A Merritt & Hannes Bok Book (1946)

These are some very rare images of a special press book of an unfinished manuscript from the estate of A. Merritt. The brief excerpt indicates that Mrs. Merritt allowed Hannes Bok to not only illustrate the unfinished manuscript, but finish the story. The illustrations are excellent.

THE FOX WOMAN and THE BLUE PAGODA by A. Merritt and Hans Bok Published from unfinished manuscript by New Collectors Group NY 1946 109 pages bound in black cloth with gold lettering. 11 1/4" X 8 1/2". With 7 illustrations by Hans Bok. A. Merritt left an unfinished fantasy adventure manuscript when he passed away entitled "The Fox Woman". The continuation of the story is "The Blue Pagoda" by Hans Bok. In VG condition with no owners marks or labels. Binding tight and hinges are VG . All pages and plates are in VG condition.

Some A. Merritt Rarities

A. MERRITT'S FANTASY MAGAZINE Circa 1950

From the seller: RHYTHM OF THE SPHERES by A. Merritt (1948) 5 1/4 x 8 1/4, 23 single-sided pages plus covers. Interior pages in excellent condition, covers have chipping on edges. Scarce privately printed chapbook. This is the original printing, not any sort of later copy.

Algernon Blackwood Book

I went trawling Saturday (22 June) and came up with this neat title: Algernon Blackwood's Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural for $3.40. It was regularly $4.00, but I had a 15% off coupon! The cover was not in the greatest shape, but still intact. The image above courtesy of "Carcosa". The date lists it as the (third impression) 1964 edition - the first edition would have been 1962. It was printed in Czechoslovakia, by Spring Books, Westbrook House, Fulham Broadway, London.

Copies seem to be somewhat rare these days. Jimster sent word that he has a sister book of the same edition.

Antiquarian Thread member Carcosa did some research and discovered that "Spring Books of London was a general hardcover publisher that did everything from art books to gardening volumes. They DID do the two really great Blackwood volumes (a 3rd book, TALES OF TERROR AND DARKNESS appears to be a re-title of UNCANNY), and these have been the basis for a few of the reprints that have been done in recent years. They both have ... cool lurid covers typical of the era ... TALES OF THE UNCANNY AND SUPERNATURAL ... was originally published by Peter Nevill Limited of London in 1949 and from what I can see it's EXTREMELY rare and worth some pretty serious coin."

As to Spring Books' horror offerings, I found one listed in the ebayeum that would relate: THE WORKS OF OSCAR WILDE PUBLISHED BY SPRING BOOKS* WESTBOOK HOUSE * FULHAM BROADWAY *LONDON; PRINTED IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA BY SVOBODA, PRAGUE. It had 957 pages and included plays, stories, tales, poems, essays and THE BALLAD OF READING.

The Ship of Ishtar Illustration (1938) A Merritt

Illustration from THE SHIP OF ISHTAR by By A. Merritt from ARGOSYcomplete 1938 serial.

Illustrated A Merritt (The Face in the Abyss)

THE FACE IN THE ABYSS by By A. Merritt from ARGOSYcomplete 1923. The image is small, but the image can be seen distinctly. Apparently it's not so short: a bit less than 94,000 words.

**

Here is a portion of the text. The entire text can be dowloaded here.

She crossed to the little knoll and picked up the spears. She held one out to him, the one that bore the emerald point.
"This," she said, "to remember--Suarra."
"No," he thrust it back. "Go!"
If the others saw that jewel, never, he knew, would he be able to start them on the back trail--if they could find it. Starrett had seen it, of course, but he might be able to convince them that Starrett's story was only a drunken dream.
The girl studied him--a quickened interest in her eyes.
She slipped the bracelets from her arms, held them out to him with the three spears.
"Will you take these--and leave your comrades?" she asked. "Here are gold and gems. They are treasure. They are what you have been seeking. Take them. Take them and go, leaving that man here. Consent--and I will show you a way out of this forbidden land."
Graydon hesitated. The emerald alone was worth a fortune.

A Ray Bradbury Pericope, and an Ackerman Anecdote

The Case of the Baroque Baby-Killer

A teenage chum (Forest Ackerman) battles some skeletons in the closet of Ray Bradbury.

Then Raymond Douglas Bradbury was a little boy, an author in whose genre he was to follow was busy writing stories about babies. That was Dr. David H. Keller, of whom it was once said that he wrote about more babies per square story thatn any other fantasy author. A comparison of the works of Bradbury and Keller might now offer a challenge to that statement. I have a sneaking suspicion that for every baby born in a Keller tale, one of the brats has met a sticky end in a Bradburyarn!

