Posts Tagged ‘Professional Library’
Sunday, June 3rd, 2012
Don Webb once said that “If you are obsessed with a writer, you own more in print about him than the total number of words in print by him.” In which case I guess I’m obsessed by H. P. Lovecraft (who is also who Don was talking about). However, while I do like Lovecraft, it’s really only because I’m obsessed about books in general, part of which is obtaining reference books about authors I like. Is it my fault there are just so many books on Lovecraft out there? I don’t have all of them, but I do have a goodly number.
For In-print items, I’ve provided links to either the Lame Excuse Books page for things I have in stock, or Amazon links for those I don’t.
Here’s a long view of everything that would fit laid out on a single tabletop:
(Lovecraft, H.P.) Bell, Joseph. Les Bibliotheques Volumes 1-8. Soft Books, 1984-1987. Eight side-stapled A4-sized chapbooks, featuring a miscellaneous selection of Lovecraft material (including fiction, poems, letters, etc. from Lovecraft), the bulk of which is taken up by a chronology of his publications.
(Lovecraft, H.P.) Migliore, Andrew, and John Strysik. The Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H.P. Lovecraft. Night Shade Press, 2010. First printing trade paperback original of this enlarged and updated edition. Normally sits among my film reference works.
Next comes a few Arkham House-related books I’m including here. (I already covered S. T. Joshi’s Sixty Years of Arkham House during my first reference book roundup.)
Jaffery, Sheldon. Horrors and Unpleasantries: A Bibliographical History and Collectors Price Guide to Arkham House. Popular Press, 1982. First edition hardback. Largely superseded by Joshi’s Sixty Years, it still has information not replicated there, including how the secret reprint edition of August Derleth’s own Someone in the Dark came to pass.
Nielsen, Leon. Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide. McFarland & Company, 2004. Trade paperback original. Goes a little farther than Joshi. Mostly superfluous if you have Joshi and Jaffrey, but useful if you don’t.
Derleth, August. Thirty Years of Arkham House: 1939-1969. Arkham House, 1970. First edition hardback. The official history up to that date. (I do not own a copy of Derleth’s Arkham House: The First 20 Years; it’s pretty pricey for a superseded paperback reference work, and insanely pricey for one of the 80 hardback copies…)
Finally, we get to the actual Lovecraft section, which starts off with several titles by HPL himself:
Lovecraft, H. P. Supernatural Horror in Literature. Ben Abramson, 1945. First separate edition, hardback (Currey A), sans dust jacket, as issued. His famous essay.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz) Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters. Ohio University Press, 2000. Hardback first edition. What the title says: chronological autobiographical information culled from Lovecraft’s voluminous correspondence.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi) Collected Essay Volume 1: Amateur Journalism. Hippocampus Press, 2004. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi) Collected Essay Volume 2: Literary Criticism. Hippocampus Press, 2004. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi) Collected Essay Volume 3: Science. Hippocampus Press, 2005. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi) Collected Essay Volume 4: Travel. Hippocampus Press, 2005. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi) Collected Essay Volume 5: Philosophy, Autobiography & Miscellany. Hippocampus Press, 2006. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei) Selected Letters I. Arkham House, 1965. Hardback first edition. Many later Lovecratt scholars have criticized the way the letters in these and subsequent volumes have been edited.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei) Selected Letters II. Arkham House, 1968. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei) Selected Letters IIII. Arkham House, 1971. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by August Derleth and James Turner) Selected Letters IV. Arkham House, 1976. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by August Derleth and James Turner) Selected Letters V. Arkham House, 1976. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. and Donald Wandrei (edited by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz) Mysteries of Time and Spirit: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Donald Wandrei. Night Shade Books, 2002. Hardback first edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz) Letters from New York. Night Shade Books, 2005. Hardback first edition.
Howard, Robert E. and H. P. Lovecraft. A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. Hippocampus Press, 2009. First edition hardbacks, two volumes. Shelved in my Robert E. Howard section.
Lovecraft, H. P. (edited by L. Sprague de Camp) To Quebec and the Stars. Donald M. Grant, 1976. Hardback first edition. (Out of order in the pictures because it’s oversized and shelved one shelf down from where it should be.)
