Fantasy
DAUGHTER OF THE BRIGHT MOON.
New York: Ace Books, [1979]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. Fantasy novel.
BEFORE THEY ARE HANGED.
[Burton, MI]: Subterranean Press, 2011. Octavo, cloth. Limited edition. One of 500 numbered copies signed by Abercrombie. The author's second novel and the second book of "The First Law" trilogy. From a Guardian interview with the author 17 September, 2019: "...following the adventures of torturer Inquisitor Glokta, barbarian warrior Logen Ninefingers, and the dashing but vain swordsman Jezal dan Luthar. Gritty, violent, cynical and redolent with dark humour, “it was my take on Lord of the Rings, but bringing in all my weird preoccupations about how people work, the nature of violence. It’s a reaction against the shiny and optimistic heroic fantasy I read as a teenager. In trying to do the opposite, it becomes quite pessimistic and grim.”.
LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS.
[Burton, MI]: Subterranean Press, 2011. Octavo, cloth. Limited edition. The author's third novel and the third book of "The First Law" trilogy. From a Guardian interview with the author 17 September, 2019: "...following the adventures of torturer Inquisitor Glokta, barbarian warrior Logen Ninefingers, and the dashing but vain swordsman Jezal dan Luthar. Gritty, violent, cynical and redolent with dark humour, “it was my take on Lord of the Rings, but bringing in all my weird preoccupations about how people work, the nature of violence. It’s a reaction against the shiny and optimistic heroic fantasy I read as a teenager. In trying to do the opposite, it becomes quite pessimistic and grim.”.
SHARDIK.
New York: Simon and Schuster, [1974]. Octavo, cloth. First edition.
WATERSHIP DOWN.
London: Rex Collins, 1972. Octavo, boards. First edition. Published 14 November 1972 in an edition of 2500 copies. Winner of the Guardian Award and the Carnegie Medal. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 4B-1. Pringle, Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels 51. Schlobin, The Literature of Fantasy 4. Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature V, pp. 2079-83. Waggoner, The Hills of Faraway 001.
SUB ROSA: STRANGE TALES.
London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1968. Octavo, boards. First edition. "Eight threatening, mysterious, subtle stories..." Barron (ed.): Horror Literature 4-8. Jones & Newman: Horror: 100 Best Books #64.
SUB ROSA: STRANGE TALES.
London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1968. Octavo, boards. First edition. "Eight threatening, mysterious, subtle stories..." Barron (ed.): Horror Literature 4-8. Jones & Newman: Horror: 100 Best Books #64.
NOT WHAT YOU EXPECTED: A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES...
Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., [1974]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. Signed inscription by Aiken to a mystery book publisher and book seller on the title page. Two brief notes signed by the author laid in. A collection of stories which appeared in previous collections of the author's work. No equivalent U.K.edition of this book.
A TOUCH OF CHILL: STORIES OF HORROR, SUSPENSE & FANTASY.
London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1979. Octavo, boards. First edition. Collection of fifteen stories of horror, mainly aimed at young readers. Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror 6-11.
A TOUCH OF CHILL: TALES FOR SLEEPLESS NIGHTS.
New York: Delacorte Press, [1980]. Octavo, cloth. First U.S. edition. Signed inscription by Aiken to a mystery book publisher and book seller on the title page. Publisher's review slip laid in. Collection of fifteen stories. The contents of this book differ from the U.K. title of the same name, (nearly half the stories differ). Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror 6-11.
COLL AND HIS WHITE PIG.
New York, Chicago, San Francisco: Holt, Rinehard and Winston, [1965]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Signed inscription by Alexander on the half title page it is additionally signed by the illustrator Evaline Ness. A childrens story set in Alexander's fantasy kingdom of Prydain, it is based on an incident from the Book of Three (volume 1 in the Chronicles of Prydain).
PHARAOH'S TREASURE: AN EGYPTIAN ROMANCE.
Chicago: Donohue, Henneberry & Co., 1891. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-355 [356: blank] [note: first leaf is a blank], inserted frontispiece, original olive green cloth, front and rear panels stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold and blind, floral patterned endpapers. First edition. Pseudo-historical novel. "An ancient manuscript, recently discovered, gives an account of the adventures of Athene in Egypt circa 1345 B.C. At the end a Hebrew seer laments the bondage of the Israelites. Such a novel underscores the continuing interest in Egyptology and Biblical materials at the turn of the century." - Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870-1930s 011. The Stuart Teitler Collection of Lost Race Fiction, p. 3. Bleiler (1978), p. 4. Not in Reginald (1979; 1992). Not in Wright, American Fiction 1876-1900.
HARVEST OF STARS.
New York: Tor, 1993. Octavo, boards. First edition. Anderson speculates on the possibility of a future dominated by exponentially powerful artificial minds. "Anderson's last major enterprise was the Guthrie Family sequence –- comprising HARVEST OF STARS (1993), THE STARS ARE ALSO FIRE (1994), HARVEST THE FIRE (1995) and THE FLEET OF STARS (1997) –- which puts on display both his continued grasp of current dreams of technology fixes, and as well the oddly resentful sense of disenchantment not untypical of writers at the end of the last century. These drives govern a tale in which Earth after centuries of savage environmental exploitation (though Anderson explicitly blames environmentalists for this) –- is no longer capable of sustaining humanity's quest for new adventures, and for a new home. The escape from the dying planet is sustained and exhilarating. Through the four volumes, the scale and complexity expands inexorably; there is no quick way to represent the final effect, except perhaps to suggest that Anderson had decided here to tell every kind of story he was capable of – fantasy, hard SF and entertainment routines intermix constantly -– as a summary and summa of his long career. On the evidence of this sequence, it is clear that for half a century he knew what he was doing." - John Clute, SFE (online).
THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS.
Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., [1961]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Signed photograph of Poul Anderson laid in. Barron (ed): Fantasy Literature 3-3 and 4A-6. Bleiler: The Guide to Supernatural Fiction #18. Cawthorn and Moorcock: Fantasy: The 100 Best Books #73. Pringle: Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels #25.
A CRYSTAL AGE.
London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887. Octavo, [1-4] [1] 2-287 [288: blank], + 32-page publisher's catalogue dated "1886-7" inserted at rear, original black cloth, front panel stamped in red, spine stamped in gold and red, rear panel stamped in red. First edition. The binding is the preferred state with the publisher's monogram in red on the rear cover. The book is found with and without publisher's catalogues inserted at rear; this copy has the earliest form of the catalogue, dated 1886-7 on page [1]. The author's anonymously published second book and first novel. A Utopian novel of a matriarchal pastoral society. "A pioneering and affectively powerful work of ecological mysticism..." - Barron (ed.): Fantasy Literature 2-87. Hudson's "fine quasi-utopian novel of the far future... depicts small, self- sufficient, matriarchally organized households living in harmony with Nature. The protagonist, tragically, cannot adapt to their pastoral way of life...Both stories [A CRYSTAL AGE and GREEN MANSIONS (1904)] are remarkable anticipations of modern ecological mysticism." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, p. 593. Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 1-51, Negley: Utopian Literature: A Bibliography #596, Sargent: British and American Utopian Literature pp. 38.
HUMOUR & FANTASY.
London: John Murray, [1931]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Collects the following titles in one volume: Vice Versa, The Tinted Venus, A Fallen Idol, The Talking Horse, Salted Almonds and The Brass Bottle. In these collected volumes, some of which are story collections, there are stories of fantasy and horror, The Tinted Venus concerns a Greek statue that comes to life.
HUMOUR & FANTASY.
New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., [1931]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Collects the following titles in one volume: Vice Versa, The Tinted Venus, A Fallen Idol, The Talking Horse, Salted Almonds and The Brass Bottle. In these collected volumes, some of which are story collections, there are stories of fantasy and horror, The Tinted Venus concerns a Greek statue that comes to life.
ALAS, THAT GREAT CITY.
London: Andrew Dakers Ltd., nd. n.d.. [1948]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Science fiction/fantasy novel of ancient Atlantis. Locke: A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 23.
100 GREAT FANTASY SHORT SHORT STORIES.
New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1978. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. One hundred very short stories, most 2-5 pages, longest 6 pages. Isaac Asimov, Roger Zelazny, Jane Yolen, Clark Ashton Smith, Avram Davidson, H.P. Lovecraft, James Sallis, Katherine Maclean, and many others.
ANOTHER FINE MYTH...
Norfolk: Starblaze Editions, Donning, 1978. Octavo, illustrations by Kelly Freas, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Trade paperback format. Amusing fantasy story involving magicians, demons, other dimensions and misadventures. The first in the series. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 4A-13.
MYTH DIRECTIONS.
Norfolk, Virginia Beach: Starblaze Editions, Donning, 1980. Octavo, illustrations by Phil Foglio, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Trade paperback format. Amusing fantasy story, the third entry in the series. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 4A-13.
ANOTHER FINE MYTH.
Norfolk: Starblaze Editions, Donning, 1978. Octavo, illustrations by Kelly Freas, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Starblaze Editions SB 04. Trade paperback format. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 4A-13.
THE LAST OF THE GIANT KILLERS OR THE EXPLOITS OF SIR JACK OF DANBY DALE by Rev. J. C. Atkinson, D.C.L. ...
London and New York: Macmillan and Co., 1891. Octavo, pp. [1-2] [i-v] vi-viii [ix-x] [1] 2-244 + 44-page publisher's catalogue dated "September, 1891" on page 1, original green cloth, front panel stamped in gold and blind, spine panel stamped in gold, rear panel stamped in blind. First edition. A collection of local folktales and legends written for young readers by John Christopher Atkinson (1814–1900), a rural Yorkshire priest and antiquary. Includes an interesting preface, pp. [v]-viii, on the historical background for the tales. "Atkinson was an ideal antiquary, endowed with a love of nature as well as a taste for study. His parish was in the rudest part of Yorkshire, and on his arrival he found that clerical duties had been almost neglected. He set himself to learn the history of his parish cure and to gain the friendship of his parishioners, and in both objects he succeeded. By constant intercourse with the people he acquired a unique knowledge of local legends and customs. ... By far his best known work ... was the charming collection of local legends and traditions which he published in 1891, with the title 'Forty Years in a Moorland Parish.' This work ... has been compared to Gilbert White's 'Natural History of Selborne,' and perhaps still more closely resembles Hugh Miller's 'Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland.' Besides these more serious compilations Atkinson was the author of several delightful books for children" (DNB).
BEAST MARKS.
Willimantic, Connecticut: Mark V. Ziesing, 1984. Octavo, cloth. First edition. One of 250 numbered copies signed by Attanasio and artists Rick DeMarco and Rich Schindler. Collects seven short stories, including a Sherlock Holmes story.
BEAST MARKS.
Willimantic, Connecticut: Mark V. Ziesing, 1984. Octavo, cloth. First edition. One of 250 numbered copies signed by Attanasio and artists Rick DeMarco and Rich Schindler. Collects seven short stories.