Somebody was selling off what seemed to be a pretty complete Jack Vance collection on eBay, and I took the opportunity to bid on some signed copies, including these two I won:
Vance, Jack. Maske: Thaery. Berkley, 1976. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Very Good+ dust jacket with shallow chipping at head and a few other nicks. Signed by Jack Vance. Hewett, A52. Won off eBay for $40.96.
Vance, Jack. Gold and Iron. Underwood-Miller, 1982. First edition hardback, one of 200 copies signed by Vance, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Originally published in paperback original as Slaves of the Klau. Supplements the trade edition. Hewett, A9e. Won off eBay for $81.
Still more books from the Cold Tonnage 40% off sale:
(Aldiss, Brian)(Frank Hatherly, editor, with Margaret Aldiss and Malcom Edwards). A is for Brian: A 65th Birthday Present. Avernus, 1990. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine- copy with very slight wear at points. Signed by Aldiss. A festschrift put together by Aldiss’ friends, with tributes by J.G. Ballard, Michael Moorcock, Robert Silverberg, etc. Bought for £18 after discount. I also have festschrifts for John Clute (Polder) and Moorcock (Moorcock@60).
Gevers, Nick, editor. Postscripts 34/35: Breakout. PS Publishing, 2015. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Volume in the long-running anthology series. Includes two posthumous Steven Utley collaborations (among other works). Bought for £12 after discount.
Leiber, Fritz. The Pale Brown Thing. Swan River Press, 2016. First edition hardback, one of only 350 hardback copies, a Fine copy in decorated boards and a Fine dust jacket, with a postcard reprinting the cover of F&SF the story originally appeared in laid in. In addition to the story, there are extensive notes about how Leiber expanded the story into his novel Our Lady of Darkness. Bought for £16.80 after discount. There were plenty of scans of the dust jacket on the Internet, but none of the book itself, so the scan below shows the cover of the book itself (which, oddly enough, has no printing on the spine).
MacLeod, Ian R. Hector Douglas Makes a Sale. PS Publishing, 2011. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy. Signed by MacLeod. Freebie given away at the 2011 Eastercon to promote MacLeod’s forthcoming collection Wake Up and Dream. Bought for £3 after discount.
Russell, Eric Frank. Dark Tides. Bristol Press Dobson, 1962. First edition hardback, a Very Good+ copy with two Australian ownership stamps (one for “McGill’s Agency Book Department;” possibly a literary agent’s copy) along with the number “2456” written in ink on the FFE and the same number written in ink on the half-title page, in a Near Fine- price-clipped dust jacket with wear at head, heel and points. Short story collection. Currey (1979), page 423. Bought for £30 after discount.
Reynolds, Alastair. Pushing Ice. Gollancz, 2005. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. One of the few Reynolds novels I didn’t manage to snag when it first came out. Bought for £24 after discount.
Cooper, James. In Conversation: A Writer’s Perspective: Volume One: Horror. British Fantasy Society, 2009. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Interviews with various horror writers, including Joe R. Lansdale, Graham Joyce, Ray Garton, etc. Bought for £9 after discount.
Hendrix, Grady. Paperbacks From Hell: The twisted History of ’70s and ’80s Horror Fiction. Quirk Books, 2017. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Oversized illustrated trade paperback popular history of horror paperbacks of the 1970s and 80s, broken up by theme. Lacks key bibliographic information about the books covered, alas. Bought for £10.80 after discount.
Four more books from that Cold Tonnage 40% off sale, all Michael Moorcock firsts:
Moorcock, Michael. A Cornelius Calendar. Phoenix House, 1993. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Jerry Cornelius omnibus that includes four novels (The Adventures of Una Persson and Catherine Cornelius in the Twentieth Century, The Entropy Tango, Gold Diggers of 1977 (AKA The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle), and The Alchemist’s Question (AKA The Opium General)). First hardback edition of Gold Diggers of 1977/The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle, originally published in tabloid newspaper format (which I also have). Bought for £12 after discount.
Moorcock, Michael. Jerusalem Commands. Jonathan Cape, 1992. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Colonel Pyat novel. Bought for £9 after discount.
Moorcock, Michael. Moorcock’s Book of Martyrs. Quartet Books, 1976. First edition paperback a original, a Fine copy save for slight page yellowing (endemic to many UK books of this era). Short story collection. No hardback edition. Currey (1979), page 371. Tanelorn Archives, page 25. Bought for £6 after discount.
Moorcock, Michael. My Experiences in the Third World War. Savoy Books, 1980. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy save the slight page yellowing. Signed by Moorcock. Short story collection. Bought for £9 after discount.
Cold Tonnage Books had their annual 40% off sale, so here’s the first batch of books I picked up, all related either to H.P. Lovecraft or Arkham House.
Datlow, Ellen, editor. Lovecraft’s Monsters. Tachyon Press, 2014. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Signed by Datlow. Mostly reprints, with a couple of originals. Bought for £6 after discount.
Derleth, August. The Chronicles of Solar Pons. Mycroft & Moran, 1973. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a thin line of wear at the very bottom of the heel. Collection of Derleth’s Sherlockian Solar Pons stories from Arkham House’s sister imprint. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House, M&M15, page 183. Jaffrey, Horrors and Unpleasantries, 128. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, M15, page 154. Bought for £9 after discount.