Next comes books about Lovecraft by other authors.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Joshi, S. T. H. P. Lovecraft and Lovecraft Criticism: An Annotated Bibliography. Kent State University Press, 1981. Hardback first edition, sans dust jacket, as issued. If you haven’t figured out already by the number of times his name has already appeared on this list, Joshi is the Lovecraft obsessive that puts all the other Lovecraft obsessives in the shade. I have several criticisms of his Sixty Years of Arkham House, and disagree with significant bits and pieces of his critical approach to Lovecraft’s. But when comes to excessive knowledge of Lovecraft’s life and work, he has no equal, and this bibliography is ridiculously comprehensive up through the period covered. There were 14 Lovecraft books (including some chapbooks, pamphlets, etc.) printed before The Outsider and Others, each of which is either insanely expensive or simply not available anywhere at any price.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Joshi, S. T. I Am Providence: the Life and Times of H P Lovecraft. Hippocampus Press, 2010. First edition hardback, two volumes. Back in 1996, Necronomicon Press published Joshi’s H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, a definitive biography which was about 700 pages long, with very small margins, in a hardback edition of 250 copies which went out of print before just about anyone knew about it. (You can still get the trade paperback edition.) Well, guess what? Joshi had to leave out about 150,000 words of material for space constraints. That, plus everything he’s learned since 1996, is packed into these two volumse. (I see some people online are asking $550 for this set. I have sets available for $95, which is half-off cover price. [Sorry, sold out. – LP])
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Joshi, S. T. and David E. Schultz. An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press, 2001. Hardback first edition, in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued. Includes things both in Lovecraft’s fiction and his life.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) de Camp, L. Sprague Lovecraft: A Life. Doubleday, 1975. Hardback first edition, inscribed by de Camp, remainder speckling at heel, otherwise Fine in a Fine dust jacket. Considered the standard biography before Joshi went to work; not so much anymore.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Long, Frank Belknap. Howard Philips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Night Side Arkham House, 1975. Hardback first edition. Biography of Lovecraft by a close friend and fellow writer.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Cannon, Peter, editor. Lovecraft Remembered. Arkham House, 1998. Hardback first edition with review slip laid in. Collection of remembrances of both Lovecraft and his writing by numerous contemporaries, much of it original published in very obscure journals or small-run pamphlets.
(Lovecraft, H.P.) Carter, Lin. Lovecraft: A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos. Starmont House/Borgo Press, [1992]. First hardback edition, Fine in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issued.
(Lovecraft, H.P.) Cannon, Peter. H. P. Lovecraft. Twayne, 1989. Hardback first edition (a reasonably clean ex-library copy). Part of the Twayn’s United States Authors Series.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Joshi, S. T. H. P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of Criticism. Ohio University Press, 1980. Hardback first edition. Variety of essays on Lovecraft’s work.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Mark Owings and Irving Binkin, catalogers. A Catalog of Lovecraftiana: The Grill Binkin Collection. Mirage Press, 1975. Hardback first edition, Fine sans dust jacket, as issued. Catalog of perhaps the most extensive Lovecraft collection ever in existence.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) St. Armand, Barton Levi. The Roots of Horror in the Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft. Dragon Press, 1977. Hardback first edition, Fine sans dust jacket, as issued. Critical work.
And a few works on the Cthulhu Mythos more generally:
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Jarocha-Ernst, Chris. A Cthulhu Mythos Bibliography and Concordance. Armitage House, 1999. First edition trade paperback original.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Harms, Daniel. Encyclopedia Cthulhuiana. Chaosium, 1994. Trade paperback original.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Harms, Daniel. The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia. Elder Signs Press, 2008. First edition hardback, one of 200 signed, numbered copies. “Updated and Expanded Third Edition,” and the first hardback edition.
