Posts Tagged ‘Heritage Auctions’

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Library Addition: First Edition of H. G. Wells’ The Country of the Blind

Monday, April 24th, 2023

Back in February, I won a lot of 13 H. G. Wells first editions from Heritage Auctions for $1,200 including buyer’s fee. Prior purchases and tax season have prevented me from cataloging them until now. Wells is one of the most important (arguably the most important) science fiction writers of all time. So even though his work dates from a bit before the period I usually collect, and this is missing the two most important of his early science fiction novels (The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds), and when I have bought Wells firsts, I’ve usually stuck to either books signed by Wells or in dust jacket, I was happy to pick these up, and I’ll be cataloging Wells volumes over the next week or so.

I think all these volumes belonged to Gary Munson, as I found a sales slip to him in one of the books.

I’ve decided to list them alphabetically by title (which is how I’ll be filing them anyway), so first up is…

Wells, H. G. The Country of the Blind and Other Stories. Thomas Nelson and Sons, no date (but 1911). First edition hardback (as per Currey), a Very Good copy with a dime-sized, light black dot to center of front cover, slight wear to bottom boards, slight wear at tips, head and heel and small “Fiction ● 1855” written in two different colors of ink (black and blue) at the top of the inside front cover and check-marks and red underlining on table of contents, five lines of penciled bookseller notes on the back of the color frontispiece page, and a few other touches of wear, lacking the rare dust jacket. Short story collection, including five previously uncollected stories. Scheck and Cox, H. G. Wells: A Reference Guide, page XXV, which lists the five stories first published in book form here as “A Vision of Judgment,” “The Empire of the Ants,” “The Door in the Wall,” “The Beautiful Suit,” and “The Country of the Blind.” H. G. Wells: A Comprehensive Bibliography 42. Currey, page 517. Bleiler (1978), page 205. Oddly enough, Locke’s A Spectrum of Fantasy page 225 lists five different editions of The Country of the Blind, but not this true first.

I had to adjust the contrast a bit to bring out the embossing.

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Library Addition: Four Signed Robert Bloch Firsts

Monday, December 26th, 2022

This is the second Heritage Auctions lot I won this year, after the Clark Ashton Smith lot. And like that lot, these were from the Gary Munson Collection.

Warren Buffet once gave collecting advice to be willing to stretch yourself for desirable items, which is great advice…if you’re worth $110 billion. But I did stretch myself a tiny bit for this one, because I noticed something the auction house hadn’t.

  • Bloch, Robert. Midnight Pleasures. Doubleday, 1987. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, inscribed by Bloch: “Yours Truly, Robert Bloch!” Short story collection.

  • Bloch, Robert. The Opener of the Way. Arkham House, 1945. First edition hardback, a Near Fine+ copy with slight bumping at head and heel, slight wear in letters of spine, bookstore sticker to bottom of inner front cover, and a few touches of wear to boards, in a Near Fine- dust jacket with abrasion rub down right front fold edge, slight wear at head, slight loss at points, and slight dust soiling to rear cover, with auction sticker laid in, inscribed by Bloch: “To Charles R./Tanner with best wishes,/Robert Bloch, 1948.” What the people doing the Heritage description didn’t note (and possibly didn’t know) was that Charles R. Tanner was a fellow contemporary pulp writer (both had work in Amazing Stories), most famously of “Tumithak of the Corridors,” which appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Before the Golden Age. Flanagan, Robert Bloch: A Bio-Bibliography, page 49. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House 10. Currey, page 46. Derleth, Thirty Years of Arkham House 10. Jaffery, Horrors and Unpleasantries 10. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide 10 (also #23 on the Most Valuable list). Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy, page 36. Bleiler, Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 209. Chalker/Owings, pages 22-23. Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 299-300. I’d been looking for a signed copy of this for quite a while. (In fact, about a decade ago I negotiated with John Pelan for the copy inscribed to him after he needed to pay for unexpected cat surgery, but we couldn’t agree on a price.) As a signed copy it was probably above market, but as an association copy it was cheap. (For an association copy signed to Robert Bloch, see this.)

