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BACKGROUND TO DANGER.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1937. Octavo, cloth. First U.S. edition. Espionage thriller involving military secrets, Soviet agents, German agents and Rumanian oil. Filmed in 1943, directed by Raoul Walsh with George Raft, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Turhan Bey from a script by W.R. Burnett.
BACKGROUND TO DANGER. [SPECIAL ADVANCE COPY].
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1937. Octavo, pp. [1-12] [1-2] 3-280 [281-284], printed wrappers. Advance copy (uncorrected proof) of the first U. S. edition. Signed inscription by Ambler on the half title page to Otto Penzler: "To Otto, enviously, / I've never even seen / this book at this stage -- / Eric Ambler / 21 IX 81." Signed and dated a second time on the title page. This is an advance reading/review copy. Espionage thriller involving military secrets, Soviet agents, German agents and Rumanian oil. Filmed in 1943, directed by Raoul Walsh with George Raft, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Turhan Bey from a script by W.R. Burnett.
INTRIGUE: FOUR GREAT SPY NOVELS OF ERIC AMBLER...
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960]. Octavo, cloth. New edition. This edition first published in 1943, reset with new plate for this edition. Collects JOURNEY INTO FEAR, A COFFIN FOR DIMITRIOS, CAUSE FOR ALARM and BACKGROUND TO DANGER. Introduction by Alfred Hitchcock.
THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS.
London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, [1939]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-319 [320]. cloth. First edition. Published in the U.K. as The Mask of Dimitrios. A Haycraft-Queen cornerstone volume. Made into a 1944 film featuring Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, screenplay credit to Frank Gruber.
THE SCHIRMER INHERITANCE.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953. Octavo, boards. First U. S. edition. Hubin, p. 14.
STATE OF SIEGE.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First U. S. edition. Issued in the U. K. as THE NIGHT-COMERS. Thriller set in a Southeast Asian city during a coup d'état. Hubin, p. 14.
WAITING FOR ORDERS: THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES OF ERIC AMBLER.
New York: The Mysterious Press, 1991. Octavo, cloth. First edition. One of 26 lettered copies signed by the Amber. The 26 copy lettered edition is the only signed limited of this title. Ambler would not sign a numbered edition. Introduction by Ambler. Includes eight stories, six feature Dr. Czissar, a refugee Czech detective written during World War II.
THE EGYPTOLOGISTS.
London: Jonathan Cape, [1965]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Farcical novel of a secret society. "The Egyptologists are the members of the Metropolitan Egyptological Society housed in London, and just what goes on or comes off in the Isis Room is not revealed until the end of this long legpull. It is also withheld from their wives who, in boredom, form a solid bloc; but when they are summoned by the Yard (the Superintendent insists on admission), threatened with the visitation of an outsider and a public viewing on television, it all becomes sufficiently Pharanoid to result in their dissolution. "We're twee; you see. We know so well that what we're up to is the least twee of human activities..." Well, you can skip the hieroglyphic twee and settle down to being twitted with some aimless nonsense. Most of the characters are faceless but one of them could be Peter Sellers." - Kirkus Review, February, 1965. Filmed as a made for TV Czech movie.
THE GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION.
London, Melboune, Sydney, Auckland, Johannesburg: Hutchinson, [1981]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Selection of seventeen stories from the period 1940-1962. Authors include Frederik Pohl, Brian Aldiss, James Blish, Kurt Vonnegut, J. G. Ballard, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Jerome Bixby and others.
EINSTEIN'S MONSTERS.
New York: Harmony Books, [1987]. Octavo, cloth-backed boards. First U.S. edition. Collects five fantasy and SF stories.
TIME'S ARROW OR THE NATURE OF THE OFFENSE.
London: Jonathan Cape, [1991]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. This novel by a well-known mainstream British novelist "is about a man who lives backwards in time from the present to World War II, thus experiencing the Nazi concentration camps as a benign event in which the dead are resurrected. As has been pointed out frequently, the central conceit of 'life-in-reverse' is an old one in SF, having been used by J. G. Ballard in his story 'Time of Passage' (1964), by Philip K. Dick in his novel COUNTER-CLOCK WORLD, etc. (Amis does in fact acknowledge a passage in Kurt Vonnegut's SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE as his inspiration.) Nevertheless, a daring and effective book." - Pringle, The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction, second edition (1995), p. 378. "Amis's novel of greatest SF interest ... TIME'S ARROW was, inevitably, received as a 'literary' text whose SF structure was embarrassing, a response itself embarrassing to contemporary readers; despite, or because of, its engagement with the engines of SF, the novel reads with all the clarity of the best century reportage." - John Clute.
HIDDEN PLACES SECRET WORDS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF FANTASY POETRY.