And here are some chapbook that you can’t tell what they are from the spine. I pick up those Necronomicon Press chapbooks when I find them cheap, but usually not otherwise.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) St. Armand, Barton Levi. H. P. Lovecraft: New England Decadent. Silver Scarab Press, 1979. Perfect-bound chapbook.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Barlow, R. H. On Lovecraft and Life. Necronomicon Press, 1992. First edition chapbook.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Cook, W. Paul. In Memoriam: Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Necronomicon Press, 1991. Chapbook, second edition.
Lovecraft, H. P. A History of the Necronomicon. Necronomicon Press, 1992. Chapbook, sixth printing.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Barrass, Glynn. A Cthulhu Mythos Bibliography & Checklist: Second Edition. Blackgoat Books, 1996. An extremely barebones checklist (title, publisher, and whether it was issued in hardback). Probably the last thing you would reach for, but it does have a few obscure listings.
Lovecraft, H. P. and Anthony Raven. The Occult Lovecraft. Gerry de la Ree, 1975. First edition chapbook.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) H. P. Lovecraft: A Symposium. The Los Angeles Science Fiction Society/The Riverside Quarterly, [1964]. First edition chapbook, with Errata sheet laid in.
Related Posts
Lawrence Person’s Library of Science Fiction First Editions
Lawrence Person’s Reference Books Part 1
Lawrence Person’s Reference Books Part 2
Lawrence Person’s Reference Books Part 3
Tags:Arkham House, August Derleth, Books, Cthulhu, David E. Schultz, Donald Wandrei, First Edition, H. P. Lovecraft, Hippocampus Press, James Turner, L. Sprague de Camp, Peter Cannon, Professional Library, reference works, S. T. Joshi
Posted in Books, Horror, pics, Science Fiction | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
Here are some pics from the section of my reference library where I keep contributor copies of publications my work has appeared in. Before the contributor copies, there are several book auction catalogs (including from the auctions I covered here), as well as some old S. M. Mossberg and L. W. Currey book catalogs of interest. After that the actual contributor copies start. You should be able to figure out what these are from my bibliography. The exception is the black tape-bound volume on the first shelf, which is a compilation of materials handed out for a Danish class on science fiction which includes my review of Donnie Darko. I have so many copies of Jim Baen’s Universe because FACT had boxes to give away at the 2008 Nebula Awards here in Austin and I snagged some leftovers.
As usual, click to embiggen.
I have a few of these available for sale through Lame Excuse Books as well.
Previous entries on my reference library can be found here and here.
Tags:auction, book auction, Books, Fantasy, First Edition, Heritage Auctions, Horror, Library, pics, Professional Library, reference works, Science Fiction
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Horror, pics, Science Fiction | 1 Comment »
Sunday, November 14th, 2010
The period right around Halloween and the election was particularly busy, so I took a break from blogging here. To get back in the skiffy swing of things, here’s the latest list of books I’ve added to my library.
Books that I have available for sale through Lame Excuse Books are marked LEB (though some of those titles won’t appear on the stock page until after I send out my next book catalog, which will probably be late this month or early next; email me if you’d like to get on the mailing list to received it).
Bacigalupi, Paolo. Ship-Breaker. Little Brown, 2010.
Baring-Gould, William S.. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1976. Two volumes, reprint.
Barker, Clive. Visions of Heaven and Hell. Rizzoli, 2005. Art book.
Bennett, Robert Jackson. Mr. Shivers. Orbit, 2010.
Bennett, Robert Jackson. Mr. Shivers. Orbit, 2010. Mass market paperback, inscribed by Bennett. (He was giving them away at his Armadillocon signing.)
Brackett, Leigh. The Best of Leigh Brackett. Nelson Doubleday (SFBC), 1977. Near Fine/Near Fine.
Bradbury, Ray. Dark Carnival. Arkham House, 1946. First edition hardback, good only, with lettering on spine almost completely worn away, spine lean, general wear, and lacking the dust jacket.
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man. Doubleday, 1951. First edition hardback, lacking the dust jacket.
Brunner, John. The Jagged Orbit. Ace (SFBC), 1969. (Book club, first hardback edition).
Chiang, Ted. The Lifecycle of Software Objects. Subterranean Press, 2010. Signed limited edition.
