Results
THE SMOKING LAND.
Santa Barbara, Capra Press, [1980]. Octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Trade paperback format. First published in Argosy magazine in six parts starting May 29, 1937 using the pseudonym George Challis. A science fiction-romantic adventure novel involving a lost race.
SISTER EARTH.
London: Scion Limited, [1951]. Octavo, cover by George Ratcliffe, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Space explorers discover Earth's twin in an identical orbit hidden by the Sun. "Pedantic, puerile narrative." - Harbottle and Holland. Harbottle and Holland A22.
NO MORE A CORPSE: AN ASTOUNDING STORY.
New York: Alfred H. King, [1932]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-6 [7-8] 9-311 [312: blank], original gray cloth, spine and front cover stamped in red, top edge stained gray, fore edge uncut, bottom edge rough cut. First U. S. edition. In a hoax a modern scientist supposedly brings George Washington back to life. First published in ARGOSY-ALL-STORY 15 October - 19 November 1927. "Journalism and science in the Roaring Twenties ... Competent commercial Munsey fiction, with some good touches." - Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 264. Hubin, p. 100.
DEADLY COMMUNION.
New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1984. Octavo, Hardcover. First edition. "A superior psychic thriller..." - Barron (ed.) Horror Literature 4-56.
DEADLY COMMUNION.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, [1984]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Review slip laid in.
THE GATHERER.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, [1982]. Octavo, boards. First edition.
CASE WITH FOUR CLOWNS.
New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1939. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 1-313 [314], original green cloth, front and spine stamped in black. First U.S. edition. A Sergeant Beef novel. "His subtlety is outstanding, and his efforts at misdirection are worthy of Agatha Christie" - Pederson (ed.), St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, (4th ed.), pp. 117-120.
A VOYAGE TO CACKLOGALLINIA: WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE RELIGION, POLICY, CUSTOMS AND MANNERS OF THAT COUNTRY ...
London: Printed by J. Watson in Black-Fryers, and sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster, 1727. Octavo, pp. [1-2] [1] 2-167 [168: blank], engraved frontispiece, engraved tailpiece on page 121, later three-quarter green pebbled morocco and marbled boards, titled on spine in gold. First edition. Satire in the manner of Swift's GULLIVER'S TRAVELS in which the narrator finds himself shipwrecked in a land populated by a society of fowls. "A VOYAGE TO CACKLOGALLINIA, written by Captain Samuel Brunt and printed at London London in 1727, is one of the most imaginative, thoughtful, and subtly satirical works in the imaginary voyages genre. The author is a slave-trader who at the start of his narrative is captured on Jamaica by runaway slaves under their leader, a certain Captain Thomas. His shipmates having been decapitated, Brunt is taken to the slaves' village in the mountains and treated with kindness and hospitality. When the village is raided by the English and most of its population murdered, Brunt escapes with a friendly slave in a commandeered fishing vessel with the intention of reaching Cuba or Hispaniola. En route the vessel is captured by pirates, but, after further adventures, the pirate sloop breaks up in a storm and Brunt finds himself shipwrecked on an unknown island, Cacklogallinia, populated by a community of talking chickens. Its capital is Ludbitallya, and the island is ruled by the Emperor Hippomina Connuferento. Although at first regarded as a curiosity, Brunt (or Probusomo as he comes to be called) is befriended by the chief minister and rises to the rank of 'castleairiano, or, 'examiner of projects to raise taxes.' Brunt's description of the community is a fairly conventional satire on English life and Walpole's government, but the author enhances this with a parody of the South Sea Bubble, the speculative trading venture that burst in 1721, by involving Brunt in a project to finance a Cacklogallinian expedition to the Moon. Borrowing from Godwin's THE MAN IN THE MOONE, the hero is projected skyward in a palanquin borne by several of the flying chickens. However, rather than finding a trading paradise on the Moon, the Cacklogallinians discover a peaceful world populated by the souls of humans with a disregard for wealth and power, causing Brunt and his chicken entourage to reflect on the folly of their own societies. Anxious to return to his home country, and with the aid of a compass, Brunt descends from the Moon directly into the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, makes his way to Kingston, and there acquires a free passage to England." - Howgego, Encyclopedia of Exploration: Invented and Apocryphal Narratives of Travel B60. "Nearly a hundred years elapsed between Godwin's THE MAN IN THE MOONE and the only other full-length English moon voyage to use the device of 'harnessing of birds' ... On the one hand this is a 'Robinsonade,' on the other an obvious imitation of the fourth book of GULLIVER'S TRAVELS which had been published a year before Brunt's lesser work appeared ... The originality of A VOYAGE TO CACKLOGALLINIA does not arise from its science ... It comes from the fact that this is the first moon voyage, the inspiration for which is to be found primarily in economics ... This is a satire upon that great orgy of speculation, the South Sea Bubble ... From this background, so poignantly in the minds of his contemporaries, Captain Samuel Brunt drew the materials for his satire." - Nicolson, Voyages to the Moon, pp. 98-108. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 1-8 and (1981) 1-28. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 286. Gove, The Imaginary Voyage in Prose Fiction, pp. 259-61. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 30. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 42. Locke, Voyages in Space (2011) V153. Negley, Utopian Literature: A Bibliography 159. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, pp. 20-1. Bleiler (1978), p. 33. Reginald 02080.