And yet Ray Bradbury has a living brother, mother, father, is married, and momentarily expects to become a parent!

Bradbury is now close to 29. When he was 17, I gave him first publication in fandom. This was a "short scientale" of less than 500 words called "Hollerbochen's Dilemna", in the Jan. '38 (#4) issue of the mimeograft magazine, Imagination. I hang my head to confess that I had no idea at that time I was stenciling genius in the chrysalis. But in my defense I offer those first three paragraphs of the storiette:

Hollebochen faced a crisis. He could tell what would happen in the future. He could see when he would die -- and it was very distressing, as you may well imagine. Every branch of his life lay before him. He knew he would die the next day. He saw himself being blown to bits by a tremendous explosion.

Hollerbochen had another marvelous feature about his person: He had the unique power to be able to stand still in time for a few minutes. But only for a pitifully few minutes.

He faced death and was terribly afraid.

Do you blame me for my blindness? Incidentally, anyone wishing to find out how Hollerbochen solved his dilemna, I have a couple of copies of this collector's item available at $5 per copy. What's that? Sorry, I'll have to conceal the offer - - Bradbury has just offered me $10 to burn them.

What Ray Bradbury was like as a child I have no way of knowing except thru some of his revelations in an article about himself in the Winter 1949 of the Fanscient. But as a teenager he was well-nigh "impossible". I say this without malice, as one who loves him, and without reflection on him today, for many irresponsible youths become model men in their maturity. I find it only humorous, now, to look back on ray when he was a pesky kid and a raggamuffin selling newspapers on a street corner a mile from where I live, and see what a considerate, cultured individual he has blossomed into.

{All of the text available}

Ray Bradbury of 1949

Described thusly: Short 1949 fanzine about Ray Bradbury by Forrest J Ackerman. // Titled "The Case Of the Baroque Baby-Killer" by Forry Ackerman. 8 1/2 x 11, 5 page article covering Bradbury's career up to 1949 written by his close friend Forrest J Ackerman. Excellent condition. This may have appeared in a fanzine as some pages are numbered 14-17, but sources I've found (including XENOPHILE #36 which has a long Bradbury bibliography section) list it as just three stapled pages as it is here. Excellent condition.

Sketch of A. Meritt (1949)

Description by seller: FANTASY TIMES (Nov. 2, 1949) 8 1/2 x 11, 8 pages. Excellent condition. Cover features author A. Merritt. Article on the cancellation of A. MERRITT'S FANTASY MAGAZINE, review of the current issue of that magazine, plus other news and reviews.

1927 Weird Tales Book - Birch, Rud. Starrett, Wright

Birch, A. G. and Others. THE MOON TERROR. Indianapolis: Popular Fiction Publishing Co., [1927]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-192, original dark blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in yellow. First edition. An early anthology of horror fiction with four stories by Birch, Anthony M. Rud, Vincent Starrett, and Farnsworth Wright reprinted from WEIRD TALES.

{no image} priced at $45.00

Funnyman No. 1

Whe Shuster and Siegel (somehow) lost the rights to Superman, they created a new superhero character. Here is issue one from Canada.

Derleth's Scribner 1936 article

"The Old Lady Turns the Other Cheek"

Here's what I've found so far. The magazine and a few interior illustrations of what the magazine would have been like back then.

Theodore Cogswell: Ephemera & Anecdotes

Information from the seller:

THEODORE COGSWELL Strange Holiday Greetings from the Edge

A three piece lot:
1) Postmarked 5 DEC 1983 SCRANTON, PA, a letter envelope addressed with typewriter to science fiction author Reginald Bretnor. Also typed on the envelope is "CONTENTS: ONE FREE HORSE." The return address sticker identifies the sender as Prof. Theodore R. Cogswell in the Dept. of Digital Enumeration at Miskatonic University in Chinchilla, which is probably a bunch of balderdash because this was from Theodore Cogswell, the golden-age science fiction short story virtuoso who rebounded in the silver-age with the best-selling "SPOCK, MESSIAH!" (Of course anything with "Spock" in the title was a best seller in the 70's...)
2) A "secrecy" envelope of sorts, inserted into the letter envelope with the bold declaration, "SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL ENCLOSED."
and within the inner envelope
3) A tri-fold letter-size photocopy -- on the back of a Bureau of Land Management form for adopting wild horses and burros -- featuring Christmas greetings at top and bottom with some newspaper clippings in the middle that read: "Parents turn children into sex slaves," "Brother, Sister Plan Wedding," and "Miserable children can still be happy adults, shrink says." It is signed at the bottom in black ballpoint "Ted."

