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

[RedFury]

On 6/18/2024 at 5:36 PM, RedFury said:

The omnibus editions are illustrated.  Utpatel did dozens of new illustrations for the 1982 omnibus.  I think they were also included in the later omnibus.  I know the Solar Pons comic strip was included in the 2nd omnibus.  That hadn't been seen since Praed Street Papers (1965).

As for total books printed, I don't think they hit 1 million.  I just totaled my spreadsheet (not completely accurate...I have some books duplicated and some without the print run info) but my rough estimate is about 800,000 AH and M&M.

However, I should note that Basil Copper heavily revised Derleth's work in the 1st omnibus.  Most fans do not like it.  The 2nd omnibus returns to the original Derleth texts and includes every known Pons story.

[OtherEric]

On 6/18/2024 at 2:40 PM, RedFury said:

However, I should note that Basil Copper heavily revised Derleth's work in the 1st omnibus.  Most fans do not like it.  The 2nd omnibus returns to the original Derleth texts and includes every known Pons story.

Another reason I had not to bother with it.  I hadn't been aware of the Pons comic strip, I think I might have heard of the Praed Street Papers before but I've always gotten it confused with the Praed Street Dossier. 

Now I'm wondering what the story behind Candlelight Press is, I don't think it's normally considered an Arkham House imprint but it looks like it was largely Derleth again...

[RedFury]

On 6/18/2024 at 5:46 PM, OtherEric said:

Another reason I had not to bother with it.  I hadn't been aware of the Pons comic strip, I think I might have heard of the Praed Street Papers before but I've always gotten it confused with the Praed Street Dossier. 

Now I'm wondering what the story behind Candlelight Press is, I don't think it's normally considered an Arkham House imprint but it looks like it was largely Derleth again...

Praed Street Papers (1965 softcover) and Praed Street Dossier (1968 hardcover) used the same cover art.  But the contents and publisher were different.  Confusing as hell.

I think Candlelight was a thinly veiled vanity publisher for Derleth, but some disagree with me.  I think he wanted an imprint based in NYC and teamed up with Peter Ruber to do it.  Nominally, Ruber was in charge.

By the way, the original Praed Street art hangs on my wall.  And I have all the original comic strips too.  Utpatel adapted two stories in the early 30s to try to sell to a newspaper syndicate.  There are 39 strips total.

 

[OtherEric]

On 6/18/2024 at 2:54 PM, RedFury said:

Praed Street Papers (1965 softcover) and Praed Street Dossier (1968 hardcover) used the same cover art.  But the contents and publisher were different.  Confusing as hell.

I think Candlelight was a thinly veiled vanity publisher for Derleth, but some disagree with me.  I think he wanted an imprint based in NYC and teamed up with Peter Ruber to do it.  Nominally, Ruber was in charge.

By the way, the original Praed Street art hangs on my wall.  And I have all the original comic strips too.  Utpatel adapted two stories in the early 30s to try to sell to a newspaper syndicate.  There are 39 strips total.

 

I'm happy to know the art survives and you have it.  Utpatel is an artist whose work has really grown on me the past couple years as I see more of his stuff.

Wikipedia claims the Praed Street Papers was an earlier version of the Dossier, big surprise that they got it wrong but between that and the cover it's no wonder I was confused.

Edited June 18 by OtherEric

[RedFury]

On 6/18/2024 at 5:58 PM, OtherEric said:

I'm happy to know the art survives and you have it.  Utpatel is an artist whose work has really grown on me the past couple years as I see more of his stuff.

Wikipedia claims the Praed Street Papers was an earlier version of the Dossier, big surprise that they got it wrong but between that and the cover it's no wonder I was confused.

I haven't look in them in a while, but I'm pretty sure the contents are mostly if not entirely different.  I know for certain the comics are in the first but not the second.

Yeah, I like Utpatel too.  He's an unusual artist that has hidden depths.  Some of his work is downright stunning. 

[RedFury]

I found this photo of the two I took a while ago.  Papers is MUCH scarcer.  Dossier had almost 3,000 copies printed, but Papers was probably more like 200 to 500.

[OtherEric]

And, since I mentioned it was on order earlier this week:

 

[Sarg]

On 6/18/2024 at 4:54 PM, RedFury said:

 

By the way, the original Praed Street art hangs on my wall.  And I have all the original comic strips too.  Utpatel adapted two stories in the early 30s to try to sell to a newspaper syndicate.  There are 39 strips total.