  • Bloch, Robert. Out Of My Head. NESFA Press, 1986. First edition hardback, #371 of 800 hardback copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Bloch. Chalker/Owings, page 303. Replaces an equally perfect unsigned copy in my collection.
  • Bloch, Robert. Psycho II. Whispers Press, 1982. First edition hardback, #516 of 750 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine slipcase. Supposedly very different than the movie of the same name. Supplements a trade edition. Chalker/Owings, page 476.

    • Bought for $630, including buyer’s premium.

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    Library Additions: Four Clark Ashton Smith, Three Arkhams, One Signed

    Monday, October 24th, 2022

    One of these came over from the same UK book dealer as the last few purchases, the other three came over in a Heritage Auctions lot I won from the Gary Munson Collection. Which was a surprise, since I hadn’t won a Heritage lot since 2016!

  • Smith, Clark Ashton. The Abominations of Yondo. Arkham House, 1960. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Really an excellent copy. Joshi, Schultz & Connors, Clark Ashton Smith: A Comprehensive Bibliography, I.15.a. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House 57. Derleth, Thirty Years of Arkham House 57. Jaffery, Horrors and Unpleasantries 57. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 60. Currey, page 453. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, page 200. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1487. Chalker/Owings, page 29. Bought as part of the Heritage lot.

  • Smith, Clark Ashton. Genius Loci and other tales. Arkham House, 1948. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with small owners name in ink on front free endpaper, moderate rubbing to letters on spine, an slight bumping at head and heel, in a Very Good+ dust jacket with 2″ of moderate dampstaining along rear join at heel, a much fainter example of same along head join, age darkening to spine, and general wear. The third Arkham House collection of Smith stories. Joshi, Schultz & Connors, Clark Ashton Smith: A Comprehensive Bibliography, I.a.11. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House 35. Derleth, Thirty Years of Arkham House 35. Jaffery, Horrors and Unpleasantries 35. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 36. Currey, page 453. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, page 200. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1486. Chalker/Owings, page 26. Kemp, The Anthem Series 35 (page 323). Bought as part of the Heritage lot.

  • Smith, Clark Ashton. Spells and Philtres. Arkham House, 1958. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight bump to top front corner and the barest trace of foxing to inside covers, in a Fine- dust jacket with slight age darkening to white portions of jacket, a few traces of dust soiling, and a trace of rubbing along front spine join near heel and at points. A really attractive copy of Smith’s first poetry collection from Arkham House. Joshi, Schultz & Connors, Clark Ashton Smith: A Comprehensive Bibliography, Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House 51. Derleth, Thirty Years of Arkham House 51. Jaffery, Horrors and Unpleasantries 51. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 54. Chalker/Owings, page 28. Bought from a notable UK dealer for £400.

  • Smith, Clark Ashton. The Star-Treader and other poems. A.M. Robinson/Philopolis Press, 1912. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with start of a crease to top of spine and slight bumping at heel, in a Fine- dust jacket with one short stray pencil mark on front cover near spine, one small, faint teardrop stain affecting “r” in Star and hyphen, signed “Clark Ashton Smith/Auburn, Cal./Nov. 25th, 1912, with printed portrait of Smith laid in. (There is also a small stray pen-mark matching Clark’s fountain pen signature color to bottom inside front cover, which I don’t regard as a flaw.) By far the best of the three copies of this book I’ve handled, and replaces a less attractive copy. Smith’s first published book. Joshi, Schultz & Connors, Clark Ashton Smith: A Comprehensive Bibliography I.1.a. Bought as part of the Heritage lot.

    Note: The bright white spot at top is merely a reflection off the Mylar dust jacket protector.

    • I will have more Clark Ashton Smith and Arkham House books available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.

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    H. P. Lovecraft Auction Watch

    Thursday, March 17th, 2016

    Multiple items of interest to the fanatical H.P. Lovecraft collector are coming up for auction soon:

  • A 31-page collaborative manuscript between Lovecraft and celebrated magician/escape artist Harry Houdini will come up for auction at Chicago’s Potter & Potter on April 9. It will start at an opening bid of $13,000, though the estimate is in the $25,000—$40,000 range. And it could go for a lot more, given that Houdini has his own fanatical collectors.

