And here are some chapbook that you can’t tell what they are from the spine. I pick up those Necronomicon Press chapbooks when I find them cheap, but usually not otherwise.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) St. Armand, Barton Levi. H. P. Lovecraft: New England Decadent. Silver Scarab Press, 1979. Perfect-bound chapbook.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Barlow, R. H. On Lovecraft and Life. Necronomicon Press, 1992. First edition chapbook.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Cook, W. Paul. In Memoriam: Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Necronomicon Press, 1991. Chapbook, second edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. A History of the Necronomicon. Necronomicon Press, 1992. Chapbook, sixth printing.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Barrass, Glynn. A Cthulhu Mythos Bibliography & Checklist: Second Edition. Blackgoat Books, 1996. An extremely barebones checklist (title, publisher, and whether it was issued in hardback). Probably the last thing you would reach for, but it does have a few obscure listings.
Lovecraft, H. P. and Anthony Raven. The Occult Lovecraft. Gerry de la Ree, 1975. First edition chapbook.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) H. P. Lovecraft: A Symposium. The Los Angeles Science Fiction Society/The Riverside Quarterly, [1964]. First edition chapbook, with Errata sheet laid in.
Related Posts
Lawrence Person’s Library of Science Fiction First Editions
Lawrence Person’s Reference Books Part 1
Lawrence Person’s Reference Books Part 2
Lawrence Person’s Reference Books Part 3
Tags:Arkham House, August Derleth, Books, Cthulhu, David E. Schultz, Donald Wandrei, First Edition, H. P. Lovecraft, Hippocampus Press, James Turner, L. Sprague de Camp, Peter Cannon, Professional Library, reference works, S. T. Joshi
Posted in Books, Horror, pics, Science Fiction | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
I haven’t posted much the last week because I’ve been busy doing this and that, and one of the things I’ve been busy with is a long-overdue cleanup of my office, including doing something about those Nova Express review copies cluttering it up. Now that I’ve finally finished moving books around, and gotten a new camera (a Kodak Slice) to replace the one that died, I thought I would put up some long-overdue pictures of the books in my office, starting with the reference shelf right next to my computer, which contains the reference works I tend to reach for most often.
(Click to embiggen.)
Going left to right (left being the side closest to the computer, and thus the books I reach for most often) are:
Currey, L.W. Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors: A Bibliography of First Printings of Their Fiction. G. K. Hall, 1978. The bible of the field, and absolutely essential for any serious collector of science fiction first editions. Only goes up to 1978. For dates after 1983, you can use The Locus Online Database. Currey also sells a slightly updated CD-ROM version, which still only goes up to 1978. (Now if only someone would compile a book that covers 1979-1983…)
Chalker, Jack & Owings, Mark. The Science Fantasy Publishers: A Critical and Bibliographic History. Mirage Press, 1991 (“Third Edition Revised and Enlarged”). If you’re a serious SF collector, you need this. The problem is, you can’t trust it. No other reference work offers the wealth and scope of knowledge of SF small press publishers that this one does. There’s a lot of good information in here. The print edition shown above had major errors and omissions, and a very odd organizational structure, not to mention several sneers and the constant sound of ax-grinding for SF figures the authors disagree with; the CD-ROM version is more accurate, but no longer up to date as both Chalker and Owings have died. What this book is best for is the chatty, informative histories of the various publishing houses listed here. (If nothing else, I can unstintingly recommend this book for anyone thinking of starting up their own small press, as it provides numerous examples of what not to do.) It’s also quite useful for uncovering titles and publishers you might not have known existed before. In summary: A valuable tool for those who possess enough experience in the field to know which parts to take with a grain of salt.
Clute, John, & Nichols, Peter. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. St. Martins, 1993 (first U.S. edition, offset from the same plates as the Orbit (UK) first). An absolutely essential general reference work.
Clute, John, & Grant, John. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. St. Martins, 1997 (first U.S. edition). Slightly more scattershot than the above, but still an essential guide.
Reginald, Robert. Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature: Indexes to the Literature, Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature:Contemporary Science Fiction Authors, and Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature: 1975 to 1991. Gale Research, 1980, 1981, 1992. Not the first reference work I reach for, but contains a lot of information that has slipped through the cracks of other works.
Levack, Daniel. Amber Dreams: A Roger Zelazny Bibliography. Underwood Miller, 1983. The first of the single-author bibliographies.
Levack, Daniel. PKD: A Philip K. Dick Bibliography. Underwood Miller, 1981. I have a copy of the trade paperback edition for sale over on the Lame Excuse Books page.
