Another signed Subterranean Lansdale first.
Lansdale, Joe R. The Senior Girls Bayonet Drill Team. Subterranean, 2023 (stated; received early 2024). First edition hardback, #371 of 1250 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. The latest Lansdale short story collection. I’ll have copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Here’s another Heritage Auctions lot I placed lowball bid on and won. There were three books, one of which will be in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog. Both of these were on my Books Wanted List.
This scans lighter than it actually is, so I’ve adjusted the brightness down a smidge to closely match the color I’m seeing with my eye.
I paid less than $50 each for these with buyer’s premium.
Another beautiful Charnel house Tim Powers book:
Powers, Tim. My Brother’s Keeper. Charnel House, 2023 (stated, actually 2024). First edition hardback, #54 of 200 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued. The usual elaborate Charnel House production, with full-color illustrated endpapers. The Baen trade edition precedes. I will have copies of this in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.
Psychobilly musician Mojo Nixon died yesterday at 66. “A cardiac event on the Outlaw Country Cruise is about right… & that’s just how he did it, Mojo has left the building.”
I saw him live a couple of times at SXSW, once with Jello Biafra in support of Prairie Home Invasion. “Mojo, why do you play SXSW? Ain’t no major label ever gonna sign you!”
Here’s a few tracks for the memories.
This is a tiny (5 1/2″ tall by 4″ wide) Ellison book I only recently became aware of.
Ellison, Harlan. bugf#ck: The Useless Wit and Wisdom of Harlan Ellison. (Note: That is how the title is spelled everywhere in the book except at the top of the copyright page, where it is spelled BUGFUCK.) Edgeworks Abbey/Spectrum Fantastic Arts LLC, 2011. First edition hardback (“10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1” numberline), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Small book of pithy quotations from Ellison. Bought of eBay from a Goodwill for $8.79 (and fortunately, it was a first in Fine/Fine condition, which wasn’t spelled out on the listing).
Here are all the books I added to my library in 2023. Most (but not all) have been covered in previous posts.
With:
(Surface wear is on the dust jacket protector.)
Each volume contains a reprint of one of H.P. Lovecraft’s most interesting letters, presented alongside related archival material such as contemporary short stories, art, maps, etc., as well as original art and new scholarship.
Each volume is also packaged with a set of exclusive extras—replicas of related contemporary materials such as photos, maps, ticket stubs, postcards, news clippings, and diary pages. The Collector’s set packages all of these extras in a custom box which nests in the slipcase alongside the three books. Each Limited Edition Collector’s set is supplied with a Certificate of Ownership signed by editors Andrew Leman and Sean Branney of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, and a collectible enamel pin.
This is just the loose extras; there are additional extras for each volume, in their individual envelopes in the Ephemera traycase.
with
(Though they seem the same size here (the blog image default size), the Mosig chapbook is much smaller, which makes sense given it probably shipped inside the portfolio.)
.
(Vance, Jack). Rawlins, Jack. Demon Prince: The Dissonant Worlds of Jack Vance. Borgo Press, 1986. First edition hardback (plasticized boards), a Fine copy with “KATER-BOUND” sticker to rear cover (presumably as issued). Critical companion to the works of Jack Vance. Depending on the title, Borgo either did plasticized boards with the trade paperback encased, or cloth with the cover of the trade paperback pasted to the front; this is one of the former. I can’t recall ever seeing any copy of this title before, much less the hardback variant. Hewett, M.126. Cunningham, F.2.
The exact same copy previously sold in an earlier Heritage Auction for $1,625, coming from the John McLaughlin/Book Sail Collection. They obviously did not check carefully enough to see that it had come back to them in this lot, as there was no indication that any of the books in that lot were signed. And the earlier listing didn’t mention the “Coefficients” connection.
