Pulps Between Boards: Arkham House and Other Specialty Publishers 4 4

[Xaltotun]

And its little brother, in about the same condition

[Xaltotun]

On 2/22/2021 at 4:50 AM, OtherEric said:

And a bit of research now that I'm home suggests that it's not; "Not at Night" (1928) is, as well as one or two UK volumes.  It remains a very early collection to feature Lovecraft, and the earliest reprinting of "The Call of Cthulhu". 

There was also "The Shunned House", prepared by W. Paul Cook in 1928, but if he printed the sheets, he never got around to bind them, which was done years later. It's quite a rarity.

[OtherEric]

2 minutes ago, Xaltotun said:

There was also "The Shunned House", prepared by W. Paul Cook in 1928, but if he printed the sheets, he never got around to bind them, which was done years later. It's quite a rarity.

That's for certain.  The fact that the pages were printed but not bound in 1928 means that even now there's some debate on if the September 1937 Weird Tales is better considered the first publication of the story since it was released earlier even if it was printed much later.

[Xaltotun]

And here is the one to rule them all.

Bob Howard's first book, published posthumously in England in 1937. Print run was very low, maybe even around 800 copies, most of which were circulated via Boots lending library (ie a supermaket chain where you could borrow books for a week or so), and of course the jackets were discarded right away. Add the Blitz, and you will understand why there are only 18 known surviving copies, 9 of which are institutionally held.

I tracked down a first copy in 2007 or so. It was buried in the family archive of descendants of the Howard family. They are keeping that, of course. I found and this time bought another copy in 2010 from a UK bookseller, who had no idea what it was obviously, paying the grand sum of £20 for it. It instantly became the world's *second* best copy in existence, a book in abt Fine condition, but of course no dustjacket. With one exception, no copy survives with the dustjacket.

I thought I had my Grail, when the only copy in the world with the dj was offered. It came from Glenn Lord's collection. Glenn bought it for a song from August Derleth, who had told him at the time that he would get another copy later. Glenn chuckled. After Glenn passed away, the book was offered on eBay. It brought *lots* of attention from *Big Name* dealers (I know of at least three), but they didn't pull the trigger because the description stated that the book had been unbound then rebound when Don Grant prepared the first American edition of the book (in 1965). I knew this was not the case. Glenn Lord would *never* have done that. The copy that was used for the Don Grant edition is the one which is held at Ranger, Texas, all of which was later confirmed by copies of Glenn's correspondence. 

I sold my undercopy in exactly 12 minutes, and used it to partially finance the new one. And thus, this copy arrived in my hands. It is the only copy in the world with the dustjacket. The best copy, with an incredible pedigree, of the ultimate Grail of any Howard collector

Edited April 23, 2021 by Xaltotun

[RedFury]

Absolutely amazing, Patrice.  Is it known how Derleth first acquired it?  A gift from Dr. Howard?  Or perhaps his London agent for Arkham House, Ken Chapman, found a copy and sent it over?

[Xaltotun]

4 hours ago, RedFury said:

Absolutely amazing, Patrice.  Is it known how Derleth first acquired it?  A gift from Dr. Howard?  Or perhaps his London agent for Arkham House, Ken Chapman, found a copy and sent it over?

6 copies of the book were sent to Otis Kilne in 1937. A few were circulated for potential publishers. One ended up in Howard's father's hands, then to his heirs. One landed at the Ranger museum. The Derleth copy very probably originated from Kline. No copy ever surfaced from the States other than those 3. All the others originated from the UK or the Commonwealth or countries with strong British colonial ties (the copy at the Howard house in Cross Plains originated from South Africa).

Other than my first copy (which I very strongly suspect to be an original owner's), all copies of this book are ratty, missing the dj, and originate from the UK. 3 copies were discovered in the past ten years, all ratty.

Edited April 24, 2021 by Xaltotun

[Xaltotun]

Another cool item. Singers in the Shadows. This was published in 1970 by Donald M. Grant in an edition of 549 copies, which is not a lot.

But my copy has a little extra to go with it...

 

[Xaltotun]

Terror by Night, This is volume 10 in the Not at Night series, published in 1934. Notable for being the very first hardcover appearance of a Conan story ("Rogues in the House"). Also contains "The Horror in the Museum" by Hazel Heald (and HPL (uncredited).)

These babies are tough to find in any condition, and with the dustjacket. Very fragile books.

There were some reprints over the years, not indicated as such, but which can be deduced by a) the titles on the back cover, b) the boards of the book (my research on that is as yet incomplete, but I have some data).

This copy came from an original owner's collection, and has a "8/34" penciled in on the last leaf), so it was bought new, hence the condition.

