Posts Tagged ‘Roger Zelazny’

Library Additions: UK Zelazny Hardbacks

Wednesday, September 30th, 2020

Part 3 of my third purchase of Zelazny books from Bob Pylant. I usually collect only the first hardback edition, and I already have the true firsts of all these. But again, since I’ve already paid for them…

  • Zelazny, Roger. Roadmarks. Macdonald Futura, 1981. First UK edition hardback, a Fine-/Fine- copy with slight bumping/wrinkling at head and heel. Kovacs, I37d. Supplements a signed first.

  • Zelazny, Roger. To Die In Italbar. Faber & Faber, 1975. First UK edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket with a small Zelazny signature plate pasted to the front free endpaper. Kovacs, I41d. Supplements a signed first.
  • Zelazny, Roger, editor. Nebula Award Stories 3. Gollancz, 1968. First UK edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Kovacs, IX2b. Supplements a signed first of Nebula Award Stories III.

  • Library Additions: Zelazny Trade Paperbacks

    Tuesday, September 29th, 2020

    Part 2 of my third purchase of Zelazny books from Bob Pylant:

  • Saberhagen, Fred. Berserker Base. Tor, 1985. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine- copy with a touch of edgewear and slight age-darkening to pages. Theoretically a fix-up novel set in Saberhagen’s Beserker universe, but really more of a Beserker anthology with some filler material by Saberhagen. Includes the Zelazny story “Itself Surprised,” which originally appeared in Omni the year before.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Changeling. Ace, 1980. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Kvocs, I5v.
  • Zelazny, Roger and Neil Randall. Roger Zelazny’s Visual Guide to Castle Amber. Avon, 1988. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine- copy with slight edgewear. Kovacs, X14a. Supplements a signed copy of the SFBC (only hardback) edition.
  • Zelazny, Roger and Fred Saberhagen. Coils. Wallaby Books/Simon & Schuster, 1982. First edition trade paperback original, a Near Fine copy with one faint top front corner crease and slight age darkening to pages. Signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, I7a. Supplements a copy of the SFBC (and only hardback) edition inscribed to me. Kovacs, XIB1a.
  • Zelazny, Roger and Robert Sheckley. A Farce to be Reckoned With. Trade paperback, presumably a POD reprint, as it lacks the numberline of the first edition, and includes the usual POD barcode on the last page, a Fine- copy with slight edgewear and wear at points. Interestingly, despite having the same ISBN, this is a larger trim size (9″ x 6″) than the first edition (8 1/4″ x 5 1/2″), and could pass as a large print edition, except it is not so marked. This edition not in Kovacs.

    First edition on left, this copy on right.

  • (Zelazny, Roger) Greenberg, Martin H., editor. Lord of the Fantastic: Stories in Honor of Roger Zelazny. Avon Eos, 1998. First edition trade paperback original, a Near Fine copy with a previous ownership plate inside front cover and a few touches of wear. Zelazny tribute anthology.
  • (Zelazny, Roger) Yoke, Karl. Roger Zelazny. Stamont House, 1979. First edition trade paperback original, a Very Good+ copy with bumping at heel and head, abrasion at front right bottom point, touches of wear along spine and elsewhere, and a touch of staining to inside front cover and blurb page. Starmont Reader’s Guide 2. Levack, “Works About Roger Zelazny” 15, page 140. Kovacs, XXIII11a. There is a Borgo Press hardback binding done three years later I still need to track down.

  • Library Additions: A Third Major Zelazny Purchase Part 1

    Monday, September 28th, 2020

    You may remember these two previous Zelazny purchases. Well, Bob Pylant, the same guy I bought them from, wanted to sell off the reminder of his collection, so I went over to his house and cleaned him out of virtually all his remaining books, Zelazny and otherwise. I’ll be listing some over the next few days, while I’ll be selling others in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, and still others (like his collection of Zelazny first magazine appearances) will have to wait until even later while I figure out how I want to store and display them.

    My primary collecting focus has been on first editions, but Bob collected almost everything Zelazny related, from foreign editions, library market hardback reprints, got Zelazny to sign pristine book club editions, and to every anthology that reprinted a Zelazny story. (I think there are six of seven featuring “Home is the Hangman” alone). I’ll be incorporating the interesting ones into my own collection because, well, I’ve already paid for them, haven’t I?

    Bob also did things that I wouldn’t have done, like adding aftermarket dust jackets to books that weren’t issued with them. And there’s one book in this batch he did something particularly odd to.

    Here’s the first batch of Zelazny books, the only theme among these that they didn’t fit into any other themes.

  • Zelazny, Roger. The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, And Other Stories. Doubleday, 1971. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with very slight bend at head and heel and a trace of foxing to inside front gutter, in a Fine- dust jacket with touches of wear and a tiny bit of age darkening to the spine and at top rear. With signed Zelazny bookplate laid in. Kovacs, V9a. Levack, 12a. Currey, page 570. Replaces an Ex-Library copy.

  • Zelazny, Roger. Gone to Earth. Pulphouse, 1991. First edition hardback, #40 of 50 signed, numbered copies bound in leather, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Author’s Choice Monthly #29. (Well, they say leather; I have my doubts. Also note that between volumes 18 and 19, the color of the “leather” edition went from a dark gray to a dark blue.) Supplements a signed “trade” clothbound hardcover in dust jacket. Kovacs, V13iv. Chalker/Owings (2002), page 728. I suppose that now I should look for one of the 10-copy red leather staff editions…
  • Zelazny, Roger. Lord of Light. Easton Press, 1994. Hardback, a Fine copy bound in decorated leather, sans dust jacket, as issued, with unused personalization bookplate sticker laid in (as issued), as well as a signed Zelazny signature plate. According to Kovacs, copies in aquamarine-colored leather like this one are reprints. Kovacs, I29m.

  • Zelazny, Roger. Manna From Heaven. DNA Publications/Wildside Press, 2003. Hardback, a Fine copy in non-decorated boards and a Fine dust jacket. The 1-59224-199-9 ISBN matches the first edition listed at the ISFDB, but Kovacs says this is the UK Lightening Source hardback reprint. Signed by publisher Warren Lapine. Kovacs, V18b. Supplements the first printing with pictorial boards.
  • Zelazny, Roger. This Immortal. Garland Publishing, 1975. First (and only) edition thus, a hardback reprint for the library trade, a Fine copy in a Fine- aftermarket dust jacket Bob created from a copy of the SFBC/Ace Books reprint from 1988 with Richard Powers’ cover art, and which has some faint creasing along the folds. Signed by Zelazny. This edition is reproduced from the 1973 Ace third paperback printing, as stated on the reproduced Ace copyright page. Part of the Garland Library of Science Fiction. Kovacs, I40c.

  • Zelazny, Roger and Jane Lindskold. Donnerjack. Avon Books, 1997. First edition hardback, either a Fine or a Poor copy (depending on how you count the annotations), in a Fine dust jacket. Novel started by Zelazny and finished by Lindskold after Zelazny’s death. Zelazny was a famously lean prose stylist, and Bob felt that Lindskold was not, so he has annotated the book by crossing out in brown or blue marker every section he felt was un-Zelazny-like from page 167 on. I passed on picking this up in the first bulk buys, but took it this time around because, well, it’s not like I can sell it to anyone else, and who else would know or appreciate the story behind it? Kovacs, I16b. Supplements a Fine/Fine copy inscribed to me by Lindskold.

  • Library Additions: Three Signed Firsts

    Monday, July 9th, 2018

    Three signed first edition hardbacks picked up from two different sources. The Effinger and the Lovegrove were picked up from a Lame Excuse Books customer for trade credit, and the Zelazny was from eBay.

  • Effinger, George Alec. Relatives. Harper & Row, 1973. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Near Fine- dust jacket with one 1/4″ closed tear on bottom front and very slight dust soiling to rear. Inscribed by Effinger: “For Dan Monte—/This is pretty scarce title. I/think the Center for Disease Control/developed a vaccine against this novel/shortly after publication. Well, it/was only my second book and I/was still learning—/George Alec Effinger.” I knew George (he came to the second Turkey City Writer’s Workshop I ever threw) and he signed most of his books for me, but I don’t think I picked this one up before he died. This and the Lovegrove were exchanged for credit.

  • Lovegrove, James. Provender Gleed. Gollancz, 2005. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed and dated by Lovegrove. I should really read some of the Lovegrove I already have…

  • Zelazny, Roger, editor. The Williamson Effect. Tor, 1996. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight bumping at head and heel and a few pinprick spots of foxing to FFE (maybe something with acidic paper was laid in there) in a Fine dust jacket. Tribute anthology for Jack Williamson, published after Zelazny’s death. Signed by Williamson and contributors Ben Bova, Mike Resnick and David Weber. Won off eBay for $24.07. Replaces an unsigned copy.

  • Overview of Lawrence Person’s Library: 2017 Edition

    Thursday, August 31st, 2017

    I decided updated pictures of my library were long overdue, so I took pictures of all my personal library bookshelves (as opposed to Lame Excuse Books stock) with my iPhone, which seems to do a better job than my old digital camera anyway.

    I tried to make the pics close and large enough that you could read the titles (which is, I think, one of the main points of photographing your library), though that’s not always the case. (Click to embiggen any of these.)

    I’ve listed very brief high points, but at some point I want to do several more comprehensive posts, probably broken up by letter (A, B, etc.) which will go into more detail and show individual books. But if I did that here I’d probably break your browser!

    As usual, all of these are Fine first edition hardbacks in Fine dust jackets unless otherwise stated.

    Where you see a dust jacket sitting on top of other books, I was reading that book when I took these pictures.

    This is just the fiction. I’ll get to the non-fiction, graphic novels, art books, science fiction reference books, etc. at a later date.

    Not all the pictures are perfect, and I may swap them out for better ones as time permits.

    Oversized Fiction

    These are all the hardback fiction books that were simply too big to fit anywhere else.

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    Highlights:

  • The traycase edition of Greg Bear’s Sleepside Story.
  • Several signed oversized Ray Bradbury books.
  • A copy of Lord John Ten inscribed to Neal Barrett, Jr. by Ray Bradbury.
  • Several signed Harlan Ellison limiteds.
  • Three signed Stephen King books (Desperation, Insomnia, The Black House).
  • The lettered traycase edition of George R. R. Martin’s GRRM.
  • Several signed Richard Matheson books.
  • Two Charnel House books (Ellison’s Coffin Nails and Tim Powers’ Deliver Me From Evil).
  • Three Centipede Press books (the Ambrose Bierce, Tim Powers’ The Anubis Gates Michael Shea’s The Autopsy and Other Tales.)
  • Lucius Shepard’s The Last Time.
  • A binder full of hand-written Roger Zelazny manuscripts.
  • A—Ba

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    Highlights:

  • A signed Douglas Adams Mostly Harmless.
  • Some signed Brian Aldiss (RIP).
  • The three Gnome Press Foundation books, plus the signed Whispers Press Foundation’s Edge, plus several other signed Asimovs.
  • A first edition of Attanasio’s Radix.
  • Signed firsts of Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl and the signed limited edition of Pump Six And Other Stories.
  • Bal—Bax

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  • Several Ballard firsts (including The Drought and Empire of the Sun), some signed (such as The Atrocity Exhibition).
  • A nearly complete Iain Banks collection (missing one or two of the last ones), including all the early ones, including The Wasp Factory and Use of Weapons, some signed.
  • Nearly complete Clive Barker up to about ten years ago, many signed, including the limited edition UK Weaveworld and all six of the Wiedenfield & Nicholson Books of Blood.
  • A complete collection of Neal Barrett, Jr. fiction hardbacks, all signed or inscribed.
  • Some Stephen Baxter (mostly early books), including Raft and The Time Ships, some signed.
  • Bax—Bi

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  • More Stephen Baxter
  • Some Peter S. Beagle books, including The Last Unicorn and A Fine and Private Place, most signed.
  • A complete Greg Bear collection (save a few recent ones), most signed or inscribed to me.
  • Some Gregory Benford, including the Cheap Street Of Space/Time and the River and Timescape.
  • An incomplete Alfred Bester collection, including a pristine The Demolished Man with Bester’s business card laid in, and an imperfect Who He? inscribed.
  • A nearly-complete Michael Bishop collection (a new one may be out), including No Enemy But Time, most inscribed to me.
  • Bi—Br

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  • Nearly complete James P. Blaylock in hardback, several early ones inscribed to me.
  • Decent Robert Bloch collection, including an imperfect Psycho and several signed books.
  • Very incomplete Leigh Bracket collection, but including the very difficult first hardback of The Sword of Rhiannon.
  • A not-even-remotely-complete Ray Bradbury collection, but including some 30 signed firsts, including The Silver Locusts.

    Br—Bu

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  • Small Ernest Bramah collection, including The Moon of Much Gladness in dust jacket.
  • Early David Brin collection, including Startide Rising, The Uplift War, and his Cheap Street book, Dr. Pak’s Preschoool.
  • Some John Brunner, including a signed The Sheep Look Up and a Fine/Fine Stand On Zanzibar.
  • Signed/limited edition (only hardback) of Steven Brust’s To Reign in Hell.
  • Some signed William F. Buckley, Jr..
  • Several signed Lois McMaster Bujold Hugo and Nebula winners, including the Easton signed/limited (and first hardback editions) of Barrayar and The Vor Game.
  • William S. Burroughs’ The Place of Dead Roads inscribed to his agent.

    Bu—Ch

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  • Complete Octavia Butler collection, including Survivor, some inscribed to me.
  • A rebound first of Samuel Butler’s Erewhon from 1872.
  • A complete Pat Cadigan collection (save some media tie-in work), several inscribed to me.
  • Some Ramsey Campbell.
  • A complete Jonathan Carroll collection, including The Land of Laughs, most signed.
  • A complete Orson Scott Card collection up to the point I stopped reading him (which was Xenocide), including an inscribed Ender’s Game.
  • Some Angela Carter, including The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffman (from Carter’s own copies) and The Passion of New Eve.
  • Most of Michael Chabon, including The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, many inscribed to me.
  • The true first edition of Robert W. Chamber’s The King in Yellow; not really visible in this picture since the trim size is so small.
  • Ch—Cr

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  • Some Arthur C. Clarke, including firsts of Against the Fall of Night and Earthlight, an imperfect copy of Childhood’s End (with a Clarke signature plate and photo laid in) and his Hugo winners Rendezvous With Rama and The Fountains of Paradise.
  • Most of Hal Clement, including a nice Iceworld, a signed, imperfect Mission of Gravity, and the three volume NESFA set are all signed as well.
  • A signed copy of Suzy McKee Charnes’ The Vampire Tapestry.
  • Most of the early Storm Constantine.
  • All the early John Crowley, including signed copies of The Deep, Engine Summer and (in the next pic) the Gollancz Little, Big.

    Cr-De

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  • Signed hardback editions of the first 17 issues of Postscripts, plus #24/25. (I’m in three of these.)
  • Most of the Datlow/Windling Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror series (I think I lack a few latter ones).
  • Complete Avram Davidson in hardback (save one hardback chapbook), including the hardback edition of El Vilvoy de las Islas.
  • Some L. Sprague de Camp, some signed.
  • Most of the early Samuel R. Delany, including Babel-17 and The Einstein Intersection, all signed by Delany.
  • Di

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  • I’m about four difficult books away from a complete Philip K. Dick in hardback collection. Highlights of what I have include imperfect copies of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Counter Clock World, Time Out of Joint, Ubik, A Handful of Darkness and World of Chance, firsts HBs of The Penultimate Truth, The Simulacra, The Man Who Japed, The Game Players of Titan, and Confessions of a Crap Artist, a really nice copy of A Scanner Darkly, both the Underwood/Miller and Subterranean Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, and the signed edition of the Levack PKD bibliography, the only Dick signature in my collection.
  • A reasonably complete Thomas M. Disch science fiction collection (I’m missing some of his poetry volumes), including The Genocides, Camp Concentration, 334, and his Cheap Street volume Torturing Mr. Amberwell.
  • Nearly complete Paul Di Filippo collection, many inscribed, including a PC copy of the 1/100 hardback copy edition of Spondulix.
  • Di-El

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  • I have a complete collection of Gardner Dozois’ authored books, and hardback first of all the Year’s Best Science Fiction up through the 14th volume (and just a few missing after that), many inscribed to me by Gardner, and many signed by several story contributors.
  • A nearly complete George Alec Effinger collection, many inscribed to me.
  • Complete (save a couple of very recent books) Greg Egan collection, including An Unusual Angle, Quarantine, Permutation City, and an association copy of Axiomatic inscribed to his editor David Pringle. (Inscribed Egan books are genuinely rare, much less association copies.)
  • El-Fo

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  • Nearly complete collection of Harlan Ellison in hardback (at least up through when he started issuing his own books), many signed.
  • A good ways toward a complete Philip Jose Farmer collection in hardback, including Too Your Scattered Bodies Go, many signed, including Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, Lord Tyger and Love Song.
  • The first English-language edition of Camille Flammarion’s Urania and the first U.S. edition of Lumen.
  • Fo-Gi

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  • Complete Neil Gaiman prose collection up to a few years ago, including the signed/limited BCC Books (true first) edition of Neverwhere, Murder Mysteries: A Play For Voices, Snow Glass Apples: A Play For Voices, and the Lettered editions of the Subterranean M is for Magic. (The hardbound Gaiman graphic novels are shelved elsewhere.)
  • Nearly complete John Gardner collection, including Grendel.
  • Several Ray Garton books, including Crucifax Autumn and Live Girls.
  • Almost complete Jane Gaskell collection.
  • Complete Mary Gentle collection up to a few years ago.
  • A complete William Gibson collection (excepting Agrippa, which wasn’t a book), including the Gollancz Neuromancer inscribed to me.

