Featured Items
A. MERRITT'S FANTASY MAGAZINE.
Kokomo, IN: Recreational Reading, Inc., an affiliate of Popular Publications, Inc., 1950. Octavo, single issue, cover by Norman Saunders, pictorial wrappers. Pulp magazine. Includes "The Face in the Abyss" by Jack Mann. Tymm and Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines, pp. 3-6.
ASSIGNMENT-MARA TIRANA.
Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications Inc., [1963]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. Later edition. Gold Medal s1036 First published as GM Paperback original. C.I.A. agent Sam Durell. Bill Pronzini writing of the Sam Durell novels "Despite all the violence and melodrama...[the] Durell novels are compulsive reading. Aarons was an accomplished writer, with excellent descriptive abilities...and an expert sense of narrative pacing." - Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights, The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction, p. 1. Hubin, p. 1.
THE ASH-TREE PRESS ANNUAL MACABRE 1998.
Ashcroft, British Columbia: Ash-Tree Press, 1998. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Limited to 500 copies. Collects six weird stories, "Told in the Inn at Algeciras" by William Somerset Maugham (1905), "Post-Mortem" by Arthur Ransome (1906), "The Medium's End" by Ford Madox Ford (1912), "Exactly as it Happened" by E. C. Bentley (1926), "The Unpleasant Room" by Hilaire Belloc (1928) and "Ho! The Merry Masons" by John Buchan (1933), with introduction and notes by editor Jack Adrian.
THE ASH-TREE PRESS ANNUAL MACABRE 1999.
Ashcroft, British Columbia: Ash-Tree Press, 1999. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Limited to 500 copies. Collects six weird stories, "The House That Was Lost" by Tom Gallon (1908), "Tight and Loose" by Neil Gow (1932), "The Man Who Was Tomorrow" by Eric Ambrose (1933), "Newsreel" by W. J. Makin (1935), "Time- Piece" by Donald Showbridge (1939) and "Last Act First" by Laurence Meynell (1940), with introduction and notes by editor Jack Adrian.
THE ATTEMPTED RESCUE.
London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1966. Octavo, boards. First edition. Aickman's scarce third book, an autobiography of his early years preceded by We Are For the Dark, a short story collection in collaboration with Elizabeth Jane Howard, and The Late Breakfasters, his first novel.
POWERS OF DARKNESS.
London: Collins, 1966. Octavo, boards. First edition. The author's second solo collection of macabre stories with six stories. Barron (ed.): Horror Literature 4-7.
HELLICONIA WINTER.
London: Jonathan Cape, [1985]. Octavo, boards. First edition. The final volume in the trilogy. A "massive attempt at world-creation: the evocation of an alien planet where 'winter' lasts many centuries. An epic narrative, impressively detailed. John W. Campbell award winner, 1983..." - Pringle, The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction, second edition (1995), p. 170. "Though science fiction often has this scope, it has never had this grandeur." - The Times Literary Supplement. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-11.
THE SALIVA TREE: AND OTHER STRANGE GROWTHS
London: Faber and Faber, [1966]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. With compliments slip from the publisher laid in. Ten stories including "The Saliva Tree," winner of the 1965 Nebula award for best novella. The "notable" title piece, "a centenary tribute to H. G. Wells, reworks ideas from several of that great writer's novels." - Pringle, The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction, second edition (1999), p. [312]. "Excellent collection." - Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 3-5. One of the major story collections of the 1960s.
AMAZING STORIES.
Chicago: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1941. Octavo, single issue, cover by Leo Morey, pictorial wrappers. Pulp magazine. "Adam Link in the Past" by Eando Binder. Tymm and Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines, pp. 14-49.
AMAZING STORIES.
New York: Experimenter Publishing Company, 1927. Large octavo, single issue, cover by Frank R. Paul, pictorial wrappers. Pulp magazine, bedsheet format. Includes part two of "The Land That Time Forgot" by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Also includes A. Merritt's, "The People of the Pit." Tymm and Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines, pp. 14-49.
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION.
New York: Street & Smith Publications, Inc., 1943. Octavo, single issue cover by William Timmins, pictorial wrappers. Pulp magazine. Fiction by C.L. Moore, Fritz Leiber, Anthony Boucher, Lewis Padgett and others. Tymm and Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines, pp. 60-103.
ASTOUNDING STORIES.
New York: Street & Smith Publications, Inc., 1934. Octavo, single issue, pictorial wrappers. Pulp magazine. Cover painting by Howard V. Brown. Feature novel is The Skylark of Valeron by "Doc" Smith (part 1), other stories by Nat Schachner, Frank Belknap Long, Jack Williamson (The Legion of Space p. 5) and others. Tymm and Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines, pp. 60-103.
BEAST MARKS.