Edited April 27, 2021 by Xaltotun

[Surfing Alien]

On 3/27/2021 at 4:33 PM, OtherEric said:

In today.  The first mass market Lovecraft hardcover.  First print, it came out in April 1945 and has cheap wartime paper.

I need to visit over here more often, I didn't even know you had posted this over here I can play a little... very little... in this thread as I sold most of my Arkhams years ago but I still have a small shelf of specialty books.

[Surfing Alien]

My wife is from the north coast of South America and I can tell you, they still fear The Jumbee...

[Surfing Alien]

Someone on a Facebook group mentioned it was Jack Williamson's birthday today so i've been posting these. They're not rare but they're beautiful and were the copies I read in college so have dragged them around for 35  years or so...

[RedFury]

Happy 113th, Jack!

Edited April 30, 2021 by RedFury

[Surfing Alien]

Here's another Fantasy Press. Of all the specialties, they're the one I saved the most of when I was selling. I never sold any of my  Heinleins so still have this one with a rubbed but complete original DJ and a minty blue publishers proof.

[OtherEric]

3 hours ago, Surfing Alien said:

Here's another Fantasy Press. Of all the specialties, they're the one I saved the most of when I was selling. I never sold any of my  Heinleins so still have this one with a rubbed but complete original DJ and a minty blue publishers proof.

Another one where I don't have the early hardcover... although I do have the Gregg Press reprint somewhere.  And these:

[Sarg]

On 4/23/2021 at 6:08 PM, Xaltotun said:

And here is the one to rule them all.

Bob Howard's first book, published posthumously in England in 1937. Print run was very low, maybe even around 800 copies, most of which were circulated via Boots lending library (ie a supermaket chain where you could borrow books for a week or so), and of course the jackets were discarded right away. Add the Blitz, and you will understand why there are only 18 known surviving copies, 9 of which are institutionally held.

That sounds fascinating -- a supermarket that served as a library? Any more details on that?

[Xaltotun]

Basically, Boots is/was a pharmacy, but in those days they had a thing called "Boots Booklovers." You would borrow a book and return it the next time you ran your errands. Here are a few screens of stickers found on one of the Jenkins Gents.

 

[Surfing Alien]

17 minutes ago, Xaltotun said:

Basically, Boots is/was a pharmacy, but in those days they had a thing called "Boots Booklovers." You would borrow a book and return it the next time you ran your errands. Here are a few screens of stickers found on one of the Jenkins Gents.

 

Ahhh... Trust... a quaint notion of bygone days

[Scrooge]

This would easily belong in the Lovecraft thread but since it is about pulp reprinted, I'll share my story again here.

Back in another time and another place, I spent a chunk of one summer working in Bavaria, Germany and took with me the "complete" works of Lovecraft as edited into this massive 3 book set in the Collection Bouquins. Each volume in the set tops out at 1,200 pages or more. The collection not only has his fiction but also his essays, some correspondence and collaborations and other writings. Since I had most of the afternoons free, I read these cover to cover so I can claim I have read all of Lovecraft (... though I remember only fragments of it by now).

You know the most surprising thing is that only now do I realize that I have only ever read his work in translation!

I still have my set, some of the few books I decided to make the effort to bring across the ocean over the years.

These images are from the web -

[OtherEric]

29 minutes ago, Scrooge said:

This would easily belong in the Lovecraft thread but since it is about pulp reprinted, I'll share my story again here.

Back in another time and another place, I spent a chunk of one summer working in Bavaria, Germany and took with me the "complete" works of Lovecraft as edited into this massive 3 book set in the Collection Bouquins. Each volume in the set tops out at 1,200 pages or more. The collection not only has his fiction but also his essays, some correspondence and collaborations and other writings. Since I had most of the afternoons free, I read these cover to cover so I can claim I have read all of Lovecraft (... though I remember only fragments of it by now).

You know the most surprising thing is that only now do I realize that I have only ever read his work in translation!

I still have my set, some of the few books I decided to make the effort to bring across the ocean over the years.

These images are from the web -

Nice!  I recognize the second two covers, the 2nd is by Bok from the December 1951 Famous Fantastic Mysteries and the 3rd is from the September 1952 Weird Tales.  Not sure where the first one is from.

(The WT cover was found on the web, the FFM scan is my own.)

[Scrooge]

5 hours ago, OtherEric said:

Not sure where the first one is from.

At home now with the book in hand. It is credited to Philippe Druillet. Not sure of the year. He did contribute Lovecraft related works for the October 1979 issue of Metal Hurlant but I don't think this one was part of it.

Here's the entire image, the bottom was cropped on the book cover -