Posts Tagged ‘Lester Del Rey’

Library Additions: Three Signed Stephen R. Donaldson Firsts

Tuesday, October 24th, 2023

Stephen R. Donaldson was someone I read back before I collected first editions, and the Thomas Covenant books were ones I read despite disliking the central character.

But I had a chance to grab signed firsts of the second Thomas Covenant trilogy from the same collector culling his collection as the previous Vance, Blaylock, etc. entries. All of these replaced unsigned book club copies.

  • Donaldson, Stephen R. The Wounded Land. Del Rey, 1980. First edition hardback (“First Edition: June 1980/1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10”), a Fine copy in a Near Fine dust jacket with faint crease down spine, small closed tear at top frotn, and wear at heel and points, signed and dated (“4/15/82”) by Donaldson, with bookmark for the trilogy laid in.

  • Donaldson, Stephen R. The One Tree. Del Rey, 1982. First edition hardback (“First Edition: April 1982”), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed and dated (“4/15/82”) by Donaldson, with bookmark for the trilogy laid in. Note: While the other two first editions in the trilogy feature numberlines, this one does not. I know that this is not the book club edition (which I also have in hand), there are no pictures of a copyright page with a numberline for this title I can locate, and consensus is that they apparently just left it off.

  • Donaldson, Stephen R. White Gold Wielder. Del Rey, 1983. First edition hardback (“First Edition: April 1983/1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10”), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed and dated (“5/6/89”) by Donaldson, with bookmark for the trilogy laid in.

    • The story I’ve heard from a couple of places is that Lester Del Rey’s boss at Del Rey/Ballantine (I’m assuming Ian Ballantine) walked by Lester’s office and asked “Shouldn’t we be getting in the new Donald Covenant manuscript soon?”

    Del Rey: “Oh, I rejected it.”

    Long pause. “You what?” Keep in mind that at this point, Donaldson was the biggest selling author in all of Ballantine Books.

    Del Rey: “Yeah, it was told from a woman’s viewpoint. Books told from a woman’s viewpoint don’t sell to fantasy readers.”

    The publisher stood there for a few seconds, then walked out without another word and called Donaldson from his office.

    “Stephen, what are you doing right now?”

    “I’m looking at the rejection letter Lester sent me.”

    “OK, from now on, I’m your editor. Send me the manuscript.”

    Many years of profitable publishing then ensued…

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    Library Addition: Several Armchair Fiction Titles

    Monday, July 12th, 2021

    Here are some Armchair Fiction titles I picked up during a sale, all of which are (though POD editions) either first editions thus or first book editions of works originally published in magazines, and are mostly works that have fallen out of copyright.

  • Anderson, Poul. Masters of Science Fiction, Volume 9: Poul Anderson: “The Star Beast” And Other Tales. Armchair Fiction, 2014. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Short story collection. “The Long Return” and “World of the Mad” haven’t been reprinted since their original magazine appearances.
  • Anderson, Poul with Lester Del Rey and Frederik Pohl. A Twelvemonth and a Day b/w Preferred Risk. Armchair Fiction, 2016. First edition trade paperback original for the Anderson, a Fine copy. Supplements a signed hardback first of Preferred Risk.
  • Campbell, John W. and Aladra Septama. When the Atoms Failed b/w The Dragons of Space. Armchair Fiction, 2016. First edition trade paperback originals, a Fine copy. Contains “When the Atoms Failed” (one print reprint) and “The Metal Horde” no print reprints) from Campbell, and the Septama had never been reprinted previously (though, according to Bleiler’s Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years, it’s really bad…).
  • Shaver, Richard S. The Shaver Mystery Book Eight. Armchair Fiction, 2020. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Supplements volumes 1-7.
  • Silverberg, Robert. Masters of Science Fiction Volume 13: Robert Silverberg The Ace Years, Part Three. Armchair Fiction, 2018. First edition trade paperback originals, a Fine copy. Reprints three more Ace PBOs: Invaders From Earth, Collision Course and The Silent Invaders, plus a new forward, a book cover gallery, and “The Songs of Summer.”
  • Silverberg, Robert, and Randall Garrett, and Laurence Manning. The Beast With 7 Tails b/w The Wreck of the Asteroid. Armchair Fiction, 2021. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy. The Silverberg/Garrett “The Beast With 7 Tails” has never been reprinted since it’s appearance in Amazing Stories in 1956, and The Wreck of the Asteroid has not been reprinted since being serialized in Wonder Stories in 1932-3. Bleiler’s Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years says that the Manning is “A competent adventure story with reasonable development.”

    • Except for The Ace Years, Part Three (already sold!), I will have copies of all these available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, currently in progress.

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    Library Additions: Random Interesting SF First Editions

    Monday, November 6th, 2017

    The only theme here is that all these books were at the same Half Price Books I previously found notable Chad Oliver and Frederik Pohl first editions at, and that I bought all the books below for less than $10:

  • Bester, Alfred. The Deceivers. Severn House, 1984. First hardback edition, a Fine copy in a Fine, plastic-protected dust jacket. $5.
  • Carr, Charles. Colonists of Space. Ward Lock, 1954. Presumed first edition hardback (states “First published..1954,” but the ISFDB lists two states of that HB, with differing prices, but this dust jacket, while intact, has no price whatsoever; if I had to guess, I would say this is a first edition with a variant dust jacket for the library trade), a Near Fine- copy with slight bumping at head and heel in a Near Fine- dust jacket with very shallow chipping at head, slight dust soiling to white rear, and wear at points, in plastic dust jacket protector. Bought for $5.

