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Pulps Between Boards: Arkham House and Other Specialty Publishers
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175 posts in this topic

I started reading Marginalia because I recently acquired a copy that was signed by Hazel Heald, who has two stories within.

A seller in Norway listed it for sale as signed by August Derleth, but it was obvious to me the signature was not Derleth's.  So who wrote it?  I guessed it was Hazel Heald's hand, but I had no samples of her handwriting to compare to.  I took a chance and bought the book anyway.

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An appeal for help to a friend yielded excellent results.  First was a typed letter from Heald to Derleth dated October 21, 1944 where she says she "will enjoy two copies of Marginalia" and asks "will it be out soon?"

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The second was a hand-written letter from Heald to Derleth dated February 1, 1945.  First, this letter allowed me to match Heald's handwriting to that in the book with reasonable assurance.  And second, the letter says "thanks for the two books that arrived yesterday."  The date written in the book is indeed one day earlier, January 31, 1945.  This was very exciting because this was proof that not only had Hazel Heald written the inscription, but she owned the book as well.  I think a Heald signed copy of Marginalia is very rare, perhaps unique. 

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Edited by RedFury
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27 minutes ago, RedFury said:

I started reading Marginalia because I recently acquired a copy that was signed by Hazel Heald, who has two stories within.

A seller in Norway listed it for sale as signed by August Derleth, but it was obvious to me the signature was not Derleth's.  So who wrote it?  I guessed it was Hazel Heald's hand, but I had no samples of her handwriting to compare to.  I took a chance and bought the book anyway.

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Wow.  You have a much better reason for grabbing your copy than I did... mine was simply "Somebody's selling a decent looking copy with dust jacket for under $200? I gotta get me some of that!" lol  The Outsiders and others is out of my range and Beyond the Wall of Sleep will require a lot of careful planning; but the next three (Marginalia, Something About Cats and Other Pieces, and The Shuttered Room and Other Pieces) are all doable... and those first five are, to me the most interesting, because they are (other than the first) the only ones that feature the first publication of fiction by Lovecraft.  The Shuttered Room is, in fact, the last publication ever to feature any previously unpublished fiction by Lovecraft that I am aware of.

Also, thank you for the correction on Medusa's Coil.  I should have checked my copy rather than relying on the internet.

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Just in today:  The Shuttered Room.  This is the fifth Lovecraft collection from Arkham, published in 1959.  Stated print run 2500 copies, actual 2527.  Unlike Marginalia, my copy of this one has an unclipped dust jacket. To me, the most interesting thing is that this is the last book that had any previously unpublished fiction by Lovecraft.  There are five pieces that were first published in this book.  Old Bugs is the most important of the new pieces; it's not considered major work by any stretch of the imagination but it's on the list of actual Lovecraft stories.  The other four are all juvenilia.  The title story is one of Derleth's "posthumous collaborations".

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In today.  Return of Solar Pons is generally considered the third Solar Pons collection.  There was a collection of three stories put out by Mycroft and Moran a few years before, titled "Three Problems for Solar Pons", which is the rarest Mycroft and Moran boo.  All three of the stories are included in this collection, however, so Three Problems is generally considered something of a specialty item rather than key to the run.  Stated print run was 2000, actual was 2079.  This actually gives me all of the Solar Pons stories in Mycroft & Moran editions; although they put out four other Solar Pons books, accounting for 13 of the 20 books released by the imprint.  The others are the aforementioned Three Problems for Solar Pons, The Adventure of the Unique Dickensians (a softcover, illustrated chapbook with a story later included in The Casebook of Solar Pons), The Solar Pons Omnibus (technically an Arkham House book), and The Original Text Solar Pons Omnibus (Basil Cooper edited the stories for the original omnibus; people were apparently displeased.)

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The Quick and the Dead by Vincent Starrett

ARKHAM HOUSE, 1965, 2047 COPIES
SIGNED BY VINCENT STARRETT
I just finished reading Starrett's The Quick and the Dead last night so I thought I'd post it here. It's a very nice collection of 10 stories, 2 of which had appeared in Weird Tales, and 4 from his 1924 collection Coffins for Two.
 
I noticed that the opening sequence of the story Coffins for Two is extremely similar to the opening of Arthur Machen's The Inmost Light. A quick Wikipedia search reveals "Starrett was a major enthusiast of Welsh writer Arthur Machen and was instrumental in bringing Machen's work to an American audience for the first time.", so it's no accident. 🧐

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4 hours ago, RedFury said:

The Quick and the Dead by Vincent Starrett

ARKHAM HOUSE, 1965, 2047 COPIES
SIGNED BY VINCENT STARRETT
I just finished reading Starrett's The Quick and the Dead last night so I thought I'd post it here. It's a very nice collection of 10 stories, 2 of which had appeared in Weird Tales, and 4 from his 1924 collection Coffins for Two.
 
I noticed that the opening sequence of the story Coffins for Two is extremely similar to the opening of Arthur Machen's The Inmost Light. A quick Wikipedia search reveals "Starrett was a major enthusiast of Welsh writer Arthur Machen and was instrumental in bringing Machen's work to an American audience for the first time.", so it's no accident. 🧐

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MO8mDbIh.jpg

BjmGADjh.jpg

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.... My goodness .... that's a sharp example and I LOVE autographed copies. Though not antiquarian, I was over the moon when I found the recent Pendergast novel at 2nd And Charles with both Lincoln and Childs' autograph. If you haven't checked out that series you really should, Todd. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)(thumbsu

 

... I wonder if any autographed examples of Lovecraft's published work exist ?

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5 minutes ago, jimjum12 said:

.... My goodness .... that's a sharp example and I LOVE autographed copies. Though not antiquarian, I was over the moon when I found the recent Pendergast novel at 2nd And Charles with both Lincoln and Childs' autograph. If you haven't checked out that series you really should, Todd. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)(thumbsu

 

... I wonder if any autographed examples of Lovecraft's published work exist ?

I've thought that I should try to track down a letter of his; at least.  He was such a prolific correspondent that I imagine it wouldn't be completely impossible to locate something.

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On 2/25/2021 at 3:17 PM, OtherEric said:

In today.  The second ever publication of "The Call of Cthulhu", and the last one I'm aware of during Lovecraft's lifetime.  It's also one of the earliest books to collect a Lovecraft story, one of the very few published during his lifetime. 

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Yes and no.....it’s the first book publication of “Call of Cthulhu” but actually also the first COMPLETE publication of the story, because it was heavily edited for publication in Weird Tales. I personally am looking for a copy of this more than I am the Weird Tales issue for that reason.

Edited by IngelsFan
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