Archive for the ‘Science Fiction’ Category

Library Additions: Two John Sladek First Editions

Thursday, September 1st, 2016

The second-to-last post cataloging books I got from the Cold Tonnage 40% off sale:

  • Sladek, John. Black Aura. Jonathan Cape, 1974. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Currey, page 450. Mystery novel. Bought for £9 after discount.

    Black Aura

  • Sladek, John (as Richard A. Tilms) The Judgement of Jupiter. New English Library, 1980. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Ostensibly non-fiction, this is, like Arachne Rising (which I also have) a spoof of pseudoscience. Bought for £9 after discount.

    Judgement of Jupiter

  • Library Additions: Five Items in Wraps

    Wednesday, August 31st, 2016

    Still more items from the Cold Tonnage 40% off sale. The only characteristic they share is that all are paperbound of one sort or another, but none are standard trade paperbacks or mass market paperbacks.

  • Aldiss, Brian. Science Fiction Blues With Brian Aldiss. Avernus, 2000. First edition oversized chapbook original (A4 sized), a Fine- copy with a slight bit of bend on the left side. Program for some sort of Aldiss reading or performance, which also happens to contain three original Aldiss stories as well as other material. Odd little item. Bought for £3 after discount.

    Aldiss SF Blues

  • Ferret, Tim: We Murder. Morrigan Publications/The Dog Factory, 1994. First edition center-stapled chapbook original, #165 of 200 signed, numbered copies (though the limitation sheet, slightly smaller than the chapbook itself, has merely been laid in, not attached, presumably as issued), a Fine copy. According to Cold Tonnage: “This was the last book(let) to be published by Morrigan Press and got very little (if no) distribution.” Chalker/Owings (2002), page 557, where they note “The 1994 Ferret chapbook was a surprise, but the fact that checks were made out to [Morrigan owner Les] Escott personally and the chapbook was typeset from Ferret’s The Dog Factory in San Francisco and printed in New Zealand (!) doesn’t suggest a really major reinvolvement and seems an aberration.” Bought for £3 after discount.

    Ferret We Murder

    Lewis, Anthony R. An Annotated Bibliography Of Recursive Science Fiction. NESFA Press, 1986. First edition oversized 8 1/2″ x 11″ center-stapled chapbook original, a Fine copy. Non-fiction reference work. Bought for £3 after discount.

    Recursive SF

  • Lupoff, Richard. Nebogipfel At The End Of Time. Underwood/Miller, 1979. First edition, tiny oblong (5 1/2″ wide by 4 1/4″ long) side-stapled chapbook, one of 300 copies printed, a Fine copy. According to Chalker/Owings, there are 15 different color covers; this one is beige. Supposedly a Cthulhu Mythos story, but not in Ernest or Harms. Chalker/Owings (2002), page 900. Bought for £4.80 after discount.

    Nebogipfel

  • Sotheby’s Catalogue: Science Fiction Art, Books And Related Memorabilia b/w Sotheby’s Catalogue: Comic Books and Comic Art. Sotheby’s, 1995. First edition oversize illustrated pictorial covers, a Fine copy. Illustrated color catalogue for the June 16/17, 1995, Comic Books And Comic Art and Science Fiction books auctions. Unfortunately for my purposes, there’s a lot more comic book and art material than SF first editions. Bought for £6 after discount.

    Sotheby's SF catalog 1995

  • Library Addition: Two First Editions

    Tuesday, August 30th, 2016

    No theme, just two more hardback first editions I added from the Cold Tonnage 40% off sale from two writers whose last names begin with W:

  • Watson, Ian. Miracle Visitors. Gollancz, 1978. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Pringle, SF 100 85. Bought for £24 after discount.

    Watson Miracle Visitors

  • Wells, H. G. The Camford Visitation. Methuen, 1937. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Near Fine dust jacket with slight spine darkening and shallow chipping at head. It’s probably foolish to try to assemble a collection of H.G. Wells first editions at this late date, but I do try to pick up true firsts in nice dust jackets and/or signed when they’re cheap enough. H. G. Wells: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 130. Currey, page 517. Bought for £36 after discount.

