Paperback
NIGHTMARE TOWN.
New York: The American Mercury / Lawrence E. Spivak, Publisher, [1948]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. A Mercury Book, No. 120. Digest size magazine format, paperback original. Collects the following stories, "Nightmare Town," "The Scorched Face," "Albert Pastor at Home" and "Corkscrew." First book publication for all. The first story appeared in Argosy All Story Weekly, the second in Black Mask, the latter two in Esquire. Introduction by Ellery Queen. Hubin, p. 369. Layman A16.1.
RED HARVEST.
New York: Pocket Books Inc., [1943]. Octavo, pictorial wrappers. First paperback edition. Pocket 241. Hammett's first novel.
THE RETURN OF THE CONTINENTAL OP.
[New York]: Lawrence E. Spivak, Publisher, [1945]. Small octavo, pp. [1-2] 3-127 [128], pictorial wrappers. First edition. Jonathan Press No. J17. Digest size magazine format. Collects the following stories; The Whosis Kid, The Gutting of Couffignal, Death and Company, One Hour and The Tenth Clue. First book publication for all but the third story. Introduction by Ellery Queen. Hubin, p. 369. Layman A13.1.
THE RETURN OF THE CONTINENTAL OP.
[New York]: Lawrence E. Spivak, Publisher, [1945]. Small octavo, pp. [1-2] 3-127 [128], pictorial wrappers. First edition. Jonathan Press No. J17. Digest size magazine format. Collects the following stories; The Whosis Kid, The Gutting of Couffignal, Death and Company, One Hour and The Tenth Clue. First book publication for all but the third story. Introduction by Ellery Queen. Hubin, p. 369. Layman A13.1.
THEY CAN ONLY HANG YOU ONCE AND OTHER STORIES.
[New York]: The American Mercury / Lawrence E. Spivak, Publisher, n.d. [1949]. Small octavo, pp. [1-2] 3-125 [126-128], pictorial wrappers. Second printing. Bestseller Mystery No. B131. Digest size magazine format. Originally published as THE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE. Layman A11.1.b.
LAST SUMMER AT MARS HILL.
[New York]: HarperPrism, [1998]. Octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Trade paperback original. The author's first story collection with twelve stories, the title story was the 1995 Nebula Award winner for best novella, also included is "Prince of Flowers," her first published story. 1999 World Fantasy Award nominee for best collection. "What shines through nearly all of the 11 stories and one poem in this fine collection, besides the beautiful writing, are healthy doses of skepticism about the intrinsic goodness of both mystical phenomena and scientific progress." "Each story is appended by an afterword; pithy, but informative, they present an upbeat portrait of Hand's influences and explicate how some of the stories prefigured novels (Waking the Moon, etc.). Poignant and terrifying by turns, this collection isn't for the easily shocked, but it will satisfy readers who long for rich prose and deep, dark dreams." - Publisher's Weekly review 31 August, 1998. Hartwell, 200 Significant SF Books by Women, 1984-2001.
TERROR IN TIMES SQUARE.
New York: Almat Publishing Corporation, [1950]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition thus. Pyramid #20. First paperback edition of a book published in hardcover as Kiss Your Elbow.
FOUR SHERLOCK HOLMES PLAYS.
London: John Murray, 1964. Wrappers. First paperback edition. Contains The Speckled Band, Charles Augustus Milverton, The Mazarin Stone, and The Blue Carbuncle.
INVASION: EARTH.
New York: Ace Books, [1982]. pictorial wrappers. First edition. Trade paperback format. With an alien spacecraft crash landing into Central Park the Earth is now in the middle of an interstellar war.
DEAD VOICES.
[New York]: Warner Books, [1990]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original. A novel of witchcraft and resurrecting the dead. Pringle (ed), St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers, pp. 257-258.
HEADSMAN'S HOLIDAY.
New York: Ideal Distributing Company, [1946?]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First paperback edition. Green Dragon 28. Mystery novel.
A VOYAGE TO VENUS
Sydney: The Currawong Publishing Company, 1943. Octavo, stiff printed orange wrappers. First edition. In this novel "The female protagonist ... after escaping the human settlement on Venus, encounters a spoof culture of gangster-like Aliens near Jupiter." - SFE online. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 108. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, Additions. Stone, Australian Science Fiction Index 1925-1967, p. 46. Bleiler (1978), p. 97. Reginald 6996. Tuck (1982), p. 739.
TEMPTATION IN A SOUTHERN TOWN.
New York: Hillman Books, 1959. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Paperback original. Not in Hubin. A scarce title by the author of Violent Saturday and Ill Wind. From the front end paper: "Easy loving and sudden violence."
THE TROUBLE WITH LOVE.
