Results
THE EXCORCISTS.
London: John Spencer & Co (Publishers), Ltd., n.d., [1965]. Small octavo, cover by Henry Fox, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Badger Books SN 94. A supernatural novel.
THE EYES OF DARKNESS.
New York: Pocket Books, [1981]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original. The second Leigh Nichols book. This has achieved some notoriety in that the plot involves a biological weapon, a virus. In this edition it is called Gorki-400, at some point in later releases it has been changed to Wuhan-400.
THE HOUSE OF THUNDER.
New York: Pocket Books, [1982]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. Second printing. Paperback original. The third Leigh Nichols book.
THE HOUSE OF THUNDER.
New York: Pocket Books, [1982]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original. The third Leigh Nichols book.
THE HOUSE OF THUNDER.
New York: Pocket Books, [1982]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original. The third Leigh Nichols book.
THE KEY TO MIDNIGHT.
New York: Pocket Books, [1979]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original. The first Leigh Nichols book.
SHADOWFIRES.
[New York: Avon Books, 1987]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original. The fifth Leigh Nichols book.
SHADOWFIRES.
[New York: Avon Books, 1987]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original. The fifth Leigh Nichols book.
THE EYES OF DARKNESS.
[Loughton, Essex]: Piatkus, [1981]. Octavo, boards. First British and first hardcover edition. First published in the U.S. as a paperback original.
NIGHT VISIONS 3.
Niles, IL: Dark Harvest, 1986. Octavo, cloth. First edition. One of 400 numbered copies signed by the Campbell, Tuttle, Barker, editor Martin, and artist Stephen Gervais. This is copy number 58. Original anthology with eleven stories, including "The Hellbound Heart" by Barker. The Barker novella is the source for the feature film "Hellraiser" (1987) which was written and directed by Barker.
NIGHT VISIONS 4.
Arlington Hgts, IL: Dark Harvest, 1987. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Limited to 500 numbered and signed copies this is one of an unknown number of copies labeled "P/C", signed by Koontz, Bryant, McCammon, introducer Barker and artist Kevin Davies. Original anthology with twelve stories.
NIGHT VISIONS 4.
Arlington Hgts, IL: Dark Harvest, 1987. Octavo, cloth. First edition. One of 500 numbered copies signed by Koontz, Bryant, McCammon, introducer Barker and artist Kevin Davies. This is copy number 389. Original anthology with twelve stories. Barron (ed), Horror Literature 4-356.
NIGHT VISIONS 6.
Arlington Hgts, IL: Dark Harvest, 1988. Octavo, cloth. First edition. One of 600 numbered copies signed by Wilson, Tepper Garton, Koontz (introduction) and artist Phil Parks. This is copy number 276. Original anthology with five stories. Barron (ed), Horror Literature 4-356.
NIGHT VISIONS 8.
Arlington Heights, IL: Dark Harvest, 1989. Octavo, cloth. First edition. One of 600 numbered copies signed by Farris, Gallagher, Lansdale, McCammon (afterword) and artist Paul Sonju. This is copy number 391. Original anthology with fifteen stories.
NIGHT VISIONS 5.
Arlington Hgts, IL: Dark Harvest, 1988. Octavo, cloth. First edition. One of 850 numbered copies signed by King, Simmons, Martin, editor Winter and artists Ron and Val Lakey Lindahn. This is copy number 692. Original anthology with seven stories. The Martin novella "Skin Trade" won a World Fantasy Award (1989). Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror (1999) 6-449.
NIGHT VISIONS 6.
Arlington Hgts: Dark Harvest, 1988. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Original stories by Ray Garton, F.P. Wilson and Sheri Tepper.
NIGHT VISIONS 6.
Arlington Hgts: Dark Harvest, 1988. Octavo, cloth. First edition. One of 600 numbered copies signed by the contributors F. Paul Wilson, Sheri S. Tepper, Ray Garton, introducer Dean R. Koontz, and artist Phil Parks. Original anthology, three stories by Wilson, novellas by Tepper and Garton. Barron (ed), Horror Literature 4-356.
SLOW DANCER.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984. Octavo, boards. First edition. The author's second mystery. "Philbrick writes exceptionally well; his prose sparkles." - Pronzini and Muller: 1001 Midnights, pp. 632-33.
DEATH OF A SADIST.