Wait, there was a Solar Pons comic strip? Can you post a scan or two?

[BitterOldMan]

Since I have a better chance to win the lottery than find an original of this super rare REH book, I bought the facsimile.

https://reh.world/howardworks/hardcovers/a-gent-from-bear-creek-3/#

 

[RedFury]

On 6/21/2024 at 10:25 AM, Sarg said:

Wait, there was a Solar Pons comic strip? Can you post a scan or two?

Sure.  And to put it in context, here's a brief timeline of early Solar Pons

• 1928 - Derleth, a 19 year old student at the Univ of Wisconsin, writes to Conan Doyle asking permission to take over writing Sherlock Holmes.  Doyle says no.  Derleth begins writing the stories anyway, but changes the names.
• 1929 - 6 Solar Pons stories are published in Dragnet and Detective Trails.  But his pulp publisher, Hersey, abandons pulps after the market crash.  Pons goes on hiatus.  
• Early 1930s - Frank Utpatel, a friend of Derleth's, adapts two of the Pons stories from the pulps to comic strips in the hopes of selling them to a newspaper syndicate.  This was not successful.
• 1945 - Frederic Dannay (Ellery Queen) convinces Derleth to issue a collection of Solar Pons stories, which becomes the first Mycroft & Moran book, In Re: Sherlock Holmes.  Derleth will continue to write new Pons stories for the rest of his life.

[RedFury]

On 6/21/2024 at 12:06 PM, BitterOldMan said:

Since I have a better chance to win the lottery than find an original of this super rare REH book, I bought the facsimile.

https://reh.world/howardworks/hardcovers/a-gent-from-bear-creek-3/#

 

The original is very rare indeed with only 19 known copies, and 7 of those are institutionally held.  Here is the copy held at the Robert E. Howard House, which I visited earlier this month, and my copy.

[Sarg]

On 6/21/2024 at 11:06 AM, BitterOldMan said:

Since I have a better chance to win the lottery than find an original of this super rare REH book, I bought the facsimile.

https://reh.world/howardworks/hardcovers/a-gent-from-bear-creek-3/#

 

 

"Glenn Lord bought it some forty years ago from Arkham House publisher August Derleth for $4.00."  

[Sarg]

Truly staggering to consider how much REH accomplished in a little more than 11 years of writing. 

[OtherEric]

A quick question:  If A Gent from Bear Creek was Howard's first book, and Skull-Face was third, what was his second?

[RedFury]

On 6/21/2024 at 1:20 PM, Sarg said:

Truly staggering to consider how much REH accomplished in a little more than 11 years of writing. 

REH died at age 30 with a huge amount of writing under his belt.  Imagine what he could have produced if he had another few decades.

When Lovecraft was 30 in 1920, He was still at the beginning of his writing career.  He had only been writing seriously for a year (he did write 4 stories in 1917-18, but exploded for 8 stories in 1919) and was still 3 years away from appearing in Weird Tales.  When Lovecraft first wrote to Clark Ashton Smith in 1922 (at age 32) his letter was very fanboyish because Clark was already established as a well-regarded poet but Lovecraft was an unknown.

[RedFury]

On 6/21/2024 at 1:30 PM, OtherEric said:

A quick question:  If A Gent from Bear Creek was Howard's first book, and Skull-Face was third, what was his second?

The Hyborian Age (1938).  It's very rare, possibly rarer than A Gent From Bear Creek.  Being a Robert E. Howard collector is challenging. 

[OtherEric]

On 6/21/2024 at 10:38 AM, RedFury said:

The Hyborian Age (1938).  It's very rare, possibly rarer than A Gent From Bear Creek.  Being a Robert E. Howard collector is challenging. 

Thank you. I was thinking of that as more of a fanzine/ magazine than a book, but that has always been a thin line.

[RedFury]

On 6/21/2024 at 1:41 PM, OtherEric said:

Thank you. I was thinking of that as more of a fanzine/ magazine than a book, but that has always been a thin line.

When it comes to authors' first books, think of it like "a publication where they are the sole author" rather than what looks like a book.  Lovecraft's first "book" is a 4 page pamphlet.

Edited Friday at 05:54 PM by RedFury

[jimjum12]

On 6/21/2024 at 1:30 PM, OtherEric said:

A quick question:  If A Gent from Bear Creek was Howard's first book, and Skull-Face was third, what was his second?

@RedFury

[RedFury]

On 6/21/2024 at 2:10 PM, jimjum12 said:

@RedFury

See above