Howard, Robert E. The Adventures of Lal Singh. Cryptic Publications, 1985. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy. Short story collection.
Howard, Robert E. The Coming of El Borak. Cryptic Publications, 1987. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy. Short story collection.
Howard, Robert E. The Grey God Passes. Charles Miller, 1975. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy. Chalker/Owings, page 547.
Howard, Robert E. and Tevis Clyde Smith (“El Gringo” (E. A. Fisher) illustrator). Red Blades of Black Cathay. Real Free Press, 1975. First edition chapbook graphic novel, a Fine copy.
Howard, Robert E. Valley of the Lost. Charles Miller, 1975. First edition chapbook original, #691 of 777 signed by illustrator Bot Roda, a Fine copy (the ragged right edge of the front cover seems intentional). Chalker/Owings, page 547.
Howard, Robert E. Blades for France. George T. Hamilton, 1975. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with faint dust prints to front cover.
Howard, Robert E. Isle of Pirate Doom. George T. Hamilton, 1975. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight wear to top corners.
Howard, Robert E. The King’s Service. George T. Hamilton, 1976. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
Howard, Robert E. The Shadow of the Beast. George T. Hamilton, 1977. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight bend to top front right corner.
Howard, Robert E. The Shadow of the Hun. George T. Hamilton, 1975. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight crease to top left front corner.
Howard, Robert E. Spears of Clontarf. George T. Hamilton, 1978. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket.
(Howard, Robert E.) de Camp, L. Sprague. The Miscast Barbarian: A Biography of Robert E. Howard (1906-2936). Gerry de la Ree, 1975. Presumed second printing (no limitation statement on final page, as pr Chalker/Owings) oversize chapbook original, a Fine copy. A short (42 pages, including art, bibliography and notes), impressionistic biography of Howard by de Camp, who was later to do a much more extensive biography of Howard, Dark Valley Destiny, in collaboration with his wife Catherine Crook de Camp. It is an understatement to note that de Camp’s biography, and his long legacy collecting, editing and publishing Howard’s work, is not regarded with universal love by the Robert E. Howard community. Chalker/Owings, page 128.
(Howard, Robert E.) Lord, Glenn. The Last Celt: A bio-Bibliography of Robert Ervin Howard. Donald M. Grant, 1976. First edition hardback a Fine- copy in a Fine- dust jacket with bumped corners. About a hundred pages of biography of Howard by various people (including H. P. Lovecraft), with the rest taken up with a bibliography. This is one of those books I vaguely thought I already had, and one I’ve already started referencing for these Howard purchases. Chalker/Owings, page 218 (“Good and very useful.”).
A private seller contacted me about selling me a number of the Robert E. Howard books I had on my want list, and we settled on a price of $725 plus shipping for some 40 titles. Some of those will go in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog, but most are are going in my library and will take some time to list. I’ll start with the chapbooks, since they’re less challenging to shelve, and first among the chapbooks are these three, all published by Roy A. Squires. Many of those Robert E. Howard chapbooks were done in editions of a thousand or more, but these, in addition to being higher quality, were done in editions in the low hundreds.
Howard, Robert E. The Road to Rome. Roy A. Squires, 1972. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy in a Fine- envelope with slight wear at edges. Lord, The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert Ervin Howard, page 128. The Private Press of Roy A. Squires 17. Chalker/Owings, page 589.
Howard, Robert E. A Song of the Naked Lands. Roy A. Squires, 1973. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy in a Near Fine+ envelope with fold to flap and slight wear at edges. Lord, The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert Ervin Howard, page 130. The Private Press of Roy A. Squires 21. Chalker/Owings, page 589.
Howard, Robert E. Up, John Kane! Roy A. Squires, 1977. First edition chapbook original, a Fine- with one faint surface scratch and faint indentation through pages copy in a Fine- envelope with slight wear at edges. The Private Press of Roy A. Squires 33. Chalker/Owings, page 590.