    Colonists of Space

  • Del Rey, Lester, editor. Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Third Annual Collection. Dutton, 1974. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight crimping at head and heel in a Near Fine dust jacket with significant sun-fading to red portion of the spine. Currey, page 145. Gardner Dozois would later take over this series as editor for volumes six through ten, before beginning his own Year’s Best Science Fiction series in 1984. Bought for $6.

    Del Rey Best 3

  • Elliot, H. Chandler. Reprieve from Paradise. Gnome Press, 1955. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with a bit of crimping at the head and heel and a touch of spotting along inner join margin on front free endpaper, in a Near Fine dust jacket with usual age darkening and slight spotting on lower half of front spine join, in the first binding state (green boards lettered in maroon). Chalker/Owings (1991), page 202. Kemp, page 242. Bought for $9.99.
  • Harrison, Harry. Backdrop of Stars. Dennis Dobson, 1968. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with age darkening to pages in a Very Good+ dust jacket with rubbing (heaviest along spine join) and moderate dust soiling. Bought for $5.99.
  • Norton, Andre. Ordeal in Otherwhere. World Publishing, 1964. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with patterning on spine in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with edgewear at head and heel and some blind-side transfer from spine (but no sun fading to spine), in plastic dust jacket protector. Currey, page 391. Bought for $5.

    Ordeal Otherwhere

  • Wallace, F. L. Address: Centauri. Gnome Press, 1955. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with the usual age-darkening to the paper, in a Very Good dust jacket with shallow chipping at head and heel, rubbing along spine and fading to spine, and other touches of wear, in the first state binding (gray boards lettered in black). Chalker/Owings, page 202. Kemp, page 236. Bought for $8.
  • Wilhelm, Kate. The Infinity Box. Harper Science Fiction, 1975. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket, with just a trace of surface wear (exaggerated in the scan); this reflective metallic dust jacket is usually found much, much more badly scratched up. Currey, page 538. Bought for $5.99.

    Infinity Box

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    Library Additions: Three Half Price Books Purchases

    Tuesday, August 1st, 2017

    Here are three random library additions, the only common denominator of which was that I picked all of them up at Half Price Books.

  • Leckie, Ann. Ancillary Justice. Orbit, 2013. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine, new and unready copy. Hugo and Nebula Award winner. Bought for $7.99 at Half Price Books. Supplements the later Gale/Thorndike Press large print hardback edition and the Subterranean Press signed/limited edition.
  • Pohl, Frederik and Lester Del Rey (as Edson McCann). Preferred Risk. Simon and Schuster, 1955. First edition hardback, a Near Fine- copy with page block spotting at heel, in a Near Fine dust jacket with traces of wear at points and moderate soiling to white rear panel. Inscribed by Pohl: “To Rick—/With all good/wishes—/”Edson”/or/Fred Pohl.” Currey (1979), page 404. Bought for $8, down from $10 with a 20% off coupon. This is a case of knowing more than the bookseller, since I knew this was a Pohl/Del Rey pseudonym and what Pohl’s signature looks like. As for the book itself, evidently Galaxy magazine and Simon and Schuster ran a contest for an SF novel, didn’t like any of the submissions, and got Pohl and Del Rey to write this under a pseudonym for the contest.

    Preferred Risk

    IMG_1405

  • Vachess, Andrew, Geoff Darrow, Michael Black and Gary Gianni. The Shaolin Cowboy Adventure Magazine No. 1. Dark Horse, 2012. First edition trade paperback original, a Near Fine+ copy with a small scrape at heel and just a trace of wear. Signed by Vachess, Darrow and Black. Pulp fiction homage that looks like fun. Bought for $7.99.

    Shaolin Cowboy

    IMG_1408

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    Library Additions: Three Science Fiction Reference Works

    Friday, June 13th, 2014

    Additions to my non-fiction reference library continues apace. Here are three science fiction reference works I picked up recently:

  • Del Rey, Lester. The World of Science Fiction, 1926-1976: The History of a Subculture. Garland, 1980. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight crimping at head and heel, sans dust jacket, as issued. A history of science fiction fandom by someone who witnessed it.

    Del Rey World of SF

  • (Heinlein, Robert A.) Thorner, J. Lincoln. A Guide Through the Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein. Gryphon Books, 1989. First edition trade paperback chapbook original, a Fine- copy with touches of wear along the spine. 48 pages critical guide, including a small bibliography of reference works in the back.

    Worlds of Heinlein

  • (Wolfe, Gene) Borski, Robert. Solar Labyrinth: Exploring Gene Wolfe’s BOOK OF THE NEW SUN. iUniverse, 2004. First edition hardback (no additional printings listed, though I believe iUniverse is a POD outfit), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Critical guide to Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun. Supplements a trade paperback edition in my library. Bought for $20 off an Internet bookseller.

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