Ferdinand Feghoot: Ephemera & Anecdotes (IV)

Information from the seller:

Theodore "Ted" Cogswell& Reginald "Reg" Bretnor

PITFCS Correspondence RE: Writers' Organization & Action Plan
When Ted Cogswell started the Institute for Twenty-First Century Studies and it's two journals (Science Fiction prodom's first such, beginning with the one-shot DIGIT, circa 1958-59, followed by a dozen or so Proceedings of the Institute, PITFCS, which ran up through 1962) the goal was largely that of organizing the professional science fiction community, especially the writers who weren't making nearly as much money as they figured the ought. The proceedings consisted mostly of letters sent to Cogswell by the hundred or so working science fiction authors of that time period, which he laboriously retyped on ditto and mimeo masters, making copies that he mailed to everyone on the list.
Reginald Bretnor helped kick things off with a substantial chunk of a letter he'd originally written to Judy Merrill on these matters, comprising the bulk of the first issue of PITFCS (#127 -- Cogswell thought it best to start high for an aura of being well established...) and the following issue was largely filled with responses to Bretnor, who then gave the matter more serious and strenuous thought, resulting in a seven page letter to Cogswell, very little if any of which seems to have been published. Perhaps because much of it seemed radical.
Two items on the auction block today:
FIRST, the genuine and authentic letter from Cogswell to Bretnor which accompanied the latter's copy of PITFCS #128, typed on a half-sheet of stationary from the Ball State Teachers College in Indiana where Cogswell worked while pursuing his Doctorate. It is dated "Thursday" and signed "Ted." (One small spelling error, caught by Ted and zapped with red ink.)
SECOND: Unsigned and merely a carbon copy, yet nevertheless the piece de resistance of this auction (at least in my estimation...) is Bretnor's original carbon copy of his monumental letter, a tour de force of the problems and pitfalls of the publishing world with a variety of solutions, many of which seem odd from Bretnor who was usually a staunch conservative and leery of any form of social activism.
Money changes everything, I guess...
Among other things, Bretnor advocated that book purchases be made tax deductible, that public libraries collect use-royalties on all recently published volumes, that the government get more heavily into into broadcasting (PBS would not incorporate until seven years later), and he even proposed subscription television when cable TV was still a good decade away!
Oh, what the heck, I must have been in a Cogswellian mood myself this morning because I retyped the whole danged thing (what the heck, eventually I figure I'll put my entire collection of Bretnor correspondence online) so I'll include the full text in this listing below.
Oddly, Bretnor concluded that a writers' organization dedicated to science fiction and fantasy authors alone would not have a prayer, and strongly urged the formation a larger and more-inclusive guild -- but then a few years later (largely prompted by the void left when Cogswell folded up shop at PITFCS) the Science Fiction Writers of America was formed under the leadership of Damon Knight, and has been very successful in meeting the goals set out by Bretnor, though by different methodologies.
In any case, a rare and important document from the early days of Prodom.

Ferdinand Feghoot: Ephemera & Anecdotes (III)

Information from seller:

Original Manuscript plus the signed contract, author's paystub, and a copy of the magazine!

Grendel Briarton's FERDINAND FEGHOOT in Isaac Asimovs Science Fiction Magazine
Appearing in the February 1982 issue of IASFM this is the "No Skate-Boarding" episode in the long running saga of Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot, authored by Reginald Bretnor (1911-1992) under the nom de plume of Grendel Briarton. This is Bretnor's original manuscript, complete with lots of editorial markup (so that literary connoisseurs may amuse and edify themselves by seeing the changes!) Besides the single page manuscript, I'm also offering the author's copy the publishing contract, which is signed both by himself and Barbara Bazzer of Davis Publications. I'm also including the checkstub from the publisher's payment to the author, and finally I'm including a copy of the magazine, although it has a chip in the back cover and remnants of an address sticker on the front.

