New Arrivals (May 2010)
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.
AN AFRICAN MILLIONAIRE: EPISODES IN THE LIFE OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS COLONEL CLAY.
London: Grant Richards, 1897. Octavo, pp. [i-vii] viii [1] 2-317 [318: blank] [319-320: ads], illustrations by Gordon Browne, original pictorial green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, publisher's monogram stamped in blind on rear panel, t.e.g., other edges untrimmed. First edition. "The first great rogue of mystery fiction," Colonel Clay, "preceded ... Raffles by two years ..." - Queen's Quorum 21. Glover and Green, Victorian Detective Fiction 4. Queen, The Detective Short Story, p. 4. Hubin (1994), p. 11.
PETALS ON THE WIND.
New York: Simon and Schuster, [1980]. Octavo, boards. First edition. The author's second novel and sequel to FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC. Review slip laid in.
PALIMPSEST.
[London]: Quartet Crime, [1981]. Ocatvo, boards. First edition. Eerie novel concerning a missing person, Inspector Henry Beaumont. (This is perhaps a review copy, no written material on front flap).
PALIMPSEST.
New York: St. Martin's Press, [1981]. Ocatvo, boards. First U.S. edition. Eerie novel concerning a missing person, with Inspector Henry Beaumont. Publisher promotional flyer laid in.
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.
THE APPREHENSIVE DOG ...
Garden City: Published for The Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1942. Octavo, pp. [1-2] [i-iv] v-vii [viii] [1-2] 3-294, original terra cotta cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black, top edge stained terra cotta, fore and bottom edges rough-trimmed, white endpapers. First U.S. edition. A Reggie Fortune novel. Published in the UK as NO MURDER (1942). Hubin (1994), p. 41.
THE CAT'S WHISKER ...
Garden City: Published for The Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1944. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-223, original blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black, fore-edge untrimmed. First edition. A Reggie Fortune novel. Published in the UK in 1945 by Macdonald as DEAD MAN'S EFFECTS. Mr. Fortune investigates murder and sabotage during World War II. Hubin (1994), p. 41.
HONOUR AMONG THIEVES.
Garden City: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1947. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-191 [192: blank], original gray boards, front and spine panels stamped in black, fore-edge untrimmed. First U.S. edition. A novel featuring shyster lawyer Joshua Clunk. Hubin (1994), p. 41.
THE LIFE SENTENCE ...
Garden City: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1946. Octavo, pp. [1-4] [1-4] 5-6 [7-9] 10-250 [251-252: blank] [note: first and last leaves are blanks], original red boards, front and spine panels stamped in black, fore and bottom edges untrimmed. First U.S. edition. A Reggie Fortune novel. Hubin (1994), p. 41.
MEET MR. FORTUNE: A REGGIE FORTUNE OMNIBUS.
Garden City: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1942. Octavo, pp. [1-12] [1] 2-546 [547-548: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original black cloth, spine panel stamped in red, fore-edge untrimmed. First edition. An omnibus volume collecting a novel, THE BISHOP'S CRIME (1940) and twelve stories featuring Reggie Fortune, plus "Mr. Fortune," an essay by Bailey introducing his fictional sleuth. Barzun and Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime 2336. Hubin (1994), p. 41.
MR. CLUNK'S TEXT.
New York: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1939. Octavo, pp. [1-4] [i-vi] vii-viii [ix-x] [1] 2-303 [304-306: blank] [note: first and last leaves are blanks], original red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black, fore and bottom edges untrimmed, cream endpapers. First U.S. edition. A novel featuring shyster lawyer Joshua Clunk. Published in the UK as THE VERON MYSTERY (1939). Hubin (1994), p. 42.
MR. FORTUNE FINDS A PIG.
Garden City: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1943. Octavo, pp. [1-2] [i-iv] v-vi [vii-viii] [1] 2-269 [270: blank], original blue gray cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black, fore and bottom edges untrimmed, cream endpapers. First U.S. edition. A Reggie Fortune novel. Mr. Fortune investigates a mysterious outbreak of typhus fever in a remote village in Wales during World War II. Hubin (1994), p. 41.
ORPHAN ANN.
Garden City: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1941. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-viii [ix-x] [1] 2-307 [308-310: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black, top edge stained blue, fore-edge untrimmed, bottom edge rough trimmed, cream endpapers. First U.S. edition. A novel featuring shyster lawyer Joshua Clunk. Published in the UK as THE LITTLE CAPTAIN (1941). Hubin (1994), p. 41.