Hewett, Jerry. The Work of Jack Vance: An Annotated Bibliography & Guide. Borgo Press/Underwood Miller, 1994. I know Jerry pretty well, and not only has he signed my copy, he crossed out “Borgo” and wrote in “Bozo” on the title page. I think he had some problems dealing with them…
Bleiler, Everett F. The Checklist of Science-Fiction and Supernatural Fiction. Firebell, 1978. Slightly updated edition of Bleiler’s classic Checklist of Fantastic Fiction (which I have on another shelf), and an absolutely essential reference work for older SF/F/H books.
Joshi, S. T. Sixty Years of Arkham House. Arkham House, 1999. Not 100% accurate, but essential none the less.
Bleiler, Everett. The Guide to Supernatural Fiction. Kent State University Press, 1993. Very good, and very solid, as a general reference work, but not really concerned with first edition points.
Locke, George. Spectrum of Fantasy I-III. Ferret Fantasy, 1980-2002. Perhaps the only SF dealer as knowledgeable as Currey. These are Locke’s descriptions of his own personal library of fantastic fiction. Quite enjoyable works, and George is a nice guy.
One guideline I’d offer aspiring SF/F/H book collectors is: Don’t skimp on the reference works. Some of these books can be expensive, but all it takes is one real find (or one expensive dud avoided) for a good reference work to pay for itself.
More pictures of my reference library when I have the time…
Tags:Arkham House, Book Collecting, Books, Daniel Levack, Everett F. Bleiler, Fantasy, Ferret Fantasy, First Edition, George Locke, Horror, Jack Chalker, Jack Vance, John Clute, L. W. Currey, Mark Owings, Philip K. Dick, reference works, Robert Reginald, Roger Zelazny, S. T. Joshi, Science Fiction
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction | 6 Comments »
Sunday, November 14th, 2010
The period right around Halloween and the election was particularly busy, so I took a break from blogging here. To get back in the skiffy swing of things, here’s the latest list of books I’ve added to my library.
Books that I have available for sale through Lame Excuse Books are marked LEB (though some of those titles won’t appear on the stock page until after I send out my next book catalog, which will probably be late this month or early next; email me if you’d like to get on the mailing list to received it).
Bacigalupi, Paolo. Ship-Breaker. Little Brown, 2010.
Baring-Gould, William S.. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1976. Two volumes, reprint.
Barker, Clive. Visions of Heaven and Hell. Rizzoli, 2005. Art book.
Bennett, Robert Jackson. Mr. Shivers. Orbit, 2010.
Bennett, Robert Jackson. Mr. Shivers. Orbit, 2010. Mass market paperback, inscribed by Bennett. (He was giving them away at his Armadillocon signing.)
Brackett, Leigh. The Best of Leigh Brackett. Nelson Doubleday (SFBC), 1977. Near Fine/Near Fine.
Bradbury, Ray. Dark Carnival. Arkham House, 1946. First edition hardback, good only, with lettering on spine almost completely worn away, spine lean, general wear, and lacking the dust jacket.
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man. Doubleday, 1951. First edition hardback, lacking the dust jacket.
Brunner, John. The Jagged Orbit. Ace (SFBC), 1969. (Book club, first hardback edition).
Chiang, Ted. The Lifecycle of Software Objects. Subterranean Press, 2010. Signed limited edition.
Chiang, Ted. The Lifecycle of Software Objects. Subterranean Press, 2010. Trade edition. LEB
Coover, Robert. The Public Burning. Viking, 1977. Signed by Coover.
Cullin, Mitch. Tideland. Dufour Editions, 2000. Signed by Cullin. Basis of the Terry Gilliam film.
Day, Bradford M. The Supplemental Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Arno Press, 1974. First hardcover edition, Fine, sans dj, as issued. Non-fiction.
Di Filippo, Paul. Roadside Bodhisattva. PS Publishing, 2010.
Doctorow, Cory. Makers. Tor, 2009.
Egan, Greg. Zedengi. Orion/Gollancz, 2010. I have the Night Shade edition for sale here.
Harrison, Harry. The Stainless Steel Rat Returns. Tor, 2010.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. Chatto & Windus, 1932. VG- only, lacking the dust jacket.
Kelly, James Patrick and John Kessel. Rewired: The Postcyberpunk Anthology. Tachyon, 2007. Trade paperback original.
King, Stephen. The Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla. Donald M. Grant/Scribner’s, 2003. First trade edition.
