Brian Leno lets me know today: “Upgraded my Treasure Island dustjacket. What a difference, huh?”
The original wrappers for Leno’s inscribed first edition thus of the Stevenson classic — thus, because this edition featured illos by Mervyn Peake — was kind of rough, especially the chipping at the spine ends.
In some strict bookish circles, “wedding” a better dustjacket to a book is frowned upon, but obviously Brian will hang on to this one (and thousands more) until he croaks, and wants it to look pretty on the shelf.
On October 20th Arkham House Ephemera: The Classic Years dived to 13% off, and on October 25th the price just as suddenly returned to the usual retail of $40.
You’d think they could have kept that 13% going through Halloween, right?
Today Paul Dobish provides the eye candy for John Hancock fans with a couple of books from his collection signed by Edward E. Smith, Ph.D. — otherwise known as E. E. “Doc” Smith. Hugely popular in his day, one of the pioneers of pulp science fiction, an avatar for the likes of Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov to follow, his achievement currently represented by the cinematic oeuvre of George Lucas — in short, he did space opera. And how.
Top image, Smith’s full signature — with “Ph.D.” — in the Buffalo Book Company’s edition of Skylark of Space.
Dobish notes, “Of the two co-authors, copies autographed by Smith turn up fairly often —compared to copies also signed or just signed by Lee Hawkins Garby.
“Both Buffalo Book Co. and Hadley Publishing Co.,” Dobish continues, “issued hardcover editions of Skylark of Space. As noted in one of my copies of the Hadley edition — inscribed to Gerry de la Ree — Smith wrote that he much preferred the Hadley edition.”
De la Ree was a major f&sf bookseller working out of New Jersey for decades. And once again, “Doc” Smith signed with a “Ph.D.”
Note that this inscribed example is only “one of my copies of the Hadley edition.” Yesterday we showed off an image of four of the Dobish copies of the Buffalo Book Co. edition, with the different colored boards. He probably has a few more.
And I cannot say with certainty that some of the numbered copies may not have gone out into the world in the first state wrapper.
But now I can announce that some of the run in fact did go out covered in the first state wrapper, because Paul Dobish just nabbed one. I offered to hold back doing the post until Dobish had secured an example, if an example could be secured. He said, “Thanks for the offer of ‘secrecy’ but I wouldn’t feel right about that. Feel free to post and give everyone a ‘fair’ chance at finding one. Although I would rather find one first, of course.”
Dobish, who ran Other Worlds Bookstore in Providence for many years, collects variants, ephemera and any incidental flourishes associated with the early fantasy & science fiction presses — and no doubt more recent such imprints. He was a major booster and source of info the long years John D. Haefele and I labored toward compilingArkham House Ephemera: The Classic Years.
With Eph Book in hand, he says “No new Herron-Haefele #ed Arkham House/Mycroft & Moran/Stanton & Lee ephemera added recently.” I wonder, would it be of interest to other Arkham ephemera collectors to know which Item numbers neither Dobish, Haefele nor I have yet found — after decades of searching?
Are those Items the rarest of the rare? Or have we three been really, really unlucky?
On the subject of Arkham House review slips, I now know which was the earliest title to have one: The Outsider and Others. Alas, that one is missing from my collection, but I did see an example briefly offered on-line.
I have been able to add only a few slips to my collection beyond what I had at the time we posted about them.
And increased by several more titles the ones reported to exist that I don’t have.
Not all is stasis or disappointment in his library, however. “I did just obtain,” Dobish tells me, “the promotional postcard for the Hadley edition of John W. Campbell’s The Mighiest Machine. The first such that I have seen for sale. I have not seen any similar promotional item for any of the other Hadley titles.”
Hadley Publishing Company — like Donald M. Grant a.k.a. Grandon — operated out of Dobish’s Providence. Or should that be H. P. Lovecraft’s Providence?