INTENT TO KILL.
[New York: Dell Publishing Company, Inc., 1956]. Small octavo, cover by Richard Powers, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Dell #88. Paperback original. Mystery novel.
MURDER IN MAJORCA.
[New York: Dell Publishing Company, Inc., 1957]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Dell #A 145. Paperback original. Mystery novel.
DEAD MAN TWICE.
Garden City, NY: Published for The Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1930. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] ix-x [xi-xii] [1] 2-309 [310: Crime Club blurb] [note: pagination correct], original black cloth, front and spine stamped in orange. First U. S. edition. Bush had a long career and started writing during the "Golden Age" of detective fiction. A Ludovic Travers novel, the third published in the U. S. "The novels are remarkable in their ingenuity, their complexity, and their concentrated focus on the matter at hand. The tend to be unsensational, unfolding with scrupulous logic and eschewing the extremes of melodrama and fast or violent action. They are absorbing rather than thrilling, their appeal is more to the intellect than to the headier emotions." - St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers (Fourth Edition), p. 137. Hubin, p. 122.
THE DEATH OF COSMO REVERE.
Garden City, NY: Published for The Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1930. Octavo, pp. [i-x] xi-xii [xiii-xiv] [1] 2-312 [313: Crime Club blurb] [314: blank], original black cloth, front and spine stamped in orange. First U. S. edition. Published in the U. K. as MURDER AT FENWOLD. The author's third mystery novel and second to be published in the U. S. Bush had a long career and with many novels from the "Golden Age" of detective fiction. A Ludovic Travers novel. "The novels are remarkable in their ingenuity, their complexity, and their concentrated focus on the matter at hand. The tend to be unsensational, unfolding with scrupulous logic and eschewing the extremes of melodrama and fast or violent action. They are absorbing rather than thrilling, their appeal is more to the intellect than to the headier emotions." - St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers (Fourth Edition), p. 137. Hubin, p. 122.
THE PERFECT MURDER CASE.
Garden City, NY: Published for The Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1930. Octavo, pp. [1-12] 1-314 [315-316: ads], original black cloth, front and spine stamped in orange, top edge stained orange, red end papers with white logo. First U. S. edition. The author's second mystery novel and first to be published in the U. S. Bush had a long career and started writing during the "Golden Age" of detective fiction. In this novel a series of letters are sent to Scotland Yard saying the writer will commit the perfect murder. After the crime Ludovic Travers an independent investigator (the second book to feature the author's long time character) gets involved. "The novels are remarkable in their ingenuity, their complexity, and their concentrated focus on the matter at hand. The tend to be unsensational, unfolding with scrupulous logic and eschewing the extremes of melodrama and fast or violent action. They are absorbing rather than thrilling, their appeal is more to the intellect than to the headier emotions." - St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers (Fourth Edition), p. 137. Hubin, p. 122.
CROSS OVER NINE.