    • There are also numerous Lovecraft items, most from Stu Schiff’s collection, coming up at Heritage Auctions on April 6. Including:

  • Ten autographed letters from Lovecraft, totaling 46 pages, most of which remain unpublished. Bidding starts at $10,000.

  • An original typescript for Lovecraft’s story “The Festival”, with Lovecraft’s handwritten title page and hand-corrections. Bidding starts at $2,000.

  • A copy of the Visionary Publishing Shadow Over Innsmouth, with an errata sheet containing further hand-corrections by Lovecraft laid in. Current bid is $1000.

  • Donald Wandrei’s copy of The Outsider and Others, and probably the finest copy I’ve ever seen to boot. Current bid is $5,000.

  • They even have the passport of Sonia Haft Greene Lovecraft (to which he had a brief, unsuccessful marriage) which L. W. Currey offered up a while back. Current bid is $550.

    • If you’re a serious Lovecraft collector, April looks like it’s going to be quite expensive…

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    Another Heritage Book Auction Today

    Thursday, October 17th, 2013

    Heritage Auctions is having another of their signature book auctions today.

    It’s mostly non-science fiction offerings, but among the items up for auction:

  • A Secker and Warburg first of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
  • An inscribed first of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot.
  • An inscribed first of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game (which I actually consigned to this auction).

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    Prices Realized on SF Books in Heritage Auctions’ April 10 Offering

    Thursday, April 11th, 2013

    As a followup on my previous auction post, here are the prices realized on the items I highlighted in yesterday’s Heritage book auction. All prices include buyer’s premium:

  • Robert E. Howard’s original typewritten manuscript for the Conan story “A Witch Shall Be Born”, signed by Howard, went for $22,500.
  • A very nice first of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone went for a jaw-dropping $43,750.
  • A slightly tattered copy of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Outsider and Others went for $1,750.
  • A very nice copy of the Visionary publication of Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth went for $4,375.
  • Unbound signatures of the Recluse Press edition of The Shunned House went for $3,875.
  • 26 letters by H. G. Wells went for $8,125.
  • A signed first of Wells’ The War of the Worlds went for a staggering $35,000. I don’t think one of the 12 or so known copies of the Henry Holt (true 1st) edition of The Time Machine has gone for that.
  • A nice copy of Alfred Bester’s Tiger! Tiger! went for a mere $800, a comparative bargain, since I’ve seen copies sell in excess of $2,000.
  • A pretty good copy of Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light with a signature plate laid in went for $750.

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    Preview: SF First Editions in Heritage Auctions’ April 10th Offering

    Monday, April 8th, 2013

    Heritage Auctions has another signature book auction coming up on April 10, and there are several interesting SF/F/H first editions up for offer. Here’s a preview of a few:

  • Robert E. Howard’s original typewritten manuscript for the Conan story “A Witch Shall Be Born”, signed by Howard.
  • Yet another first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Heritage has auctioned off a number of these in the past, and they all seemed to go for over $20,000. This is a particularly nice copy.
  • A slightly tattered copy of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Outsider and Others.
  • Speaking of Lovecraft, there’s also a Visionary publication The Shadow Over Innsmouth. (Actually, there are two in this auction; that link goes to the nicer copy.)
  • Also from Lovecraft: Unbound signatures of the Recluse Press edition of The Shunned House. Making it even rarer is the fact that the copyright page remains uncanceled.
  • 26 letters by H. G. Wells.
  • Speaking of Wells, here’s a signed first of The War of the Worlds. (Related: The signed H. G. Wells book I own.)
  • A nice copy of Alfred Bester’s Tiger Tiger.
  • A nice copy of Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light, with a signature plate laid in.

    • Plus a few other miscellaneous SF items. However, the main strength of the auction overall is a number important scientific first editions, a signed first of ian Fleming’s Moonraker, etc.

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    Book Acquisition: Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow

    Wednesday, November 7th, 2012

    Nineteen times out of twenty, when you put in a lowball “what the hell” bid at an auction, you don’t win. You keep doing it because of that twentieth time.

    This was one of those twentieth times.