Hadley did a run of Skylark of Space, following an earlier Buffalo Book Company edition. Dobish has “a promotional piece” for the Buffalo edition — which he notes “exists in at least four differently colored bindings.”
Want proof? Check out this image straight from the Dobish collection:
Or, as I call it, Eph Book. Published on Halloween night in 2024.
For reasons I’ll never understand the last two or three weeks Amazon has been toying with the price. First it was something like 4 cents off (yes, 4 cents). Then another cent scraped off now and then until finally they went down to $39.50 or so. Water torture stuff.
But now at $34.65 you can actually save a few bucks — if interested.
I don’t know, they might juggle again and drop somewhat lower. Maybe towards Xmas they’ll go nuts and knock it down more. A couple of years ago they cut $10 off the top heading into the big holidays — best discount I recall.
Usually Eph Book sits at $40, patient like a spider, waiting for someone to realize they really need it for reference into those arcane brochures and postcards that announced new Arkham House releases in the classic era when August Derleth helmed the firm. They catalogued the roll call for years as one title after another went out of print.
Collecting Arkham House ephemera — one of my all-time favorite bookman hobbies.
Creeping up on Halloween, I might as well get into the spirit with a bit about a dustjacket showcasing one of the many weird carvings crafted by horror and fantasy great Clark Ashton Smith.
My bookman pal Paul Dobish and I were talking about something bookish, which brought to mind a first run dustjacket on an Underwood-Miller book. I realized that he might not know about it, and Dobish is deep into that kind of thing — he discovered that the boards on the Arkham House first edition of Stanley McNail’s poetry collection Something Breathing featured three variants for the cloth covering. First he learned there were two shades of green, and kept at it until he found a third. A fourth? If it exists, Dobish stands most likely among people I know to stumble across the discovery.
I only know about the first run jacket because I ghost-edited Feast of Fear, interviews with bestseller Stephen King. You’ll find a small credit line that acknowledges I “compiled” that 1989 collection. And as an additional connection to that edition, Tim Underwood asked if he could use one of the Clark Ashton Smith carvings from my personal collection for the cover, for fun.
The limitation page for the U-M first — all boxed in slipcase —reports 600 copies, of which 550 are numbered, 24 are stamped “Presentation Copy” with the final 26 “lettered A-Z and leatherbound.” A trade hardcover followed from Carroll & Graf.
The image at the top features Dobish’s numbered copy — slipcase openside out on the left. He also has one of the 26 lettered copies bound in leather, but those were not issued with a dustjacket.
The jacket on that Dobish copy comes from a second run. Tim was unsatisfied with the first run of the jacket and had them redone.
The image at the bottom shows the first run jacket on the left and the second run jacket — the one generally used for the book — on the right.
The shot of the carving is the same on both, but the placement within the front jacket panel is different.
You’ll notice two discernible points:
The first run of the jacket (on the left) has more space between the carving and the spine edge to the left.
Easier to quickly check, the placement of the sub-title beneath the lips is different, as the carving “moves” in the space. If confused, use a ruler or pencil placed over the images to do a visual line from the corner of the lips down to the words.
On the second run (on the right) all the sub-title wording falls below the lips — none of it projects out to the left.
On the first run both the words “Conversations” and “with” start TO THE LEFT of the left corner of the mouth.
A minor change, but the first placement was driving Tim’s design sense nuts, I guess. Hence, he did another run.
Plunging into the quest, Dobish tells me that most copies of the first of Feast of Fear on ABEBooks feature a “stock image” of the book — but the stock image is of the first run jacket! My understanding when Tim was gave me both states of the jacket was that the one used on the print run would be the “corrected” second state.
If you get in on the hunt for the first state dustwrapper, then, tread with caution.
Another wrinkle to the narrative — which I knew nothing about, because I didn’t receive one of the leather copies — is that while the 26 lettered copies come without dustjackets, on the side of the accompanying slipcase they have tipped-in or pasted the front panel of the otherwise unused first run jacket. Dobish knows this detail because as a book dealer he handled several copies.