Greenwich, CT: Gold Medal Books/Fawcett Publications, Inc., [1960]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Gold Medal # 1037. Paperback original.
THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST ...
New York: Fawcett Columbine, [1980]. Octavo, pictorial wrappers. First U.S. edition, trade paperback issue. An homage to and parody of the Mars novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, written in a pulpy 1930s style, based on the premise of numerous parallel worlds created by the act of imagining them. "An amazing farrago of SF and fantasy in which various fictional worlds intersect and the characters come to realize that they themselves are equally unreal. Lazarus Long (from TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE) and Jubal Harshaw (from STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND) turn up again, as do many other familiar figments. It's all very jokey on the surface, but a desperate nightmare of solipsism seems to lie below. Dreadful old rubbish: one of Heinlein's worst." - Pringle, The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction, second edition (1995), p. 261. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, Additions.
UNIVERSE.
New York: Published by Dell Publishing Company, Inc., [1951]. Small octavo, cover painting by Robert Stanley, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Dell 10¢ Book 36. Paperback original, a "Dell 10 cent book." First published in Astounding in 1941 this novella is part of the Heinlein's future history series, later expanded into Orphans of the Sky.. Produced as a radio drama for the series Dimension X in 1950 and again for X Minus One in the mid - 1950s.
FEAR AND TREMBLING: SHIVERY STORIES...
New York: Dell Publishing Company, [1948]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Dell No. 264. Paperback original. Collects thirteen stories. Authors include Ray Bradbury, John Collier, M.R. James, John Buchan, William Irish, H.R. Wakefield and others.
CITY OF BRASS: AND OTHER SIMON ARK STORIES.
North Hollywood: Leisure Books, 1971. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. LB 29S. Paperback original. The second collection featuring Simon Ark. Occult detective stories investigated by a 2000 year old Coptic heretic. See Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror 6-171.
CITY OF BRASS: AND OTHER SIMON ARK STORIES.
North Hollywood: Leisure Books, 1971. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. LB 29S. Paperback original. The second collection featuring Simon Ark. Occult detective stories investigated by a 2000 year old Coptic heretic. See Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror 6-171.
ELLERY QUEEN PRESENTS THE SPY AND THE THIEF.
New York: Davis Publications Inc., [1971]. Small octavo, printed wrappers. First edition. Number 3 in the new series of Ellery Queen presents. This volume, done in digest magazine format, collects 14 stories, 7 feature Rand, the spy and 7 feature Nick Velvet, thief. Introductions by Ellery Queen.
THE JUDGES OF HADES: AND OTHER SIMON ARK STORIES.
North Hollywood: Leisure Books, 1971. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. LB 33S K. Paperback original. The first Simon Ark book. Occult detective stories investigated by a 2000 year old Coptic heretic. "Because they were written originally for publication in detective magazines, the stories feature more complex ratiocination and plotting than Seabury Quinn's tales of Jules de Grandin to which they are sometimes compared." Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror 6-171.
THE JUDGES OF HADES: AND OTHER SIMON ARK STORIES.
North Hollywood: Leisure Books, 1971. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. LB 33S K. Paperback original. The first Simon Ark book. Occult detective stories investigated by a 2000 year old Coptic heretic. "Because they were written originally for publication in detective magazines, the stories feature more complex ratiocination and plotting than Seabury Quinn's tales of Jules de Grandin to which they are sometimes compared." Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror 6-171.
THE JUDGES OF HADES: AND OTHER SIMON ARK STORIES.
North Hollywood: Leisure Books, 1971. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. LB 33S K. Paperback original. The first Simon Ark book. Occult detective stories investigated by a 2000 year old Coptic heretic. "Because they were written originally for publication in detective magazines, the stories feature more complex ratiocination and plotting than Seabury Quinn's tales of Jules de Grandin to which they are sometimes compared." Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror 6-171.
G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES: ACE OF THE WHITE DEATH.
New York: A Berkley Medallion Book, [1970]. Small octavo, cover art by Jim Steranko, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Reprint of the pulp novel. This is #3 in the paperback series. Steranko cover art.
COSMIC EXODUS.
[London: C. Arthur Pearson Ltd., 1953]. Octavo, cover by Ronald Turner, pictorial wrappers. First edition. "Tit-Bits Science-Fiction Library." Following a civil war in 1971, England is a dystopia controlled by a ruthless dictator whose fiendish schemes include turning cadavers into robots with the help of Dr. Azimov of Vienna. But the dictator's plans pale before those of Brenda Norcross, a brilliant and beautiful female industrialist (who is actually a bioengineered Martian super scientist in disguise) who plans to enslave the entire planet to provide breeding stock for the dying Martian race (the Martian survivors have left Mars and are currently hiding out in the interior of Uranus). Harbottle and Holland A118. Reginald 05293.