Reading, Penna: Fantasy Press, [1961]. Octavo, boards. First edition. One of 112 copies signed by Campbell. This issue, prepared for Fantasy Press subscribers, has the standard Fantasy Press limitation notice "... limited to 3000 copies of which 300 are numbered and autographed," which here is erroneous. These copies were not numbered by the publisher. Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 2-12.

Providence, R.I. Hadley Publishing Company, [1947]. Octavo, original red pebbled cloth (no priority), spine stamped in gold. First edition. The author's first SF book. Early science fiction novel of with a galactic sweep, first published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1934. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 3-7.

Reading, PA: Fantasy Press, 1951. Octavo, cloth. First edition. First binding (purple cloth), trade issue. Collects two novellas. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 4-139.

New York: William Godwin, Inc., 1933. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v-vii [viii] 1-248, original greenish-gray cloth, front and spine stamped in black, fore-edge untrimmed. First edition. While not a horror novel per se, Collier’s first novel is a bizarre, grotesque account of small-town life, calling it strange book is an understatement. Written in carefully crafted, matter-of-fact prose, Collier’s novel is account of everyday life in the isolated rural community of Menham. The primary occupations of the farmers and their wives are drinking and having illicit sex. The chapter titles themselves highlight the book’s lurid content, such as “A Man’s Best Friend is His Whiskey Glass,” “A Secret Sexual Pleasure,” “Arthur Moore Improves on Beating One’s Wife,” and “Alice’s Secret for Fondling.” The book is oddly humorous at times, and to be sure, some of the narrative situations are about as sophisticated as a typical shaggy dog story. Other aspects of the book however, are genuinely jarring in the context of Collier’s relaxed prose style and overall light-touch. Helen Hummer, a middle-aged virgin spinster who hates men, adopts a male infant from an orphanage, names him Henrietta, and raises him as a girl, beating him so severely that the child grows into an idiot youth whose only friend is a tree. Arthur Moore, a farmer who sees women as nothing more than “living latrines,” raises a brood of rattlesnakes in secret and dispatches them to kill neighbors whom he finds offensive. Collier’s characters are definitely comedic rustics, but much of the book’s dry humor is rooted in cruelty and rampant misogyny. As one might imagine, when Helen Hummer finally runs afoul of Arthur Moore, the resulting climax scene is straight out of a Jim Thompson novel. This is a novel that does not fit exactly into the horror genre or a straight noir (or it seems any other), it reads like a gonzo cross between television's Twin Peaks and Anderson's WINESBERG, OHIO.

[New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1960]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First paperback edition. Dell D324. The author's first novel which centers on an upper middle class family between the wars, set in Kansas City.

Providence, Rhode Island: The Grandon Company, 1953. Octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. An annotated checklist of science fiction and fantasy novels considered by the compilers to be the best published through 1950. Emphasis is on American fiction and the selection offers an overview of those works sought by the science-fantasy enthusiast of the 1950s. Burgess, Reference Guide to Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror 60.

New York: Street & Smith Publications, Inc., 1948. Large octavo, pictorial wrappers. Collects fourteen stories and four poems by L. Sprague de Camp, Anthony Boucher, Robert Bloch, Henry Kuttner and others from Unknown / Unknown Worlds.

New York: Street & Smith Publications, Inc., 1948. Large octavo, cover and illustrations by Edd Cartier, pictorial wrappers. Collects fourteen stories and four poems by L. Sprague de Camp, Anthony Boucher, Robert Bloch, Henry Kuttner and others from Unknown / Unknown Worlds.

New York: Standard Magazines, Inc., 1950. Octavo, single issue, cover by Earle Bergey, pictorial wrappers. Pulp magazine. Includes "New Bodies For Old" by Jack Vance, a Chateau d'If story, "Battling Bolto" by L. Ron Hubbard, "A Walk in the Dark" by Arthur C. Clarke, and "As You Were" by Henry Kuttner.

New York: Standard Magazines, Inc., 1950. Octavo, single issue, cover by Earle Bergey, pictorial wrappers. Pulp magazine. Includes "New Bodies For Old" by Jack Vance, a Chateau d'If story, "Battling Bolto" by L. Ron Hubbard, "A Walk in the Dark" by Arthur C. Clarke, and "As You Were" by Henry Kuttner. Tymm and Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines, pp. 743-762.

New York: Standard Magazines, Inc., 1951. Octavo, single issue, cover by Alex Schomburg, pictorial wrappers. Pulp magazine. Includes "The Plagian Siphon" by Jack Vance. Also fiction by Richard Matheson, Robert Moore Williams, Dallas Ross (pseudonym for Mack Reynolds) and others. Tymm and Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines, pp. 743-762.

New York: Standard Magazines, Inc., 1949. Octavo, single issue, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Pulp magazine. An important issue. Notable for "The Alien Machine" by Raymond F. Jones, basis for the novel and later film "THIS ISLAND EARTH." Also includes "Sea Kings of Mars" by Leigh Brackett (published later as THE SWORD OF RHIANNON). Fiction by John D. MacDonald, "Like a Keepsake," Henry Kuttner, Murray Leinster, Fredric Brown, James Blish and others. Tymm and Ashley, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines, pp. 743-762.