May 5th, 2025
Another purchase from that estate sale:
Howard, Robert E. The Early Adventures of El Borak. The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, 2010. First edition hardback, #26 of 150 copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. All the Francis X. Gordon, Lal Singh and Yar Ali Khan stories. Although not signed when I purchased, I’ve now had introduction author David A. Hardy inscribe it to me. Bought for $50.
Tags: Books, Fantasy, Robert E. Howard, Robert E. Howard Foundation Press
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May 4th, 2025
I’m not familiar with Castlebeat (which is evidently one guy), but the video for “Change YourMind” (which isn’t even his) has some 13 million views, so obviously other people are…
Castlebeat
Tags: Castlebeat, Music, Shoegazer, video
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April 28th, 2025
I came across this in a Half Price Books store, and was either unaware it existed or had forgotten about it.
Crowley, John. Great Work of Time. Bantam, 1991. First edition paperback original thus and first separate edition, original publish as one of four novellas in Novelty two years before, a Fine- copy with edgewear. His World Fantasy Award-winning time travel novel, it which an initial time travel effort to keep the British Empire intact eventually results in radical changes up the line. Bought from Half Price Books for $1.79.
I think Bantam may have been the only mainstream SF publisher of the late 1980s and early 1990s who would put out novellas in paperback form, as I know they did a few others.
Note that I still have copies of the signed, limited hardback edition available through Lame Excuse Books.
Tags: Books, Fantasy, Half Price Books, John Crowley, Science Fiction, Time Travel, World Fantasy Award
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April 27th, 2025
It seems that every six years or so I put up a song from semi-obscure Japanese Shoegaze/Post-Rock band Speaker Gain Teardrop, so here’s Metaphorville.”
Tags: Japan, Music, Shoegazer, Speaker Gain Teardrop, video
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April 25th, 2025
Another pickup for my extended library of bibliographic reference works.
Lachman, Marvin. A Reader’s Guide to the American Novel of Detection. G. K. Hall & Co., 1993. First edition hardback, an Ex-Library copy with most of the usual flaws (though UT Law Library rather than APL, so it doesn’t have the hideous APL band glued to the dust jacket), otherwise it would be a Fine/Fine copy. Provides plot synopsis for American detective novels, along with a few different index sections (pseudonyms, series characters, settings, etc.). There are no entries for Joe R. Lansdale, Kinky Friedman, or even Dashiell Hammett, so I wonder what the criteria was for an entry here. Bought for the munificent sum of $1 at UT’s ReUse shop.
All the dirt on the scan is just wear on the dust jacket protector.
Tags: Books, Mystery, reference works
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April 21st, 2025
This was another purchase from that Facebook estate seller I bought the Howard chapbooks from.
Howard, Robert E. (Rob Roehm, editor). The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard Volume One: 1923 – 1929. Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, 2007. First edition hardback, #267 of 300 copies, a Fine- copy with slight bumping at heel in a Near Fine+ dust jacket with slight bumping at heel, small fold to top of front flap, trace of wear at points, and slight haze rubbing to rear. Most of the letters in this volume seem to be to longtime close friend Tevis Clyde Smith.
With:
Howard, Robert E. (Rob Roehm, editor). The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard Volume Two: 1930-1932. Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, 2007. First edition hardback, #266 of 300 copies, a Fine- copy with bump to top front point in a Fine- dust jacket with slight bend at head, bump at point, trace of wear at points, and faint non-breaking surface scratches to rear cover. In this volume we finally start to see a number of letters to H.P. Lovecraft (I haven’t looked yet, but I’m guessing most if not all are included in the two volume A Means to Freedom, which I also have).
With:
Howard, Robert E. (Rob Roehm, editor). The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard Volume Three: 1933-1936. Robert E. Howard Foundation Press, 2007. First edition hardback, #265 of 300 copies, a Fine copy in a Near Fine- dust jacket with two long, faint scratches to the front cover, slight wrinkling at head and a trace of wear at points. Letters to a wide range of recipients: Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, Emil Petja, etc.
All bought for $60 for the set, which I think is a great bargain, as the majority of the REH Press stuff, especially early books like these, are all long out of print and hard to find.
Tags: August Derleth, Books, Clark Ashton Smith, Emil Petaja, Fantasy, H. P. Lovecraft, Horror, reference works, Robert E. Howard
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April 17th, 2025
That same eBay seller keeps having some interesting signed PBOs going cheap, including this one:
Tenn, William. The Square Root of Man. Ballantine Books, 1968. First edition paperback original (“First Printing: June, 1968”), a Very Good copy with spine creasing and lean, crease along front spine join, edgewear, and a bookstore stamp to teaser page, signed by Tenn. Currey, page 278. Bought for the opening bid of $10.
Tags: Books, eBay, PBO, Science Fiction, William Tenn
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April 16th, 2025
Someone on Facebook was selling off the collection of an Arkham House/Weird Tales collector, and he had some Robert E. Howard chapbooks I pulled the trigger on.
Howard, Robert E. The Complete Yellow Jacket. Paul Herman, 1999. First edition chapbook original, #80 of 100 copies, a Fine copy. Collection of Howard’s work that appeared in The Yellow Jacket, the school paper for Howard Payne University.
Howard, Robert E. Pay Day. Cryptic Publications, 1986. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy. Eight extremely short stories. Editor Robert M. Price: “These tales represent Howard’s attempt to write ‘realistic’ fiction.”
Howard, Robert E. Two-Fisted Detective. Cryptic Publications, 1984. First edition chapbook original, one of 450 unsigned, unnumbered copies, a Fine- copy with slight bit of wear to the spine. Four stories featuring Detective Steve Harris.
Price, Robert M., editor. Two-Fisted Detective Stories Volume 2. Cryptic Publications, 1988. First edition chapbook original, a Fine copy. Anthology of detective stories, including stories from Manly Wade Wellman (“Murder Music,” which doesn’t appear to be in the five volume Selected Stories), Robert Bloch (“The Knife and the Throat,” which doesn’t appear to have been reprinted in any Bloch collections), Lin Carter and C.J. Henderson.
All the above bought for $80.
Tags: Books, chapbooks, Fantasy, Manly Wade Wellman, Mystery, Robert Bloch, Robert E. Howard
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April 14th, 2025
Two more Half Price Books finds, both signed.
Eggers, Dave. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Simon & Schuster, 2000. First edition hardback (full “1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2” numberline), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed (with initials) and dated (“3/6/00”) by Eggers. His debut novel. You have to admire the chutzpah of the title. Bought for $13.50.
Hill, Joe. The Fireman. William Morrow, 2016. First edition hardback, a Fine- copy with slight bend at head and heel in a Near Fine- dust jacket with two creases running the length of the front flap. Supplements an unsigned first and the signed, limited, slipcased PS Publishing edition. Bought for $13.04.
Tags: Books, Dave Eggers, Half Price Books, Horror, Joe Hill
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April 9th, 2025
Another Half Price Books find:
McDonald, Ian. Hopeland. Tor, 2023. First edition hardback, a Fine-/Fine- copy with slight bumping to top points. Looks a bit New Weird-ish. ISDFB says the Tor edition precedes by a couple of days. Bought from Half Price Books for $13.49.
Tags: Books, Fantasy, Half Price Books, New Weird, Science Fiction
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