Lovecraft, H.P. and Willis Conover. Lovecraft at Last. Carrollton-Clark, 1975. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Oversized volume that reprints the correspondence between Lovecraft and the then-teen-aged Conover, some in two-color facsimile. Joshi, H. P. Lovecraft: An Annotated Bibliography, I-A-62. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 91, who note that Conover lost tens of thousands of dollars on the project. Bought for £24 after discount.
(Lovecraft, H.P.) S.T. Joshi. An Index to the Selected Letters of H. P. Lovecraft. Necronomicon Press, 1980. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy. Reference work. Joshi, H. P. Lovecraft: An Annotated Bibliography, Supplement C-III, page 412. Bought for £12 after discount.
Wakfield, H.R. Strayers From Sheol. Arkham House, 1961. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with just a trace of dust soiling to the white cover (exaggerated in the scan). Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House, 60. Jaffrey, Horrors and Unpleasantries, 60. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 63. Bleiler, Supernatural Horror in Literature, 1647. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 30. Bought for £30 after discount.
All of these books were bought at Half Price Books, and the majority of them came from the Karen Meshcke/Fred Duarte collection(s).
Baker, Kage. Black Projects, White Knights. Golden Gryphon, 2002. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with just a trace of edgewear at head, heel and points. Inscribed by Baker: “For Fred/Kage Baker.” Short story collection. Baker died at age 57 of an aggressive form of cancer in 2010. Supplements an unsigned copy. Bought for $5.
Bear, Greg. W3: Women in Deep Time. iBooks, 2002. First edition paperback original, a Fine copy. Bought for $3.49.
Effinger, George Alec. Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson. SWAN Press, 1993. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Inscribed by Effinger: “To Fred & Karen,/Con Mucho Loved!/George Alec Effinger (Yer Pal)”. Signed by introduction author Mike Resnick. Inscribed by artist Peggy Ransom: “To Fred & Meschke,/Come see us often!/And we’ll Frankie & Johnny again,/best,/Peggy Ransom.” Effinger was co-Guest of Honor at Armadillocon 4 in 1982, and a frequent Armadillocon attendee. George died in 2002 at age 55. Replaces a signed copy in my library. Bought for $4.99.
Oliver, Chad. Unearthly Neighbors. Crown SF Classics, 1984. First hardback edition (reprinting a Ballantine paperback from 1960), a Near Fine copy with red remainder mark at head in a Fine- dust jacket with a few touches of wear. Inscribed by Oliver: “10/7/88/To Meschke/All best/Chad Oliver.” Chad was the dean of Austin science fiction writers and the former chairman of UT’s Department of anthropology. The date indicates he signed this during Armadillocon 10, where Duarte and Meschke were co-chairs. Chad died in 1993. Supplements a Fine/Fine unsigned copy. Bought for $4.99.
Sladek, John. Bugs. Macmillian (UK), 1989. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy in a Fine-dust jacket with some wear at heel. Signed by Sladek. Bought for $5.
Stableford, Brian. Swan Songs. Big Engine, 2003 (but see below). First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Omnibus edition containing six Hooded Swan novels (Halcyon Drift, Rhapsody in Black, Promised Land, The Paradise Game, The Fenris Device, and Swan Song), the last two of which were previously published only as paperback originals. ISFDB says that SFBC produced this edition, which I can believe, given the trim size and the fact Big Engine (a short-lived UK small press SF publisher) only did trade paperbacks. The mystery is that the book seems much higher quality than the usual SFBC fair, with tight bindings and bright page blocks. Maybe they subcontracted with a different printer for this one.
Young, Jim. Armed Memory. Tor, 1995. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Inscribed by Young: “For Karen Meschke/ & Family/Jim Young/L.A./April 24, 2009.” Young died in 2012. Supplements an unsigned copy. Bought for $9.99.
Zahn, Timothy. Cascade Point. Bluejay Books, 1986. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Bought for $8.48.
Other signed books I bought there will be available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
I was only collecting trade editions of things when this came out, so I was happy to add this to my collection at a bargain price.
Lansdale, Joe. R. By Bizarre Hand. Mark V. Ziesing, 1989. First edition hardback, #347 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine slipcase. Supplements a trade copy. Bought from Half Price Books for $30 after the 50% off coupon.
Here’s a Roy Squires chapbook I spotted on eBay several weeks ago, waiting as the seller slowly lowered the price week by week before it fell into my price range:
Leiber, Fritz (and Jonquil Stephens). Sonnets To Jonquil and All. Roy A. Squires, 1978. First edition chapbook, #32 of 265 copies, a Fine copy in a Fine printed tissue dust wrapper with a Very Good- mailing envelope (slightly grubby and slit open at the top). Poems by and for Leiber’s late wife Jonquil Stephens. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 590. Not in Currey, though by period it should be. Bought off eBay for $37.
Received the trade edition earlier, but the limited finally came in:
Moorcock, Michael. Pegging the President. PS Publishing, 2018. First edition hardback, #71 of 100 signed, numbered copies (reportedly; production difficulties meant I got short shipped this for Lame Excuse Books, so there may be less than 100 copies existent), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, new and unread, with tissue paper protector for signature page laid in. A new Jerry Cornelius novella.
