Posts Tagged ‘anthology’

Library Additions: Two Anthology Firsts

Friday, June 21st, 2024

Over the years I’ve tended to pick up fewer and fewer anthologies, mainly because I haven’t been reading them as much, and they’re almost always available in nice condition on the used market for considerably less than cover price. Such as these two anthologies, which I considered picking up when they came out but ultimately didn’t. These are the last two hardback books for my own library from that estate purchase.

  • Kessel, John, Mark L. Van Name and Richard Butner, editors. Intersections: The Sycamore Hill Anthology. Tor, 1996. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with faint haze rubbing. Original anthology of Sycamore Hill participants, including Bruce Sterling’s award-winning “Bicycle Repairman.”
  • Rucker, Rudy, Peter Lamborn Wilson and Robert Anton Wilson, editors. Semiotext(e) SF. Autonomedia, 1989. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine- copy with slight bump to front corner. Anthology with both a lot of recognizable SF names (William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Lewis Shiner, Philip Jose Farmer, Robert Sheckley, etc.) and a lot of counterculture figures (William S. Burroughs, Ivan Stang, Kerry Thornley, etc.) Part of that Autonomedia/RE:Search/Fringeware axis of post-punk SF that flourished in the late 80s and early 90s. If you don’t own a copy of Modern Stories #1 (I do), this is the only place to find Gibson’s “Hippie Hat Brain Parasite.”
  • Library Additions: Three Signed Firsts

    Thursday, May 30th, 2024

    This was an odd auction lot that I won for the opening bid. It’s three signed firsts, only two of which are signed by the author, and are a diverse bunch that seldom have the same collectors buying them.

  • Bush, George H. W. All the Best: My Life in Letters and Other Writings. Lisa Drew/Scribner, 1999. First edition hardback, a Fine-/Fine- copy with just a tiny bit of bend at head and heel, signed by Bush on a bookplate on the half title page. (Note: All copies come with a printed signature on that page, but this is an actual signed bookplate below that.) Autobiography of the 41st President of the United States of America. I have two books signed by Bush43, but this is the first one I’ve picked up signed by Bush41.

  • Conklin, Groff. Big Book of Science Fiction. Crown Publishers, 1950. First edition hardback ($3.00 price on dust jacket, as per ISFDB), a Very Good+ copy with bumping at head and heel, spine slightly concave, wrinkles at head and blunting of points, in a Very Good dust jacket with creasing, rubbing and small tears at head and heel, long crease at top front, slight fading to spine, 1/4″ closed tear to top front flap, wear at points, and slight edgewear, with previous purchase slip laid in, and former owner name on front free endpaper. The owner was Charles Richter, whose name I didn’t recognize in the auction listing. I thought it might have been the author of one of the stories in the anthology, and didn’t assign any value when calculating a lot price for the Bush and Dunsany volumes, as I don’t typically collect reprint anthologies. Turns out it’s seismologist and physicist Charles Richter, as in “Richter Scale.” A card with his signature evidently sold for $202 in 2010. Conklin edited numerous science fiction reprint anthologies, and his signature is evidently quite uncommon. Bleiler, Science Fiction: The Early Years page 151 (included for three science fiction stories difficult to find elsewhere). Reginald, Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature: A Checklist 03270.

  • Dunsany, Lord (Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany). The Chronicles of Rodiguez. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1922. First edition hardback (Currey state A), #148 of 500 copies, signed by Dunsany below his Preface and illustrator Syndney Sime below his frontispiece illustration, a Very Good copy with various rubs and touches of wear, abrasion wear to spine label, blunting of points, and several small foxing spots to pages throughout, lacking the dust jacket. An elaborate production, with paper vellum pages and marbled endpapers. Currey, page 168. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy page 74. I lacked both Dunsany and Sime signatures in my collection before acquiring this.

  • All bought off an Invaluable auction for the opening bid of $190 ($243 after buyer’s premium).

    Library Addition: World’s Science Fiction Story Collection II

    Saturday, January 27th, 2018

    Here’s something I didn’t buy, it showed up on my doorstep as a contributor copy:

    Haijun, Yao and Mike Resnick, editors. World’s Science Fiction Story Collection II (ISBN 978-7-5364-8711-6). Sichuan Science and Technology Publishing House, 2017. Trade paperback original, a Fine copy, still in shrinkwrap. Chinese language anthology that prints a translation of my story “Crucifixion Variations.”

    I’m pretty sure this is the only time my name has appeared higher on a cover than Robert Silverberg’s…

    Library Additions: Four Horror Anthologies

    Monday, September 19th, 2016

    Still cataloging books that came in from that National Book Auction. Here are four horror anthologies from already-mentioned lot purchases that I incorporated into my library for various reasons:

  • Campbell, Ramsey, editor. Superhorror. St. Martin’s Press, 1976 (stated; ISFDB says 1977). First U.S. edition (though stating it was printed in Great Britain, suggesting that St. Martin’s bound the W. H. Allen sheets, so it might be more technically accurate to call this “First Edition, U.S. (second) state”), hardback, a Fine copy in a Near Fine dust jacket that appears to have had some sort of very thin laminate applied to it; the edges of the flaps have uniform yellowed strip running the entire length of the flap and feeling ever-so-slight raised; the rest of the flaps are a pristine white; very odd. Horror anthology with original stories by (among others) R. A. Lafferty and Manly Wade Wellman. However, I mainly decided to keep this because it has a story by Joe Pumilia in it, and I knew I could get him to sign it at this year’s Armadillocon (which, in fact, I did).

    supperhorror

  • Elwood, Roger, editor. The Berserkers. Trident Press, 1973. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with a slight wrinkle to top rear, a 1/32″ closed tear at head, and a tiny bit of crimping at head and heel. Original anthology by the prolific (but not particularly well-regarded) Elwood, who at one point in the 1970s was purportedly responsible for one quarter of all the original anthologies in science fiction. Keeping this because it includes an R. A. Lafferty story, “And Mad Undancing Bears.”

    elwood-beserkers

  • Miller, John and Smith, Tim, editors. The Were-Wolf and Other Tales from the Dark Side of the Moon. Chronicle Books, 1995. First edition small trim sized hardback (4 3/4″ x 6 1/4″), a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Reprint anthology, from mostly classical and other public domain sources (Ovid, Petronius, Bram Stoker), plus Angela Carter. Looks like an item that was aimed as an impulse buy at the register, but as such there are relatively few copies listed online. Unusual book design, consisting of white and red printing on black pages.

    miller-were-wolf

  • Parry, Michael. The Hounds of Hell. Gollancz, 1974. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Reprint anthology of weird stories about dogs, including stories by Manly Wade Wellman, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, etc.

    parry-hounds-of-hell

  • My Story “The Dog Parade” will be in Postscripts 24/25 coming out in December

    Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

    A while back I sold my story “The Dog Parade” to Postscripts, the magazine-turned-anthology series from PS Publishing. (I have some previous installments available for sale through Lame Excuse Books.) They just announced the table of contents for Postscripts 24/25, and “The Dog Parade” in among them. Also in that issue are Ken MacLeod, Rudy Rucker, Paul Di Filippo, and Jay Lake, among many, many other, so my story will have some mighty fine company.