Another bargain purchase:
Bear, Greg. Sisters. Pulphouse, 1992. First edition hardback, #48 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. #26 in the Short Story Hardback series. Chalker/Owings (2003), page 272. Bought off eBay for $16.
Another Dragonstairs Press book but this one is a bit different than their usual fare.
Davidson, Avram, and Grania Davis. A Goat For Azazel: The Grandson of Eszterhazy Returns…Again. A Ghost Novel. First edition chapbook, #80 of 80 copies signed by afterword author Michael Swanwick. Pitch for a proposed Dr. Eszterhazy novel, including sections on setting, protagonists and an extensive plot synopses. “Hand-stitched, with wrappers made of Mexican amate bark paper, chosen to commemorate Avram’s and Grania’s years in Mexico.” Sold out within hours of being offered for sale.
I will have a small number of copies available for sale in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Another signed Bradbury first:
Bradbury, Ray. That Son of Richard III: A Birth Announcement. Roy A. Squires, 1974. First edition chapbook original, #LXIII of 85 the signed “Autograph Edition,” a Fine- copy with just a trace of wear at tips, in a Near Fine+ original Autograph Edition publisher’s envelope with slight age darkening at edges and slight bumping at tips. Chalker/Owings, page 589. Bought for $50 (marked down from $80) on eBay.
Unnoted in Chalker/Owings is the fact that two of my three copies have a “PZ” glyph inscribed on the lower right side of the introduction page, just barely visible in the scan.
This is my third copy of this Bradbury chapbook, following an association copy inscribed to Lord John press founder Herb Yellin and an unsigned copy of the “ordinary” edition. The ordinary copy has this, but the one inscribed to Yellin doesn’t. Bit of a mystery…
Edited to add: Mystery solved! I checked with fellow bookseller (and Old Earth Books publisher) Mike Walsh to see if he could solve the glyph mystery, and he directed me to bookseller Terrance McVicker of Bats Over Books, who had the answer:
The “PZ” you note in your query is actually “ZN,” printed on top of each other, if you turn it sideways. It stands for “Zerkall Nideggen.” Nideggen is a Japanese paper, but Zerkall was the German manufacturer. I think what Zerkall did was buy the pulp paper from Nideggen, then process it in their factory.
What your seeing is the Zerkall Nideggen watermark. The sheet before cutting, measured 24″ X 36″ and there was a watermark in the lower right-hand corner of the full sheet. Which meant that, when the sheet was cut to quarto size, only one out of eight pages would have the watermark. Printers usually try to get one watermarked page per book/booklet, but it doesn’t always work out that way.
Thanks for the info!
Another Dragonstairs Press chapbook:
Swanwick, Michael. Brief Lives. Dragonstairs Press, 2024. First edition chapbook original, #7 of 50 signed and numbered copies, a Fine copy. Brief non-fiction essays on writers who died young, including Octavia Butler. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount.
I will have a small number of copies available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
I already had a first of The Seventeen Virgins, but not a signed first.
Vance, Jack. The Seventeen Virgins. Underwood/Miller, 1979. First edition chapbook original, a Fine- copy with one wrinkle to top corner and slight fading along spine, signed by Vance. Hewett, A58. Cunningham, B.70a. Chalker/Owings, pages 430-431 (where they note that only 400 were produced, not the 600 stated). Supplements an unsigned copy and the signed, limited hardback edition of The Seventeen Virgins & A Bagful of Dreams. Bought off eBay for $32 plus shipping.
Another Dragonstairs chapbook.
Swanwick, Michael. The War with the Zylv. Dragonstairs Press, 2024. First edition chapbook original, #50 of 100 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy. A story based on the piece of art used as the cover.
I will have copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
The theme this week seems to be “firsts I already had, but signed.”
Lafferty, R. A. Slippery and other stories. Chris Drumm, 1985. First edition chapbook original, #115 of 176 signed, numbered copies, a Near Fine copy with a quarter-sized sticker remnant at spinefold near the heel that has discolored the paper. (You know those colored circular stickers you can buy at grocery stores to price things for garage sales? Don’t use those for books.) Supplements an unsigned copy. If I had been collecting Lafferty in the 80s (hell, into the 90s), all the Drumm signed Laffertys could be bought for $5 a pop. Woulda coulda shoulda. This was bought off eBay for $40.
Another signed, limited Dragonstairs Press signed Swanwick chapbook.
Swanwick, Michael. Comicosmics. Dragonstairs Press, 2024. First edition chapbook original, #42 of 50 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy. Short shorts in the manner of Italo Calvino. I should have one unspoken for copy available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Another Swanwick Dragonstairs chapbook:
Swanwick, Michael. Nevermore: an Interview with the Raven. Dragonstairs Press, 2024. First edition chapbook original, #4 of 40 copies, a Fine copy. What the title says. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount.
I will have a small number of these available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Another short-run Dragonstairs chapbook I managed to grab:
Swanwick, Michael. Phases of the Sun/Phases of the Moon. Dragonstairs Press, 2020 (not offered for sale until 2024). First edition accordion-fold chapbook original (Phases of the Sun goes one way, and then you flip it over and Phases of the Moon goes the other), a Fine copy. Bought for $60 from Dragonstairs and sold out within two minutes.