I don’t know, but perhaps that’s where the current “stock image” on ABEBooks originated. And I cannot say with certainty that some of the numbered copies may not have gone out into the world in the first state wrapper.
Yeah, another nightmare for Halloween — and hey, arch book collectors love this sort of thing.
Me, thank god I have both states of the jacket on my copies and don’t have to worry about it.
Randal Brandt of the Bancroft Library popped in the image above — he’s at the podium giving a talk for Cal’s Homecoming events on Saturday October 10. On the screen behind him you’ll see the cover of the 1982 edition of the Dashiell Hammett Tour book.
“My Homecoming talk (the space was HUGE!) went well. Here’s a shot from the event, with the slide from the Origin Story section.”
As I say in an intro to the essay “Collecting San Francisco Mysteries” as featured in Death Lit:
Near the end of the article I report that I have retired from the fray, donating my assembled collection to the Bancroft Library, accessible to anyone interested in some criminous research. But then what happened?
Bancroft librarian Randal Brandt, another big fan of David Dodge, decided to put up a website devoted to San Francisco area mysteries, keeping it updated as new titles continued to appear. And gradually he expanded the scope to cover all California mysteries, so Bancroft probably needed to add lots more shelving.
Randal thus is explaining how the kernel of my donation of San Francisco Mysteries led on to the next stage, collecting LA mysteries, Fresno mysteries — the works.
But as I say in Death Lit, “Collecting everything isn’t necessarily bad — so many try — but I prefer the specialized quest myself. If you want a new hobby, I suggest sticking with the classic that kicked it all off. . . .”
Offhand, I don’t recall the Continental Op showing up in Jeopardy! clews before now. Usually it’s Sam Spade or Nick and Nora Charles — or Asta. Sometimes Lillian Hellman or Joe McCarthy. San Francisco.
On Friday October 2 —S43 E15 — first round. $1000 clew. Category: Red to be Read.
Picture of Hammett as Ken Jennings does voice-over on the following:
One of the earliest tough guy detectives, the Continental Op shows up in 1929’s Red Harvest by this author
Autograph Hound Saturday — and Brian Leno got so excited over his new bust of King Kong he began digging in his extensive files of John Hancocks, and look what he’s found:
Here’s some King Kong fun.
The drawing of Kong is signed by the three principals in the film, Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot and Robert “Bob” Armstrong.
The Armstrong is a little messy but he added 1934, which helps a lot.
It also bears the signature of John Northpole, who played a sailor in Kong. He had parts in Citizen Kane, Captain Blood, One Million B. C. and others. Pretty obscure autograph.
Noble Johnson played the chief of the natives on Skull Island. Extremely hard John Hancock to come across. Friend of Lon Chaney Sr., he appeared in The Most Dangerous Game, Lost Horizon, The Mummy. Noble also played Queequeg in the John Barrymore version of Moby Dick.
I don’t know who did the drawing of Kong, but above the Fay Wray signature, underneath Kong’s left shoulder, I can make out either 1934 or HS 34. It’s tough.
It’s possible to come across the three top dogs on one sheet, I guess — but I’ve never seen another one. To have Noble Johnson and Northpole with them is a little mind boggling.
I got this sheet and my Meriam C. Cooper from the same dealer and believe in the authenticity of both items.
The Cooper signed envelope is a beauty. Commemorating Armistice Day, it also has Kosciuszko Squadron beneath Cooper’s autograph — a Polish Air Force Squadron he helped found in 1919. We all know Cooper played one of the pilots that gave Kong hell atop the Empire State Building.
As I get older I’m starting to sell stuff off, but these two items will stay with the collection. Pretty sure about that.
Welcome to a hard-boiled and not without noir blog with news and reviews, occasional outbursts of maniacal Autograph Hound activity, plus archival records from the forty-five year run of The Dashiell Hammett Tour.