King, Stephen. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower. Donald M. Grant/Scribner’s, 2004. First trade edition.
Kay, Guy Gavriel. Under Heaven. Roc, 2010.
Kunitz, Stanley J. & Howard Haycraft. British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary. H. W. Wilson, 1975. Fifth printing, an Ex-Library copy, otherwise Fine-, no dust jacket, presumably as issued. Non-fiction.
Kunitz, Stanley J. & Howard Haycraft. British Authors of the Nineteenth Century. H. W. Wilson, 1982. Eighth printing, an Ex-Library copy, otherwise Fine-, no dust jacket, presumably as issued. Non-fiction.
Lansdale, Joe R. Deadman’s Road. Subterranean Press, 2010. LEB
Lake, Jay. The Sky That Wraps. Subterranean Press, 2010. LEB
Lake, Jay. Specific Gravity of Grief. Fairwoods Press, 2010. LEB
Leiber, Fritz. Strange Wonders. Subterranean Press, 2010. LEB
Lentz, Harris M. III. Science Fiction, Horror, & Fantasy Film and Television Credits: Second Edition: Volume 1: Credits. McFarland & Company, 2001. Ex-library copy, otherwise Fine-, sans dust jacket, as issued. Non-fiction.
Ligotti, Thomas. The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Hippocampus Press, 2010. Non-fiction.
Lovecraft, H. P. Black Seas of Infinity: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft. SFBC, 2001.
Lovecraft, H.P. Collected Poems. Arkham House, 1963. VG/VG, with top inch of boards discolored and sun-fading to spine.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Joshi, S. T. I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft Hippocampus Press, 2010. Two volumes, one of 1000 sets. Non fiction. LEB
Manvell, Roger, ed. The International Encyclopedia of Film. Joseph, 1972. Near Fine/Near Fine.
McDevitt, Jack. Time Travelers Never Die. Ace, 2009.
McDonald, Ian. The Dervish House Pyr, 2010.
(Moorcock, Michael) Bilyeu, Richard. The Tanelorn Archives: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography of the Works of Michael Moorcock 1949-1979. Pandora’s Books, 1981. Fine, sans dust jacket, as issued. Non-fiction.
Niven, Larry. Stars & Gods. Tor, 2010.
Oliver, Chad. The Wolf is My Brother. Herbert Jenkins, 1968. First UK and first hardback edition, a Near Fine copy in a Good+ only dust jacket, missing an irregular 3/4″ x 1/2″ ship at head, and shallow chipping and edgewear. I didn’t even know there was a hardback until I chanced across this copy (though it is in Currey).
Pohl, Frederik. The Best of Frederik Pohl. Nelson Doubleday (SFBC), 1975.
(Powers, Tim) Berlyne, John, editor Powers: Secret Histories: A Bibliography PS Publishing, 2009. One of 200 signed, numbered Slipcased copies in slipcase with companion volume, The Waters Deep, Deep, Deep, not included with the trade edition. Non-fiction with additional fictional material included.
(Powers, Tim) Berlyne, John, editor Powers: Secret Histories: A Bibliography PS Publishing, 2009. One of 26 signed, lettered Deluxe copies in slipcase with two companion volumes, The Waters Deep, Deep, Deep and bound, photographic reproduction of the original hand-written manuscript for The Anubis Gates, not included with the trade or Slipcased editions. Slipcase and Anubis Gates volume very slightly bumped, otherwise Fine/Fine. Non-fiction with additional fictional material included.
Priest, Cherie. Clementine. Subterranean Press, 2010.
Reilly, John. The Painted Word: Paintings by John Reilly. Cross Publishing, 2008. Trade paperback original, NF, slightly bumped and bent in center. Art book.
Rucker, Rudy. Hylozoic. Tor, 2009.
Sadler, Jeff, editor. Twentieth Century Western Writers: Second Edition. St. James Press, 1991. Ex-library copy., otherwise Fine-, sans dust jacket.
Schmitz, James A. The Demon Breed. Ace (SFBC), 1968. First hardback edition, a Fine/Fine- with a trace of edgewear.
Silverberg, Robert. The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume Five: The Palace at Midnight. Subterranean Press, 2010. LEB
Silverberg, Robert. The Last Song of Orpheus. Subterranean Press, 2010. On of 200 signed, leatherbound copies.
Summers, Rev. Montague. The Vampire: His Kith and Kin. E. P. Dutton, 1929. First U.S. edition, VG, lacks dust jacket. Non-fiction.