    Gi-Ho

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  • William Goldman’s The Princess Bride.
  • True first of Alasdair Gray’s Lanark.
  • A number of Joe Haldeman books, including an imperfect Forever War.
  • Several Peter F. Hamilton books, including The Reality Dysfunction.
  • Several Harry Harrison books, some signed.
  • Several Robert A. Heinlein firsts, including imperfect copies of Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land and Double Star, as well as nice copies of Sixth Column, Assignment in Eternity, The Star Beast, The Puppet Masters and Podkayne of Mars, as well as a signed book club edition of Time for the Stars (my only Heinlein signature).
  • A very imperfect true first of Frank Herbert’s Dune.
  • Several Joe Hill books, including two states of 20th Century Ghosts and the traycase edition of Horns.
  • William Hope Hodgson’s House on the Borderland and Deep Waters.
  • All six of Robert E. Howard’s Gnome Press Conan books.
  • Ho-Kr

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  • Barry Hughart’s Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen, plus the signed Subterranean press omnibus.
  • A nearly complete Shirley Jackson collection, including nice copies of The Road Through the Wall and The Haunting of Hill House.
  • Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon.
  • A good bit of Stephen King, including both the slipcase and traycase editions of the Colorado Kid, the signed/limited edition of Under the Dome, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, and an imperfect first of The Shining. The Talisman is the Grant “trade” edition, which in this case has been signed by Peter Straub.
  • A complete Russel Kirk fiction collection, most signed.
  • Some Nancy Kress.
  • Kr-La

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  • Some Henry Kuttner, including Robots Have No Tails.
  • A complete R.A. Lafferty in hardback collection (save one chapbook), some signed, including 1/50 signed copies of Tales of Chicago and Tales of Midnight.
  • Some Jay lake, most inscribed to me.
  • A complete Joe R. Lansdale collection, including the rare Chivers Texas Night Riders, The Magic Wagon, the lettered traycase editions of A Fistfull of Stories and For a few Stories More, 1/26 hardback copies of My Dead Dog Bobby, 1/100 hardback copies of Lansdale and Shiner’s Private Eye Action As You Like It, and many others, all signed or inscribed to me.
  • La-Lo

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  • The rest of the hardback Lansdale.
  • Both the true HB first (a large print edition) and the Subterranean limited of Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice.
  • Some Tanith Lee, several signed.
  • A goodly amount of Ursula K. Le Guin, including imperfect firsts of The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and A Wizard of Earthsea, two Cheap Street hardback chapbooks, and the signed/limited edition true first hardback of Always Coming Home (with the included cassette tape), which is supposedly quite dreadful.
  • Closing in on a complete Fritz Leiber collection, including a signed Our Lady of Darkness and Nights Black Agents, plus several Gregg Press firsts, including The Big Time, The Sinful Ones, and the six volume Farhard and Gray Mouser set.
  • The first English-language edition of Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris.
  • A pretty good Thomas Ligotti collection, including the hardback of The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein & Other Gothic Tales.
  • The start of the H.P. Lovecraft collection, including some of the latter Arkhams and the Variorum Edition of his complete work, as well as an envelop hand-addressed by Lovecraft.
  • Lo-Ma

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  • The rest of the Lovecraft, as well as Cthulhu Mythos anthologies by various editors. I’ll probably file these by editor the next time I add a bookshelf.
  • Some Brian Lumley.
  • All Ken MacLeod’s novels up to a few years ago.
  • Something approaching a complete collection of George R. R. Martin’s fiction, though I’m missing a couple of the recent Game of Thrones books and a lot of his anthologies. Includes U.S. first of A Game of Thrones inscribed to me, the signed/limited Armageddon Rag, the true first signed/limited edition of Songs the Dead Men Sing (the very first Dark Harvest book), and the leatherbound signed/limited “slipcrate” edition of Portraits of His Children.
  • Ma-Mc

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  • Closing in on a complete Richard Matheson collection, including Born of Man and Woman, imperfect firsts of Hell House, The Shrinking Man and I Am Legend, and several of the signed Gauntlet, etc. books.
  • A lot of Paul J. McAuley.
  • A lot of Robert R. McCammon.
  • Some Jack McDevitt.
  • Complete Ian McDonald collection, all but one or two inscribed to me, including the true UK first of River of Gods.
  • Mc-Ni

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  • Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove
  • Nearly complete China Mieville collection, including Perdido Street Station and The Tain.
  • An imperfect first of Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz
  • Quite a bit of Michael Moorcock, including Behold the Man, Stormbringer and Gloriana, all signed or inscribed.
  • Some C.L. Moore, including Judgment Night, Shambleau, and signed firsts of Mutant and Black God’s Shadow.
  • A couple of books away from a complete Ward Moore collection, including Cloud By Day.
  • All Richard Morgan’s early books, including Altered Carbon.
  • Some David Morrell, including First Blood.
  • Some signed Haruki Murakami.
  • Some Pat Murphy, including The Falling Woman.
  • John Myers Myers’ Silverlock.
  • Most of Kim Newman’s early books (at least those under his own name), including Anno Dracula.
  • A complete set of the Night Visions series, some (Barker, Lansdale, Martin) signed or inscribed.
  • A good bit of Larry Niven, including an imperfect but very clean copy of the Gollancz Ringworld.
  • Ni-Po

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  • Complete Chad Oliver collection, including the Ballantine hardback of Shadows in the Sun, The Mists of Dawn and the Jenkins The Wolf is My Brother.
  • The true Secker & Warburg first edition of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (green state dust jacket, no priority).
  • Alexi Panshin’s Rite of Passage.
  • A good bit of Frederik Pohl, most signed, including Gateway, Man Plus and The Space Merchants, and most of the collaborations with Jack Williamson here are also signed by both Pohl and Williamson.
  • A complete Tim Powers collection, most signed or inscribed, including the Chatto & Windus Anubis Gates, several Charnel House limiteds, and the ultra-limited edition of the John Berlyne’s Powers bibliography, which includes a bound holographic copy of The Anubis Gates.
  • Po-Ri

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  • Some Christopher Priest, including Inverted World and The Prestige.
  • Complete run of Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, plus the signed/limited edition of Issue Eight, which is signed by Greg Egan.
  • Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49.
  • Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
  • A complete Alastair Reynolds collection (save a few recent books), most signed, including Revelation Space.
  • A good bit of early Anne Rice, including Interview With the Vampire and The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty.
  • Ri-Sc

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  • Most of the early Kim Stanley Robinson, including the Mars trilogy and his Cheap Street book, The Blind Geometer.
  • A good bit of Rudy Rucker, including one of 350 signed, numbered copies of Transreal!
  • Sarban’s The Sound of His Horn.
  • Sc-Si

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  • Garrett P. Serviss’ Edison’s Invasion of Mars.
  • Some Bob Shaw, including a signed copy of The Palace of Eternity.
  • A complete Michael Shea collection, including the hardback edition of Nifft the Lean.
  • Some Robert Sheckley, including the five volume Collected Stories.
  • A complete Lucius Shepard collection, most signed.
  • A complete Lew Shiner collection, many inscribed to me.
  • A complete John Shiirley hardback collection (up to a few years ago, anyway), most signed, including one of only 50 hardback copies of Black Glass and one of only 100 signed, numbered hardback copies of Really, Really, Really, Really Weird Stories.
  • Si-Sm

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  • A lot of Robert Silverberg.
  • Clifford Simak’s City.
  • A complete Dan Simmons collection, several signed, including Hyperion, Song of Kali, and Entropy’s Bed at Midnight.
  • A lot of John Sladek, some signed.
  • A pretty good Clark Ashton Smith collection, including Out of Space and Time, Lost Worlds and Other Dimensions.
  • Sm-St

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  • A complete Cordwainer Smith collection, including three novels he did under his other pseudonyms, Ria, Corelia and Atomsk.
  • A few E. E.”Doc” Smith novels, including the true first of The Skylark of Space, and the signed editions of Second Stage Lensman and Skylark Three.
  • A complete William Browning Spencer collection, all signed or inscribed to me.
  • Some Brian Stableford.
  • Some Olaf Stapledon, including jacketless firsts of Last and First Men and Odd Job.
  • A good bit of Neal Stephenson, including inscribed firsts of Snow Crash and The Diamond Age.
  • A Complete Bruce Sterling collection, most inscribed to me, including a Mirrorshades signed or inscribed by most of the contributors.
  • Complete Charles Stross up to a few years ago.
  • St-Va

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  • Some Theodore Sturgeon, including the completed Collected Stories.
  • A complete Michael Swanwick collection, including Stations of the Tide, one of only 30 signed hardbacks of Puck Aleshire’s Abecedary, and several short-run Dragon Stairs Press books.
  • Some Tolkien, including most of the U.S. History of Middle Earth firsts.
  • A nice copy of Steven Utley and Geo W. Proctor’s Lone Star Universe signed by most of the contributors.
  • The start of the Jack Vance section. I’m closing in on a complete Vance hardback collection, but I’m not quite there yet. This case includes the Underwood/Miller signed/limited editions of Ariminta Station, Throy, Bird Isle/Take My Face, The Dark Side of the Moon, the Subterranean Press lettered/traycase edition of Dangerous Ways, The Deadly Isles, and a signed Dragon Masters.
  • Va-Wa

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  • The rest of the Vance hardbacks, including one of 200 signed sets of the 44 volume Vance Integral Edition, a signed Ballantine Books hardback state of To Live Forever, the beautiful Underwood Books signed/limited edition of Night Lamp, the Underwood Books limited Ports of Call, #2 of 200 signed/numbered copies of Light From a Lone Star, one of 111 signed hardback copies of The Seventeen Virgins/The Bagful of Dreams, and the Gollancz Four Men Called John, among many, many others.
  • A complete Vernor Vinge collection, most signed, including A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky.
  • Richard Vollmann’s You Bright and Risen Angels and Rainbow Stories.
  • A pretty complete Karl Edward Wagner collection, some signed.
  • Wa-We

    Starting about here the pictures got more difficult to take, because this bookshelf is right behind a heavy futon I don’t feel like moving on my own.

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  • A complete Howard Waldrop collection, including his two Cheap Street books, all signed or inscribed.
  • Complete Peter Watts collection.
  • A few Stanley G. Weinbaum volumes, including one of 250 copies of the 1936 Dawn of Flame.
  • Closing in on a complete Manly Wade Wellman collection, including Who Fears the Devil?, Lonely Vigils, a first of Worse Things Waiting inscribed to horror writer Dennis Etchison, and a copy of Third String Center inscribed to his brother, western writer Paul I. Wellman.
  • Some H. G. Wells, including some later firsts in dust jacket and the signed, numbered three volume first edition of The World of William Clissold.
  • We-Wo

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  • Some Jack Williamson.
  • Nearly complete Connie Willis, almost all signed, including Doomsday Book.
  • A nearly complete Gene Wolfe collection, including all the The Book of the New Sun, The Book of the Long Sun, and Book of the Short Sun volumes (plus The Castle of the Otter, all inscribed or signed, his two Cheap Street hardbacks (Empires of Flowers and Foliage and Biblioman), and one of 100 hardback copies of The Young Wolfe. (The hardback edition of Letters Home is in the non-fiction reference library).
  • Wo-Z

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    I have a fairly ridiculous amount of signed Roger Zelazny first editions, manuscripts, etc., thanks in no small part to two very extensive purchases of Zelazny material. Though I would like to trade up my imperfect Nine Princes in Amber and my signed, imperfect Lord of Light, all my other Zelazny hardbacks are Fine/Fine copies, and most signed, including Creatures of Light and Darkness, The Dream Master, one of 200 signed, hardback copies of For a Breath I Tarry (which, since it has a number of blank pages in the back, I’ve had signed by some 60-70 other science fiction writers, etc.), one of 35 signed hardback copies of The Last Defender of Camelot, one of only 21 lettered, hardback copies of Kovacs’ The Ides of Octember: A Pictorial Bibliography of Roger Zelazny with a Zelazny signature sheet bound in, etc. Those binders you see contain original Zelazny manuscripts, some proof copies, some typescripts, and some hand-written, including The Changing Land, “The Last Defender of Camelot”, “Unicorn Variations”, Dilvish the Damned, Knight of Shadows, etc. (Upstairs, in the non-fiction section, I have Roger Zelazny’s professional correspondence archive in two large binders.)

    Trade Paperbacks

    This includes proofs, chapbooks, etc.

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    Notable items:

  • Isaac Asimov’s Little Brothers, one of 126 signed copies.
  • One of 100 signed copies of J. G. Ballard’s News from the Sun.
  • Signed copy of David Brin’s The Tides of Kithrup (the proof of Startide Rising)
  • An issue of Chacal signed by Tom Reamy.
  • A copy of Young Author’s Club: The Wartime Adolescent Writings of Philip K. Dick, one of 100 copies.
  • Some signed Thomas Disch poetry collections.
  • Both blue and green variant covers of Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe’s A Walking Tour of the Shambles, inscribed to me by both.
  • A proof of the never-published random house edition of Sherry Jones’ The Jewel of Medina.
  • A complete collection of R. A. Lafferty chapbooks, some signed.
  • Numerous Joe R. Lansdale trade paperbacks and proofs.
  • The proof of George R. R. Martin’s never published John W. Campbell Awards Volume 6
  • A signed copy of Michael Moorcocks’s tabloid-form Sex Pistols novel, The Great Rock-and-Roll Swindle.
  • James Morrow’s The Adventures of Smoke Baily, a novella only included as part of the packaging for a video game.
  • The proof (actually true first edition, since it was for sale) of Richard Matheson’s Collected Stories.
  • Proof of Chad Oliver’s The Cannibal Owl.
  • A signed, hand-corrected copy of Clark Ashton Smith’s The Double Shadow.
  • Jack Vance’s The Space Pirates and The Avatar’s Apprentice, one of only 30 copies.
  • Lew Shiner’s Modern Stories Number One signed by most of the contributors, including William Gibson and Howard Waldrop.
  • Dan Simmons’ Banished Dreams.
  • Inscribed copies of Neal Stephenson’s The Big U and Zodiac, as well as signed proofs of Interface and The Cobweb.
  • One of only 25 copies of Howard Waldrop’s self-published The Soul-Taker from 1966.
  • Manly Wade Wellman’s The Invading Asteroid and Devil’s Planet.
  • Lots of Gene Wolfe proofs, plus Talk of Mandrakes and four Cheap Street chapbooks.
  • Loads and load of signed Roger Zelazny proofs, plus Poems and A Rhapsody in Amber.
  • Mass Market Paperbacks

    Since I started concentrating on hardbacks very early it, I actually have fewer paperbacks than hardback.

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    Notable items (all paperback originals unless otherwise noted):

  • Several signed Aaron Allston books.
  • All six true first edition/first printing/first state of Clive Barker’s Books of Blood, all signed.
  • Some signed Neal Barrett, Jr.
  • A copy of John Brunner’s pseudonymously published porn novel The Incestuous Lovers.
  • Some signed Pat Cadigan, including a paperback proof of Synners.
  • A lot of Philip K. Dick.
  • A lot of Harlan Ellison.
  • Some Philip Jose Farmer, including Love Song and an association copy of Down in the Black Gang inscribed to Bruce Sterling.
  • Some Ray Garton.
  • An inscribed William Gibson Neuromancer.
  • Some signed Harry Harrison.
  • Some signed K.W. Jeter, including Seeklight and The Dreamfields.
  • All R.A. Lafferty’s PBOs, including Ringing Changes.
  • Several signed Joe Lansdale PBOs, including his three MIA Hunter books and the very rare Molly’s Sexual Follies, the last also co-signed by co-author Brad Foster.
  • Some Tanith Lee.
  • Some George R.R. Martin, including most of the Wild Cards books, the early ones signed by George and several other contributors.
  • Some signed Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle reprints.
  • All Tim Powers PBOs, signed.
  • Spider Robinson’s Antimony.
  • All Rudy Rucker’s PBOs, including White Light, The Sex Sphere, Spacetime Donuts, and The 57th Franz Kafka.
  • All Michael Shea’s PBOs, some signed.
  • Several John Shirley PBOs, most signed, including The Brigade, Cellars and City Come A’Walkin.
  • All John Skipp & Craig Spector’s PBOs, several signed.
  • A good bit of Brian Stableford.
  • Inscribed true (Canadian) first of Sean Stewart’s Passion Play.
  • Bruce Sterling’s Involution Ocean and A Good Old Fashioned Future, inscribed.
  • Some Theodore Sturgeon, several PBOs, one reprint signed.
  • A lot of Jack Vance, some signed.
  • Some Manly Wade Wellman PBOs, including the rare movie novelization A Double Life.
  • A whole lot of Zelazny, almost all of it signed.
  • Finally, note that while none of these books are for sale, I do have many science fiction, fantasy and horror first editions (many signed) available through the Lame Excuse Books web page.

    Library Additions: July 1 through December 31, 2015

    Thursday, January 7th, 2016

    Here’s a list of all the books I picked up between July 1 and December 31 of 2015.

    Many of the paperback originals here were bought for approximately 25¢ each from Houston bookstore Twice Told Tale’s going out of business sale in November, where prices were $15 a paper grocery sack full of books.

    For some reason, the last half year of book purchases has been heavy on Normans. Go figure…

  • Anderson, Poul. The Unicorn Trade. Tor, 1984. First edition paperback original (PBO), a Near Fine- copy with light crease along front spine join. Twice Told Tales purchase.
  • Armstrong, Anthony. Wine of Death. Stanley Paul & Co. (London), no date [1925]. First edition hardback, a Very Good copy with moderate bend at head and heel at head and slight spotting to page block edges and first few pages, and slight foxing to front and rear free endpapers, with 32 page catalog dated 1924-1825 at rear, lacking the dust jacket. Tietler & Locke, By the Book World Remembered, pages 37 and 119. Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy, page 22. Tietler, By the World Forgot, 55 (where it’s compared to Robert E. Howard’s Conan tales). Not in either edition of the Bleiler Checklist. Bought for $32.04 plus transatlantic shipping. Last year Lloyd Currey listed a better (but not perfect) copy, still lacking the dust jacket, for $1,250, and noted it was “Rare.”