Chiang, Ted. The Lifecycle of Software Objects. Subterranean Press, 2010. Trade edition. LEB
Coover, Robert. The Public Burning. Viking, 1977. Signed by Coover.
Cullin, Mitch. Tideland. Dufour Editions, 2000. Signed by Cullin. Basis of the Terry Gilliam film.
Day, Bradford M. The Supplemental Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Arno Press, 1974. First hardcover edition, Fine, sans dj, as issued. Non-fiction.
Di Filippo, Paul. Roadside Bodhisattva. PS Publishing, 2010.
Doctorow, Cory. Makers. Tor, 2009.
Egan, Greg. Zedengi. Orion/Gollancz, 2010. I have the Night Shade edition for sale here.
Harrison, Harry. The Stainless Steel Rat Returns. Tor, 2010.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. Chatto & Windus, 1932. VG- only, lacking the dust jacket.
Kelly, James Patrick and John Kessel. Rewired: The Postcyberpunk Anthology. Tachyon, 2007. Trade paperback original.
King, Stephen. The Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla. Donald M. Grant/Scribner’s, 2003. First trade edition.
King, Stephen. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower. Donald M. Grant/Scribner’s, 2004. First trade edition.
Kay, Guy Gavriel. Under Heaven. Roc, 2010.
Kunitz, Stanley J. & Howard Haycraft. British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary. H. W. Wilson, 1975. Fifth printing, an Ex-Library copy, otherwise Fine-, no dust jacket, presumably as issued. Non-fiction.
Kunitz, Stanley J. & Howard Haycraft. British Authors of the Nineteenth Century. H. W. Wilson, 1982. Eighth printing, an Ex-Library copy, otherwise Fine-, no dust jacket, presumably as issued. Non-fiction.
Lansdale, Joe R. Deadman’s Road. Subterranean Press, 2010. LEB
Lake, Jay. The Sky That Wraps. Subterranean Press, 2010. LEB
Lake, Jay. Specific Gravity of Grief. Fairwoods Press, 2010. LEB
Leiber, Fritz. Strange Wonders. Subterranean Press, 2010. LEB
Lentz, Harris M. III. Science Fiction, Horror, & Fantasy Film and Television Credits: Second Edition: Volume 1: Credits. McFarland & Company, 2001. Ex-library copy, otherwise Fine-, sans dust jacket, as issued. Non-fiction.
Ligotti, Thomas. The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Hippocampus Press, 2010. Non-fiction.
Lovecraft, H. P. Black Seas of Infinity: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft. SFBC, 2001.
Lovecraft, H.P. Collected Poems. Arkham House, 1963. VG/VG, with top inch of boards discolored and sun-fading to spine.
(Lovecraft, H. P.) Joshi, S. T. I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft Hippocampus Press, 2010. Two volumes, one of 1000 sets. Non fiction. LEB
Manvell, Roger, ed. The International Encyclopedia of Film. Joseph, 1972. Near Fine/Near Fine.
McDevitt, Jack. Time Travelers Never Die. Ace, 2009.
McDonald, Ian. The Dervish House Pyr, 2010.
(Moorcock, Michael) Bilyeu, Richard. The Tanelorn Archives: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography of the Works of Michael Moorcock 1949-1979. Pandora’s Books, 1981. Fine, sans dust jacket, as issued. Non-fiction.
Niven, Larry. Stars & Gods. Tor, 2010.
Oliver, Chad. The Wolf is My Brother. Herbert Jenkins, 1968. First UK and first hardback edition, a Near Fine copy in a Good+ only dust jacket, missing an irregular 3/4″ x 1/2″ ship at head, and shallow chipping and edgewear. I didn’t even know there was a hardback until I chanced across this copy (though it is in Currey).
Pohl, Frederik. The Best of Frederik Pohl. Nelson Doubleday (SFBC), 1975.
(Powers, Tim) Berlyne, John, editor Powers: Secret Histories: A Bibliography PS Publishing, 2009. One of 200 signed, numbered Slipcased copies in slipcase with companion volume, The Waters Deep, Deep, Deep, not included with the trade edition. Non-fiction with additional fictional material included.