THE TWITTERING BIRD MYSTERY.
Garden City: Published for The Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1937. Octavo, pp. [1-2] [i-vi] vii-viii [ix-x] [1] 2-299 [300: blank], original red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black, top edge stained red, fore-edge untrimmed, bottom edge rough trimmed, cream endpapers. First U.S. edition. The fourth novel featuring shyster lawyer Joshua Clunk. Published in the UK as CLUNK'S CLAIMANT (1937). Hubin (1994), p. 41.
THE WRONG MAN.
Garden City: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1945. Octavo, pp. [1-2] [11-4] 5-6 [7-8] 9-252 [253-254: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original burgundy cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black, fore-edge untrimmed. First edition. A novel featuring shyster lawyer Joshua Clunk. The UK edition was published in 1946 by Macdonald. Hubin (1994), p. 42.
THE DROUGHT.
London: Jonathan Cape, [1965]. Octavo, boards. First British and first hardcover edition. An expansion of The Burning World (1964), a paperback original. Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 4-27.
THE HUNGER AND OTHER STORIES.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, [1957]. Octavo, boards. First edition. The author's first book. Collects seventeen stories, of which eight are printed here for the first time. Classic collection by one of the major contributors to "The Twilight Zone" TV series. Signed inscription by Beaumont on the front free endpaper: "For Bill Froug -- / Here's to softened / lines, pure exposition, / and devious dialogue! / Chuck Beaumont." Beaumont wrote for most of the episodic television shows in the early to mid 1960s, but "The Twilight Zone" was clearly his favorite, with 22 scripts. Similarly, Bill Froug was an active producer on many shows in the early '60s, but had a particularly strong connection to "The Twilight Zone," producing, by coincidence, 22 shows. The two would work together on two episodes: "Queen of the Nile" (6 March 1964) and "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" (24 January 1964). A remarkable association copy, acquiring special poignance through Beaumont's early death at age 38, just ten years after the publication of this book. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 110. Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p. 27. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 4-12. King list, p. 389. Winter list, p. 268. See Barron (ed), Horror Literature 4-27.
GHOSTS IN THE HOUSE. Introduction by Hugh Lamb.
Penyffordd, Chester: Ash-Tree Press, 1996. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Limited to 400 copies. Collects stories from the A.C. Benson's THE HILL OF TROUBLE, THE ISLES OF SUNSET and BASIL NETHERBY and R.H. Benson's THE LIGHT INVISIBLE and THE MIRROR OF SHALOTT.
THE GHOST HOUSE.
New York: St. Martin's Press, [1979]. Ocatvo, boards. First U.S. edition. Review copy with review slip laid in. A mystery novel involving heroin smuggling and an alleged haunted house, which in the end is rationalized. First published in 1940, according to the copyright page this is a "completely rewritten version." This edition is would be the first American edition.
IN THE MIDST OF LIFE: TALES OF SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS.
New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1898. Small octavo, pp. [1-2] [i-ii] iii [iv] v-vi 1-362 [363-366: ads] [367-368: blank] [note: first and last leaves are blanks], original decorated maroon cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold. Enlarged edition. First printing of the enlarged edition of TALES OF SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS (1891), the first and best of two collections of Bierce's short fiction published during his lifetime. The enlarged edition adds three stories including the classic, "The Damned Thing," a chilling narrative of an encounter with a malignant being from another dimension. Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 1-13. Barron (ed), Horror Literature 2-7. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 162. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 073. Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, pp. 33-4. Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature III, pp. 1436-40. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 3-23. Bleiler (1978), p. 23. Wright (III) 523. BAL 1119. Starrett 15. Baird and Greenwood, An Annotated Bibliography of California Fiction 1664-1970 250.
SPURIOUS SUN.
London: T. Werner Laurie Ltd., [1948]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Apocalyptic novel in which an experimental station in Scotland blows up causing an uncontrolled atomic chain reaction, the stratosphere ignites. "...the world suffers an explosion of insane wars, including a nuclear attack on Canada by the U.S. The ensuing panic prompts mass suicides, death cults, sadism, torture and plagues caused by mutated bacteria."-Brians: Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction 1895-1984. pp. 140.
KATASTROPHE.
[New York]: HarperCollins Publishers, [2000]. Octavo, boards. First edition. In regressing a person to a past life, he channels Adolf Hitler. The author's first book.
SO THE WIND WON'T BLOW IT ALL AWAY.
[New York]: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, [1982]. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. Post WW II novel concerning the death of a young boy. The author's last novel before his death.