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  • Asimov, Isaac. Gold. HarperPrism. One of 1226 copies (though, despite the statement of the limitation page, this one is not numbered), Fine copy in a Fine slipcase, sans dust jacket, as issued. Posthumous short story collection.
  • Asimov, Isaac. Three By Asimov. Targ Editions, 1981. First edition hardback, one of 250 signed copies, a Fine copy in a Near Fine- tissue paper dust jacket with a 7/8″ semi-closed tear on the top right front cover, with associated wrinkles (the white streaks at left and top are reflection glare from the dust jacket protector). All the pages seem to be made of hand-made paper with ragged edges. Bought for $107.79 off eBay.

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  • Bacigalupi, Paolo. The Drowned Cities. Little Brown, 2012. Signed by Bacigalupi.
  • Baker, Denys Val. The Face in the Mirror. Arkham House, 1971. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with just a trace of wear at bottom edge (probably do to an old fold-around dj protector that doesn’t encase the edges). Joshi, 60 Years of Arkham House, 112. Jaffery, Horrors and Unpleasantries, 118. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 118. Chalker & Owings (1991), page 39. Not in Bleiler’s Guide to Supernatural Fiction (an odd omission). Bought for $12.50
  • Ballard, J. G. Super-Cannes. Flamingo, 2000. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with bumping at points, a 1/8″ closed tear at bottom rear fold point, and very slight haze rubbing to reflective silver dust jacket. Inscribed by Ballard: “To Jane,/J.G. Ballard”. Bought for £24 plus shipping.
  • Beagle, Peter S. The Innkeeper’s Song. Roc, 1993. Twice Told Tales purchase.
  • Benford, Gregory. The Best of Gregory Benford. Subterranean Press, 2015. #124 of 250 signed, numbered copies.
  • Benford, Gregory. The Best of Gregory Benford. Subterranean Press, 2015. Trade edition.
  • Bishop, Michael. Eyes of Fire. Pocket Books, 1980. First edition paperback original (PBO) this, a revision of A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire, a Fine copy. Twice Told Tales purchase.
  • Bradbury, Ray. The Cat’s Pajamas: Stories +5. Hill House Publishers, 2004. First limited edition and first edition thus (containing five stories not in the trade edition), #352 of 1,000 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine die-cut cloth slipcase with an extraction ribbon to pull out the book. Contains five stories not found in the William Morrow trade edition. Bought for $35 off eBay.

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  • Bradbury, Ray (illustrated by Gary Gianni). The Nefertiti-Tut Express. The RAS Press, 2012. First edition oversized oblong (9″ x 12″ long) chapbook edition, a Fine copy, new and unread. Oversized illustrated edition of a longish poem. Signed by Gianni. Bought for £12.
  • Bradbury, Ray, editor. Futuria Fantasia. Graham Publishing/Blood and Guts Press, 2007. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Bradbury, and containing a picture of him signing copies laid in. Reprints four issues of the fanzine of the title Bradbury produced just after graduating high school. Includes contributions from Robert A. Heinlein, Henry Kuttner, Hannes Bok, Damon Knight, Forrest J. Ackerman, etc. A fascinating glimpse into Bradbury’s early life, and the beginnings of several illustrious science fiction careers. Bought off eBay for $30. Replaces an unsigned copy.

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  • Breen, Walter. The Darkover Concordance: A Reader’s Guide. Pennyfarthing Press, 1979. A Fine copy, in decorated boards, as issued. Non-fiction reference guide to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover books. Despite the fact that this used to go for several hundred dollars, I bought this for $1 (plus buyer’s premium and shipping) off Heritage Auctions. Funny how accusations of (Bradley) and convictions for (Breen) pedophilia will drive down the value of a book…
  • Brunner, John. Times Without Number. The Elmsfield Press, 1974. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed and dated by Brunner in 1987, with his usual peace symbol. Currey (1979), page 24. Bought for £18.

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  • Bujold, Lois McMaster. Memory. Baen, 1996. Bought for $5.99 at a Half Price Books in Houston.
  • Clarke, I. F. Voices Prophesying War. Oxford University Press, 1990. First edition hardback (of this new expanded and updated edition), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket with slight wear on rear points. Non-fiction. The standard reference on future war fiction. Bought for £10.8.
  • Davidson, Avram and Grania Davis. Marco Polo and the Sleeping Beauty. Baen, 1988. First edition paperback original (PBO), a Very Good copy with spine wrinkly and slight front cover creasing. Twice Told Tales purchase.
  • De Vet, Charles V. Special Feature. Avon, 1975. First edition paperback original (PBO), a Near Fine- copy with small bottom front corner crease. Twice Told Tales purchase.
  • Dick, Philip K. World of Chance. Rich and Cowan, 1956. First hardback edition and first thus under this title (the first hardback edition of Dick’s first published novel, published earlier in the U.S. as the paperback original Solar Lottery), an Ex-Library copy with tape ghosts to inside covers, slight signs of pocket removal from FFE, inner front hinge half-cracked, slight dust staining to page block edges, in a dust jacket that has about 1/8″ trimmed from top and bottom, and a larger amount (possibly 1/4″ to 1/2″) trimmed from inner flaps, not removing any text, but trimming the flap edges right to the edge of the text block, plus tape ghosts and a touch of edgewear; call it a Very Good-/Good+ Ex-Library copy, though it presents much better than that list of flaws would lead you to believe. Currey (1979), page 159. Levack, 38b. One of the rarest Dick hardcovers.

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  • (Dick, Philip K.) Williams, Paul. Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick. Arbor House, 1986. First edition trade paperback original, a Near Fine+ copy with some non-breaking indentations on the cover, as the book were used underneath a piece of paper someone wrote or scribbled on, otherwise apparently unread. Signed by Williams (the signature matches those found online for the limited edition of Ubik: A Screenplay). The biography of Dick by his close friend and designated literary executor. Supplements a Fine unsigned copy. Bought for $3.98 at a Half Price Books in Houston.

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    (Dick, Philip K.) Wintz, Henry and David Hyde. Precious Artifacts: A Philip K. Dick Bibliography: United States of America and United Kingdom Editions 1955-2012. Wide Books, 2012. First edition hardback, #77 of 100 signed, hardback copies, a Fine- copy with slight delamination lift along top front spine join gutter, in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued, with errata slip and related postcards laid in. Bought off eBay for $26.

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  • Di Filippo, Paul (illustrated by Jim Woodrung). Cosmocopia. Payseur & Schmidt, 2008. First edition hardback, one of 500 copies with a band signed by Di Filippo and Jim Woodrung around the box, in a decorated cardboard box with a cardstock illustration and a Jigsaw puzzle in the case as well as the book, sans dust jacket, as issued. Paul Di Filippo alerted me to the fact that Fantagraphics bookstore had copies on hand for Jim Woodrung’s signing there at $30 a pop and I managed to call and snag the last copy.

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  • Disch, Thomas and Charles Naylor. Neighboring Lives. Scribner’s, 1981, First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight bumoing at head in a Near Fine- dust jacket with one 1/8″ by 1/4″ triangular chip at top front cover ner head and wear at points. Signed by both Disch and Naylor. Bought for £18.

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  • Dozois, Gardner, editor. The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection. St. Martin’s, 2015.
  • Engh, M. J. Arslan. First edition paperback original (PBO), a Fine- copy with a touch of glue bunching and age darkening. I already owned a first edition of the later hardback edition.
  • Ellison, Harlan. Angry Candy. Easton Press, 1988. First edition hardback (at least Barry Levin, relying on information from Ellison, has stated; other sources list the trade edition as first), one of 3,500 copies signed by Ellison, a Fine leatherbound copy, sans dust jacket, as issued.
  • Ellison, Harlan. Can & Can’tankerous. Subterranean Press, 2015. Short story collection.
  • (Ellison, Harlan) Priest, Christopher. The Book on the Edge of Forever. Fantagraphics Books, 1994. First edition trade paperback format (perfect-bound with the look and feel of a short graphic novel, which is Fantagraphics primary line), a Fine- copy. Non-fiction. An inquiry into the non-appearance of Harlan Ellison’s massive, long-delayed anthology The Last Dangerous Visions, expanded from an earlier fanzine titled The Last Deadloss Visions. Hugo Award nominee for best Non-Fiction. Bought for £15. Not particularly a Priest fan (I had lunch with two of his ex-wives at the 2014 London Worldcon), but when you’re right…

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  • Etchison, Dennis. The Dark Country. Scream Press, 1982. Supplements a signed copy with a poorer dust jacket.
  • Gardner, James Finn. Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. Macmillan, 1994. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Near Fine dust jacket with wrinkle to back cover. Formerly my father’s copy, which I bought for him as a gift many years ago.
  • Haldeman, Joe. Work Done for Hire. Ace, 2014. A Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with 1/4″ tear at top rear point. Bought for $1 at a Half Price Books in Houston.
  • Harrison, Harry. Stainless Steel Visions. Tor, 1993. Something of a best of Harrison short story collection (not just Stainless Steel Rat stories). Twice Told Tales purchase.
  • (Heinlein, Robert A.) Olander, Joseph and Martin Harry Greenberg, editors. Robert A. Heinlein (Writers of the 21st Century Series). Taplinger, 1978. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Non-fiction. Bought for £12.
  • Jablokov, Alexander. Brain Thief. Tor, 2009. Twice Told Tales purchase.
  • Jeter, K.W. Death Arms. Morrigan Publications, 1987. First edition hardback, #99 of 250 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Contains an Afterword, “The Young Man Comes to The City,” not found in the trade edition. Supplements a signed trade edition.
  • Jones, Stephen and Newman, Kim. Horror: 100 Best Books. Xanadu Publications, Ltd., 1988. First edition hardback, #214 of 300 numbered copies signed by both the editors and almost every living one of the 100 (!) contributors, including Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Harlan Ellison, Basil Copper, Karl Edward Wagner, Jack Williamson, etc. etc etc. (though not by Stephen King), a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Bought for £30 off Cold Tonnage, marked down from £50.

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  • Joyce, Graham. The Limits of Enchantment. Gollancz, 2005. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Joyce. Bought for £9.
  • Kuttner, Henry. Murder of a Wife. Garland, 1983. First hardback edition (originally a PBO by Permabooks in 1958), a Fine- copy with slight bend at head and heel, sans dust jacket, as issued. Number 26 of Garland’s 50 Classics of Crime Fiction: 1950—1975 series. I’m not sure what the print run was, but if they were anything like Garland’s 50 Classics of Science Fiction runs, it was probably quite small. Hubin, Crime Fiction, 1749—1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography, page 236 (for the PBO). Bought for $30 online.

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  • Lansdale, Joe R. Fender Lizards. Subterranean Press, 2015. #235 of 400 signed, numbered copies.
  • Lansdale, Joe R. and Stephen Mertz. M.I.A. Hunter. Subterranean Press, 2015. First hardback edition and first edition thus, an omnibus of three paperback original M.I.A. Hunter men’s adventure novels (Hanoi Deathgrip, Mountain Massacre, and Saigon Slaughter) Lansdale wrote under the pseudonym of Jack Buchanan, #376 of 500 signed, numbered copies.
  • Le Guin, Ursula K. From Elfland to Poughkeepsie. Pendragon Press, 1973. First edition paperback chapbook original, #49 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy. Non-fiction. Currey (1979), page 306. Bought for £18.
  • Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi). H. P. Lovecraft’s Collected Fiction: A Variorum Edition, a three volume set consisting of Volume 1: 1905—1925, Volume 2: 1926—1930, and Volume 3: 1931—1936. Hippocampus Press, 2015. First edition hardbacks, one of only 750 sets, all Fine copies in Fine dust jackets. “For the first time, students and scholars of Lovecraft can see at a glance all the textual variants in all relevant appearances of a story—manuscript, first publication in magazines, and first book publications. The result is an illuminating record of the textual history of the tales, along with how Lovecraft significantly revised his stories after initial publication. Along the way, Joshi has made small but significant revisions to his earlier corrected texts. He has determined, for example, that Lovecraft slightly revised some stories when a reprint of them was scheduled in Weird Tales, and he has altered some readings in light of a better understanding of Lovecraft’s customary linguistic usages.”

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  • Lupoff, Richard. Space War Blues. Dell, 1978. First edition paperback original (PBO), a Near Fine- copy with slight creasing. Twice Told Tales purchase.
  • Martin, George R. R. The John W. Campbell Awards Volume 6. Bluejay Books, 1986. Uncorrected proof, trade paperback format, of the never-published hardback first edition, a Very Good- copy, being well-read with creasing along front and back spine joins, bottom of front spine join starting to split, a few spots of staining (including one to the edge of side/bottom page block), and general wear, with note on front cover stating “To/Shelia/Williams/Isaac/Asimov” and a note on the table of contents saying the Orson Scott Card story listed was going to be replaced with another Card story. Never produced because Bluejay Books went out of business in 1986. Copy on the back covers states the book was to be produced in both hardback and trade paperback formats. Includes two never-published Bruce Sterling stories. Bought for $100 from an editor who was downsizing his library as part of moving. Now signed by Sterling.

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  • McDonald, Ian. The Broken Land. Bantam Spectra, 1992. First U.S. edition hardback and first edition thus, re-titled from UK hardback first Hearts, Hand and Voices (which I also have). Twice Told Tales purchase.
  • O’Leary, Patrick. The Black Heart. PS Publishing, 2009. Unnumbered copy of 100 copy limited edition signed by O’Leary and introduction author James Morrow, in standard blue PS Publishing traycase. Bought for $4.99 at a Half Price Books in Houston.
  • Oliver, Chad. Shadows in the Sun. Ballantine Books, 1954. First edition hardback (Currey state A, tan cloth lettered in black, no priority), a Near Fine+ copy with slight bumping at head and heel and usual age-darkening to pages), in a Near Fine- dust jacket with a 1 1/2″ closed tear to rear dust jacket flap, slight spotting to top of white rear cover, and a few small rubs. Hall, Hal W., The Work of Chad Oliver: An Annotated Bibliography & Guide, A2. Currey (1979), page 397. Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy, page 169 (an ex-library copy; his description of the dust jacket matches (down to the H-91 code on the front flap), but his description of the book itself as “gray cloth in dark blue lettering” doesn’t match either this copy or the Currey B state (blue cloth lettered in black); Locke’s copy was possibly a library rebind or another binding variant). Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 4, 3-138. Bought for $3 from the Half Price Books in Cedar Park. A conservative estimate of value is probably $2,000

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  • Pangborn, Edgar. The Company of Glory. Pyramid, 1975. First edition paperback original (as per Currey, page 398), a Fine- copy. Twice Told Tales purchase.
  • Partridge, Norman. Dark Harvest. Cemetery Dance, 2006. One of 2,000 signed, numbered copies.
  • Partridge, Norman. Johnny Halloween. Cemetery Dance, 2010. One of 1,500 signed, numbered copies.
  • Partridge, Norman. Mr. Fox and Other Feral Tales. Subterranean Press, 2005. Inscribed by Partridge: “For [Joe?]/Hope you enjoy these old/short stories & tales from/the writing trenches!/All the best to/a guy with /[major pain?] of his own!/Norman Partridge.” Additionally signed as a PC copy of 750 signed, numbered copies. Can scan the inscription is someone is really interested…
  • Randall, Marta. A City in the North. Warner Books, 1976. First edition paperback original (PBO), a Very Good copy with black marks at head and heel.
  • Reynolds, Alastair. Poseidon’s Wake. Gollancz, 2015.
  • Reynolds, Alastair. Slow Bullets. Tacyhon, 2015. Trade paperback original. Bought for $7.49.
  • Reynolds, Alastair. Slow Bullets. WSFA, 2015. First hardback edition (and first signed edition), #37 of 1,000 signed, numbered copies. Copies available through Lame Excuse Books.
  • Rusch, Kristine Kathryn, editor. Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine: Issue Eight: Summer 1990. Hardback first edition, #50 of 250 numbered copies signed by all the contributors, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued, in a Fine slipcase. Signed by Greg Egan at the title page for his story “The Moral Virologist.” Also signed by George Alec Effinger, Jack McDevitt, Jonathan Lethem, etc. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 364. Supplements an unsigned copy (I have the entire 12 issue run in the regular edition.) Bought off eBay for $39.95.

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  • (Shaver, Richard) W. Michael Moore. This Tragic Earth: The Art and World of Richard Sharpe Shaver. Grave Distractions Publications, 2006. Trade paperback original. Shaver Mystery non-fiction.
  • Sheckley, Robert. Shards of Space. Bantam, 1962. First edition paperback original (PBO), a Very Good+ copy with slight spine creasing and wear. Twice Told Tales purchase.
  • Silverberg, Robert. The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume Nine: The Millennium Express. Subterranean Press, 2014. Sans dust jacket, as issued.
  • Smith, Michael Marshall. More Tomorrow & Other Stories. Earthling, 2003. #174 of 1,000 signed, numbered copies.
  • Shaw, Bob. The Palace of Eternity. Gollancz, 1970. First hardback edition, a Near Fine copy with one small spot to page block edge and bumping to bottom points, in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with with small dust blemish to spine near Gollancz “SF” logo, a few tiny dust spots elsewhere, and a slight bumping at bottom tips. Inscribed by the author: “To Brian,/with best wishes/Bob Shaw.” Currey (1979), page 431. Pringle SF 100, 61. Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 4, 4-391. Bought for £120, marked down from £200.

    Palace of Eternity

  • Spinrad, Norman. Russian Spring. Bantam, 1991. Bookplate signed by Spinrad affixed to half title page, with a copy of a letter from Spinrad to bookdealers laid in. Reportedly a good novel depicting the fall of the Soviet Union which had the misfortune to come out as it was already dissolving.
  • Spinrad, Norman, editor. Modern Science Fiction. Gregg Press, 1976. First hardback edition, a Near Fine copy with two small, dust spots on bottom of side page block and rubbing to bottom rear edge of boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Anthology. Not a particularly important book, but it does seem to be one of the more uncommon Gregg press titles these days. Bought off eBay for $35.
  • Straub, Peter. Ghost Story. Cowan, McCann, and Geoghegan, 1979. First hardback edition, a Near Fine copy with slight discoloration at the very top edge of the boards and slight bumping at points, in a Near Fine dust jacket with wear at points.
  • Straub, Peter. Perdido: A Fragment. Subterranean Press, 2014. #207 of 400 signed, numbered copies.
  • Swanwick, Michael, and Christophe Morley. Meditations on Meditations on Oysters (Swanwick) b/w Meditations on Oysters (Morley). Dragonstairs Press, 2015. First edition sewn chapbook with decorative cultured pearl, #24 of 50 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy. Swanwick’s observations on a 1917 free-form rumination on oysters.