(Powers, Tim) Berlyne, John, editor Powers: Secret Histories: A Bibliography PS Publishing, 2009. One of 26 signed, lettered Deluxe copies in slipcase with two companion volumes, The Waters Deep, Deep, Deep and bound, photographic reproduction of the original hand-written manuscript for The Anubis Gates, not included with the trade or Slipcased editions. Slipcase and Anubis Gates volume very slightly bumped, otherwise Fine/Fine. Non-fiction with additional fictional material included.
Priest, Cherie. Clementine. Subterranean Press, 2010.
Reilly, John. The Painted Word: Paintings by John Reilly. Cross Publishing, 2008. Trade paperback original, NF, slightly bumped and bent in center. Art book.
Rucker, Rudy. Hylozoic. Tor, 2009.
Sadler, Jeff, editor. Twentieth Century Western Writers: Second Edition. St. James Press, 1991. Ex-library copy., otherwise Fine-, sans dust jacket.
Schmitz, James A. The Demon Breed. Ace (SFBC), 1968. First hardback edition, a Fine/Fine- with a trace of edgewear.
Silverberg, Robert. The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume Five: The Palace at Midnight. Subterranean Press, 2010. LEB
Silverberg, Robert. The Last Song of Orpheus. Subterranean Press, 2010. On of 200 signed, leatherbound copies.
Summers, Rev. Montague. The Vampire: His Kith and Kin. E. P. Dutton, 1929. First U.S. edition, VG, lacks dust jacket. Non-fiction.
Straub, Peter. The Juniper Tree. Subterranean Press, 2010. Signed, limited edition. LEB
Straub, Peter. The Juniper Tree. Subterranean Press, 2010. Trade edition. LEB
Stross, Charles. The Fuller Memorandum. Ace, 2010.
Stross, Charles. Toast. Wyrm Publishing, 2010. First limited edition and first edition thus, signed, with new material. LEB
Pringle, David, ed. The St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost, and Gothic Writers. St. James, 1998. Ex-Library copy, otherwise NF.
Wells, H. G. The World of William Clissold. Published by Ernest Benn (UK) 1926. Three volumes, one of 198 copies signed by Wells on the title page. Full description here.
Vance, Jack. The Complete Dying Earth. SFBC, 1998. First omnibus edition.
Vance, Jack. Ports of Call/Lurulu. SFBC, 2004. First omnibus edition.
Vance, Jack. Sjambak. Wildside Press, 2010. Chapbook. (There seem to be multiple copies of this title from multiple POD publishers this year, so I’m unclear on the publishing precedence. I suspect that Vance failed to file a renewal, allowing the work to slip into the public domain, which is why it can be found at Project Gutenberg.)
VandeerMeer, Jeff, ed.. Last Drink Bird Head. Wyrm Publishing, 2010.
Wolfe, Gene. The Best of Gene Wolfe. Tor, 2009.
Wolfe, Gene. Home Fires: Tor, 2011. Uncorrected proof, trade paperback format. Details here.
Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn. False Dawn. Doubleday, 1978. NF/NF copy, signed by Yarbro.
Previous posts on my library:
A more comprehensive look at my library can be found here.
A previous list of library additions from January to June 2010 is here.
A previous list of library additions from December 2009 to January 2010 can be found here.
Here’s a list of books I picked up on a book-hunting trip to Archer City and Denton.
Tags:Aldous Huxley, Arkham House, Book Collecting, Books, Bradford M. Day, Chad Oliver, Cherie Priest, Clive Barker, Cory Doctorow, first editions, Frederik Pohl, Gene Wolfe, Greg Egan, Harry Harrison, Jack Vance, Jay Lake, Joe R. Lansdale, John Brunner, Leigh Brackett, Library, Mitch Cullin, Paolo Bacigalupi, postcyberpunk, Professional Library, Ray Bradbury, Robert Coover, Robert Jackson Bennett, Rudy Rucker, Science Fiction, Sherlock Holmes, Stephen King, Ted Chiang, Tim Powers
Posted in Books, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction | 2 Comments »