    Camford Visitation

  • Library Addition: Signed First Edition of Clark Ashton Smith’s The Double Shadow

    Monday, August 29th, 2016

    Just a few days after picking up Clark Ashton Smith’s Out of Space and Time for $399, I was able to pick up another important Clark Ashton Smith book at a bargain price. And this one is signed!

    Smith, Clark Ashton. The Double Shadow. Auburn Journal Print, 1933. First edition oversized (8 1/2″ x 11 1/2″, about the size of a sheet music) side-stapled chapbook, a Very Good copy with light crease to bottom corner, bottom staple starting to go, page 19 torn most of the way through in the center (but still intact) and general wear. Inscribed by the author: “With compliments of Clark Ashton Smith.” There are also several hand corrections by Smith in blue ink. Smith’s first collection of prose. Currey, page 453. Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction, 1483. Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy, page 200. Emperor of Dreams, page 183. Bought off eBay (after a bit of haggling) for $220. I did not previously have anything signed by Smith.

    Double Shadow

    Double Shadow sig

    Library Additions: Five Signed First Editions

    Thursday, August 25th, 2016

    Five more books from the Cold Tonnage 40% off sale, all first editions and all signed:

  • Langford, David. The Dragonhiker’s Guide To Battlefield Covenant At Dune’s Edge: Odyssey Two. Drunken Dragon Press, 1988. First edition hardback, one of 903 trade hardback copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Inscribed by Langford: “For Alison, without whom this inscription could not have/been written—/Best wishes/David Langford/11-88”. Science fiction parodies and pastiches. Chalker/Owings, page 193. Bought for £9 after discount.

    Dragonhikers

    IMG_0901

  • Lee, Tanith. East of Midnight. Macmillan (UK), 1977. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed and dated 2008 by Lee. Bought for £18 after discount.

    Lee East of Midnight

    IMG_0893

  • Sheckley, Robert. Notions Unlimited. Bantam Books, 1960. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine copy with slight wear at head and heel. Signed by Sheckley. Currey, page 433. Bought for £4.80 after discount.

    Sheckley Notions

    IMG_0885

  • Stapledon. Olaf (Sam Moskowitz, editor). Far Future Calling: Uncollected Science Fictions and fantasies of Olaf Stapledon Oswald Train, 1979. First edition hardback, one of 1,300 copies printed, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with just of trace of rubbing on front cover along gutter line. Signed by Moscowitz and artist Stephen Fabian. Previously uncollected stories, plus a long bio by Moskowitz. Chalker/Owings, pages 607-8. Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy 2, page 104. Bought for £18 after discount.

    Far Future Calling

    IMG_0906

  • Whates, Ian and Ian Watson, editors. Shoes, Ships and Cadavers: Tales from North Londonshire. NewCon Press, 2010. First edition hardback, #48 of 50 signed, numbered copies signed by all the contributors (including introduction author Alan Moore), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. The combination of the low print run and being signed by Moore enticed me into buying it. Bought for £12 after discount.

    Shoes Ships Antho

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  • Library Additon: Three Jack Vance Firsts, One Signed

    Tuesday, August 23rd, 2016

    More books from the Cold Tonnage 40% off sale, three Vance firsts (one signed) I either didn’t have or didn’t have in these particular forms:

  • Queen, Ellery (here a pseudonym for Jack Vance). The Madman Theory. Pocket Books, 1966. Signed by Vance. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine+ copy with traces of wear to extremities and slight foxing to inside cover edges. Hewett, A25. Currey, page 499. Supplements a signed copy of the later first hardback printing. Bought for £15 after discount.

    Madman Theory PBO

  • Vance, Jack. Monsters in Orbit. Dennis Dobson, 1977. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Hewett, A20b. Currey, page 499. Bought for £30 after discount.

    Monsters in Orbit

  • Vance, Jack. The Seventeen Virgins. Underwood/Miller, 1979. First edition trade paperback chapbook original, one of 600 copies, a Fine copy. Hewett, A58. Supplements a copy of the combined hardback edition of The Seventeen Virgins & The Bagful of Dreams. Bought for £18 after discount.

