Two signed Bloch firsts, picked up from different sources:
Posts Tagged ‘signatures’
Library Additions: Two Signed Robert Bloch Firsts
Thursday, December 9th, 2021Library Addition: Signed Hardback First of 100 Books by August Derleth
Tuesday, May 25th, 2021My long-term goal of obtaining a complete Arkham House collection gains another important volume:
Derleth, August. 100 Books by August Derleth. Arkham House, 1962. First edition hardback, one of only 200 hardback copies, a Near Fine- copy with wear at head, heel and points (and a few traces elsewhere) on the decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Inscribed by Derleth: “Best wishes,/August Derleth.” Bibliography. Simultaneous with a much larger paperback run. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House, 65. Jaffery, Horrors and Unpleasantries, 67. Nielsen, Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide, 69. Derleth, Thirty Years of Arkham House, 65. Currey, page 155. Tymn Schlobin Currey, A Research Guide to Science Fiction Studies, 247. Chalker Owings, The Science-Fantasy Publishers, page 32 (which notes this was actually published in 1963). Bought off Biblio for $360.
Library Addition: Signed First of Poul Anderson’s Flandry of Terra
Tuesday, May 11th, 2021Here’s one of those books I heard good things about in my youth but never actually read:
Anderson, Poul. Flandry of Terra. Chilton, 1965. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with bumping at head and bumping and slight rubbing at heel, in a Fine- dust jacket with slight wrinkling at head and heel and a touch of rubbing, signed by Anderson. Currey, page 10. Anatomy of Wonder 4, 3-7. Bought off eBay for $22.50.
Library Addition: Signed First of Theodore Sturgeon’s Without Sorcery
Wednesday, April 28th, 2021Picked up another signed Sturgeon first:
Sturgeon, Theodore. Without Sorcery. Prime Press, 1948. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with slight bumping at head, heel and points and a tickmark and circled “A+” next to “Maturity” on the title page, in a Very Good+ dust jacket with edgewear and crinkling at head, heel and points, rubbing along edges one thin streak of discoloration to spine (not affecting any text), slight haze rubbing to front cover, and age darkening and dust staining to white rear cover, signed by Sturgeon. Sturgeon’s first short story collection (and first “real” book). Diskin, Theodore Sturgeon: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography, A54. Currey, page 473 (state B, trade issue). Chalker/Owings, page 352. Kemp, The Anthem Series, page 129. Bleiler, Checklist (1978), page 189 (not in the 1948 edition). Locke, Anatomy of Wonder, page 208. Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 4, 3-173. Bought for $50 off eBay.
Library Additions: Three Clive Barker Lettered Editions
Thursday, March 11th, 2021Three more books from the Subterranean Press PC sale. All these were long sold out from the publisher. As with Blood’s A Rover, Subterranean has provided plastic bags for both the traycase and the book inside the traycase for all of these.
All in all, these are a little plain compared to all the other items I’ve cataloged from the sale…
Library Addition: Signed, Limited Edition of Larry Niven’s The Magic Goes Away
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021Larry Niven falls into a sort of weird valley in my collecting history. I read a great deal of Niven in my youth and liked his work, but thought for novels he was better when he collaborated with Jerry Pournelle. By the time I started collecting first editions in the mid-1980s, his print runs had gotten pretty big, and I was more focused on collecting cyberpunk authors. Later, I started going back collecting writers from the Golden Age through the New Wave, Heinlein, Kuttner, Moore, Vance, Zelazny, Dick, etc. While I collected some of the Niven highpoints (such as the Gollancz Ringworld) and other works as targets of opportunity, I never made a particular effort to collect hardback firsts of his early works. (I’ll need to add that to my revised Books Wanted list, currently in progress.) When I picked up Burning City and Burning Tower, I saw that it was set in The Magic Goes Away universe, which I haven’t read and didn’t own. (I did pick up a TPO first of related book More Magic! for something like $2 way back when.) I’d had the impression it was a TPO only, but in fact there was a 1/1000 signed, numbered hardback published by Ace (which was not typically known for doing such editions), so I picked up a copy of that.
Niven, Larry. The Magic Goes Away. Ace, 1978. First edition hardback, #243 of 1000 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Signed and hand numbered (it looks like by Niven himself) on the front free endpaper. Bought off the Internet for $38.25
Library Addition: Signed First of J. G. Ballard’s Millennium People
Friday, February 26th, 2021Picked up another signed Ballard first:
Library Additions: Signed Firsts of Niven & Pournelle’s Burning City and Burning Tower
Saturday, February 6th, 2021Here are a couple of books I always planned to pick up and have Larry and Jerry sign for me, but life had other plans.
Library Additions: Six First Editions, Five Signed
Monday, January 11th, 2021Still more books from the Bob Pylant purchase:
Library Addition: Signed First of Theodore Sturgeon’s Sturgeon Is Alive And Well
Wednesday, December 16th, 2020Another signed first from a giant of the Golden Age:
Sturgeon, Theodore. Sturgeon Is Alive And Well…. Putnam, 1971. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with a tiny bit of bend at head and heel in a Near Fine dust jacket with slight edgewear at head and heel, a bit of dust soiling to white rear panel, and slight age darkening to top of white rear panel and edges of white flaps. Signed by Sturgeon. Short story collection, one I greatly enjoyed reading in my youth. I particularly remember “It Was Nothing—Really!,” about man who figures out that perforations make things stronger, and eventually invents invisible wall of impenetrable nothingness, and “Suicide,” about a man who jumps off a cliff to kill himself, and awakens still alive, hurt, down the cliff, and struggles to climb back up. Bought off eBay for $39.99. Currey, page 472.