Willimantic, Connecticut: Mark V. Ziesing, 1984. Octavo, cloth. First edition. One of 250 numbered copies signed by Attanasio and artists Rick DeMarco and Rich Schindler. Collects seven short stories, including a Sherlock Holmes story.
AVON SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY READER.
New York: Avon Novels Inc., 1953. Small octavo two issues, all published, cover illustrations by Leo Manso, pictorial wrappers. Digest size magazine. This was an attempt at a revival of Avon Fantasy Reader and Avon Science Fiction Reader. Publisher Joseph Meyer and new editor Sol Cohen were to produce a quarterly with all new stories. It lasted only two issues. All stories were illustrated. Authors included Alfred J. Coppel, Jr., Arthur C. Clarke, John Christopher, John Jakes, Stephen Marlowe, Jack Vance and others. Tymm and Ashley note in both issues many of the stories had a dystopian tone and the stories were not widely reprinted. Tymm and Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction Magazines, pp. 132-134.
THE BRIDGE.
London: Macmillan, [1986]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Signed on the title page by Banks. "THE BRIDGE (1986), perhaps his finest early work, once again conflates the literal with 'metaphorical' displacements treated with a knowing literalness characteristic of the work of late twentieth-century writers of significance, regardless of their marketing 'identity;' in this tale, a comatose man relives (or anticipates) his own life, which is represented in matrix form as an enormous bridge; among the interstices of this potent Icon he engages in a rather hilarious parody of sword-and-sorcery conventions." - John Clute and David Langford, SFE (online). The author's third book. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 4A-17. Pringle, Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels 95.
ESPEDAIR STREET.
London: MacMillan, [1987]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Novel featuring sex, drugs and rock and roll.
TRACK OF THE CAT.
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, [1993]. Octavo, boards. First edition. The author's first mystery.
THE SILENT ISLE.
London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1910. Octavo, pp. [1-2] [i-vii]] viii-x [1] 2-391 [392: printer] [393-404 publisher's catalog], original olive green cloth, front and rear panels ruled in blind, spine panel stamped in gold, bottom edge untrimmed. First edition. Collection of essays.
BEYOND FANTASY FICTION. (Ten issues, all published).
New York: Galaxy Publishing Corporation, 1953-1955. Small octavo, ten issues, pictorial wrappers. Digest magazine. This was to be a companion to Galaxy Science Fiction, in the tradition of Unknown. Author's include Damon Knight, Frank Robinson, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, John Wyndham, Algis Budrys, Zenna Henderson, Jerome Bixby, Philip Jose Farmer, Fredric Brown, and others. It could not duplicate the audience of Campbell's Unknown which failed due to WWII paper shortages. This magazine's content was not broad based fantasy fiction, while it did publish quality fiction, it stayed away from traditional fantasy and popular sword and sorcery. It also got lost in the SF digest magazine boom. The covers of the first two issues are by Richard Powers. Tymm and Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines, pp. 137-142.
THE EMPTY HOUSE AND OTHER GHOST STORIES.
London: Eveleigh Nash, 1906. Octavo, pp. [i-ii] iii [iv] [1] 2-316 + 32-page publisher's catalogue dated "Autumn 1906" inserted at rear, original pictorial green cloth, front panel stamped in black, red and white, spine panel stamped in gold, bottom edge untrimmed. First edition. The author's first book. Collects ten stories. Ashley, Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, pp. 36-7. Barron (ed), Horror Literature 3-26. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 175. Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, pp. 38-40. Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature III, pp. 1442-43. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 3-30. Bleiler (1978), p. 24. Reginald 01383. Ashley A.1.1.
THE FROZEN YEAR.
New York: Ballantine Books, [1957]. Octavo, cloth. First edition.
A STAB IN THE DARK.
New York: Arbor House, [1981]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. Signed inscription by Block. A Matt Scudder novel.
AN EYE FOR AN EYE.
Garden City, New York: Published For The Crime Club By Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1957. Octavo, boards. First edition. Psychological thriller in which a lawyers wife is kidnapped by the violent ex-husband of a woman who was his client in a divorce case. This book became the basis for the television series Markham. Hubin, p. 93.
I LIVE BY THE INVISIBLE.
[Cliffs of Moher, Co. Clare, Ireland: Salmon Publishing Ltd, 2002]. Octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Poetry.
THE OCTOBER COUNTRY.
New York: Ballantine Books, [1955]. Octavo, illustrations by Joe Mugnaini, original red cloth, lettered in black. First edition. Currey binding B2, probable second state with publisher's logo printed correctly at base of spine. This title reprints the contents of DARK CARNIVAL (1947), most with revisions and it also includes four stories collected here for the first time; "The Dwarf," "The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse," "Touched With Fire," and "The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone." See Barron: Horror Literature 3-34. Bleiler: The Guide to Supernatural Fiction #259.