    Swanwick Oysters

  • Tenn, William. Time in Advance. Bantam, 1958. First edition paperback original (PBO), a Very Good copy with spine creasing. Twice Told Tales purchase
  • Tidhar, Lavie. A Man Lies Dreaming. Hodder & Stoughton, 2014. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Novel featuring Adolf Hitler as a hardboiled PI by this Israeli-born/UK-resident writer.
  • Vance, Jack. The Dragon Masters. Dennis Dobson, 1965. First hardback edition, a Fine- copy with usual page darkening, in a Fine, bright, unclipped dust jacket. Signed by Vance. Bought for $120 from L. W. Currey.

    Dragon Masters

  • Vance, Jack. Grand Crusades. Subterranean Press, 2015.
  • Vance, Jack. Lurulu. Tor, 2004. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with a small remainder mark at heel in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Jack Vance. Bought off eBay for $25. Vance’s last novel.
  • VanderMeer, Jeff. Secret Lives. Prime Books, 2008. #299 of 1000 signed copies.
  • VanderMeer, Jeff and Ann. The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals. Tachyon, 2010.
  • Wagner, Karl Edward. Why Not You and I? Dark Harvest, 1987. First edition hardback, #252 of 300 copies signed by Wagner, a Fine copy in a Near Fine dust jacket with waviness to dust jacket rear, in a Near Fine paper slipcase. I also have a copy of the trade edition inscribed to me by Wagner at the 1988 Worldcon in New Orleans. Bought for $32.50.
  • Wellman, Manly Wade. Battle in the Dawn: The Complete Hok the Mighty. Planet Stories, 2011. Trade paperback original, Fine. Twice Told Tales purchase.
  • Wellman, Manly Wade. The South Fork Rangers. Ives Washburn, 1963. Ex-Library copy, with usual flaws, otherwise nice and square, with complete dust jacket. Juvenile historical novel.
  • Wells, Martha. Emilie & The Hollow World. Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry, 2013. Trade paperback original. I’m a sucker for Hollow Earth novels…
  • Wells, Martha. Emilie & The Sky World. Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry, 2014. Trade paperback original. Sequel.
  • Williamson, Jack. Manseed. Del Rey, 1982. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Williamson. Bought for £9.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Trumps of Doom. G. K. Hall & Co., 2000. Large print edition, a Fine copy in a near Fine- with faint scratches to rear cover and slight crimping at head and heel. I’m not fanatical about collecting every edition of every Zelazny book, but it was only $3…
  • Zelazny, Roger, editor. The Williamson Effect. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with just a trace of haze rubbing. Bought off Amazon for $8.75 plus shipping.
  • Library Additions: January 1 — June 30, 2015

    Monday, July 6th, 2015

    Time once again for the roundup of all library additions for the first half of the year. All books listed below are Fine first edition hardbacks in Fine dust jackets unless otherwise noted.

  • Asimov, Isaac. In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920—1954. Doubleday, 1979. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight sun darkening to the very tops of inside flaps. Non-fiction. The first volume of Asimov’s massive two volume autobiography (I already had a first edition of the second volume, In Joy Still Felt).
  • Banks, Iain M. The Algebraist. Orbit, 2004. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Banks. Supplements an unsigned first.
  • Banks, Iain M. Player of Games. Macmillian (UK), 1988. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Banks. Supplements an unsigned first.
  • Barrett, Neal. Through Darkest America. Worldwide, 1988. First paperback edition, a Fine- copy with tiny bump to bottom front corner and slight age-darkening to paper, otherwise apparently unread. Inscribed by Barrett, Jr. to fellow Texas science fiction writer Lewis Shiner: “11/29/88//Unca Lew—/Having you here for/a while has made my/day, as ever—/(Signature)”. Lew confirmed that it was indeed inscribed to him, noting he must have sold it and because he was moving again and already had the hardback…

    Shiner Darkest

  • Barker, Clive. Tortured Souls: The Legend of Primordium. Subterranean Press, 2015.
  • Baxter, Stephen. Raft. Grafton, 1991. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a tiny bit of haze rubbing. Author’s first book. Bought for $50 off an Australian Internet dealer. Replaces an Ex-Library copy.

    Raft

  • Bova, Ben, editor. (Roger Zelazny) The Best of Omni Science Fiction. Omni Society, 1980. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight wear in a Very Good dust jacket with shallow chipping at points, rubbing to rear cover, a 1/2″ closed tear, and general wear. Roger Zelazny’s personal contributor’s copy (for the story “Halfjack,” see below), with two signed typed letters from Omni editor Ben Bova laid in.
  • Blaylock, James p. Doughnuts. Airtight Seels Allied Productions (A.S.A.P.), 1994. First edition hardback, number 11 of 224 signed, numbered hardback copies, a Fine copy (save some waviness to the pages, which I take as a byproduct of the binding process), sans dust jacket with color illustration pasted onto the front board, as issued. In addition to the short story, this volume includes an Introduction by Lewis Shiner, an Appreciation by Lucius Shepard, an Afterward by Tim Powers, illustrations by Phil Parks, and tipped-in color photographs by Vicki Blaylock (and is signed by all of them). An elaborate production, much like all of A.S.A.P.’s hardback chapbooks. Chalker & Owings, Science Fantasy Publishers (2002), 1011. (Also Supplement Two, page 57.) Bought for $60 from a dealer off the Internet.

    Doughnuts

  • Bradbury, Ray. The Cat’s Pajamas. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Bradbury. Short story collection. Bought off eBay for $21.50.
  • Bradbury, Ray. Christmas Greetings 2008. First edition broadsheet, 8 1/2″ x 11″ card-stock, a Fine- copy with extremely light bumping at right tips. Signed by Bradbury. One of the many yearly Christmas greetings Bradbury used to send out to friends. Bought for $25 off eBay.

    Bradbury Christmas 2008

  • Bradbury, Ray. A Memory of Murder. Dell, 1984. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with a tiny bit of edgewear, signed by Bradbury, with a review slip laid in. Collection of Bradbury’s early mystery stories. An unusual book, in that you wouldn’t think he would have a mass market paperback original (with no hardback edition) this late in his career. Not particularly common, and even less so signed. Bought off eBay for $25.

    Bradbury Memory Murder

  • Brunner, John. Tomorrow May be Even Worse. NESFA Press, 1978. First edition trade paperback, a Fine- copy with a tiny bit of bumping at points. Signed by Brunner. Small book of verse (one SF topic for every letter, arranged from A to Z), illustrated by fan artist ATom.

    Brunner Worse

  • Cahill, James, editor. Ten Tales. James Cahill Publishing, 1994. First edition hardback, one of only 26 unnumbered “Author Copies”, a Fine- copy (gilt letters on spine are showing small spots of what might be oxidation) in a Very Good only slipcase with spotting and uneven fading, sans dust jacket, as issued. Original anthology with the Zelazny story “The Salesman’s Tale.” There was also a 250 copy numbered edition. (Chalker and Owings Supplement Three calls for a 26 copy leatherbound edition; this copy is bound in cloth with a cloth slipcase.)
  • (Cave, Hugh B.) Thomas, Milt. Cave of a Thousand Tales: The Life and Times of Hugh B. Cave. Arkham House, 2004. Non-fiction biography. Bought for $14 off eBay.
  • Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. Scholastic Press, 2009. First edition hardback (number line ending in 1, “First edition, September 2009” stated), a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a tiny bit of crimping at very top edge. Second book in the Hunger Games series.
  • Derleth, August. Dwellers in Darkness. Arkham House, 1976. Octavo, cloth. irst edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Bought from L. W. Currey for $17.50.
  • Dick, Philip K. (Frank T. Hollander, editor). Young Author’s Club: The Wartime Adolescent Writings of Philip K. Dick. Frank T. Hollander, 2014. First edition trade paperback original, #58 of 100 copies signed by the editor/publisher, a Fine copy. A 94 page chapbook containing Dick’s published writings from 1942 to 1944 in the Berkeley Daily Gazette newspaper, consisting of fiction and poems, some of which are fantasy. Includes bibliographic information and story notes. Something likely to drive Dick completists crazy.

    Dick Young Authors

  • Donaldson, Stephen R. One page typed signed letter to Roger Zelazny inviting him to a party. Part of a large collection of Roger Zelazny books, manuscripts and correspondence described here.
  • Doran, Niall, Alastastair Richardson, Joe Shemesh. Kinky Love: Mating of the Tasmanian Cave Spider. Bookend Trust, 2015. First edition hardback, one of an undetermined number of signed copies, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket in decorated boards, as issued. Non-fiction. (See the companion Neil Gaiman piece further down the page.)

    16Legs Kinky

  • Ellison, Harlan. The Top of the Mountain. Subterranean Press, 2014. Oversized collection of Ellison’s prize-winning stories.
  • Eisenstein, Phyllis. Born to Exile. Arkham House, 1978. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Bought from L. W. Currey for $12.50.
  • Farmer, Philip Jose. The Grand Adventure. Berkley Books, 1984. First hardback edition, #264 of 325 signed, numbered hardbacks, a Fine- copy (tiny bit of wear to reflective inlay pattern to the cover), sans dust jacket in a Fine slipcase, as issued. The trade paperback precedes by a month. This limited edition is the only hardback edition. Bought for $39.99 off eBay, which is less than the original issue price of $50.
  • Farmer, Philip Jose. Riverworld and Other Stories. Berkeley, 1979. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine copy with one spine crease. Precedes the Gregg Press hardback.
  • Fitzpatrick, E. H. The Coming Conflict of Nations, or the Japanese American War. H.W. Rokker, 1909. First edition hardback, a Very Good copy in black cloth boards stamped in gold, stamping on spine dulled bit still present, a few spots of wear or discoloration, slight bends at head and heel, newspaper review clipping pasted in on inside front cover, resulting in considerable foxing to front free endpaper. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: “Professor John Syphers/with the best wishes/of the author./Ernest Hugh Fitzpatrick/L.R.C.P., Ed./Pontiac, Illinois/March 5, 1910.” There’s also a long inscription by the recipient of the inscription on the other side of the front free endpaper. Bleiler, Checklist (1978), page 73. Bleiler, Science Fiction: The Early Years, page 247. Reginald, page 188. Possibly the first novel to predict a war between the United States and Japan. Bought off eBay for $10.50. Given that Currey has an unsigned copy that looks a bit worse at $350, I think it was a good buy…

    Conflict of Nations

    Fitzpatrick 1

    Fitzpatrick 2

  • Friedman, Kinky. A Case of Lone Star. Beech Tree Books, 1987. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight haze rubbing. Inscribed by Friedman: “To Justa—/to one good/American from/another —/Your friend,/Kinky/Aug 13, 1987.” Bought at the 2015 Austin Book Show for (after discounts and show $5 credit) $10.

    Kinky sig

  • Gaiman, Neil, and Newman, Kim, compilers. Ghastly Beyond Belief. Aarow Books, 1985. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine- copy with slight spine-creasing and edgewear along spine. Compilation of book and movie blurbs. Almost bought this at the 1988 Worldcon, but passed thinking that as a paperback it would be easier to find later. Little did I know…
  • Gaiman, Neil, with Niall Doran, Craig Wellington and Jodee Taylah (artist). Sixteen Legs Production Art: A Visit to the Queen of the Dark. Bookend Trust, 2015. First edition hardback, one of an undetermined number (though probably just over 100 copies, given that there are just under 100 names (including my own) listed under Premium Supporters on page 43) of the Limited Deluxe Edition signed by the three authors and the artist, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket in decorated boards, as issued.

    16Legs QueenB 1

  • Gibson, William. Distrust That Particular Flavor. Non-fiction collection of essays. Bought for half price.
  • Goldstein, Lisa. Tourists. Simon and Schuster, 1989. Signed by Goldstein. Bought for $10.
  • Heinlein, Robert A. The Star Beast. Scribner’s, 1954. First edition hardback (with Scribner’s seal and letter A on copyright page, as per Currey), a Fine- copy with slight bend at head and heel, slight dust soiling at head, and a tiny faint green pinprick dot at heel, in a Very Good+ dust jacket with very shallow (1/32″) chipping at head and points, a 1/2″ closed tear at heel, and very slight dust soiling to rear cover. A very nice copy of this well-regarded Heinlein juvenile. Bought for $200 from Lloyd Currey. Currey (1979), page 234.

    Star Beast

  • Hind, Charles Lewis. The Enchanted Stone. Adam and Charles Black (London), 1896. First edition hardback, a Very Good copy with repaired hinges, slight spine fading, bookplate on insider front cover and uneven foxing on front and rear free endpaper. By the Book World Remembered, page 106, which describes it as a “Fantastic tale of a vast Chinese city under London.” Tietler, By the World Forgot, page 53, which notes that this UK first edition has an extra chapter not in the American edition. Bleiler, Checklist (1978), page 100. Reginald, page 253. A very odd sounding Wainscot (to use Clute’s term from The Encyclopedia of Fantasy) indeed. Bought off the Internet for $36 plus shipping from Canada.

    Enchanted Stone

  • Honan, William H. Visions of Infamy: The Untold Story of How Journalist Hector C. Bywater Devised the Plans That lead to Pearl Harbor. St. Martin’s Press, 1991. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Fellow collector Chris Skillings sent this to me after reading about how I picked up E. H. Fitzpatrick’s The Coming Conflict of Nations, or the Japanese American War. Bywater sounds like he was a very interesting guy…
  • Howard, Robert E. The Dark Man and Others. Arkham House, 1963. First edition hardback, a Near Fine- copy with crimping at head and heel, previous owner’s bookplate on FFE, and a drop of dampstaining that affects the FFE and the first few pages, in a Very Good+ dust jacket with slight creasing at head and heel, slight wear along spine, slight dust staining to white rear cover. The second Arkham collection of Howard’s short stories, all but one from Weird Tales. Won off eBay for $60.

    Howard Dark Man

  • Hughes, Matthew. Of Whimsies & Noubles. PS Publishing, 2014. First edition hardback, #96 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
  • Joyce, Graham. 25 Years in the Word Mines with Second Shift: More Tales from the Word Mines. PS Publishing, 2015. First edition hardback, #48 of 100 slipcased sets, a Fine copy in decorated boards (for both) and a Fine dust jacket (for 25 Years in a slipcase. Career retrospective for graham Joyce, who unfortunately died of cancer before it was published. Second Shift is signed by Ella Joyce, Owen King, and Kelly Braffet. I have one copy available though Lame Excuse Books, if you’re interested.
  • Lafferty, R. A. The Man With the Aura: Collected Short Fiction Part 2. Centipede Press, 2015. First edition hardback, #36 (matching the first volume) of 300 copies signed by introduction author Harlan Ellison, series editor John Pelan and designer Jacob McMurray, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, still in shrink wrap.
  • Lafferty, R.A. Sinbad: The Thirteenth Voyage. Broken Mirrors Press, 1989. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Traded a signed Howard Waldrop book to cover artist Lissanne Lake for it.

    Sinbad

  • (Lafferty, R. A.) Feast of Laughter Issue 1. Kistic Press, 2014. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. First volume in a new (and long overdue) series of non-fiction on Lafferty’s work. Bought from Amazon, because the publisher said it was cheaper that way than buying direct. (Indeed, it’s even available as a free download.) Oddly enough, Lissanne Lake did the cover for this as well…

    Feast of Laughter

  • (Lafferty, R. A.) Feast of Laughter Issue 2. Kistic Press, 2015. Another fine issue…
  • Lansdale, Joe R. Prisoner 489. Dark Regions Press, 2014 (i.e., 2015). First edition hardback, #278 of 400 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket in decorated boards, as issued.
  • Leckie, Ann. Ancillary Justice. Gale/Thorndike Press, 2015. First hardback edition (a Large Print edition preceded by the trade paperback original and which, in turn, precedes the Subterranean Press signed/limited edition), a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Hugo and Nebula winner for best novel.

    Ancillary justice LP

  • Leckie, Ann. Ancillary Justice. Subterranean Press, 2015. First signed/limited edition, and first non-Large print hardback, #170 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
  • Leiber, Fritz (edited by S. T. Joshi). Adept’s Gambit: The Original Version. Arcane Wisdom Press, 2014. First edition hardback, #322 of 500 numbered copies signed by Joshi, a Fine copy. Bought off eBay for $22.50.
  • (Lovecraft, H.P.) Joshi, S. T. H. P. Lovecraft: A Life. Necronomicon Press, 1996. First edition, one of only 250 signed hardbacks (the only hardback edition), a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a very tiny wrinkle at head. Widely considered to be the definitive Lovecraft biography until Joshi’s two volume expansion I Am Providence (which I also have) came out in 2010. The hardback of H. P. Lovecraft: A Life peaked around $500, but has since drifted down a bit. I bought this one from the publisher off eBay for $160.

    Lovecraft A Life

  • (Lovecraft, H. P.) Shreffler, Philip A. The Lovecraft Companion. Greenwood Press, 1977. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. One of the first broad critical companions to Lovecraft’s work, offering an in-depth summary of Lovecraft’s literary theory, plot summaries of all his stories, an encyclopedia of characters and monsters, and an in-depth look at Cthulhu Mythos monsters. An interesting high-level overview and “first cut” of Lovecraft criticism, from before S. T. Joshi turned it into a cottage industry, and pretty much all the topics covered here have been examined at much greater depth since. Currey (1979), page 332. Joshi, Lovecraft Bibliography, I-C-158. Tymn Schlobin Currey, 294. Bought off the Internet for $42.50. Scan shows surface wear to the dust jacket protector.

    Lovecraft Companion

  • (Lovecraft, H.P.) Books at Brown, 1991-1992, Volumes XXXVIII-XXIX. The Friends of the Library of Brown University, 1995. First edition academic journal, trade paperback format, a Near Fine copy with a slightly bent top outer corner. Features numerous essays on H. P. Lovecraft (the Providence native for which the Brown library contains considerable holdings), including work from S. T. Joshi, Peter Canon, Robert Price, etc.