Straub, Peter. The Juniper Tree. Subterranean Press, 2010. Signed, limited edition. LEB
Straub, Peter. The Juniper Tree. Subterranean Press, 2010. Trade edition. LEB
Stross, Charles. The Fuller Memorandum. Ace, 2010.
Stross, Charles. Toast. Wyrm Publishing, 2010. First limited edition and first edition thus, signed, with new material. LEB
Pringle, David, ed. The St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost, and Gothic Writers. St. James, 1998. Ex-Library copy, otherwise NF.
Wells, H. G. The World of William Clissold. Published by Ernest Benn (UK) 1926. Three volumes, one of 198 copies signed by Wells on the title page. Full description here.
Vance, Jack. The Complete Dying Earth. SFBC, 1998. First omnibus edition.
Vance, Jack. Ports of Call/Lurulu. SFBC, 2004. First omnibus edition.
Vance, Jack. Sjambak. Wildside Press, 2010. Chapbook. (There seem to be multiple copies of this title from multiple POD publishers this year, so I’m unclear on the publishing precedence. I suspect that Vance failed to file a renewal, allowing the work to slip into the public domain, which is why it can be found at Project Gutenberg.)
VandeerMeer, Jeff, ed.. Last Drink Bird Head. Wyrm Publishing, 2010.
Wolfe, Gene. The Best of Gene Wolfe. Tor, 2009.
Wolfe, Gene. Home Fires: Tor, 2011. Uncorrected proof, trade paperback format. Details here.
Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn. False Dawn. Doubleday, 1978. NF/NF copy, signed by Yarbro.
Previous posts on my library:
A more comprehensive look at my library can be found here.
A previous list of library additions from January to June 2010 is here.
A previous list of library additions from December 2009 to January 2010 can be found here.
Here’s a list of books I picked up on a book-hunting trip to Archer City and Denton.
Tags:Aldous Huxley, Arkham House, Book Collecting, Books, Bradford M. Day, Chad Oliver, Cherie Priest, Clive Barker, Cory Doctorow, first editions, Frederik Pohl, Gene Wolfe, Greg Egan, Harry Harrison, Jack Vance, Jay Lake, Joe R. Lansdale, John Brunner, Leigh Brackett, Library, Mitch Cullin, Paolo Bacigalupi, postcyberpunk, Professional Library, Ray Bradbury, Robert Coover, Robert Jackson Bennett, Rudy Rucker, Science Fiction, Sherlock Holmes, Stephen King, Ted Chiang, Tim Powers
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction | 2 Comments »
Monday, July 26th, 2010
Clark Ashton Smith
Out of Space and Time
Original Edition: Arkham House, 1942
Current Edition: Free online at The Eldritch Dark
Believe it or not, there are a few important SF/F/H first editions I don’t own (yet), and Clark Ashton Smith’s Out of Space and Time (the third book published by Arkham House) is used to be one of them. [Update: See here.] But since all of the stories in it are available online at The Eldritch Dark (a site dedicated to Smith’s work), I’ve been reading them one at a time between other things. This collection both confirms why I love Smith (either you like Smith’s ultraviolet prose style, or you don’t), and illustrates why you can’t really make a steady diet of him (a certain sameness of tone, overly passive protagonists, and very similar plots and outcomes (if you’re the protagonist in a CAS story, your chances of not being consumed by something horrible are pretty slim)). The best stories in here are extremely good. “The City of the Singing Flame” provides a great sense of wonder with its transport to an alien city centered around the mysterious singing flame of the title. “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis” is a very effective story of an archeological expedition on Mars gone wrong. And the Averoigne stories, which I already read in A Rendezvous in Averoigne, are all quite good.
But not everything in here is great. For example, “The Monster of Prophecy” is a deeply tedious story of a man transported to another world to act as a pawn in fulfilling an ancient prophecy; far too much time is spent on the setup and transition.
But overall Smith is still great fun to read, and I doubt he ever gave a moment’s thought to the possibility of “going too far” to establish a mood. Just look at the full-bore mood piece of ”From the Crypts of Memory”, with its final line “We knew the years as a passing of shadows, and death itself as the yielding of twilight unto night.”
If you like H. P. Lovecraft, Jack Vance, or Michael Shea (to name three obvious points of comparison), you should probably give Clark Ashton Smith a try.
Tags:Arkham House, Clark Ashton Smith, Fantasy, Horror, Online Fiction, Science Fiction
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