First Edition HARDBACKS .... the "Bookie" thread. 2 2

[jimjum12]

I've been enjoying the sales threads with 1st Edition Hardbacks and thought a dedicated Forum would be nice. I'll start with this item.... I've wanted a copy for years but never turned one up until yesterday. It's one of N C Wyeth's less common editions, or so I'm told. Wyeth is one of my top favorite Book Illustrators. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME. 

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by jimjum12

[Number 6]

I just got this in the mail last week for my John Wyndham first edition collection. 
 

I had promised myself for a long time that I wouldn’t tie up funds chasing the U.S. firsts of his books, except for Day of the Triffids. 
 

But I saw this one come up for sale a couple of months ago and what made it attractive is what good condition it’s in (Ballantine hardcovers aren’t especially well made) and that the lettering on the spine panel is still deep red (typically it fades out to at best orange to pink to almost completely white).

These U.S. versions have textual differences from their U.K. counterparts, usually British expressions and spelling are edited for American audiences as well as certain portions being removed for some unknown reason (this book is missing the prologue from the Kraken Wakes)

Those changes technically make them different books so that rational along with the superior condition is how I talked myself into it. 
 

So I guess now I’m in the market of the other Ballantine hardcovers as well. Re-Birth was already kind of on my radar as it technically pre-dates The Chrysalids…but is really expensive because of the Richard Powers jacket art. And I actually really like the jacket art to Ballantine Midwich Cuckoos.  The trick is going to be finding copies that are in similar shape to this one. 
 

[jimjum12]

Got this from Rick ... 1st hardcover for Seabury Quinn, originally from the 1/38 issue of WEIRD Tales. It has the origin of Santa Claus, hope to read it tonight or tomorrow. Nice illustrations by Virgil Finlay. This has been posted in other spots, but I'm very fond of it.  GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

[OtherEric]

I bought this when it first came out, seeing it at a local store a couple days after a book signing, when neither of the creators were that well known.  They had a few copies left over at cover price.  I could barely afford it and hadn’t read anything by Pratchett and very little by Gaiman at that point. I sometimes think my future self was screaming over my shoulder that if I didn’t grab it I would regret it later.

[Blorgon scum]

I actually placed this book on Amazon as a pre-order and its publication kept being pushed back for years.  Centipede press printed a lavish and beautiful book collecting Clark Ashton Smith's artwork and prose poems.  It was fairly expensive but well worth the wait.  The cover has a sculpture of "Cthulhu." 

[Pat Calhoun]

after seeing the above have decided to post the tribute I made up for CAS birthday today here: it consists of a WT Dolgov cover and the first paragraph of the story shown, the latter makes a strong slug of the old Klarkash-Ton moonshine...

[Pat Calhoun]

since I have the original 1933 version of the Gazolba story in this 1960 collection (I don't own the above WT), as 'The Voyage of King Euvoran", I used the first paragraph of it...

Edited January 13, 2022 by Pat Calhoun

[Number 6]

This is probably a bit off-topic but wanted to ask here since this is probably were I’d be most likely to get an answer:

 

For those of you who collect first edition hardcover books, have you ever had a custom clamshell display box made for one of your books?

I’ve found a studio here on the west coast and I’ve had one recommended on the east coast by a book dealer. 
 

A lot of the examples they have pictured on their sites are very cool….but very elaborate….and probably very expensive.  
 

The book I’m thinking of get a box for is a nice first edition but based on these studios examples I could easily spend more on the box than on the book.  So I think anything with leather is probably out…but I don’t just want a plain cloth box either. 
 

With both studios there’s no drop-down boxes where you pick something, the emphasis is on “custom” - you tell them what you want. 
 

I kind of thought of having them make a cloth box and sending them a facsimile dust jacket and they could attach the front, spine and back panels to the box….but I don’t know, that sounds kind of ticky-tacky when I really think about it. 
 

I have seen some cloth-covered boxes that have “sculpted” relief designs on the front that mirror the design of the book jacket…but not sure how much money I would run into having something like that done custom.

 

Have any of you done this and what type of box did you commission?

[Bookery]

1886.  True first edition (precedes British edition by a few days).  Only 1200 hardback copies were produced.  Of those, the vast majority are in green binding.  This is a rare publisher's copy in maroon binding.  There seems to be uncertainty as to what this is exactly.  Some citations have listed this as a 2nd state, or even 2nd printing.  But the official Robert Louis Stevenson site which indexes all of his work does not indicate any other printings until a few years later.  It simply states copies of the original edition were produced with both green and maroon bindings.  At any rate, this is the scarcest of the versions (green hardbound and plain copies in wraps being the others).  

[jimjum12]

On 2/20/2022 at 8:27 PM, Number 6 said:

I have seen some cloth-covered boxes that have “sculpted” relief designs on the front that mirror the design of the book jacket…but not sure how much money I would run into having something like that done custom.