    Robert W. Chambers. The King In Yellow. F. Tennyson Neely (as part of their Neely’s Prismatic Library series), 1895. First edition, first printing of green cloth with brown lettering, with lizard design on cover and review of In the Quarter at rear. Rubbing and soiling to cloth with front hinge cracked, top front corner and bottom rear binding soft, and lacking front free endpaper. The auction description said fair, but save the front free endpaper, the book looks intact, so I would grade this Good only. Jones & Newman, Horror: 100 Best Books, item 19 (appreciation by H. P. Lovecraft). Beliler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, item 364. Bleiler, The Checklist of Science Fiction and Supernatural Fiction (1978), page 41. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, page 49. Barron, Horror Literature, item 2-12.

    Short story collection, roughly half of which are weird tales, most of which reference the play The King in Yellow, which drives people mad. (If memory serves, those stories also count as science fiction, being set in a future dictatorship.) One of the most important supernatural works of the late 19th century, and a huge influence on H.P. Lovecraft, who incorporated elements from it into the Cthulhu Mythos.

    Bought for just over $60 (including buyer’s premium and shipping) at auction. Earlier than the period I usual collect for, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to pick up a keystone work (even a considerably less than perfect copy) at a bargain price.

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    Brief After Action Report on the April 11, 2012 Heritage Book Auction

    Friday, April 13th, 2012

    I wanted to do a brief follow-up on Wednesday’s Heritage Books Auction. Results were all over the map.

    First, books I have trending data for:

  • The Asbestos-bound copy of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 went for a hefty $13,750.00, up considerably from a lesser copy in the Jerry Weist auction last year.
  • By contrast, the signed copy of Philip K. Dick’s Confessions of a Crap Artist went for $1,000, down over 80% from a slightly better copy in the Weist auction.
  • H.P. Lovecraft’s The Outsider and Others went for $2,250.00, down from the $3,883.75 paid for a slightly worse copy.

    • Books I don’t have trending data for:

  • The signed, limited first edition of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World went for $3,750.
  • The first Stephen King book he ever signed, an incribed ARC of Carrie, went for $11,250. (The Stephen King collector’s market, after some declines among “regular” signed/limited editions over the past few years, seems to be alive and well.)
  • A first edition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with a signed letter from Stoker laid in went for $5,625.

    • But the most schizophrenic result from the auction was two early signed Thomas Pynchons going for hefty sums, but two later signed copies failed to sell at all:

  • The Crying of Lot 49 went for $8,750.
  • Gravity’s Rainbow went for $16,250.
  • Slow Learner failed to sell. It can be yours as an after-auction buy for a mere $3,125.
  • An ARC of a later edition of V failed to sell and can be yours as an after-auction buy for $2,500.

    • You would think there would be enough hardcore Pynchon collectors for those two to sell, especially the Slow Learner.

    And a beat-up Shakespeare and Company true first edition (in wrappers) of James Joyce’s Ulysses went for $35,000.

    As for the non-fiction first editions:

  • Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations went for $80,500.
  • Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection went for $83,500.
  • A beautifully bound subscriber’s edition of T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom went for $62,500.

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    Another Heritage Book Auction

    Sunday, April 8th, 2012

    Heritage Auction is having another of their big book Auctions April 11.

    There are a few notable SF/F/H works listed:

  • Another Asbestos-bound copy of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
  • Another signed copy of Philip K. Dick’s Confessions of a Crap Artist.
  • A copy of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Outsider and Others with perhaps the nicest dust jacket (an original, not the de la Ree facsimile) I’ve ever seen offered for sale.
  • The signed, limited first edition of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
  • The first Stephen King book he ever signed, an incribed ARC of Carrie.
  • A first edition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with a signed letter from Stoker laid in.

    • There’s also some signed Thomas Pynchon, which almost never comes on the market, including:

  • The Crying of Lot 49
  • Gravity’s Rainbow
  • Slow Learner
  • An ARC of a later edition of V

    • Plus the notoriously fragile Shakespeare and Company true first edition (in wrappers) of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

    But the main strength of the auction is in non-fiction, including first editions of:

  • Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
  • Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
  • A beautifully bound subscriber’s edition of T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom

    • Not to mention several Isaac Newton first editions, plus a whole lot of important economic and military first editions.

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