    Books at Brown

  • (Lovecraft, H.P.) Pedersen, Nate, editor. The Starry Wisdom Library: A Catalogue of the Greatest Occult Book Auction of All Time. PS Publishing, 2014. Mock catalog of Lovecraftian tomes of forbidden knowledge.
  • (Lovecraft, H.P.) Schweitzer, Darrell. That Is Not Dead: Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos Through the Centuries. PS Publishing, 2015.
  • Lumley, Brian. Tales of the Primal Land. Subterranean Press, 2015. #117 of 250 signed, numbered copies.
  • Lumley, Brian. Tales of the Primal Land. Subterranean Press, 2015. Trade edition.
  • Martin, George R. R. Portraits of His Children. Dark Harvest, 1987. First edition hardback, #OO of 52 signed, lettered copies bound in white leather, a Fine copy in a Fine wooden “slipcrate” slipcase, sans dust jacket, as issued. Zealzny provides the introduction (“A Sketch of Their Father”) and a signature. I always thought the Dark Harvest slipcrates were attractive productions, and I’m happy to have one in my library. Supplements a trade edition. Chalker/Owings, page 119.

    IMG_0383

  • Martin, George R. R., editor. Wild Cards. Bantam Spectra/SFBC, 1987. First hardback edition (book club), preceded by the trade paperback original, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with edgewear at points. Shared world superhero anthology which includes the Zelazny story “The Sleeper.” Man, seems like every single edition of the early Wild Cards books had ugly covers…
  • Martin, George R. R., editor. Wild Cards. Bantam Spectra, 1987. Uncorrected page proofs (trade paperback format) of the hardback first edition, a Fine copy. Shared world superhero anthology which includes the Zelazny story “The Sleeper.”

    Wild Cards proof

  • McCammon, Robert R. The Border. Subterranean Press, 2015. Signed by McCammon.
  • Moody, Rick. Garden State. Pushcart Press, 1992. Presumed first edition hardback (no additional printings stated), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Author’s first book. Sent to me by Temporary Culture publisher Henry Wessells. Thanks, Henry!
  • Moorcock, Michael. The Whispering Swarm. Tor, 2014. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Moorcock. Seems to be both a roman a clef of growing up in London, as well as a world shift fantasy.
  • Niven, Larry. A Hole In Space. Ballantine Books, 1974. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine copy with touches of general wear. Currey (1979), page 387.
  • Powers, Tim. Dinner at Deviants Palace. Chatto & Windus, 1986. First trade hardback, first UK hardback, and first non-book club hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Berlyne, Powers: Secret Histories, A5c.1.
  • Powers, Tim. Nobody’s Home. Subterranean Press, 2014. First edition hardback, #277 of 474 signed numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and printed cloth slipcase. Supplements my copy of the trade edition, which precedes, as this slipcased edition was not shipped until 2015.
  • Simak, Clifford. City. Gnome Press, 1952. First edition hardback, a Near Fine- copy with slight spine lean and previous owner’s name and date on front free endpaper) in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with a few pinhead sized spots of discoloration on dust jacket flaps and along top flap edges, and extremely slight dust-staining to white rear panel; an exceptionally nice example of the dust jacket. One of Simak’s key works, and one of the more desirable Gnome Press titles. Chalker & Owings (1991), page 199. Currey (1979), page 446. Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 208. Won for $200 from Heritage Auctions.

    City

    Sladek, John. Mechasm. First edition paperback original under this title (published earlier in the UK as The Reproductive System) and first U.S. edition, a Very Good copy with a small, faint 1/4″ stamp at heel, edgewear, stamp on blurb page, and faint spine creasing. Inscribed by Sladek: “For Scott,/John Sladek”. Formerly Scott Cupp’s copy. Currey (1979), page 450. Bought for $5 at Half Price Books.

    Mechasm

    Sladek mechasm sig

  • Sloane, William. The Edge of Running Water. Farrar and Reinhart, 1939. First edition hardback, a Very Good+ copy with slight bumping at head and heel, foxing to gutters, darkening of endpapers and slight age darkening to pages, in a Good only dust jacket with a 1/2″ to 1/4″ loss at head, loss at points, long thin crease, 2″ closed tear, dust staining and wrinkling to rear panel, creasing and tear at bottom front edge, and additional shallow chipping at edges and general wear. Bleiler, Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 1482. Bleiler, Checklist of Science Fiction and Supernatural Fiction (1978), page 181. Crawford, Donahue and Grant, 333, page 56. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy I, page 200. Barron, Horror Literature, 3-181. Bought from Currey for $50.

    Edge of Running Water

  • Smith, Clark Ashton (Johnson, Raymond F. and Ardath Winterowd, editors). Shadows Seen and Unseen. HTH Art Studio, 2007. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket over decorated boards, signed by the editors. Odd miscellanea of poems, facsimile manuscripts, drawings, paintings, and non-fiction about Smith from various sources. An oversized, 94 page hardback.

    Shadows Seen

    Smith, Edward E., Ph.D. Second Stage Lensmen. Fantasy Press, 1953. First edition hardback, Currey Binding A (blue cloth lettered in gold), first issue, #368 of 500 numbered copies signed by Smith, a Very Good+ copy with large square of discoloration to inside front cover due to a bookplate (now laid in; see below) and a few instances of light spotting to boards, in a Near Fine- dust jacket with a couple of closed 1/2″ tears, modest edgewear at head, heel and points, and slight soiling to the rear cover, but otherwise a nice intact and very bright example of the dust jacket. Inscribed by Smith (as the subscriber copies frequently were): “To Joseph R. Brady,/Three in a row – Hot Dog! [Tic Tac Tow Game]/With sincere appreciation/Of your continued interest—/Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.” (Though it seems a fulsome personal inscription, it’s quite similar to the one I have in my subscriber copy of Skylark Three to another subscriber.) Currey (1979), page 456. Chalker and Owings (1991), page 161. Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 41. Lucchetti, Doc: First Galactic Roamer, page 60. Won for $121.50 off eBay.

    2nd Stage Lensmen

    Second Stage Lensmen Signature

    Second Stage Lensmen Bookplate

  • Smith, James Robert and Stephen Mark Rainey, editors. Evermore. Arkham House, 2006. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Edgar Allen Poe tribute anthology. Bought for $14 off eBay.
  • Stapledon, Olaf. Last and First Men. Methuen, 1930. First edition hardback, first state, as per Currey (2002), with 8-page publisher’s catalog at rear dated 630, a Very Good- copy with FFE excised and slight loss to paper at gutter, foxing to gutter, moderate spotting to outer page block edges, a small circular stamp reading “Dempsters Clenferrie” (possibly an Australian bookstore stamp) on half title page, and a few sports to first few pages, lacking the dust jacket. His acclaimed epic novel describing several million years of future human evolution.
  • Stapledon, Olaf. Odd John. Methuen, 1935. First edition hardback, first state binding (light blue binding lettered in dark blue) in Currey (2002) A2 issue (catalog at rear dated 835, no priority between issues 1 and 2), a Very Good- copy with lightened spots on spine, slight spine lean, modest wear at heel and points, and spots of foxing to first few pages, lacking the dust jacket. His celebrated novel of a mental superman.

    P1000946

  • Swanwick, Michael. Hunting the Phoenix. Dragonstairs Press, 2015. First edition hardback (“archival board wrappers covered with hand-dyed rice paper, with a stab binding ornamented with a single aventurine bead”), #6 of 30 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued, new and unread. Sort of an in-progress illustrated sketchbook for a Swanwick novel, more impressionistic colored line art than narrative. If it’s not the strangest Swanwick item yet, it’s tied with the hardback state of Puck Aleshire’s Abecedary. Bought for $30 from the publisher.
  • Swanwick, Michael. Season’s Greetings. Dragonstairs Press, 2014. First edition chapbook original, #18 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy. I should be able to pick up copies of this to sell through Lame Excuse Books later in the year.

    Swanwick X 2

  • Thorburn, Wayne. Red State: An Insider’s Story of How the GOP Came to Dominate Texas Politics. University of Texas Press, 2014. Non-fiction.
  • Updike, John. The Witches of Eastwick. Franklin Press, 1984. First edition hardback, a limited edition signed by Updike (which precedes the trade edition), a Fine copy in decorated leather boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Pringle, Modern Fantasy 100 91. Bought off eBay for $19.99.

    P1000963

    P1000967

  • (Vance, Jack) Andre-Driussi, Michael. Handbook of Vance Space. Sirius Fiction, 2014. Non-fiction critical companion to the galactic setting shared by most of his science fiction.
  • Weinbaum, Stanley G. A Martian Odyssey and Others. Fantasy Press, 1949. First edition hardback (trade state), a Near Fine- copy with one small indention to top edge of front board, faint dust staining to top page block, and slight foxing to gutters, in a Very Good dust jacket with about 1/16th inch chipping loss at head, heel and points, a thin 1/4″ nick in the middle of the spine, one closed 1/4″ tear to top rear, and a tiny bit of dust soiling to rear cover. Actually a very presentable copy of a key small press collection of one of the most important pre-Golden Age SF writers, and a book I’ve wanted for quite a while. Currey (1979), page 511. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 159. Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 27. Bought for $34.66 off eBay.

    Martian Odyssey

    Wells, H. G. Select Conversations With an Uncle (Now Extinct). John Lane, 1895. First edition hardback (sixteen pages of ads inserted at back, as per Currey), a Very Good copy with wear to bottom boards, wear at head and heel, a thin 1″ white line (possibly white out or white paint) across top rear, and slight wear along font boards, otherwise fairly nice, with gilt scratched but otherwise complete at head. Includes Larry McMurtry’s ownership plate, which features the brand from his father’s ranch. Twelve conversations (all fictional) and two short stories. Currey, page 522. H. G. Wells: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 3. Bought at auction for $6, or $20 with buyer’s premium.

    P1000969

    P1000972

    P1000974

  • Westerfeld, Scott. The Manual of Aeronautics. Simon Pulse, 2012. Illustrated non-fiction guide to Westerfeld’s Steampunk Leviathan universe. Bought for $4.99 at Half Price Books.
  • Wolfe, Gene. The Land Across. PS Publishing, 2014. First limited edition hardback, #18 of 200 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
  • Wolfe, Gene. Soldier of Sidon. Tor, 2006. Third Latro book.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “And Only I Escaped To Tell Thee.” Carbon copy of original typed manuscript. This and all the rest of the Zelazny books listed in this post were part of a large collection of Roger Zelazny books, manuscripts and correspondence described here.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Blood of Amber. Arbor House, 1986. Uncorrected proof (trade paperback format) of the hardback first edition, a Fine- copy with phantom crease the length of rear cover, with review slip (with sticker signed by Zelazny affixed to it) laid in. Kovacs, Ia.

    Blood of Amber proof

  • Zelazny, Roger. Bridge of Ashes. Gregg Press, 1979. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Zelazny. Supplements an unsigned hardback. Levack, 2e. Kovacs, I3b.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “The Burning.” One page typewritten poem.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “A City Divided.” Original typed manuscript with numerous hand-corrections.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Archive material about various Amber novels from various people, most concerning The Courts of Chaos in one way or another, including a handwritten six page synopsis of The Courts of Chaos by Zelazny, followed by the typed version of the same synopsis, plus letters to (originals) and from (apparently file carbon copies) Zelazny on the subject.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “The Cyborg Connection.” Original typed manuscript with numerous hand-corrections, with a carbon copy of the second draft. This story would later be published as “Halfjack.”
  • Zelazny, Roger. Dilvish the Damned. Del Rey, no date (but probably 1981 or 82). Unbound long galleys (the very first proof state of the book production cycle, pages age darkened but otherwise Fine, unbound but gathered into signature sheets. Kovacs, I15a.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Doorways in the Sand. Harper & Row, 1976. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Zelazny, with an additional signed note laid in “To David, This copy of Doorways in the Sand, being the chronicles of both Fred Cassidy and a Hugo and Nebula finalist.” Atypically, both the note and signature are printed rather than in Zelazny’s elegant cursive handwriting. While I wouldn’t swear it’s Zelazny’s handwriting, it’s not entirely dissimilar to other examples I have of it. Currey, page 570. Levack, 13a. Kovacs, I17b.
  • Zelazny, Roger. The Dream Master. Rupert Hart Davis, 1968. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a trace of dust staining along very top edge and at heel spine join, with sticker for Henry Morison Inc. (Zelazny’s literary agent) affixed to front free endpaper. Signed by Zelazny. Currey, page 570. Levack, 14b. Kovacs, I18b.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “Fire and/or Ice.” Original hand-corrected typescript, including one hand-written manuscript page.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Four for Tomorrow. Garland Press, 1975. First hardback edition under this title (issued in UK hardback as A Rose for Ecclesiastes), a Fine copy in a Fine aftermarket dust jacket Bob photo-produced from the Ace paperback edition that Garland used to print the plates from. With a a title page of the Ace paperback inscribed by Zelazny (“Many a good wish/to you/Roger Zelazny/ 7/6/84”) laid in. Replaces an unsigned ex-library copy. Currey, page 570. Levack, 17f. Kovacs, V11f.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Frost and Fire. William Morrow and Company, 1989. Uncorrected bound galleys (or so it says; actually a trade paperback format proof), a Fine copy, signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, V12a.

    Zelazny Frost and Fire Proof

  • Zelazny, Roger. “Garden of Blood.” Carbon copy typed story manuscript.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “The George Business.” Carbon copy typed story manuscript, with multiple signed letters from Dragon Tales editor Orson Scott Card accepting the story, apologizing for delayed payment, etc., along with a signed signature plate by Card.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “Go Starless Into That Night.” Carbon copy of original typed manuscript, with two acceptance letters from editor Jim Baen.
  • Zelazny, Roger. The Hand of Oberon. Doubleday, 1976. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with one closed 1/4″ tear at bottom rear, with review slip laid in. Inscribed by Zelazny: “With all good wishes,/Roger Zelazny.” Currey, page 570. Levack, 19a. Kovacs, I23a.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Isle of the Dead. Rapp & Whiting, 1970. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a tiny bit of edgewear at extremities. Inscribed by Zelazny: “To Willi/Every kind of good/wish./Best,/ Roger Zelazny/ 3/27/82.” Supplements an unsigned copy. Currey, page 570. Levack, 21b. Kovacs, I25b.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Original ribbon-copy, hand-corrected first draft manuscript for Knight of Shadows, with two letters of authenticity from Zelazny, and the manuscript signed twice by him (on the first and last pages) in 1989. Although Zelazny was already a celebrated author at the time, he still displayed thrifty habits by typing out his manuscript on the back of whatever 8 1/2″ x 11″ scrap paper he had lying around, be it government forms, convention flyers, flyers for the Santa Fe Opera Company, and pages (presumably photocopies of works sent to Zelazny to critique or review) from other author’s manuscripts, including pages from Tom Deitz’s Fireshaper’s Doom and Jeffrey Carver’s From a Changeling Star.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Knight of Shadows. William Morrow and Company, 1989. Uncorrected bound galleys (or so it says; actually a trade paperback format proof), a Near Fine+ copy with slight fading to spine and small crease to bottom font corner, signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, I27a.

    Knight of Shadows proof

  • Zelazny, Roger. The Last Defender of Camelot. Underwood/Miler, 1980. First edition chapbook original, simultaneous with the extremely small hardback run (which I picked up in my previous Zelazny purchase), #265 of 275 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy, in issued manila envelope. Levack, 23a. Kovacs, VIIIa. I now have something like eight different items with this title…

    Last Defender Chapbook

  • Zelazny, Roger. “The Last of the Wild Ones.” Carbon copy of original typed manuscript.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “LP Me Thee.” One page typewritten poem.
  • Zelazny, Roger. My Name is Legion. Faber & Faber, 1979. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Zelazny. Levack, 27h. Kovacs, I32c.
  • Zelazny, Roger. A Night on the Lonesome October. Avon Books, 1993. Advanced uncorrected proof of the hardback first edition, a Fine copy. Signed by both Zelazny and cover artist Gahan Wilson. Kovacs, I33a.

    Lonesome October Proof

  • Zelazny, Roger. “Richard Lupoff’s Sword of the Demon.” Extremely short review/piece of non-fiction. Appeared in Starlog’s SF Yearbook Volume 1, edited by David Gerrold and compiled by David Truesdale.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Roadmarks. Del Rey, 1979. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with review slip laid in. Signed by Zelazny. Levack, 31a. Kovacs, I37z.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Second draft photocopy of the manuscript for Sign of Chaos, showing the hand-corrections in the first draft, with further corrections by Zelazny in red, along with a four page style guide for spelling the names of the characters, etc. in the book.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Sign of Chaos. Arbor House, 1987. Proof (trade paperback format) of the hardback first edition, a Fine copy in a Fine proof state dust jacket (no copy or price on back cover, spine or flaps). Signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, I38a.
  • Zelazny, Roger. The Sign of the Unicorn. Doubleday, 1975. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a trace of dust soiling to white rear cover. Signed by Zelazny. Currey, page 571. Levack, 33a. Kovacs, I39a.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “Stand Pat, Ruby Stone.” Carbon copy story manuscript.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Today We Choose Faces. Millington, 1973. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Zelazny. Currey, page 571. Levack, 37b. Kovacs, I42a.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Untitled poem, later published as “To Spin Is Miracle Cat.” One page typewritten poem.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Trumps of Doom. Arbor House, 1985. Proof (trade paperback format) of the hardback first edition, a Fine copy in a Fine proof dust jacket (no copy or price on back cover, spine or flaps). Signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, I43a.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Trumps of Doom. Underwood/Miller, 1985. First limited hardback edition, #316 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket in a Very Good+ suede slipcase that has some brown dampstaining discoloration along the spine. Kovacs, I43c.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Unicorn Variations. Timescape Books, 1983. Advanced uncorrected proof of the hardback first edition, a Fine copy, signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, V21a.