This might not be that complicated. It's beyond my experience, but I worked at a glass shop in my youth that did custom sand blasting to produce frosted glass designs and also for wooden signage in relief. The design is scanned or reproduced into an auto cad type setup ( like for architectural use) and a stencil is cut from a rubber adhesive film that repels the sand everywhere the design is not. Very impressive results can be achieved. A nice stain on the finished product would really pop, or a decoupage approach could also work. GOD BLESS.... 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[Pulpflakes]

On 2/21/2022 at 6:57 AM, Number 6 said:

This is probably a bit off-topic but wanted to ask here since this is probably were I’d be most likely to get an answer:

 

For those of you who collect first edition hardcover books, have you ever had a custom clamshell display box made for one of your books?

I’ve found a studio here on the west coast and I’ve had one recommended on the east coast by a book dealer.

 

Have any of you done this and what type of box did you commission?

I don't have any high end books but if I wanted one, I'd probably go to my local machine shop and ask if they could laser cut me this out of wood/metal.

 

Etsy has the design file for this up for sale. There are others you might like. Dunno how expensive it would be.

[Number 6]

On 2/21/2022 at 8:17 AM, jimjum12 said:

This might not be that complicated. It's beyond my experience, but I worked at a glass shop in my youth that did custom sand blasting to produce frosted glass designs and also for wooden signage in relief. The design is scanned or reproduced into an auto cad type setup ( like for architectural use) and a stencil is cut from a rubber adhesive film that repels the sand everywhere the design is not. Very impressive results can be achieved. A nice stain on the finished product would really pop, or a decoupage approach could also work. GOD BLESS.... 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

Thanks for the response. 
 

Yes, the one studio I’ve seen who has examples of archival cloth boxes with “sculpted” designs seem to run about $150 which doesn’t seem terrible to me (leather boxes jump to around $250+)

I think my concern is that those prices are for boxes for which they’ve already done the tooling. My concern is that if I were to commission something I’d probably have to bear the brunt of costs for the initial tooling.  
 

I guess I just need to shoot an e-mail and ask, doesn’t cost me anything to find out I guess. 

[frozentundraguy]

Obtained "Lest Darkness Fall (pub. 1949)" in a small town in Wisconsin 2 years ago. From searching the net I noticed that Prime Press, who published the edition I have, also published a version with a black cover, also in 1949. I think this is the first edition. Also of note, all first editions are signed by L. Sprague de Camp, as is mine.

 

[RedFury]

On 2/25/2022 at 1:57 PM, frozentundraguy said:

Obtained "Lest Darkness Fall (pub. 1949)" in a small town in Wisconsin 2 years ago. From searching the net I noticed that Prime Press, who published the edition I have, also published a version with a black cover, also in 1949. I think this is the first edition. Also of note, all first editions are signed by L. Sprague de Camp, as is mine.

 

And a cool Hannes Bok cover too!

[FoggyNelson]

On 2/21/2022 at 9:05 AM, Bookery said:

1886.  True first edition (precedes British edition by a few days).  Only 1200 hardback copies were produced.  Of those, the vast majority are in green binding.  This is a rare publisher's copy in maroon binding.  There seems to be uncertainty as to what this is exactly.  Some citations have listed this as a 2nd state, or even 2nd printing.  But the official Robert Louis Stevenson site which indexes all of his work does not indicate any other printings until a few years later.  It simply states copies of the original edition were produced with both green and maroon bindings.  At any rate, this is the scarcest of the versions (green hardbound and plain copies in wraps being the others).  

A classic👍😷‼️

[valiantman]

[Blorgon scum]

So when is a stated first edition not the true one?  I already know that my copy isn't the first edition of Dune one of my favorite books but it took some time to find that out.  I bought this copy for $6.19 at Waldenbooks many years ago; and I was skeptical at the time but it wasn't until the internet age that I found the criteria that it needed to be the true first edition.  The price on the flap was correct and states first edition.  The last one that it didn't pass was the boards.  Those had to be light blue.

I love this edition and it is in great shape and I am still not sure what printing it is.  That's okay.

[Blorgon scum]

Picture of the boards.

[asimovpulps]

On 5/30/2022 at 5:11 PM, Blorgon scum said:

Those had to be light blue.

I love this edition and it is in great shape and I am still not sure what printing it is

Amazing find and such a cool piece of history! This is the 5th printing of the First Edition, which is still quite a great book to have especially with the original dust jacket. Definitely worth quite a bit more than you paid

Here's a great resource showing how to identify the first 9 printings. http://www.jacurutu.com/viewtopic.php?p=100746#p100746. Easiest way to note yours is the string of numbers "567890" with the first number indicating 5th. Hope that helps!

Edited May 31, 2022 by asimovpulps
Add better link

[OtherEric]

I just need to be happy with my BCE copy… and the original issues of Analog.