Posts Tagged ‘James Blish’

Library Additions: Unsigned Books Bought from Dreamheaven

Monday, May 4th, 2020

I was in Minneapolis in early March (right before everything went into lockdown), and I had a chance to drop by Dreamhaven Books and pick up a few things. Here are the unsigned books I bought.

  • Blish, James. Black Easter. Doubleday, 1968. An Ex-library copy I bought for $4 for the quite bright Near Fine+ dust jacket to marry to another copy.
  • Dick, Philip K. Mary and the Giant. Arbor House, 1987. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. For some reason I ended up with a copy of the UK first edition and the Ultramarine Press leather-bound-with-the-cancelled check edition, but never picked up the American trade edition (the true first) until now. Precious Artifacts, MS5.2. Bought for $20.
  • Dozois, Gardner. The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection. St. Martin’s, 2013. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Bought for cover price minus 20%. The remaining volumes I lack are 15, 23, 24, 27 and 28.
  • Martin, George R. R. Nightflyers. Bluejay Books, no date (but 1985). First edition uncorrected proof of the trade paperback original, a Near Fine+ copy with blue bunching along front spine (not uncommon among proofs), and a 1″ square dragon stamp in red at top right corner of half title page. Bought for I think $16.

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    Library Addition: First Hardback Edition of James Blish’s A Case of Conscience

    Thursday, October 25th, 2018

    Sometimes you take a chance that pays off:

    Blish, James. A Case of Conscience. Faber and Faber Limited, 1959. First hardback edition (“First published mcmlix” on copyright page, as per Currey), a Very Good copy with spine lean and dust soiling along top, in a Very Good dust jacket with a 1″ closed tear along top front and moderate dust soiling to white rear cover, and slight rubbing and wear at points. All in all, better condition than I expected from a description of “Good”. Hugo winner for Best Novel. The first volume in the After Such Knowledge thematic trilogy. Currey (1979), page 40. Pringle, SF 100 26. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, page 36. Locke, Science Fiction First Editions, pages 19-20. Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 4, 3-21 (referencing the Ballantine PBO). Magill, Survey of Science Fiction Literature, pages 303-307. Bought for £60.63 from an online UK book dealer know more for quantity than quality, which is why it was a risk, but just slightly better copies list for over a grand. Supplements a copy of the Walker first U.S. hardback edition.

    This is the last “difficult” Hugo winner in hardback for the period I collect (through 2014), which means I only lack Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, first editions of which are hardly difficult to come by.

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

    Tuesday, February 16th, 2016

    Cold Tonnage Books had a sale where all £10 books were £5, so I picked up a fair number. This post covers fiction titles.

  • Aylett, Steve. The Inflatable Volunteer. Phoenix House, 1999. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with a publicity postcard signed by Aylett laid in.
  • Aylett, Steve. Toxicology. Gollancz, 2002. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with a postcard laid in.
  • Blish, James. A Dusk of Idols and Other Stories. Severn House, 1996. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
  • Constantine, Storm. The Monstrous Regiment. Orbit, 1989. Trade paperback original, a Fine- copy with a touch of edgewear at head and heel, signed by Constantine.
  • Ellison, Harlan. Edgeworks 2: Spider Kiss/Stalking the Nightmare. White Wolf, 1996. First edition hardback omnibus thus, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. When the Edgeworks series first came out, I didn’t pick them up because I already had all the individual works they contained. But at £5 it’s worth picking up for title variant completeness…
  • Newman, Kim. Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles. Titan Books, 2011. Fine, signed by Newman.