I have quite a number of Squires chapbooks, I think just under half of the ones listed as actual publications in The Private Press of Roy A. Squires, so perhaps I should pick up the rest. I know I lack three more Howard chapbooks from Squires: Altars and Jesters, Black Dawn, and The Gold and the Grey. I’ve added those to the wanted list.
Two more paperbacks bought at the local Half Price Books.
Brackett, Leigh. The Reavers of Skaith. Ballantine Books, 1976. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with a trace of edgewear. I now have all three Skaith books, thanks to a previous Half Price Books purchase. Currey, page 53. Bought for $1.34.
Brackett, Leigh. The Starman of Llyrdis. Ballantine Books, 1976. First edition paperback original thus under this title, (a reprint of the 1952 Gnome Press hardback The Starman), a Near Fine copy with edgewear and a large bookstore stamp inside the front cover, otherwise nice and square. Currey, page 53. Bought for 67¢.
L.W. Currey had a sale, and I found three desirable items at prices I could afford at 50% off.
Cabell, James Branch. Something About Eve. Robert McBride & Company, 1927. First edition hardback, limited “Large Paper” edition #655 of 850 signed, numbered copies, a Near Fine copy with bumping at heel, with frontispiece tissue guard intact and attached, sans dust jacket, I think as issued. Jones & Newman, Horror: The 100 Best Books 35, where it’s praised by no less than Robert E. Howard (“Cabell writes with a diamond pen.”) Barron, Fantasy Literature *3-70. Tymn Zahorsk Boyer, Fantasy Literature: A Core Collections and Reference Guide page 59. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, page 45 (“The British issue of a book printed in America.”). Bleiler, The Checklist of Science Fiction and Fantasy (1978) page 37. Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction 327. Supplements a copy of the unsigned edition. Bought for $37.50, marked down from $75.
Kuttner, Henry. Ahead of Time. Ballantine Books, 1954. First edition hardback, a Near Fine copy with slight wear at head, heel and points, in a Very Good+ dust jacket with two closed 2″ tears to front cover, wear at points, and slight soiling to lighter portions of jacket. Short story collection. Currey, page 291. Bought for $37.50, marked down from $75.
Locke, George. Ferret Fantasy’s Christmas Annual For 1972. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy save for penciled inventory number on front cover. Full of obscure bibliographic entries and reprints of period literature. I would like to pick up all of Locke’s reference works. Tymn Schlobin Currey, A Research Guide to Science Fiction Studies 31. Burgess, Reference Guide to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror 180. Bought for $12.50, marked down from $25.
Vance, Jack. The Best of Jack Vance. Pocket Books, 1976. First edition paperback original, a Fine copy, signed by Vance. Hewett, A51. Cunningham, B.7.a. Currey, page 497. Supplements a copy of the Taplinger hardback. Bought for $35.
Vance, Jack. Marune: Alastor 933. Ballantine Books, 1975. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with just a tiny trace of wear to front tips, signed by Vance. Hewett, A48. Cunningham, B.56.a, Currey, page 499. Supplements another signed PBO copy (I should probably work a trade for a signed Vance PBO I don’t have) and an unsigned Underwood-Miller hardback. Bought for $10.50.
Vance, Jack. Showboat World. Pyramid, 1975. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine+ copy with one very faint spine crease, otherwise nicely tight and square, signed by Vance. Supplements two Underwood-Miller hardbacks (both 1/200 signed, numbered copies, one a PC copy) and replaces an unsigned PBO. Hewett, A47. Cunningham, B.71.a. Currey, page 500. Bought for $10.50.
Vance, Jack. Slaves of the Klau b/w Big Planet. Ace, 1958. First edition paperback original (for Slaves of the Klau and this Ace Double, though Big Planet was previously published as an Avalon hardback), a Very Good copy with stamps at head, heel and blurb page for Slaves of the Klau, with a dime-sized stain and a small, fine-line ballpoint division equation to inside from cover, spine creasing and wear, and wear at points, signed by Vance. First copy I have of Slaves of the Klau under that title, though it supplements two copies of the Underwood-Miller Gold and Iron (one a trade edition, the other one of 200 signed copies), the Avalon Big Planet, and the Underwood-Miller Big Planet. Hewett, A9. Cunningham, B.72.a. Currey, page 500. With Slaves of the Klau, I believe the only English-language titles I lack for Vance are two early 1980s DAW paperbacks, Nopalgarth and The Narrow Land (though I’m still looking for a few various states of Vance books). Bought for $16.50.