    Seventeen Virgins

  • Library Addition: First Edition of Clark Ashton Smith’s Out of Space and Time

    Monday, August 22nd, 2016

    The hits keep coming! We interrupt our cataloging of the Cold Tonnage 40% off sale to catalog this exceptional item I picked up off eBay at an exceptional price:

    Smith, Clark Ashton. Out of Space and Time. Arkham House, 1942. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with slight bumping to bottom corner points and slight bend at head and heel, in a Very Good+ dust jacket with yellowing tape at head, heel and top points and the usual age darkening of the spine lettering (turning it from pale green to off-white), plus extremely slight wear at edges; despite the flaws, this is actually an intact and attractive specimen of the dust jacket. The third Arkham House book published and, with only 1,054 copies printed, the smallest print run among all Arkham House titles until Leah Bodine Drake’s partially subsidized poetry collection A Hornbook for Witches (with a print run of 553 copies) in 1950. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House, 3. Derleth, Thirty Years of Arkham House, 3. Jaffery, Horrors and Unpleasantries, 3. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 3. Sidney-Fryer, Emperor of Dreams, page 183. The Tales of Clark Ashton Smith: A Bibliography, page 1. Currey, page 453. Chalker/Owings, page 21. Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 290. Bleiler, Checklist of Science-Fiction and Supernatural Fiction, page 252 (1948), page 181 (1978), Bleiler, Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 1484. Barron, Horror Literature 3-182. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, page 200-201 (he had Fryer’s inscribed copy!). Bought off eBay for $399.

    CAS Space and Time

    Of the many books Arkham House published by Clark Ashton Smith, I now own:

  • Out of Space and Time
  • Lost Worlds
  • Tales of Science and Sorcery
  • Poems in Prose
  • Other Dimensions
  • Selected Poems
  • The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith, and
  • A Rendezvous in Averoigne
  • However, I still lack

  • Genius Loci and Other Tales
  • The Dark Chateau
  • Spells and Philtres
  • The Abominations of Yondo
  • Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith
  • Note that, barring postal delays, I should be blogging about another notable Clark Ashton Smith acquisition in the near future…

    Star Wars Rogue One Trailer Meets Beastie Boys “Sabotage”

    Saturday, August 20th, 2016

    Really, what action film trailer isn’t improved by “Sabotage”?

    I’m pretty sure the use of it in the Star Trek: Beyond trailer probably added a good $5-10 million to that film’s gross. But I suspect Disney doesn’t have the audacity to follow Star Trek and pony up money to make this an official trailer…

    Bold Statements from Barry Malzberg

    Thursday, August 18th, 2016

    I missed it when it was originally up, but I thought this provocative Barry Malzberg essay on Judith Merril originally in Galaxy’s Edge (and now available through the wayback machine) was worth quoting:

    A decent writer and a highly intelligent person, she did the field more damage than Raymond Palmer or Roger Corman, Ed Earl Repp or Ed Wood. The field certainly survived, it had demonstrated the pre-Lucas capacity to survive anything, but it was irreversibly damaged.

    It was irreversibly damaged because Merril’s influence in those years was great, and she was on a methodical, hardly understated campaign to tear down the walls and destroy the category. As a failed mainstream writer who had essentially been rescued by her friends Theodore Sturgeon and Philip J. Klass, and pointed toward commercial writing, Merril was determined to find another way into the mainstream. And if that involved rupturing or destroying science fiction, well, that would be collateral damage.

    I don’t know enough about Merril to comment. But love him or hate him, Malzberg has always been a provocative and informed critic of the field. And his opinions are a regular feature of Galaxy’s Edge.

    You might consider subscribing.

    Library Addition: Signed First Edition of Ray Bradbury’s The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit

    Tuesday, August 16th, 2016

    The very same day that I bought a bunch of books from the Fred Duarte estate, Cold Tonnage books in the UK had their annual 40% off sale. (As an added bonus, the post-Brexit exchange rate was quite favorable as well.) Here’s the first item from that sale.

    Bradbury, Ray. The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit. Hart-Davis MacGibbon, 1973. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Near Fine, corner-clipped (but otherwise fine) dust jacket. (Sadly, corner-slipped copies seem the norm for this title.) Signed by Bradbury. Collection of plays. Bought for £45 after discount.

    Ice Cream Suit

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