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    Library Additions: A Random Collection of Signed Books

    Monday, December 23rd, 2013

    I’ve been on a bit of a kick buying out-of-print SF first editions signed cheap. I saw all of these in a major book dealer’s online catalog and thought they were worth picking up, especially since three of the authors are no longer with us. Now I need to put these up so I can catalog the huge haul of books in Denton I picked up this weekend…

  • (Blish, James) Stableford, Brian M. A Clash of Symbols:The Triumph of James Blish. Borgo Press, 1979. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket (somewhat uncommon for Borgo, who usually went for plasticized decorated boards for their hardbacks), #17 of 62 signed/numbered copies signed by Stableford. Bought for $28. Non-fiction critical work, part of the Milford series, which I pick up in hardback when I chance across them for authors I’m interested in.
  • Campbell, Ramsey. Scared Stiff: Tales of Sex and Death. Scream Press, 1987. First edition hardback, #130 of 250 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued, in a Fine slipcase. Bought for $20. I’m sort of collecting a complete Scream Press collection, but it’s fairly low on my list of priorities…
  • Clement, Hal. Small Changes. Doubleday, 1969. First edition hardback, a Near Fine+ copy with blindstamp on title page and crimping at head and heel, in a Near Fine- dust jacket with dust soiling to white background and a small closed tear and associated wrinkle to top front flap. Signed “”Hal Clement” (Harry C. Stubbs)”. Not overly common these days. Bought for $28. I’m trying to collect the complete Hal Clement, and have come pretty far in doing so (though finding the Ballantine hardback of Cycle of Fire is really, really tough). Hal came to Armadillocon one year, and not only did he sign a bunch of my books, I actually ended up giving him a ride to and from the con’s BBQ dinner, where we talked about his days flying B-24 Liberators in World War II.
  • Harrison, Harry. Skyfall. Faber & Faber, 1976. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed and dated (“82”) by Harrison. Bought for $20. I had four books signed by Harrison at (I think) Sercon 2, which it took him less than 10 seconds to sign “H. H.” in each. People tell me that Harrison’s signature got significantly longer if you bought him a drink…
  • Tucker, Wilson. Ice and Iron. Doubleday, 1974. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with edgewear at head and heel, with review slip laid in. Inscribed by Tucker: “For Dave, at Nashville,/Wilson Bob Tucker/May 19, 1979”. Tucker was famous both as a writer and as a noted fan.

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    The Top Ten Books on my “Books Wanted” List

    Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

    I may have mentioned that I have a large library. I started out collecting “hypermodern” (which in my case meant “post-Neuromancer“) science fiction (with some fantasy and horror works and authors thrown in for good measure), and once I had collected everything I wanted there, I started going after every important post-World War II SF work. That collection is by no means complete, but I’ve made considerable progress toward it.

    With that in mind, I recently compiled a list of the top ten hardback first editions on my (considerably larger) want list that I was most interested in picking up. Here it is:

    1. James Blish’s A Case of Conscience (Faber & Faber)
    2. Robert E. Howard’s The Sword of Conan (Gnome Press)
    3. Robert E. Howard’s The Coming of Conan (Gnome Press)
    4. Alfred Bester’s Tiger! Tiger! (Sidgwick & Jackson)
    5. Philip K. Dick’s Dr. Bloodmoney (Gregg Press)
    6. R. A. Lafferty’s With Horns on Their Head (Pendragon Press HB)
    7. R. A. Lafferty’s Funnyfingers & Cabrito (Pendragon Press HB)
    8. Jack Vance’s Book of Dreams (Underwood/Miller)
    9. Manly Wade Wellman’s Giants from Eternity (Avalon)
    10. Richard Matheson’s Born of Man and Woman (Chamberline Press)

    These are all books that I not only want, but think I have a reasonable shot at picking up at a price I can afford. There are lots of first editions priced like Unobtanium (Stanley G. Weinbaum’s Dawn of Flame, H. P. Lovecraft’s The Outsider and Others, the Unwin-Hyman true firsts of all three books in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, etc.) that i would pick up if I saw cheap, but don’t expect to come across.

    Anyway, if you have nice copies any of the above, and if you’re willing to sell it to me considerably cheaper than can be found on Bookfinder.com, drop me an email at lawrenceperson@gmail.com and I’ll consider it.

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