Five chapbooks, four from Roy A. Squires, two concerned with small press chapbook publishing, one a modern oddity.
(Lafferty, R. A., Gene Wolfe) Knight, Dan (Amanda Patchin and Brent Towell, interviewers). Hedgehog Press Interviews Dan Knight. Hedgehog Press, 2024. First edition chapbook original, #23 of 50 copies, a Fine copy, with frontispiece tissue guard laid in. Interview with the publisher of United Mythologies Press, small press publisher of several works by R. A. Lafferty and Gene Wolfe. Bought off Abebooks for $15 plus shipping after Knight mentioned the existence off it on a Gene Wolfe group on Facebook. Do I want all the Lafferty and Wolfe critical chapbooks? Yes, yes I do.
Smith, Clark Ashton. Nero. Roy A. Squires, 1964. First edition chapbook original, one of “about 450” copies (Chalker/Owings says 381), a Fine copy of what seems to be the “ordinary” edition in a slightly crease and age-darkened white envelope. Squires’ second Clark Ashton Smith work. The Private Press of Roy A. Squires 3. Joshi/Schultz/Connors, Clark Ashton Smith: A Comprehensive Bibliography, I.A.20. Chalker/Owings, page 588. This and the other four Squires books were bought for $140.
Smith, Clark Ashton. The Potion of Dreams. Roy A. Squires, 1975. First edition chapbook original, copy 124 of 292 copies, a Fine copy in a Near Fine+ envelope with age-darkening to edges. “The Fugitive Poems, Second Series, Third Volume, Xiccarph Edition.” The Private Press of Roy A. Squires 28. Joshi/Schultz/Connors, Clark Ashton Smith: A Comprehensive Bibliography, I.A.38.a. Chalker/Owings, page 589.
Smith, Clark Ashton. A Song From Hell. Roy A. Squires, 1975. First edition chapbook original, copy 124 of 296 copies, a Fine- copy with two thin scratches to front, in a Very Good only envelope whose flap came off when I opened it up. “The Fugitive Poems, Second Series, Second Volume, Xiccarph Edition.” The Private Press of Roy A. Squires 27. Joshi/Schultz/Connors, Clark Ashton Smith: A Comprehensive Bibliography, I.A.38.a. Chalker/Owings, page 589.
Squires, Roy A. The Private Press of Roy A. Squires. Roy A. Squires, 1987. First edition chapbook original, copy #128 of 230 copies of the “standard format” edition, a Fine copy in a Fine- envelope with short tears at either end of the flap fold and a touch of age-darkening to edges. Descriptive bibliography of the press. The Private Press of Roy A. Squires 39 (yes, the bibliography is the last item listed in the bibliography). Chalker/Owings, page 590. Burgess, Reference guide to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror 258.
Moorcock, Michael. The Fireclown. Compact SF/Roberts & Vintner, 1965. First edition paperback original, a Near Fine- copy with slight spine creasing and wear at points, otherwise nice and square, signed by Moorcock, with a folded flyer for Modern Family Planning laid in (no idea if that was as issued or not). Bilyeu, Tanalorn Archive page 19. Currey, page 370. Bought for $20.51.
Moorcock, Michael. The Twilight Man. Compact SF/Roberts & Vintner, 1966. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with former owner’s name on blurb page and a few nicks of wear, otherwise tight and square, signed by Moorcock. Bilyeu, Tanalorn Archive page 35. Currey, page 373. Bought for $20.59.
Two very early Moorcock PBOs rarely offered for sale over here at all, much less signed.
Also looks like I need to clean the scanner glass again, as those smudges aren’t on the books…