[Stafford, VA]. Northwoods Press, [1980]. Octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition, paperback issue. Trade paperback format. Contributors include Margaret Louise Carter, Steve Eng, Stephanie Stearns, W. Paul Ganley, and eleven others.
NIGHT DOGS.
Tucson: Dennis McMillan, 1996. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Trade issue, signed by Anderson.
THE X FILES: GROUND ZERO.
New York: HarperPrism, 1995. Octavo, Hardcover. First edition.
WEST BY ONE AND BY ONE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF IRREGULAR WRITINGS BY THE SCOWRERS AND MOLLY MAGUIRES OF SAN FRANCISCO AND THE TRAINED CORMORANTS OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY.
San Francisco: Privately Printed, 1965. Octavo, cloth. First edition. An uncommon title. Contributors include: Anthony Boucher, Edgar W. Smith, Poul Anderson, Fritz Leiber and many others.
EARTHMAN'S BURDEN.
New York: Gnome Press, Inc., [1957]. Octavo, boards. First edition, first binding of light blue boards with spine panel lettered in dark blue. Collects six Hoka stories including "The Adventure of the Misplaced Hound," a Sherlockian pastiche.
EARTHMAN'S BURDEN.
New York: Gnome Press, Inc., [1957]. Octavo, cloth. First edition, second binding of gray cloth with spine panel lettered in red. Signed on the title page by both Dickson and Anderson. Collects six Hoka stories including "The Adventure of the Misplaced Hound," a Sherlockian pastiche. Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 3-9.
EARTHMAN'S BURDEN.
New York: Gnome Press, Inc., [1957]. Octavo, cloth. First edition, second binding of gray cloth with spine panel lettered in red. Collects six Hoka stories including "The Adventure of the Misplaced Hound," a Sherlockian pastiche. Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 3-9.
THE AVATAR.
New York: Published by Berkley Publishing Corporation Distributed by G. P. Putnam's Sons, [1978]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. "The hero escapes from a dull, bureaucratic Earth and searches the universe for the Others, an alien race which has evolved unimaginable powers. Strong on libertarian sentiment, this is a big, ambitious novel which does not quite come off." - Pringle, The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction, second edition (1995), p. 24. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-20.
THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS.
Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, [1989]. Octavo, frontispiece by Bob Eggleton, full leather, a.e.g. Limited edition. One of an unspecified number of copies signed by Anderson. Introduction by James Gunn. 1989 Nebula nominee. Part of the Easton Press signed first edition series. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-21.
BRAIN WAVE.
London: William Heinemann Ltd., [1955]. Octavo, boards. First edition. "BRAIN WAVE, perhaps his most famous single novel, remains very nearly his finest. Its premise is simple: for millions of years the part of the galaxy containing our solar system has been moving through a vast force field whose effect has been to inhibit "certain electromagnetic and electrochemical processes", and thus certain neuronic functions; it is a concept Vernor Vinge would exploit and expand in his A FIRE UPON THE DEEP (1992). When Earth escapes the inhibiting field, synapse-speed immediately increases, causing a rise in intelligence; after the book has traced various absorbing consequences of this transformation, a transfigured humanity reaches for the stars, leaving behind (it is a conclusion evocative of Clifford D Simak at his best) former mental defectives and bright animals to inherit the planet." - John Clute, SFE (online). Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-22.
BRAIN WAVE.
London: William Heinemann Ltd., [1955]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Signed and inscribed by Anderson on the title page. "BRAIN WAVE, perhaps his most famous single novel, remains very nearly his finest. Its premise is simple: for millions of years the part of the galaxy containing our solar system has been moving through a vast force field whose effect has been to inhibit "certain electromagnetic and electrochemical processes", and thus certain neuronic functions; it is a concept Vernor Vinge would exploit and expand in his A FIRE UPON THE DEEP (1992). When Earth escapes the inhibiting field, synapse-speed immediately increases, causing a rise in intelligence; after the book has traced various absorbing consequences of this transformation, a transfigured humanity reaches for the stars, leaving behind (it is a conclusion evocative of Clifford D Simak at his best) former mental defectives and bright animals to inherit the planet." - John Clute, SFE (online). Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-22.
THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN.
Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, Inc., 1973. Octavo, boards. First edition. Issued by the Science Fiction Book Club. First printing with no code on page 181. Jacket painting by Richard Corben.
THE ENEMY STARS.
Philadelphia and New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1959. Octavo, boards. First edition. "...this is Anderson at his tragic-heroic best, blending meticulous astrophysics with brooding romanticism." - Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 3-6. Nominated for a Hugo Award in 1959.
ENSIGN FLANDRY.
Philadelphia and New York: Chilton Books, [1966]. Octavo, cloth. First edition.