Posts Tagged ‘Horror’
Friday, August 18th, 2023
Another Borderlands Little Book.
Connell, Richard (Ted Connair, editor). A Little Gray Book of Grisly Tales. Borderlands Press, 2023. First edition hardback, #462 of 500 copies signed by Connair, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. Connell is most famous for having penned “The Most Dangerous Game” (one of the stories here), which has been adapted so many times it has a Wikipedia entry just for the adaptations. Contains eight stories total. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount. Now out of print from the publisher.
Copies will be available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Tags:Borderlands Press, Horror, Little Books, Richard Connell, small press publishers
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Wednesday, August 2nd, 2023
Three Joe R. Lansdale first editions, two signed limited editions and a new Tachyon collection.
Lansdale, Joe R. Edge of Dark Water. PS Publishing, 2012. First edition hardback, letter D of 26 lettered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket and a Fine slipcase. Supplements a signed Mullholland Books first and both a signed PS trade edition and a signed, numbered copy. Not really an impressive limited, as it’s identical to a signed, numbered copy, but it was only $75, which is about what the regular numbered edition goes for these days. Isajanko, A044.d.ii (but he doesn’t list this lettered edition).
Lansdale, Joe R. Things Get Ugly: The Best Crime Stories of Joe R. Lansdale. Tachyon, 2023. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount.
Lansdale, Joe R. and Kasey Lansdale. Terror is Our Business: The Dana Roberts Casebook of Horrors. Short Scary Tales (SST) Publications, 2023. First edition hardback, #101 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, with tissue paper closure sticker laid in.
I will have copies of the last two in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Tags:Books, Horror, Joe R. Lansdale, Limited Editions, Mystery, PS Publishing, Short Scary Tales (SST) Publications, small press publishers, Subterranean Press, Tachyon
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Friday, July 21st, 2023
Still more items from that Heritage lot. Three 8 1/2″ x 11″ items that are all related to H.P. Lovecraft: one Lovecraftian art portfolio (plus an additional critical chapbook), one prose portfolio, and one fiction chapbook, the latter two from members of the extended Lovecraft circle.
Day, Gene. Richard Upton Pickman: A Portfolio with Dirk W. Mosig’s H. P. Lovecraft: Psychological Realist. Stellar Z. Publications, 1977. First edition chapbook originals (for each), a Near Fine+ copy of the portfolio, with slight bending at the corners, and a Fine copy of the smaller Mosig critical chapbook. 10 art prints based on Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s Model,” plus a chapbook from a psychologist who has done a lot of essays on Lovecraft. There’s not a lot of Internet hits on either of these, and the few hits on the portfolio don’t appear to have the Mosig chapbook. I’m not sure what the print run on this was. I even reached out to Mosig himself (who’s still alive and teaching at a university) to ask the print run, but he didn’t know.
(Though the seem the same size (the blog image default size), the Mosig chapbook is a much smaller trim size, which makes sense given it probably shipped inside the portfolio.)
Eddy, C.M. and Muriel E. Erased from Exile. Stygian Isle Press, 1976. First edition chapbook original, #234 of 300 copies signed (on stickers) by Muriel E. Eddy and illustrator Gene Day, a Near Fine+ copy with slightly bumped corners and two small black lines near top front outer corner. Stories and poetry by two members of Lovecraft’s circle, with illustrations by Day. Day, who did a lot of work for underground comics and role-playing games, died at the very untimely age of 31.
Searight, Richard F. The Sealed Casket. The Strange Company, 1975. First edition prose portfolio (wrappers containing loose pages for the story), one of 100 copies, a Fine- copy with a touch of bumping or creasing at the points. Short story from another Lovecraft circle writer, and Hippocampus Press published a volume of their correspondence (combined with Lovecraft correspondence with E. Hoffman Price), one copy of which I have available for sale through Lame Excuse Books.
I tend to pick up obscure Lovecraftian chapbooks when I see them and they’re cheap, and as I noted before, there are few cheaper price points than “you’ve already bought it.”
Tags:art, Books, chapbooks, Gene Day, H. P. Lovecraft, Horror, portfolio
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Friday, July 14th, 2023
More from that Heritage lot, namely two critical chapbooks on Arthur Machen, both from The Arthur Machen Society.
Machen, Arthur (attributed). From the London Evening News. The Arthur Machen Society/Four Ducks Press, 1959. First edition chapbook original, #33 of 50 copies printed, a Fine copy, with a letter enclosed presenting the work from J. H. Stewart, Jr. to Joseph Kelly Vodray (who left an archive of Machen papers to Princeton) describing how the book was designed and printed by Bill Jackson. Three stories covering purportedly supernatural events reprinted from the London Evening News tentatively identified as the work of Arthur Machen. This is a remarkably attractive chapbook, crisply designed and printed in multiple colors inside, and really looks like something printed 20 years later. No online listings, though Worldcat does locate 13 copies in various libraries (including UT’s Harry Ransom Center).