    Unicorn Variations Proof

  • Zelazny, Roger. “A Very Good Year.” Original hand-corrected typescript of the first draft, and a carbon-copy of the second draft.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Original hand-written first draft for story “Walpurgisnacht” on yellow lined legal paper, 5 pages long.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “The White Beasts.” Original hand-corrected typescript, plus carbon of corrected story.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Some 30 pages of correspondence between Zelazny and editor/packager Byron Preiss, most concerning The Illustrated Roger Zelazny, including copies of B&W sketches and a page of original colored pencil art by Gray Morrow for the project.
  • Zelazny, Roger, and Robert Sheckley. Several pages of correspondence between Zelazny (carbons) and Robert Sheckley (originals) concerning three stories for an anthology, plus a small autographed note to “Bob” from Zelazny.
  • Various other letters to Zelazny, some with replies.
  • Zelazny, Roger, editor. Warriors of Blood and Dream. AvoNova, 1995. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine+ copy with number “34” written across inside cover EAC code and foxing to inside covers. Anthology. Kovacs, IX7a.
  • Zelazny, Roger, editor. Wheel of Fortune. AvoNova, 1995. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine- copy with slight spine creasing and foxing to insider covers. Anthology. Kovacs, IX8a.
  • (Zelazny, Roger) Neil Randall. Combat Command in the World of Roger Zelazny’s Nine Princes in Amber: The Black Road War. Ace, 1988. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with just a trace of edgewear, otherwise new and unread. Sort of a strategic pick-your-own-path adventure. Kovacs, X8a. I had one of these about a decade ago that I sold on eBay for $25…
  • (Zelazny, Roger) Stephen, Christopher P. A Checklist of Roger Zelazny. Ultramarine, 1993. revised edition. Non-fiction chapbook, since superseded by the Kovacs bibliography. Kovacs, XXIII3b.

    Zelazny Checklist

  • Library Addition: Another Major Collection of Roger Zelazny Books and Manuscripts

    Monday, June 29th, 2015

    I recently bought another $6,000 worth of (mostly) Roger Zelazny manuscripts and first editions from Bob Pylant, and it has taken me a while to catalog all of it. (See a listing of my previous $5,400 purchase from Bob here.) As with my earlier purchase from him, Bob had meticulously placed every page of the manuscripts into a plastic page protectors (save the last few pages of Sign of Chaos (see below), where he ran out), and placed them all into binders, many of which included multiple stories and related archive material, including correspondence between Zelazny (generally carbon copies) and his editors (almost always originals). Below is a brief summary of each that doesn’t quite get down to the level of an actual archival description (there are only so many hours in the day). And since this is such a long post already, I’ve only included scans or pictures of books I thought there weren’t good copies of on the Internet (mostly the proofs).

    Bibliography
    For bibliographic details and first edition verification, I cite the following reference books:

  • Currey, L.W. Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors: A Bibliography of First Printings of Their Fiction. G. K. Hall, 1978.
  • Chalker, Jack & Owings, Mark. The Science Fantasy Publishers: A Critical and Bibliographic History. Mirage Press, 1991 (“Third Edition Revised and Enlarged”).
  • Kovacs, Christopher S. The Ides of Octember: A Pictorial Bibliography of Roger Zelazny. NESFA Press, 2010. (Note: Kovacs lists proofs, ARCs, etc. when known, so many hardback firsts are designated with the a “b” rather than an “a”.)
  • Levack, Daniel J. Amber Dreams: A Roger Zelazny Bibliography. Underwood/Miller, 1983.
  • Original Zelazny Book Manuscripts

  • Zelazny, Roger. Archive material about various Amber novels from various people, most concerning The Courts of Chaos in one way or another, including a handwritten six page synopsis of The Courts of Chaos by Zelazny, followed by the typed version of the same synopsis, plus letters to (originals) and from (apparently file carbon copies) Zelazny on the subject.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Dilvish the Damned. Del Rey, no date (but probably 1981 or 82). Unbound long galleys (the very first proof state of the book production cycle), pages age darkened but otherwise Fine, unbound but gathered into signature sheets. Kovacs, I15a.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Original ribbon-copy, hand-corrected first draft manuscript for Knight of Shadows, with two letters of authenticity from Zelazny, and the manuscript signed twice by him (on the first and last pages) in 1989. Although Zelazny was already a celebrated author at the time, he still displayed thrifty habits by typing out his manuscript on the back of whatever 8 1/2″ x 11″ scrap paper he had lying around, be it government forms, convention flyers, flyers for the Santa Fe Opera Company, and pages (presumably photocopies of works sent to Zelazny to critique or review) from other author’s manuscripts, including pages from Tom Deitz’s Fireshaper’s Doom and Jeffrey Carver’s From a Changeling Star.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Second draft photocopy of the manuscript for Sign of Chaos, showing the hand-corrections in the first draft, with further corrections by Zelazny in red, along with a four page style guide for spelling the names of the characters, etc. in the book.
  • Original Zelazny Short Story Manuscripts, etc.

  • Zelazny, Roger. “And Only I Escaped To Tell Thee.” Carbon copy of original typed manuscript.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “The Burning.” One page typewritten poem.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “A City Divided.” Original typed manuscript with numerous hand-corrections.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “The Cyborg Connection.” Original typed manuscript with numerous hand-corrections, with a carbon copy of the second draft. This story would later be published as “Halfjack.”
  • Zelazny, Roger. “Fire and/or Ice.” Original hand-corrected typescript, including one hand-written manuscript page.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “Richard Lupoff’s Sword of the Demon.” Extremely short review/piece of non-fiction. Appeared in Starlog’s SF Yearbook Volume 1, edited by David Gerrold and compiled by David Truesdale.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “Garden of Blood.” Carbon copy typed story manuscript.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “The George Business.” Carbon copy typed story manuscript, with multiple signed letters from Dragon Tales editor Orson Scott Card accepting the story, apologizing for delayed payment, etc., along with a signed signature plate by Card.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “Go Starless Into That Night.” Carbon copy of original typed manuscript, with two acceptance letters from editor Jim Baen.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “The Last of the Wild Ones.” Carbon copy of original typed manuscript.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “LP Me Thee.” One page typewritten poem.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “Stand Pat, Ruby Stone.” Carbon copy story manuscript.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Untitled poem, later published as “To Spin Is Miracle Cat.” One page typewritten poem.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “A Very Good Year.” Original hand-corrected typescript of the first draft, and a carbon-copy of the second draft.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Original hand-written first draft for story “Walpurgisnacht” on yellow lined legal paper, 5 pages long.
  • Zelazny, Roger. “The White Beasts.” Original hand-corrected typescript, plus carbon of corrected story.
  • Correspondence Archives

  • Donaldson, Stephen R. One page typed signed letter to Zelazny inviting him to a party.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Some 30 pages of correspondence between Zelazny and editor/packager Byron Preiss, most concerning The Illustrated Roger Zelazny, including copies of B&W sketches and a page of original colored pencil art by Gray Morrow for the project.
  • Zelazny, Roger, and Robert Sheckley. Several pages of correspondence between Zelazny (carbons) and Robert Sheckley (originals) concerning three stories for an anthology, plus a small autographed note to “Bob” from Zelazny.
  • Various other letters to Zelazny, some with replies.
  • Roger Zelazny Hardback First Editions

    I had all but a couple of these, but all these copies are Fine/Fine and signed by Zelazny.

  • Zelazny, Roger. Bridge of Ashes. Gregg Press, 1979. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Zelazny. Supplements an unsigned hardback. Levack, 2e. Kovacs, I3b.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Doorways in the Sand. Harper & Row, 1976. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Zelazny, with an additional signed note laid in “To David, This copy of Doorways in the Sand, being the chronicles of both Fred Cassidy and a Hugo and Nebula finalist.” Atypically, both the note and signature are printed rather than in Zelazny’s elegant cursive handwriting. While I wouldn’t swear it’s Zelazny’s handwriting, it’s not entirely dissimilar to other examples I have of it. Currey, page 570. Levack, 13a. Kovacs, I17b.
  • Zelazny, Roger. The Dream Master. Rupert Hart Davis, 1968. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a trace of dust staining along very top edge and at heel spine join, with sticker for Henry Morison Inc. (Zelazny’s literary agent) affixed to front free endpaper. Signed by Zelazny. Currey, page 570. Levack, 14b. Kovacs, I18b.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Four for Tomorrow. Garland Press, 1975. First hardback edition under this title (issued in UK hardback as A Rose for Ecclesiastes), a Fine copy in a Fine aftermarket dust jacket Bob photo-produced from the Ace paperback edition that Garland used to print the plates from. With a title page of the Ace paperback inscribed by Zelazny (“Many a good wish/to you/Roger Zelazny/ 7/6/84”) laid in. Replaces an unsigned ex-library copy. Currey, page 570. Levack, 17f. Kovacs, V11f.
  • Zelazny, Roger. The Hand of Oberon. Doubleday, 1976. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with one closed 1/4″ tear at bottom rear, with review slip laid in. Inscribed by Zelazny: “With all good wishes,/Roger Zelazny.” Currey, page 570. Levack, 19a. Kovacs, I23a.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Isle of the Dead. Rapp & Whiting, 1970. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a tiny bit of edgewear at extremities. Inscribed by Zelazny: “To Willi/Every kind of good/wish./Best,/ Roger Zelazny/ 3/27/82.” Supplements an unsigned copy. Currey, page 570. Levack, 21b. Kovacs, I25b.
  • Zelazny, Roger. My Name is Legion. Faber & Faber, 1979. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Zelazny. Levack, 27h. Kovacs, I32c.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Roadmarks. Del Rey, 1979. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with review slip laid in. Signed by Zelazny. Levack, 31a. Kovacs, I37z.
  • Zelazny, Roger. The Sign of the Unicorn. Doubleday, 1975. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a trace of dust soiling to white rear cover. Signed by Zelazny. Currey, page 571. Levack, 33a. Kovacs, I39a.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Today We Choose Faces. Millington, 1973. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Zelazny. Currey, page 571. Levack, 37b. Kovacs, I42a.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Trumps of Doom. Underwood/Miller, 1985. First limited hardback edition, #316 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket in a Very Good+ suede slipcase that has some brown dampstaining discoloration along the spine. Kovacs, I43c.

    Roger Zelazny Trade Paperback, Proofs, and Chapbooks

  • Zelazny, Roger. Blood of Amber. Arbor House, 1986. Uncorrected proof (trade paperback format) of the hardback first edition, a Fine- copy with phantom crease the length of rear cover, with review slip (with sticker signed by Zelazny affixed to it) laid in. Kovacs, Ia.

    Blood of Amber proof

  • Zelazny, Roger. Frost and Fire. William Morrow and Company, 1989. Uncorrected bound galleys (or so it says; actually a trade paperback format proof), a Fine copy, signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, V12a.

    Zelazny Frost and Fire Proof

  • Zelazny, Roger. Knight of Shadows. William Morrow and Company, 1989. Uncorrected bound galleys (or so it says; actually a trade paperback format proof), a Near Fine+ copy with slight fading to spine and small crease to bottom font corner, signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, I27a.

    Knight of Shadows proof

  • Zelazny, Roger. The Last Defender of Camelot. Underwood/Miller, 1980. First edition chapbook original, simultaneous with the extremely small hardback run (which I picked up in my previous Zelazny purchase from Bob), #265 of 275 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy, in issued manila envelope. Levack, 23a. Kovacs, VIIIa. I now have something like eight different items with this title…

    Last Defender Chapbook

  • Zelazny, Roger. A Night on the Lonesome October. Avon Books, 1993. Advanced uncorrected proof of the hardback first edition, a Fine copy. Signed by both Zelazny and cover artist Gahan Wilson. Kovacs, I33a.

    Lonesome October Proof

  • Zelazny, Roger. Sign of Chaos. Arbor House, 1987. Proof (trade paperback format) of the hardback first edition, a Fine copy in a Fine proof state dust jacket (no copy or price on back cover, spine or flaps). Signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, I38a.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Trumps of Doom. Arbor House, 1985. Proof (trade paperback format) of the hardback first edition, a Fine copy in a Fine proof dust jacket (no copy or price on back cover, spine or flaps). Signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, I43a.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Unicorn Variations. Timescape Books, 1983. Advanced uncorrected proof of the hardback first edition, a Fine copy, signed by Zelazny. Kovacs, V21a.

    Unicorn Variations Proof

  • (Zelazny, Roger) Stephen, Christopher P. A Checklist of Roger Zelazny. Ultramarine, 1993. revised edition. Non-fiction chapbook, since superseded by the Kovacs bibliography. Kovacs, XXIII3b

    Zelazny Checklist

    Roger Zelazny Paperbacks

  • Zelazny, Roger, editor. Warriors of Blood and Dream. AvoNova, 1995. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine+ copy with number “34” written across inside cover EAC code and foxing to inside covers. Anthology. Kovacs, IX7a.
  • Zelazny, Roger, editor. Wheel of Fortune. AvoNova, 1995. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine- copy with slight spine creasing and foxing to insider covers. Anthology. Kovacs, IX8a.
  • (Zelazny, Roger) Neil Randall. Combat Command in the World of Roger Zelazny’s Nine Princes in Amber: The Black Road War. Ace, 1988. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with just a trace of edgewear, otherwise new and unread. Sort of a strategic pick-your-own-path adventure. Kovacs, X8a. I had one of these about a decade ago that I sold on eBay for $25…
  • First Editions By Other Authors (Some Related to Zelazny)

    And here are books not by or about Zelazny, but some have contributions from Zelazny or some other connection to him.

  • Banks, Iain M. The Algebraist. Orbit, 2004. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Banks. Supplements an unsigned first.
  • Banks, Iain M. Player of Games. Macmillian (UK), 1988. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Banks. Supplements an unsigned first.
  • Bova, Ben, editor. (Roger Zelazny) The Best of Omni Science Fiction. Omni Society, 1980. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight wear in a Very Good dust jacket with shallow chipping at points, rubbing to rear cover, a 1/2″ closed tear, and general wear. Roger Zelazny’s personal contributor’s copy (for the story “Halfjack” (see above)), with two signed typed letters from Omni editor Ben Bova laid in.
  • Cahill, James, editor. Ten Tales. James Cahill Publishing, 1994. First edition hardback, one of only 26 unnumbered “Author Copies”, a Fine- copy (gilt letters on spine are showing small spots of what might be oxidation) in a Very Good only slipcase with spotting and uneven fading, sans dust jacket, as issued. Original anthology with the Zelazny story “The Salesman’s Tale.” There was also a 250 copy numbered edition. (Chalker and Owings Supplement Three calls for a 26 copy leatherbound edition; this copy is bound in cloth with a cloth slipcase.)
  • Martin, George R. R. Portraits of His Children. Dark Harvest, 1987. First edition hardback, # OO of 52 signed, lettered copies bound in white leather, a Fine copy in a Fine wooden “slipcrate” slipcase, sans dust jacket, as issued. Zealzny provides the introduction (“A Sketch of Their Father”) and a signature. I always thought the Dark Harvest slipcrates were attractive productions, and I’m happy to have one in my library. Supplements a trade edition. Chalker/Owings, page 119.

    IMG_0383

  • Martin, George R. R., editor. Wild Cards. Bantam Spectra/SFBC, 1987. First hardback edition (book club), preceded by the paperback original, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with edgewear at points. Shared world superhero anthology which includes the Zelazny story “The Sleeper.” Man, seems like every single edition of the early Wild Cards books had ugly covers…
  • Martin, George R. R., editor. Wild Cards. Bantam Spectra, 1987. Uncorrected page proofs (trade paperback format) of the hardback first edition, a Fine copy. Shared world superhero anthology which includes the Zelazny story “The Sleeper.”

    Wild Cards proof

  • Powers, Tim. Dinner at Deviants Palace. Chatto & Windus, 1986. First trade hardback, first UK hardback, and first non-book club hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Berlyne, Powers: Secret Histories, A5c.1.
  • Roger Zelazny Books I Still Lack

    Still have a few stray “fill out” Zelazny titles I haven’t been able to track down yet:

  • The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth (Pulphouse hardback of just that story)
  • (as editor) The Williamson Effect (Tor, 1996) (It’s not hard to find, I’m just looking for a perfect copy)
  • Greenberg, Martin H., editor. Lord of the Fantastic: Stories in Honor of Roger Zelazny (Avon Eos, 1998)
  • Lindskold, Jane. Roger Zelazny. Twayne, 1992.
  • Sanders, Joseph L. Roger Zelazny: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography (G. K. Hall, 1982)
  • Yoke, Karl B. Roger Zelazny: Starmont Reader’s Guide (Borgo Press (Library binding hardback), 1979)
  • Library Additions: Roger Zelazny’s A Rose for Ecclesiastes

    Monday, May 26th, 2014

    This is an upgrade book, replacing an Ex-Library copy:

    Zelazny, Roger. A Rose for Ecclesiastes. Rupert Hart-Davis, 1969. First edition thus and first hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with very slight spine fading. First hardback edition of Four For Tomorrow. Levack, 17b. Kovacs, V11c/V20. Zelazny’s first short story collection.

    Rose for Ecclesiastes

    Library Additions: June 14—December 31, 2013

    Monday, January 6th, 2014

    It’s been another landmark year for adding books to my library of science fiction first editions. This post documents everything I bought after my big Zelazny acquisition on June 13, including some books that have been covered in posts since, and many that haven’t. (What I bought earlier in the year before the big Zelazny purchase can be found here.) All are first edition hardbacks, Fine copies in Fine dust jackets, unless otherwise noted.

  • Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Harmony Books, 1979. First U.S. edition.
  • (Adams, Douglas) Gaiman, Neil. Don’t Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Titan Books, 2003. First hardback edition and first edition thus (revised and updated), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Non-fiction reference work.
  • Aldiss, Brian. Moreau’s Other Island. Jonathan Cape, 1980. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Aldiss on the front free endpaper.
  • Aldiss, Brian. This World and Nearer Ones: Essays Exploring the Familiar. Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1979. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
  • (Aldiss, Brian) Aldiss, Margaret. Item Eighty-Three: Brian W. Aldiss: A Bibliography: 1954—1972. SF Horizons, (1973). Chapbook, Fine. Non-fiction.
  • Asimov, Isaac. Nemesis. Doubleday, 1989. First edition hardback, number 485 out of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine slipcase, sans dust jacket, as issued. This was a serendipitous find. I wasn’t looking for it (since I’m not generally a big fan of Asimov’s later work), but merely entered “signed limited edition” in Amazon’s books section just to see what I would find and this came up at $80. Given that it was originally issued at $125, and given that copies on Bookfinder start at $150, I thought it was a good price. Asimov isn’t actually a hard signature (especially compared to verified Philip K. Dick or Robert A. Heinlein signatures), but he has become fairly pricey one for his first editions.

  • Asimov, Isaac, edited by Stanley Asimov. Yours, Isaac Asimov. Doubleday, 1995. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with one tiny black remainder mark I missed, otherwise apparently new and unread, in a Fine dust jacket. Non-fiction collection of Asimov’s letters.
  • Ballard, J. G. Myths of the Near Future. Jonathan Cape, 1982.
  • Ballard, J. G. The Disaster Area. Jonathan Cape, 1967. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Near Fine dust jacket with edgewear and a few tiny spots of rubbing to dust jacket rear. Replaces a copy with a far more worn dust jacket. Bought for $100 at Half Price Books during a coupon sale.

    Disaster Area

  • Ballard, J. G. The Drought. Jonathan Cape, 1965. First hardback edition and first complete edition, a Near Fine+ copy, with spine of book itself slightly discolored and small sticker for London bookseller Foyles on inside cover, in a Fine dust jacket. Currey, page 22. Goddard and Pringle, J. G. Ballard: The First Twenty Years, item 59. Bought for $212.50, marked down from $425.

  • Ballingrud, Nathan, and Eileen Gunn. North American Monster Stories. Small Beer Press, 2013. Paperback chapbook original, Fine.
  • Banks, Iain. The Quarry. Little Brown, 2013.
  • Bear, Elizabeth. Book of Iron. Subterranean Press, 2013. Number 65 of 250 signed, numbered copies.
  • Bear, Elizabeth. Book of Iron. Subterranean Press, 2013. Trade edition.
  • Bear, Greg. Early Harvest. NESFA Press, 1988. First edition hardback, #173 of 250 signed, numbered copies (800 print run total), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and slipcase. Supplements a signed trade copy. Bought off the Internet for $37.50.
  • Beaumont, Charles. The Intruder. Centipede Press, 2013. First edition thus, one of 200 copies signed by editor Roger Anker, William F. Nolan, and J.K. Potter. Basis of the Roger Corman film starring William Shatner.
  • Beaumont, Charles and John Tormerlin. Run From the Hunter. Centipede Press, 2013. First edition thus and first edition under authors’ actual names, one of 200 copies signed by John Tomerlin and J.K. Potter.
  • Beyer, William Gray. Minions of the Moon. Gnome Press, 1950. First edition hardback, a Very Good+ copy with small spotting to front and rear boards and wear at top and bottom boards, in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with wear along spine and front panel join and slight edgewear elsewhere; a really nice example of the Edd Cartier dust jacket. The eighth Gnome Press book. Chalker/Ownings (1991), page 198. Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 197. Trying to collect the entire Gnome Press line…

    Minions Moon

  • Blaylock, James P. with Kim Stanley Robinson. Two Views of a Cave Painting b/w Escape From Kathmandu. Axolotl Press, 1986. First edition hardback, #43 of 300 signed, numbered hardback copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
  • Bleiler, Richard. Supernatural Fiction Writers. Charles Scribner’s Sons/Thomson/Gale, 2003. First edition hardbacks of the Second Edition (stated inside, not on the cover), a two volume set, Fine- copies with slight dust soiling at heel in decorated boards with slight haze rubbing, sans dust jacket, as issued. Non-fiction reference work. Bought for $40, including dealer discount, which I though was a pretty good price, since non-Ex-Library copies list in the multiple hundreds. Note that the first edition was edited by the late E. F. Bleiler, while this second edition is edited by his son (who I’ve sold many a book to over the years…)
  • (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.
  • Brackett, Leigh. The Sword of Rhiannon. Boardman, 1955. First hardback edition (“First published in Great Britain, 1955″, as per Currey), a Fine- copy with slight bend at head and heel and foxing to interior gutters, in a Very Good dust jacket with 1/4” of wear rubbing/chipping (dust jacket is present, but image has been worn away) at head, a similar, smaller amount of wear at heel, a shallow chip with associated wear at top rear, and crease along front cover spine join running the entire length of the jacket, and wear along extremities; despite all that, the rest of the jacket is quite bright and attractive. Currey, page 53. Cawthorn & Moorocock, Fantasy: The Hundred Best Books 75. A fairly uncommon book these days.

  • Bradbury, Ray. Collected Short Stories. Petersen Publishing Company (The Great Author Series), 2002. Presumed first edition hardback (no additional printings listed), a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, presumably as issued.

  • Bradbury, Ray. The Dragon. Footsteps Press, 1988. First edition chapbook, #72 of 300 signed, numbered copies, Fine. Has affixed wrappers with a transparent blue Mylar window (there were evidently also red and yellow window variants).

  • Bradbury, Ray. Driving Blind Avon Books, 1997. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Inscribed by Bradbury: “Marilyn! /Onward!/Ray Bradbury/Oct. 18, ’97”. Bought for $20 off eBay.
  • Bradbury, Ray. The Homecoming. Collins Design, 2006. First edition hardback in decorated boards, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Bradbury. Illustrated by Dave McKean. Short story done as a short illustrated book. Bought for $30.51 off eBay.

  • Bradbury, Ray. The Veldt. The Perfection Form Company, 1982. (Possible) First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy in stapled wraps, inscribed by Bradbury on the cover. Reading comprehension questions at the back.

  • Bradbury, Ray. With Cat for Comforter. Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1997. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Bradbury. Illustrated by Louise Reinoehl Max. Short poem turned into an illustrated children’s book. Replaces an unsigned copy in my library. Bought for $16.66 off eBay.

  • Bradley, Marion Zimmer. The Sword of Aldonis. Gregg Press, 1977. First hardback edition, Fine- with a trace of wear at tips, sans dust jacket, as issued. Darkover novel. Currey (1978), page 61.
  • Bradley, Marion Zimmer. The Heritage of Hastur. Gregg Press, 1977. First hardback edition, Fine- with a trace of wear at tips, sans dust jacket, as issued. Darkover novel. Currey (1978), page 62. Bought more as part of my long-term goal of collecting all the Gregg Press first editions…
  • Bramah, Earnest. The Moon of Much Gladness. Cassell & Company, 1932. First edition hardback (Berro A17), a Fine- copy with slight bends at head and heel in a VG+ dust jacket with a 1/8″ chip at rear head join, slight cracking at top edge of front cover, and dust soiling to rear, otherwise a fairly bright and attractive copy of a book seldom offered in dust jacket. Bought for $300 off the Internet from a major SF book dealer. (What appear to be tiny spots of white rubbing to the black dj are in fact scanner artifacts.)

    Moon Much Gladness

  • Brundage, Margaret (edited by Stephen D. Korshak and J. David Spurlock). The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage, Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art. Vanguard Productions/Shasta Phoenix, 2013. First edition hardback, slipcased limited edition with 16 additional pages of art, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, new and unread. Brundage was the woman who did all those great “damsel in distress” covers for Weird Tales in the 1930s, and it’s great to finally have a book of her art.

    P1000125

  • Brunner, John. The Man Who Was Secrett and Other Stories. Ramble House/Dancing Tuatara Press, 2013. First edition POD hardback, Fine/Fine.
  • Budrys, Algis. Cerberus. Pulphouse, 1989. First edition hardback, #53 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Part of the “Pulphouse Convention Series.” Fourth book Pulphouse did, and the first one that wasn’t an issue of their namesake hardback magazine.
  • 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…
  • Carriger, Gail (pen name of Tofa Borregaard). Heartless. Orbit, 2011. Paperback original, a Fine- copy. Parasol Protectorate #4.
  • Chabon, Michael. Fountain City: A Novel Wrecked. McSweeney’s, 2010. First edition paperback original, a small, slightly oblong format, roughly 5 1/4″ high, by 6 1/4″ long, a Fine- copy in Fine- fold over wrappers (which fold out into a sort of map picture), with a tiny, 1/16″ cut to top font cover. The opening chapters of a novel Chabon abandoned. Bought for $22.50, down from $45.

  • Clarke, Arthur C. Imperial Earth. Gollancz, 1975.
  • Clement, Hal (writing name of Harry C. Stubbs). Fossil. DAW, 1993. First edition paperback original, Fine- with a tiny bit of edgewear.
  • 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.
  • Dick, Philip K. The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick Volume 4: Minority Report. Subterranean Press, 2013. First thus.
  • Dick, Philip K. A Handful of Darkness. Rich & Cowan, 1955. First edition hardback, Currey binding A (blue boards lettered in silver) in a first state dust jacket (no mention of World of Chance), an Ex-Library copy with most of the usual flaws, including protected dust jacket flaps taped to boards (and inner cardboard sleeve additionally taped) and stamp for Eeeling Science Fiction Postal Library on inner cover; dust jacket is completely intact, the only flaws being “D11/2” written in white on bottom spine just above publisher, and slight dust staining to white rear cover; call it a VG/NF Ex-Lib copy. Levack, 21a. Currey (1978), page 157. Dick’s first short story collection and first hardback book. (Hairline crack on left is a scanner artifact.)

  • (Dick, Philip K.) Peake, Anthony. A Life of Philip K. Dick: The Man Who Remembered the Future. Arcturus, 2013. Non-fiction.
  • Di Filippo, Paul. Time’s Black Lagoon. DH Press, 2006. Paperback original, a Fine, unread copy. Sequel to the movie The Creature From the Black Lagoon.
  • Dozois, Gardner and George R. R. Martin, editors. Songs of Love & Death. Gallery Books, 2010.
  • Egan, Greg. The Eternal Flame (Orthogonal Book 2). Night Shade Books, 2012.
  • Ellison, Harlan. All the Lies That Are My Life. Underwood/Miller, 1980. First edition hardback, one of 400 unsigned trade hardcover copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Chalker/Owings, page 432.
  • Ellison, Harlan. Harlan Ellison is Watching. Underwood/Miller, 1989. First edition hardback, #46 of 600 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and slipcase. Chalker/Owings, page 440.
  • Ellison, Harlan. Stalking the Nightmare. Phantasia Press, 1982. First edition hardback, #240 of 700 signed hardback copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and slipcase. Supplements a copy of the trade edition. Chalker/Owings, page 340.
  • Farmer, Philip Jose. Lord Tyger. Doubleday, 1970. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight crimping at head and heel and trace of foxing along gutters, in a Fine- dust jacket with slight darkening to spine and a few traces of dust soiling. Signed by Farmer. Farmer’s SF take on Tarzan. Currey (1979), page 153. Bought for $60.

    Lord Tyger

  • Gaiman, Neil. Fortunately the Milk…. HarperCollins (UK), 2013. First edition hardback (the UK and U.S. edition were evidently simultaneous), slipcased limited edition (“with exclusive bookmark”) sold by UK bookstore chain Foyle’s signed by Gaiman and illustrator Chris Riddle, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued, still in shrinkwrap. I think this state came out about a month after the trade edition. Young adult novella. Bought for £19.99 plus shipping off eBay.

    Gaiman Milk

  • Gaiman, Neil, with David McKean. Mythological Creatures. The Royal Mail, 2009. First edition folded broadside, legal-paper sized printed cardstock, two-sided, with six stamps in attached Mylar pouches, Fine. Collectable stamp folder with six mini-stories by Gaiman, one for each mythological creature on the stamps, with Dave McKean art. An odd item I only recently became aware of, and one that may frustrate Gaiman completists a few years hence…

    Mythical Creatures

  • Gibson, William. Zero History. Putnum, 2010. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Gibson. Bought for $12 (marked down from $20) at a Half Price Books during a coupon sale.
  • Haldeman, Joe. A Separate War and Other Stories. Ace, 2006.
  • 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.
  • Heinlein, Robert A. The Number of the Beast. New English Library, 1980. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Reportedly Heinlein’s worst novel, but if you’re collecting the whole set…

    Heinlein Number Beast

  • Heinlein, Robert A. The Puppet Masters. Doubleday, 1951. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight foxing to endpapers and tiny touches of wear at heel in a in a Near Fine- dust jacket with extremely shallow surface chipping at head and slight fading of purple coloring on spine. A very nice copy of one of Heinlein’s most important early novels. Currey (1978), page 233. Pringle, SF 100 4.

    Puppet Masters

  • (Heinlein, Robert A.) Patterson, William H. Robert A. Heinlein in Dialogue With His Century Volume 1: Learning Curve: 1907-1948. Tor, 2010. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Non-fiction biography.
  • Hill, Joe. Locke & Key 3: Crown of Shadows. Subterranean Press, 2013. #31 of 250 signed, numbered copies, in slipcase. Graphic novel.
  • Howard, Robert E. Cormac MacArt Baen, 1995. First edition paperback original, Fine- with a tiny bit of edgewear, foxing inside covers, and a phantom crease along rear cover. Mostly reprints Howard stories from Tigers of the Sea, but adds a new Cormac MacArt story by David Drake.
  • Howard, Robert E. Kull Baen, 1995. First edition paperback original thus (“First Complete Edition”), a Fine copy.
  • Howard, Robert E. Kull: Exile of Atlantis. Subterranean Press, 2013. Hardback first edition thus, #305 of 1,500 copies signed by artist Justin Sweet, a Fine copy in a Fine dustjacket and slipcase.
  • Howard, Robert E. The Sower of Thunder. Donald M. Grant, 1975. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by illustrator Roy G. Krenkel. Currey (1978), page 252.
  • Howard, Robert E. (edited by Robert M. Price). Nameless Cults: The Cthulhu Mythos Fiction of Robert E. Howard. Chaosium, 2001. Trade paperback original, Fine. Includes four Howard story fragments finished by others.
  • Hubin, Allen J. Crime Fiction, 1749-1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography with 1981-1985 Supplement to Crime Fiction, 1749-1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography. Garland, 1984/1988. First edition hardbacks, Near Fine copies with dust staining at head and traces of wear at points and heel, sans dust jacket, as issued. Bought from Half Price Books for $5 for the set (marked down from an original price of $60). I’m a sucker for comprehensive bibliographies…
  • (Jeter, K. W. and Ferret, as Dr. Adder and Mink Mole). Alligator Alley. Morrigan Books, 1989. First edition hardback, copy #104 of 210 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and slipcase, as well as a cassette tape of material related to the novel. Does not include the T-shirt that was sold with some of the slipcased copies. Supplements my trade edition. Jeter told me he actually had very little to do with the novel…
  • Jones, Sergent Morgan, and Damien Lewis. The Embassy House. Threshold Editions, 2013. Non-fiction on Benghazi embassy attack. Withdrawn by the publisher under political pressure.
  • Jones, Stephen, Editor. Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth. Fedogan & Breamer, 2005. Cthulhu Mythos anthology.
  • Jones, Stephen, Editor. Weirder Shadows Over Innsmouth. Fedogan & Breamer, 2013. Cthulhu Mythos anthology.
  • Klaw, Rick, editor. Rayguns Over Texas. Fandom Association of Central Texas, 2013. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy, new and unread, signed by 13 of the contributors. Anthology of SF stories from Texas writers published for the 2013 Worldcon in San Antonio. I have a story in here, “Novel Properties of Certain Complex Alkaloids,” that’s like a Greg Egan story by way of H. P. Lovecraft and Timothy Leary. Introduction by Bruce Sterling. This copy signed by myself, editor Rick Klaw, cover artist Rocky Kelly, Don Webb, Chris Brown, Matthew Bay, Stina Leicht, Nicky Drayden, Rhonda Eudaly, Derek Austin Johnson, Marshall Maresca, Sanford Allen, and Josh Roundtree. I also have an additional copy inscribed to me by several of the contributors in my contributor copy library.
  • (Koontz, Dean R.) Kotker, Joan G. Dean Koontz: A Critical Companion. Greenwood Press, 1996 (stated; probably more recent). Reprint hardback, Fine, sans dust jacket, as issued. Non-fiction.
  • Lake, Jay. Dogs in the Moonlight. Prime Books, 2004. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a bit of wear at the tips. Signed by Lake. Missed this when it came out, mainly because Prime was still part of Wildside. Bought for $24 off the Internet.
  • Lake, Jay. Endurance. Tor, 2011. Signed by Lake. Bought for 20% off cover at the San Antonio Worldcon.
  • Lansdale, Joe R. Bleeding Shadows. Subterranean, 2013. Short story collection.
  • Lansdale, Kasey, editor. Impossible Monsters. Subterranean Press, 2013.
  • Leiber, Fritz. The Moon is Green and Other Tales. Armchair Fiction, 2013. First edition trade paperback original (POD), a Fine copy, new and unread.
  • (Leiber, Fritz) Morgan, Chris. Fritz Leiber: a bibliography, 1934—1979. Morgenstern, 1979. Chapbook original, one of 1000 copies, a Near Fine+ copy with spots of age darkening to cover.
  • Leinster, Murray and Charles L. Fontenay. Planet of Dread b/w Twice Upon a Time. Armchair Fiction, 2010. First edition trade paperback original (POD), a Fine copy, new and unread. Honestly, I just picked this up for the cool, retro giant spider cover.