H. G. Wells: A Comprehensive Bibliography 24. Scheck and Cox, H. G. Wells: A Reference Guide, page xxiv. Williamson, H. G. Wells: Critic of Progress, pages 39-43. Parrinder, H.G. Wells: The Critical Heritage, pages 103-109. Currey, page 519. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, page 226. Locke, Science Fiction First Editions, page 56. Bleiler, Checklist of Science Fiction & Supernatural Fiction (1978), page 205. 333, page 68. Anatomy of Wonder 4 1-99. Magill, Survey of Science Fiction, pages 807-812. Heritage Rare Book Auction ##6094 catalog, page 115 (this copy).
All these came from an online bookseller I don’t usually deal with. And I did get rooked a bit for shipping. But these were all 75% off signed firsts.
I also bought seven signed bookplates by Morrell at $4 a pop that I’m going to lay into my unsigned Morrell firsts.
This is the last of my 2023 book purchases.
Been a while since I put up a Shoegazer Sunday post, so here’s a live version of “Catch the Breeze” from Slowdive’s 1/21/24 shoe in Copenhagen.
Vocals aren’t great, but the rest of the sound is pretty good.
It is my sad duty to report that my friend, science fiction writer Howard Waldrop, died yesterday, January 14, 2024.
According to Robert Taylor: “Howard had a stroke around 1pm. EMS worked on him for over an hour. They got a pulse and took him to the hospital, but at the hospital they were unable to maintain the pulse and he died around 3pm.”
Howard had suffered a number of health maladies recently, but had been on the mend. I saw him just last week, and he was moving slightly better, and still mentally sharp.
I had known Howard since we interviewed him for Nova Express in 1987, and I’m one of the legions of people who corresponded with him (his preferred form of communication) when our respective journeys took us away from Austin.
Howard was one of the finest short story writers the field has ever produced. “The Ugly Chickens” is an acknowledged classic. “Night of the Cooters.” “Fin de Cycle.” “…The World As We Know’t.” “Horror We Got.” Great stories only Howard could have written. Plus great collaborations like “Black As the Pit, from Pole to Pole” (with Steve Utley) and “The Later Days of the Law” (with Bruce Sterling).
Howard was never far away from penury, and he relied on a network of friends to keep him above water. He rented a spare room from me for six months, for values of “rent” that included no exchange of money, but he did do odd jobs around the house, and he always paid his share of utilities. Before that I had paid him to stain and varnish several bookcases when I moved into my house.
Living with Howard was half like living with the smartest, most erudite man that ever lived, and half like living with Grandpa Simpson. Howard had a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of mid-20th century pop culture, and had seen just about every damn English language movie made up into the 1970s or so (and a bunch of foreign ones beside). His knowledge of history was similarly immense.
And then he would do things like come into the kitchen were I was bleary-eyedly eating breakfast and tell me “You know, the milk at the local HEB is three cents more than the milk at the HEB down south.” As though this was information vital to my existence.
Howard was brilliant, but he was also as stubborn as the day is long, and a decided Luddite. He never owned a computer and would only use one under duress (he grudgingly agreed to enter his portion of our joint movie reviews into my Mac when he lived here). At one point around 1989 or so, Howard was at (I think) Pat Cadigan’s house after a con, and joined one of our Delphi Wednesday Night Group chats (attended by Gardner Dozois, Mike Resnick, and a host of other luminaries, many now also gone). “Howard, what do you think of cyberspace?” “It’s icky!”
Howard loved movies, television, history, reading, and fishing, and got around to writing either when deadlines pressed, or when all the pieces finally mentally clicked into place just so.
I mourn for Howard, and for the numerous in-progress works we may never get to read. Maybe enough of The Moone World (in progress since the late 1980s) exists for someone like longtime friend George R. R. Martin to finish it. I suspect even less exists of the even-longer in gestation I, John Mandeville. And Moving Waters, a fictional history of America through third-party politics and fishing, probably only existed in Howard’s head.
Howard was universally loved by pretty much everyone he knew and the science fiction field as a whole. He was our own homegrown Mr. National Treasure and a sturdy friend, and will be greatly missed.
Howard after tripping on some steps at the 2013 San Antonio Worldcon.
Three of these were bought at Half Price Books locations in the Dallas Metroplex, and two replace slightly less attractive copies.
This is the last of the books picked up on the Thanksgiving trip to the Metroplex.