(Machen, Arthur) Wesley D. Sweeter and Adrian H. Goldstone. Arthur Machen. Arthur Machen Society, 1960. First edition hardback chapbook, one of 200 copies, a Near Fine copy with sports of rubbing to extremities and cover and the decorative bookplate of Paul Jordan Smith (Literary Editor of The Los Angeles Times for 25 years and noted Machen fan) affixed to insider front cover. Reprints two pieces on Machen from The Aylesford Review: Sweeter’s “Machen: A Biographical Study” and Goldstone’s “Men About Machen,” discussing some of the more notable members of the Society (including Vodray and Smith).
Neither of these is in Donald Hassler’s extensive secondary bibliography on Machen on page 180 of Dictionary of Literary Bibliography Volume 178: British Fantasy and Science-fiction Writers before World War I, nor Wilson’s Shadows in the Attic, nor Tymn/Schlobin/Currey, nor any other reference works at hand. The only bibliography I have of Machen is Danielson’s, which is literally 100 year old. Goldstone and Sweeter did a more recent bibliography (put out by the University of Texas Press, no less) that I should probably keep an eye out for.
Though I’m not really a Machen collector per se, there’s something deeply satisfying about unearthing rare reference chapbooks…
Tags:Arthur Machen, Books, chapbooks, Horror, science fiction criticism, small press publishers
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Wednesday, July 5th, 2023
Another small press book:
Ligotti, Thomas. Pictures of Apocalypse. Chiroptera Press, 2023. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, still in shrinkwrap. Also includes a special 24 page Pictures of Apocalypse: Interviews and Sketches chapbook, including new interviews with the author and artist, “Concept to finish” art documentation, outtakes, a thank you card, and a bookmark.” A verse cycle. A fairly elaborate small press production for this stylish horror writer. The book is no longer on the publisher’s website, so I assume it is now out of print. But I still have copies through Lame Excuse Books (including the extras bag).
Here’s a scan of some of the items in the extras bag:
Tags:Books, Chiroptera Press, Horror, poetry, small press publishers, Thomas Ligotti
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Wednesday, June 28th, 2023
Another Borderlands Little Book:
White, Edward Lucas. A Little Green Book of Grue. Borderlands Press, 2023. First edition hardback, #462 of 500 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy. A shame they didn’t make it a little white book of some sort…
Tags:Books, Borderlands Press, Edward Lucas White, Horror, Little Books, small press publishers
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Friday, June 23rd, 2023
A little out of line with what I usually buy, but I thought the limitation was low enough to be worth picking up.
Romero, George A. and Daniel Kraus. The Living Dead. Short Scary Tales (SST) Publications, 2023. First edition hardback, 322 of 400 copies signed by Suzanne Romero, Daniel Kraus, Vincenzo Natali and Francois Vaillancourt, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Hefty 736 page original novel set in Romero’s Living Dead universe. Now sold out from the publisher, though I do have one copy available through Lame Excuse Books.
Tags:Books, George A. Romero, Horror, Movies, Night of the Living Dead, zombies
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Tuesday, June 20th, 2023
Got this on-sale from Centipede Press:
Long, Frank Belknap (S. T. Joshi, editor). Library of Weird Fiction: Frank Belknap Long. Centipede Press, 2022. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, still in shrinkwrap. Massive 800+ page collection of fiction by this contemporary and correspondent of H. P. Lovecraft. Bought for $40.
Tags:Books, Centipede Press, Frank Belknap Long, Horror, S. T. Joshi, small press publishers
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Monday, June 19th, 2023
These are both parts of Year’s Best Series that I pick up as targets of opportunity. Both of these were bought as part of a small paperback lot from a friend who was culling his collection.
Carter, Lin, editor. The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories. DAW, 1975. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with slight wear at points and along spine, otherwise apparently new and unread, with SFBC insert still present. Includes stories from Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith!
Page, Gerald W., editor. The Year’s Best Horror Stories VII. DAW, 1979. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with tiny crease to very tip of bottom front corner and a trace of edgewear. Includes stories from Stephen King, Jack Vance, Manly Wade Wellman and Lisa Tuttle, among others.
Tags:Books, Clark Ashton Smith, DAW, Fantasy, Horror, Jack Vance, Lin Carter, Lisa Tuttle, Manly Wade Wellman, Robert E. Howard, Stephen King
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Wednesday, June 14th, 2023
Two PS Publishing titles, both bought from the publisher at the usual discount.
Hughes, Matthew. Ghost Dreams. PS Publishing, 2022. First edition hardback, #55 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
Wallace, Edgar (Stephen Jones, editor). Kong: An Original Screenplay. PS Publishing/Electric Dreamhouse, 2023. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. The original screenplay for King Kong, which evidently differs considerably from the final film. Slightly oversized (10 1/2″ high) and profusely illustrated, with a good 90 pages of notes from Jones, who worked from “Wallace’s personal copy of his original draft script with his own corrections and interpolations” plus “a boys’ story-paper adaptation of the film, preliminary production stills and art-work, and a colour portfolio of King Kong posters from around the world.” A couple of production sketches are from the lost spider pit scene.
I have both of these available through Lame Excuse Books.
Tags:Books, Fantasy, Horror, King Kong, Matthew Hughes, Movies
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