  • Lem, Stainslaw. A Perfect Vacuum. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979. First English language edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with small closed tear at bottom front and a few touches of wear. Reviews of imaginary books. Replaces an Ex-Library copy in my library.
  • Lethem, Jonathan. Chronic City. Doubleday, 2009.
  • Littell, Jonathan. The Kindly Ones. Harper, 2009. First U.S. edition of a book original published in French as Les Bienveillantes, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a few touches of wear at edges. In 1989 Littell published a 3rd-generation cyberpunk PBO called Bad Voltage, then slipped from public view until he published Les Bienveillantes, a novel about the Holocaust, in France in 2006 (he’s a dual U.S. French citizen), which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt literary award.
  • (Lovecraft, H.P.) Lockhart, Ross E., editor. The Book of Cthulhu II. Night Shade Press, 2012. Trade paperback original. Anthology.
  • Martin, George R. R. and John J. Miller. Wild Cards Volume VII: Dead Man’s Hand. Bantam Spectra, 19990. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with a trace of edgewear.
  • (Martin, George R. R.) Samuelson, Todd, Editor. Deeper Than Swords: Celebrating the Work of George R. R. Martin. Texas A&M University Cushing memorial Library and Archives, 2013. Oversized trade paperback, a Fine copy. Illustrated critical companion to Martin’s work, published as part of an event at the library with Martin on March 22, 2013.
  • Matheson, Richard. The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickock. Jove, 1996. Paperback original, VG with creasing.
  • Matheson, Richard. The Shrinking Man. Gregg Press, 1979. First Gregg Press edition, Fine, sans dust jacket, as issued.
  • Mieville, China. London’s Overthrow. The Westbourne Press, 2012. First edition trade paperback original, Fine, new and unread. Non-fiction. Appears to be a political rant with pictures.
  • McDevitt, Jack. Echo. Ace, 2010. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a tiny bit of wrinkling at top edge.
  • Moorcock, Michael. Sailor on the Seas of Fate. Quartet Books, 1976. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with a chip out of the corner of the front free endpaper, in a Fine dust jacket. Currey, page 372.
  • Moore, C.L. Judgment Night. Gnome Press, 1952. First edition hardback, a Near Fine+ copy with slight crimping at head and heel, mild foxing to inner gutters, and a few tiny spots of wear to bottom boards, in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with 1/4″ closed tear at heel, slight wrinkling at rear head, and a touch of edgewear. A truly superb, bright example of the dust jacket. Collection of five longer stories. Currey (1978), Page 377. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 199. Anatomy of Wonder 4, 3-130. Another notable book from the golden age of the genre small press. Bought for $65 off eBay.

    Judgment Night

  • Picacio, John. John Picacio 2014 Calendar. Lone Boy, 2013. First edition, Fine, signed by the artist, with Kickstarter specials, including six oversized loteria cards, a sketcbook, and a signed pencil.

    P1000119

  • Pohl, Frederik, with Jack Williamson. The Saga of Cuckoo. Nelson Doubleday (SFBC), 1983. First edition thus and first hardback (a book club omnibus edition of Farthest Star and A World Around a Star, both previously published only in paperback), code “N34” on page 433 (as per ISFDB), a Fine- copy with a tiny bit of crimping at head and heel, in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by both Pohl and Williamson. Bought for $22.50 off eBay.
  • Powers, Tim/James P. Blaylock. The Way Down the Hill/The Pink of Fading Neon. Axoltl Press, 1986. First Edition hardback, #178 of 300 hardback copies by both authors and introducers Ed Bryant and Charles De Lint, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Bought for $30 plus shipping from Heritage Auctions. One of those books I wasn’t sure whether I owned or not, since I had the other Axolotl Press Powers and Blaylock books…
  • Rainey, Stephen Mark. Song of Cthulhu. Chaosium, 2001. Trade paperback original, Fine. Anthology.
  • Reynolds, Alastair. Dr. Who: Harvest of Time. BBC Books, 2013. Signed by Reynolds at the 2013 San Antonio Worldcon.
  • Roberts, Adam (as A. R. R. R. Roberts). The Soddit, or Let’s Cash In Again. Gollancz, 2003. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed by Roberts. Parody of The Hobbit.
  • Robinson, Kim Stanley. 2312. Orbit, 2012. First UK edition (I think the U.S. precedes by two days), a Fine- copy with slight wrinkling to top of dust jacket.
  • Schweitzer, Darrell. Cthulhu’s Reign. DAW, 2010. paperback original, Fine. Anthology.
  • Sennholz, Mary. On Freedom and Free Enterprise. Von Nostrand, 1956. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with slight dust-staining to head and crimping at head and heel in a very Good+ dust jacket with 1/4″ tears at head and heel. Collection of free market essays, published in honor of the 50th anniversary of Ludvig von Mises’ receiving his doctorate. Bought for $5 at Half Price Books.
  • Shaver, Richard S. The Shaver Mystery, Book One. Armchair Fiction, 2011. First edition trade paperback original, Fine, new.
  • Shaver, Richard S. The Shaver Mystery, Book Two. Armchair Fiction, 2011. First edition trade paperback original, Fine, new.
  • Shaver, Richard S. The Shaver Mystery, Book Three. Armchair Fiction, 2012. First edition trade paperback original, Fine, new.
  • Shaver, Richard S. The Shaver Mystery, Book Four. Armchair Fiction, 2013. First edition trade paperback original, Fine, new. The four volumes collect stories and ancillary material from the “Shaver Mystery,” Shaver’s weird, strangely compelling conspiracy theory/alternate reality in which a hateful race of “deros” (“detrimental robots”) lived inside he earth, beaming mind-control rays at surface dwellers (and occasionally kidnapping them for torture, food, or sport). Shaver’s elaborate, unhinged vision brought a vast legion of cranks out of the shadows and onto the subscriber ranks of Amazing, whose editor Ray Palmer started publishing Shaver’s stories in the 1940s, which was to have a considerable impact on SF fandom. I doubt much of this has seen print since it’s original appearance in Amazing, or in Palmer’s subsequent The Hidden World. If you’re a connoisseur of crank literature, Shaver is up there with the whackiest.
  • Shea, Michael. Assault on Sunrise. Tor, 2013. Sequel to The Extra.
  • Shea, Michael. The Incomplete Nifft. Baen, 2000. First edition paperback original thus, an omnibus edition of Nifft the Lean and The Mines of Behemoth, a NF copy, with a crease on the bottom back cover.
  • Silverberg, Robert. Capricorn Games. Random House, 1976. Signed by Silverberg. Currey (1979), page 436.
  • Silverberg, Robert. The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume 8: Hot Times in Magma City: 1990-1995. Subterranean Press, 2013. Fine, sands dust jacket, as issued.
  • (Simak, Clifford D.) Becker, Muriel R. Clifford D. Simak: a primary and secondary bibliography. G. K. Hall, 1980. First edition hardback, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Non-fiction. I do wish the books were separated from the short fiction listings…
  • Smith, Clark Ashton. Lost Worlds. Arkham House, 1944. First edition hardback, a Near Fine+ copy with slight crimping at head and heel, bump to top front corner, usual age darkening to pages, and a trace of foxing to gutters, in a Near Fine dust jacket with age darkening to light-colored portion of spine, short closed tear and associated 1/2″ wrinkle crease at head, a tiny bit of rubbing at heel, and age darkening around edges and crease folds. Smith’s second prose collection and the seventh Arkham House book published. Currey (1978), page 453. Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy One, page 200. Bleiler, Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 1485. Tymn, 4-202. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House 7. Derleth, 30 Years of Arkham House, 7. Jaffery (1982), 7. Nielsen, 7. Bought for $172 off the Internet.

    CAS Lost Worlds

  • Smith, Edward E., Ph.D. Skylark Three. Fantasy Press, 1948. First edition hardback, one of 500 subscriber copies with a signature page inscribed by Smith bound in: “To Hugh F. Henry—/Three in a row — Hot dog!/And thanks a million for/the compliment./Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.” (Doc Smith had marvelously clear handwriting), a Fine- copy with a tiny bit of crimping at head and heel and faint foxing to gutters, in a Near Fine dust jacket with slight rubbing to top 1/2″ of front, slight edgewear at head, and slight dust soiling to rear cover. E. E. “Doc” Smith is someone I only pick up as a target of opportunity, but I couldn’t pass up a chance to pick up a very attractive example of one of the Fantasy Press subscriber copies for one of their most popular writers for approximately $150 after sale discount.

  • Smith, George O. The Brain Machine. Garland Press, 1975. First hardback edition, Fine, sans dust jacket, as issued. Originally a paperback original under the title The Fourth “R”. Currey (1979), page 458. Garland, like Gregg Press, usually did interesting hardback reprints.
  • Smith, George O. Hellflower. Abelard Press, 1953. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with slight spine fade to red portions and tiny traces of wear, otherwise a complete, bright and attractive dust jacket. Currey (1979), page 458.

    Hellflower

  • Stephenson, Neal. Some Remarks. Atlantic Books, 2012. First UK edition. Non-fiction.
  • Sturgeon, Theodore. A Touch of Sturgeon. Simon & Schuster (UK), 1987. Fine-/Fine- with sight crimping at head.
  • Swainston, Steph. The Modern World. Inscribed by the author: “S. Swainston/12.05.07/’All things from eternity are of like forms/And come round in a circle.’ — Marcus Aurelius”. With photograph of the author laid in. Bought for $24. I should really get around to reading The Year of Our War some day…
  • Swanwick, Michael. Moon Dogs. NESFA Press, 2000. First edition hardback, one of 175 signed slipcased copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Supplements an inscribed trade copy.
  • Swanwick, Michael. Tumbling. Dragonstairs Press, 2013. First edition micro-chapbook original, 3″ x 2 3/4″ inches, #10 of 50 signed, numbered copies, Fine, new and unread.

  • Taine, John. The Time Stream. Buffalo Book Company, 1946. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with foxing to inside covers and a few faint pinpoint spots on boards, in a VG- dust jacket with uneven loss to top edge, mostly 1/16″ but occasionally as much as 1/4″. According to Chalker/Owings (1991), page 78, only 500 copies were ever bound, and half of those were lost in a rainstorm. Currey (1979), page 29. Bleiler Checklist, 1978, page 191. Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy One, page 211. 333, page 63. An important early SF specialty book.

    Taine Time Stream

  • 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. Bought for $20.
  • Turner, Gary, and Marty Halpern. The Silver Griffith. Golden Gryphon, 2003. First edition hardback, #34 of 100 numbered copies signed by all the contributors, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, in slipcase.
  • Utley, Steven. Silurian Tales — Volume 1: The 400-Million-Year-Itch. Ticonderoga, 2012.
  • Utley, Steven. Silurian Tales — Volume 2: Invisible Kingdoms. Ticonderoga, 2012.
  • Vance, Jack. Araminta Station. Underwood Miller, 1987. First edition hardback, #443 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and Fine slipcase. First book of the Caldwell Chronicles. Precedes both the NEL and Tor editions by six months. Hewett, A79. Chalker/Owings (1991), pages 437-438. Bought for $120.

    Araminta Station

  • Vance, Jack (as John Holbrook Vance). The Deadly Isles. Bobbs-Merrill, 1969. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with a tiny bit of crimping at head and heel in a Fine- dust jacket with a few bare traces of dust soiling and a tiny bit of rubbing at extremities. Overall a beautiful copy of this Vance mystery. Currey, p. 497. Hewett, A33.

    Vance, Jack. Gold and Iron. Underwood/Miller, 1982. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a slight wrinkle at rear heel. Previously published in paperback as Slaves of the Klau. Hewett, A9e.

    Vance Gold Iron

  • Vance, Jack. Lyonesse: Suldrun’s Garden. Underwood/Miller, 1983. First hardback edition, #78 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. (Note: Unlike the signed, numbered edition of Lyonesse: The Green Pearl, this was not issued in a slipcase.) Hewett, A70b. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 436. Supplements my copy of the unsigned library edition in decorated boards issued without a dust jacket. Bought for $100.

    Suldrun's Garden

  • Vinge, Joan D. World’s End. Bluejay Books, 1984. First edition hardback, #127 of 750 signed numbered copies in slipcase, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. This copy has been additionally inscribed by Vinge: “To Marcia Adams/-with all my best wishes-!/Joan D. Vinge/2005.” There was a PBS cooking show host and cook book author by that name who died in 2011; not sure if that’s who it’s inscribed to or not. I do wonder how many of these slipcased hardcovers Bluejay Books did. I have their slipcased edition of K. W. Jeter’s Dr. Adder, and I know they did a few others, but there does not appear to be a list online. I’ll write Jim Frenkel and ask…
  • Waldrop, Howard. The Horse of a Different Color. Small Beer Press, 2013. Inscribed to me to by the author.
  • Webb, Don. The War With The Belatrin/A Velvet of Vamphyres. Wildside, 2012. Trade paperback original, a Fine copy, inscribed by Webb.
  • Webb, Don & Gary Lovisi. Do the Weird Crime, Do The Weird Time/Gargoyle Nights. Wildside, 2012. Trade paperback original, a Fine copy, inscribed by Webb.
  • Weinbaum, Stanley G. Dawn of Flame. Ruppert Printing Service (for The Milwaukee Fictioneers), 1936. One of only 245 copies of the Currey B state (with the Lawrence A. Keating introduction), a Near Fine+ copy with very faint spine creasing and slight gray staining to bottom page block (or possibly where the red page block staining has worn away), sans dust jacket, as issued. Currey, page 510. Chalker/Owings, page 279. Bleiler, Checklist (1978), page 204. Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy (I), page 224. Bought at the San Antonio Worldcon for $1,200 (negotiated down from $1,500) from Erle Melvin Korshak. And if I’m remembering correctly, it was on consignment from Sam Moskowitz’s widow through Robert Weinberg to Korshak.

  • Wellman, Manly Wade. The Ghost Battalion. Ives Washburn, 1958. First edition hardback, most likely a repaired Ex-Library copy, Very Good with tape ghosts on boards, front free endpaper excised and another attached in it’s place, slight wear at heel, dust soiling at head, and slight crimping at head and heel, in a Near Fine dust jacket with edgewear and about 1/16″ inch of color loss at heel, and possible spine fading (hard to tell, since it’s a different color than the front and back covers). Second book in the Iron Scouts Civil War YA trilogy. Bought for $18 off eBay.

    Ghost Batallion

  • Wellman, Manly Wade. What Dreams May Come. Doubleday, 1983. First Edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with signature plate signed by Wellman attached to front free endpaper. Features supernatural detective John Thundstone. Replaces an Ex-Library copy in my collection. Bought for $20 from a major SF book dealer.

    Wellman What Dreams

  • Wellman, Manly Wade. Worse Things Waiting. Carcosa, 1973. First edition hardback, Trade Edition issue, a Fine- copy with a couple of pinpricks of wear, in a Fine dust jacket. Inscribed to fellow horror writer Dennis Etchison: “Better Things Waiting/for/Dennis Etchison/Manly Wade Wellman/Dec 7, 1979”. Being a Wellman collector, I could hardly pass up an associational copy of this, his best and most important collection, inscribed to another top horror writer. (This is the second Wellman-inscribed association copy I own along with Third String Center inscribed to Wellman’s own brother, western writer Paul I. Wellman.) Currey (1979), page 515. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 87. Bleiler, Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 1672. Jones/Newman, Horror 100, 70. Bought for $100.

    Worse Things Waiting

    Worse Things Inscription

  • Wells, H. G. (edited by Robert Philmus and David y. Hughes). Early Writings in Science and Science Fiction by H. G. Wells. University of California Press, 1975. Presumed first edition hardback (no additional printings listed), a Fine- copy with slight crimping at head and heel and trace of foxing to inside front covers, in a VG- dust jacket with a 1/2″ square chip missing from bottom front cover and a 3/8″ chunk tapering to a point over 3″ missing at top rear. Not in Currey. Reginald, 1975-1991, 36697. Dictionary of Literary Biography: Volume 178: British Fantasy and Science-Fiction Writers Before World War I, page 242. Not a great dust jacket, but it was only $8, and copies online are somewhat pricey…
  • Wilson, Gahan. Everybody’s Favorite Duck. Mysterious Press, 1988.
  • Wolfe, Gene. Home Fires. Tor, 2010. Already read it in ARC.
  • Wolfe, Gene. A Wolfe Family Album. United Mythologies Press, 1991. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy. Signed by Gene Wolfe. Chapbook of mostly Wolfe family photos, evidently issued with the hardback edition of Letters Home (which I’ve owned for some time, but which didn’t come with the chapbooks when I bought it).

    Wolfe Family Album

  • Wolfe, Gene (Mooney, J. E. and Bill Fawcett, editors. Shadows of the New Sun: Stories in Honor of Gene Wolfe. Tor, 2013. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, new and unread. A tribute anthology.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Home is the Hangman. SFBC, 1996. First separate hardback edition. Kovacs, VI-7-a.
  • Zelazny, Roger. Knight of Shadows. Ultramarine Press, 1989. First limited hardback edition, #20 of 40 signed, numbered copies, bound in quarter leather, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Kovacs, 27-d-i. Chalker/Owings (1991), page 612. Proof that being a collector drives you slightly insane. (“Slightly?” asks the peanut gallery.) Ultramarine Press would take the sheets of the trade edition, then add a signed limitation page and leather binding. Honestly, I’m less than impressed with both their business model and most of the books produced, and I’m not too wild about post-first edition limiteds, but this edition seems nicer than many, 40 is a pretty low limitation for a Zelazny limited, and since I have such an extensive Zelazny collection, I decided to pony up for it. Bought for $240.

    Zelazny Knight

  • Zelazny, Roger, and Thomas T. Thomas. Flare. Baen, 1992. First edition paperback original, Fine.
  • (Zelazny, Roger) Kovacs, Christopher, compiler. The Ides of Octember: A Pictorial Bibliography of Roger Zelazny. NESFA Press/Camelot Books, 2011. First hardback edition, letter M of 21 lettered copies with a Zelazny signature sheet (taken from unused Ultramarine press Zelazny books), a Fine copy in three-quarters bound leather, in a Fine patterned traycase with the pictorial cover from the trade paperback edition, sans dust jacket, as issued. An elaborate aftermarket edition of this Zelazny incorporating unbound NESFA sheets obtained by the compiler. I paid $191 for it, considerably less than the $500 list price it was offered at.

    Octember HD

  • (Zelazny, Roger) Yoke, Karl. Roger Zelazny/Andre Norton: Proponents of Individualism State library of Ohio, 1979. First edition chapbook original, Near Fine+ with some age toning. Non-fiction.