Ferdinand Feghoot: Ephemera & Anecdotes (II)

The information below comes from the seller:

Reginald Bretnor's original copy of his contract with Pulphouse for their publication of THE COLLECTED FEGHOOT, along with a letter from the publisher, both stapled together with a Receipt for Certified Mail from the U.S. Post Office dated May 19, 1992 and originating in Eugene, Oregon. The letter is typewritten on Pulphouse's letter stationary, dated May 7, 1992, and signed simply "Mark." The contract is signed doubly signed and dated: 1) "Aug. 10 1991 Reginald Bretnor" on one side and 2) "5/7/92 Dean Wesley Smith dba Pulphouse Publishing" on the other. The letter purports to be further accompanied by signature sheets, with instructions as to how they should be signed and returned. The contract presents all the nitty gritty details, including a $2000 advance on 6% royalties (sorry if I spoiled the ending....)
These documents were from the estate of the famous science fiction writer, who in addition to having had many fine works published in his own name had also written fiction under his birth-name Alfred Reginald Kahn and also had plays and poems published under the nom de plume Gren Grobis. His "Through Time & Space with Ferdinand Feghoot" adventures he credited to Grendel Briarton, an anagram of his legal name, having officially dropped his first name, promoted his middle name, and made substitution of his Father's surname with his Mother's maiden name.
The Feghoot episodes were first published in 1956 by the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, which would publish over half of the ultimate total of 112, the remainder being serialized in Venture, Asimov's, Amazing, and Pulphouse magazines. Four anthologies would be produced, each containing the entire Feghoot chronicle up to the time of publication. Pulphouse's THE COLLECTED FEGHOOT was the last of these, published shortly before the author's death in 1992.

***

Reginald Bretnoraka Grendel Briarton, Gren Briarton, Gren Grobis, Alfred Reginald Kahn (1911-1992)
In the world of professional science fiction writers Reginald Bretnor was a respected elder statesman, and also one of the first authors ever to write a scholarly text ABOUT science ficiton (Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and Its Future, 1953)
A key and founding member of the Institute for Twenty First Century Studies -- headed by Theodore Cogswell who served as the Institute's secretary and editor of its proceedings (PITFCS) -- Bretnor was also one of this important journal's major contributors. The group, consisting of a veritable Who's Who in Science Fiction (then between 100 and 125 strong), would disband around 1963, only to regroup and expand under the banner of the SFWA, the Science Fiction Writer's of America (the folks who present the 'Nebula Awards.') Naturally, Reg was a founding member of the SFWA as well, and for decades was a regular fixture at major and minor science fiction and fantasy conventions, especially on the west coast.
Reg is perhaps best remembered for his humorous stories, best exemplified in his Papa Schimmelhorn stories and the pseudonymously penned Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot. Ferdinand Feghoot outlived his creator by at least a decade, and apparently he also knew ♫ the way to San José ♫, having been the "Fictional Guest of Honor" at the 2002 World Science Fiction Convention, ConJosé.

***

Ferdinand Feghoot: Ephemera & Anecdotes (I)

Paradox Press, Berkeley 1962priceless ephemera from promotional campaign for legendary science fiction mini-anthology!!! // "TODAY is Feghoot Day!"

Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot was published by Reginald Bretnor, doing business as Paradox Press in Berkeley California back in 1962. Under the pseudonymous guise of Grendel Briarton (an anagram of his own name) he had written the fifty short stories contained therein, each featuring his time-traveling protagonist, the illustrious Ferdinand Feghoot. Each of these short-short sagas concluded with some atrocious pun, spoonerism, or equally ridiculous play on words of some stripe or another. The stories had all been previously published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and were at the time earning Bretnor one of the highest word rates in the genre for short-length material (Feghoots each ran about 150 to 200 words, and by 1962 F&SF was paying $20 per episode.)

Originally from the Bretnor estate, I have the following cachet of promotional ephemera from the Golden Age of Feghoot, when after unsuccessful efforts to find an established book publisher willing to take a chance on it, Reg decided to go it alone, and devised these strange and wonderful schemes for pushing his humble contribution to literature upon an initially lukewarm society.

#1 ~ S.F. Chronicle Personal Ads

I count a total of 50 clippings here, all from the Personals listings in the San Francisco Chronicle from various dates throughout 1962. Some of the ads look suspiciously like imitators, such as one claiming Feghoot is studying at a certain radio DJ school, probably posted by someone unconnected with Bretnor, jumping on the Feghoot bandwagon after the Personals reading populace became more cognizant of the Feghoot mystique.

FEGHOOT is really Judge Crater
FERDINAND FEGHOOT — Come back, come back, whenever you are! Cleopatra
TODAY IS FEGHOOT DAY!
FEGHOOT is the opium of the people! Karl M.
FERDINAND FEGHOOT when are you? G.B.
IN S.F. -- Feghoot is at Staceys and City Lights.(Drat! I'll bet there used to be a letter from Ferlinghetti in this pile....)