New York: The Macaulay Company, [1935]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-255 [256: blank], original beige boards, front and spine stamped in orange. First edition. From the rear panel calling it a mystery-horror story. "It is the tale of John Witherby, physical superman, in a contest of strength and racing, smashing violence with a man called the Doctor, and his gorillas, for possession of John's inheritance and for the fancy of the Doctor's female decoy." The first mystery using this pseudonym. Hubin, p. 123.
THE NIGHT FLOWER.
New York: The Macaulay Company, [1936]. Octavo, pp. [1] [1-4] 5-7 [8] 9-311 [312-318], jacket art by Edward D'Ancona, original black cloth, front and spine stamped in red. First edition. After an armored car robbery in which guards are murdered, Charles Pursivant, a reformed criminal, is enlisted to recover the money and capture the criminals. E. C. Beckwith in the NY Times (16 August, 1936) wrote "This reviewer confidently chooses this book - as the best written, most artfully constructed and thoroughly interesting crime-adventure novel published thus far within the year." Second and final mystery using this pseudonym. Hubin, p. 123.
TNT FOR TWO bound with COUNTERFEIT CORPSE .
New York: Ace Books, [1956]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Ace double D-197. Paperback original. The Byron title is the author's only crime novel. Jaffery, S., Double Trouble: A Bibliographic Chronicle of Ace Mystery Doubles, pp. 46.
FAST ONE.
New York: Avon Publishing Co., Inc., [1948]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition thus. Avon #178. First Avon paperback edition, preceded in softcover by the Shaw Press digest edition. Classic hardboiled novel.
SEVEN [7] SLAYERS.
Hollywood, CA: Saint Enterprises Inc., [1946]. Octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original, digest size format. Story collection, all from Black Mask magazine. Hubin, p. 125.
SEVEN SLAYERS.
Los Angeles: Blood & Guts Press, 1987. Octavo, cloth. First hardcover edition. One thousand copies printed, this is one of 250 numbered and signed by the author of the introduction William F. Nolan. This is copy number 11. Story collection, all hard boiled, all first published in Black Mask magazine.
THE MACHINE THAT THOUGHT.
New York: Published by Columbia Publications, Inc., n.d. [circa, 1942]. Octavo, pp. [1-2]-24, pictorial self wrappers, stapled. First edition. Issued as "Science Fiction Classics" No. 3.
THE AVENGING PICAROON.
London: Frederick Muller, 1955. Octavo, Hardcover. First edition. Second novel in the Picaroon series. Signed inscription by Cassells to the dedicatee Leo Margulies. Hubin, p. 146.
ENTER THE PICAROON.
London: Frederick Muller, 1954. Octavo, Hardcover. First edition. The first novel in this series, introducing Ludovic Saxon, The Picaroon "gay and swashbuckling buccaneer of crime." Signed inscription by Cassells, an association copy: "To Leo-...Bill Duncan [John Cassells], October 14/54." The Leo is editor and publisher Leo Margulies, who was involved in anthologies, magazines and pulps from the '30s onward. Not in Hubin (1994).
THUS WAS ADONIS MURDERED.
London: [William] Collins [Sons & Co., Ltd.], 1981. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Author's first mystery novel.
THE VICE CZAR MURDERS.
New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., Publishers, [1941]. Octavo, pp. [1-6] [1-2] 3-281 [282: blank], original salmon cloth, spine stamped in black, fore-edge rough cut. First edition. The only novel by this pair using this pseudonym. D. A.'s investigator is looking into a vice ring and gets involved in murder. Hubin, p. 154.
THE BOOK OF MORGAINE.
Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, Inc., [1979]. First hardcover edition. First printing with code "J21" on page [632]. Collects GATE OF IVREL (1976), WELL OF SHIUAN (1978), and FIRES OF AZEROTH (1979), all paperback originals. Time travel science fantasy series in the the protagonist Morgaine travels through gates in which you can travel to other worlds but the gates also facilitate time travel. To prevent paradoxes Morgaine's mission is to destroy the gates. The stories are set in the author's Alliance-Union universe. GATE OF IVREL is the author's first published novel. Anatomy of Wonder (1981) 3-185. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 4A-70.