Someone had a lot of eleven Ray Bradbury firsts listed on eBay for $420, and accepted a $300 offer. These are the ones going into my library (two replacing unsigned copies), the rest will be offered for sale in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Archive for October, 2022
Library Additions: Six Signed Ray Bradbury Firsts
Monday, October 10th, 2022Library Addition: First Edition of Robert A. Heinlein’s Rocket Ship Galileo
Thursday, October 6th, 2022I am slowly gathering a complete collection of Robert A. Heinlein first editions. Rocket Ship Galileo, his very first, was one that got too expensive for me to pick up for a long time, and all that were listed online where either well over a grand, or fairly crummy copies they still wanted close to a grand for. So I waited, and was finally able to snag a pretty nice copy in my price range.
Heinlein, Robert A. Rocket Ship Galileo. Scribner’s, 1947. First edition hardback (Scribner’s seal and “A” printing code, as per Currey), a Near Fine copy with non-authorial inscription on FFE and mild blocks of foxing to inner covers and endpapers, in a Near Fine first state (unclipped $2.00 price) dust jacket with a pinhead-sized hole near heel and spine fading, and a tiny bit of wrinkling to bottom rear flap, otherwise a bright, vibrant example of the dust jacket. It’s a really attractive copy, and because the area of the hole and the board color are both dark, it doesn’t jump out at you. Currey, page 234. Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy, page 109 (he calls for “light yellow” endpapers, but these are really more of a light tan). Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 4, *5-62. Franklin, Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction, pages 75-76. Not in 333. Not in Magill’s Survey of Science Fiction Literature. Bought off a fellow Biblio dealer for $360.
Library Addition: Joe Hill’s NOS4A2
Wednesday, October 5th, 2022Another Half Price Books find:
Hill, Joe. NOS4A2. HarperCollins, 2013. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a slight bit of crimping at head and heel. Magic girl vs. Rolls Royce-driving vampire. Basis of a TV show. Bought for $13.04.
Library Addition: Library of America’s H.P. Lovecraft Tales
Tuesday, October 4th, 2022This was one of my rare impulse purchases. I chanced across it looking for something else, saw it was at an attractive price, made an offer at even lower price, and picked it up.
Lovecraft, H. P. (Peter Straub, editor). Tales. Library of America, 2005. First edition hardback (and First printing stated), a Fine copy in a Fine subscribers copy slipcase, sans dust jacket, as issued. Has just about every one of Lovecraft’s greatest hits. Bought off eBay for a make offer price of $15.
Halloween Horrors: Caving Gone Wrong
Saturday, October 1st, 2022What can go wrong when exploring the deepest cave on earth?
Plenty.
This is a really gripping scary story, and somebody should make it into a movie.