How many ads that were placed by Bretnor can you find in this close-up? I count ten, though only nine that mention Feghoot. That one for COGSWELL alumni 75th anniversary in March I suspect to be a Feghootian notice of the then-impending marriage of Theodore Cogswell, another science fiction author with whom Bretnor was then closely asssociated.
#2 ~ Bretnor's payment receipts from the Chronicle
46 of them, most for $2.00, though some for $1, $3, $4 and more. Altogether Bretnor must have spent a little over $100 posting all these messages to and from Feghoot. These are especially interesting as they are all computer printed, which wasn't especially common in 1962! It appears that the Chronicle got a new IBM system before December when the last receipt was issued, blue & white instead of yellow and with a different style of printout.

"TODAY is Feghoot Day!"
Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot was published by Reginald Bretnor, doing business as Paradox Press in Berkeley California back in 1962. Under the pseudonymous guise of Grendel Briarton (an anagram of his own name) he had written the fifty short stories contained therein, each featuring his time-traveling protagonist, the illustrious Ferdinand Feghoot. Each of these short-short sagas concluded with some atrocious pun, spoonerism, or equally ridiculous play on words of some stripe or another. The stories had all been previously published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and were at the time earning Bretnor one of the highest word rates in the genre for short-length material (Feghoots each ran about 150 to 200 words, and by 1962 F&SF was paying $20 per episode.)
Originally from the Bretnor estate, I have the following cachet of promotional ephemera from the Golden Age of Feghoot, when after unsuccessful efforts to find an established book publisher willing to take a chance on it, Reg decided to go it alone, and devised these strange and wonderful schemes for pushing his humble contribution to literature upon an initially lukewarm society.
#1 ~ S.F. Chronicle Personal Ads
I count a total of 50 clippings here, all from the Personals listings in the San Francisco Chronicle from various dates throughout 1962. Some of the ads look suspiciously like imitators, such as one claiming Feghoot is studying at a certain radio DJ school, probably posted by someone unconnected with Bretnor, jumping on the Feghoot bandwagon after the Personals reading populace became more cognizant of the Feghoot mystique.

FEGHOOT is really Judge Crater
FERDINAND FEGHOOT — Come back, come back, whenever you are! Cleopatra
TODAY IS FEGHOOT DAY!
FEGHOOT is the opium of the people! Karl M.
FERDINAND FEGHOOT when are you? G.B.
IN S.F. -- Feghoot is at Staceys and City Lights.(Drat! I'll bet there used to be a letter from Ferlinghetti in this pile....)
Etc.
How many ads that were placed by Bretnor can you find in this close-up? I count ten, though only nine that mention Feghoot. That one for COGSWELL alumni 75th anniversary in March I suspect to be a Feghootian notice of the then-impending marriage of Theodore Cogswell, another science fiction author with whom Bretnor was then closely asssociated.
#2 ~ Bretnor's payment receipts from the Chronicle
46 of them, most for $2.00, though some for $1, $3, $4 and more. Altogether Bretnor must have spent a little over $100 posting all these messages to and from Feghoot. These are especially interesting as they are all computer printed, which wasn't especially common in 1962! It appears that the Chronicle got a new IBM system before December when the last receipt was issued, blue & white instead of yellow and with a different style of printout.
#3 ~ A Mimeographed Flash Bulletin alerting the Press to Feghoot's announcement of the upcoming book.

#4 ~ Feghoot Campaign Poster
I think Bretnor had these lithographed at a quickie printer, nicer than mimeography by far, as should be for something so important as a gubernatorial campaign! To draw extra attention to his book, Bretnor announced that Feghoot would be running for Governor of the State of California, but with an unusual twist, and I'm not just talking about having the Furry with a Syringe on Top for a running mate! Well, perhaps not so unusual, considering that FF was an accomplished professional time traveller, but they would be running against Merriam & Sinclair in the 1934 election, and instead of offering platitudes about better times ahead they were going to retrofit society with a more prosperous past!
Bretnor plastered these all over town, mostly in San Francisco and Berkeley, and I think he also wrote campaign letters to local newspaper editors endorsing Feghoot's candidacy.

#5 ~ Feghoot Sweatshirt & Book Ad Flyer
Printed in the same manner as the campaign posters but on pink stock, this is one of the cover sheets sent along with sweatshirt orders, with two forms for ordering additional sweatshirts and/or copies of the book.

... the book, of which only 2000 were printed. Later and larger Feghoot compilations were published by Mirage Press (1975 & 1980) and Pulphouse (1992), with multiple tales appearing singularly in F&SF, Venture, Asimov's, Amazing, and Pulphouse magazines, and single appearances in a few odd publications outside the science fiction field (such as the "Holmes-spun" piece that appeared in the Baker Street Journal.)