London: Herbert Jenkins Limited, [1937]. Octavo, pp. [1-9] 10-311 [312] [313-320: ads], original orange cloth, front, spine and rear stamped in black. First edition. The second R. R. Ryan novel. "A kind, generous pillar of the community by all appearances, bank manager Selwyn Maine is secretly a sadistic pervert who not only tortures birds, cats, and dogs, but also blackmails his associates into enduring “unholy penalties” and “sadistic séances” instead of being turned over to the police for the minor crimes they have committed. Maine’s two most recent victims are Trevor Garron, a mild-mannered cashier at his bank who has been embezzling money, and Edna Ferrar, a young inexperienced shop girl who is one of Maine’s tenants and behind on the rent owed by her and her sick mother. The tortures that Garron and Edna endure are never described, but Ryan clearly suggests they are sexual in nature, “the greatest inhumanities, the most degrading, revolting atrocities it is possible for the human brain to conceive.” Garron, who is consumed by self-loathing, and Edna, who ends up pregnant, decide independently of one another to kill Maine and end their subjugation. Garron, also an amateur inventor who has created “a device for rendering aircraft safe,” constructs a door to his flat that contains a gun with a silencer that is triggered when a key is inserted into the lock. While Garron is attending a ball and establishing an airtight alibi, Maine is killed in front of Garron’s apartment by this device. Unfortunately, Edna is seen fleeing the vicinity that same night because she has been following Maine with the intention of shooting him with her deceased father’s service revolver. Edna is, of course, quickly arrested for the crime, and tortured by his conscience, Garron confesses the truth to save Edna’s life, but no one believes his account of the murder because of his alibi and his destruction of all traces of his ingenious killer door. The final dizzying act of DEATH OF A SADIST includes Edna’s attempts in prison to miscarry Maine’s unborn child, a tense courtroom drama about justifiable homicide, Garron’s decision to commit suicide, and a journey to a leper colony. Like all of Ryan’s thrillers, DEATH OF A SADIST is a mess, an enthusiastic but poorly written fever dream of abnormal psychology and pathological behavior that displays, for the time period, an unusually sympathetic understanding of the exploitation women suffer in a male-dominated society because of socio-economic circumstances and public opinion." - Boyd White. Sullivan, ed., The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p. 365. Hubin (1994), p. 710.
DEVIL'S SHELTER.
London: Herbert Jenkins Limited, [1937]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-312 [313-320: ads], original orange cloth, front, spine and rear stamped in black. First edition. The third R. R. Ryan novel. "Weird thriller in which musical star seeks shelter from storm in old dark house on Yorkshire moors, finds the lunatics have taken over the asylum. As usual, Ryan brings a skewed, ironic perspective to formula situations, in this case subverting the Gothic 'heroine-in-jeopardy' plot with a wicked parody of the society romance. Identities are confused as well; indeed, the chaos within the asylum is meant to be analogous to 'the world's insane state' in the late 1930s; 'Maniacs, perverts ... demanding, enforcing chaos ... a wild horde of blood-lusting maniacs prowling ...'" -- Robert Knowlton. Sullivan, ed., The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p. 365. Hubin (1994), p. 710.
FREAK MUSEUM.
London: Herbert Jenkins Limited, [1938]. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-282 [283-288: ads], original orange cloth, front, spine and rear stamped in black. First edition. "Horror thriller about a fascist ideologue who employs a vivisectionist to manufacture murderous freaks for display -- and the young lovers caught in his web of intrigue. Reminiscent of Wells' THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, and strongly attuned to the political climate of the times. Ryan's deadpan humor crops up in a series of Scotland Yard detectives who enter the museum: 'They went up. They never came down again.' Ryan was not fond of authority figures." - Robert Knowlton. Sullivan, ed., The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p. 365. Hubin (1994), p. 710.
AURELIUS SMITH-DETECTIVE.
New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, [1927]. Octavo, pp. [1-12] 1-274 [275-276: blank], original blue cloth, front and spine stamped in gold. First edition. Collection of twelve mystery stories by the author who penned the first two Spider pulp novels. The Secret Service Smith character is thought by some to be the inspiration for Richard Wentworth/The Spider. While first appearing as a Secret Service agent in his later adventures he leaves the service and becomes a detective based in New York in the spirit of Sherlock Holmes.
THE HOPKINS MANUSCRIPT.
London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1939. Octavo, pp. [1-5] 6-352, original medium blue cloth, spine panel stamped in dark blue. First edition. The publisher's advance "special presentation issue" (so stated on title page and front panel of the jacket), limited to 200 copies (as per publisher's letter laid in). A classic catastrophe novel depicting survival after the earth is struck by the moon. "A superior work." -Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 3-341. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 4-517; (1981) 3-666; and (2004) II-1002. Bailey, Pilgrims Through Space and Time, pp. 175-76. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 75. Gerber, Utopian Fantasy (1973), p. 154. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 194. Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, p. 248. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 178. Reginald 13020.
NELLIE'S PRAYER.
London, Paris & New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, nd [c. 1890-93]. Octavo, [1-24], illustrated by J. Willis Grey, cloth backed boards. A wife gets news her husband is killed in action, delays telling her daughter who prays for his safe return, upon finally telling her the child goes and prays again and her father appears at the door, a mistake being made on the battlefield.
BRIDGES TO SCIENCE FICTION.
Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press. London and Amsterdam: Feffer & Simons, Inc., [1980]. Octavo, pp. [i-v] vi [vii] viii [1-2] 3-168, cloth. First edition. Collects ten original essays, all written specifically for the first J. Lloyd Eaton Conference on Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature held 24-25 February 1979 at the University of California, Riverside, by Gregory Benford, Eric S. Rabkin, Patrick Parrinder, and others. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) 9-221.