On Thursday, 9 May 2013 about 7 o’clock I came across a stack of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazines.

Here is the cover.

I blanked out the address label which even though it was blacked out, the scanning software revealed it. (Beware). I left the price sticker. As one can see, the feature stories were an 1893 reprint by Nesbit and the incomparable Joyce Carol Oates. As this was the Halloween edition of 2001, I thought why not. I am not really into “mysteries”, but the mystery aspect is integral to modern horror stories and I realize I need to broaden my perspective. So for 4 bits, I picked this up.

Little did I realize I would discover an exciting writer with an antiquarian flavor: One Terry Black.

What a great title. What a great illustration. And it was only 6 pages, but what a nice ride. Just a boyhood fantasy dream – or nightmare. A boy accidentally locked in a store at night with the legendary Count Dracula.

Black apparently likes Ray Bradbury and he clearly channels the master with this one. It is a great page turner and, in my humble opinion, steals the show of this issue. It was his first of five short stories to the magazine in the first decade of the 21st century.

Black, as I gather, has garnered numerous awards including one in 2004. It seems he has a new e-book, also: The Cabana Stories: “Oh, Those Childhood Days”

What else does one find in those dark corners of the bookstore?

For 8 bits I picked up two original Wizards. These were fanboy (and fan-girl’s) links to what was new in the comic book industry. Mostly filler and gossip, they featured illustrations specially given (or sold) to Wizard to promote upcoming projects. There were full page pinups and sometimes posters or other promotions. Originally these two issues were $12.90 but are now a mere dollar for the pair. And inside of one was a nice little speculative article about a “what-if”.

There is no doubt that times are tough. The Roarin’ 2000′s has become the whimpering teens. You have to sometimes grab Taco Bell or a dollar fry rather than go hungry, but for just a little change you can still get entertainment value and support your local used book store.

If you are reading this blog, you are likely a lover of antiquarian horror and other things. So even if you can’t afford a $50 coffee table book on the olden days, you can still explore antiquarianism. And then, once you begin to know what you like and don’t like, check out Larry’s articles on how to collect for fun and profit. They are FREE, too.

The Importance of the Book Collector

The Importance of the Genre Book Collector

Spotting Trends and the Rules of Book Collecting 1

Spotting Trends and the Rules of Book Collecting 2

Book Collecting

Miskatonic Books appreciates your browsing the bookstore. Click on the image below, or here.

Esoterica

Magazines

Graphics and Comics

Art

ISIS MAGIC has been a cult classic among esoteric circles for more than a decade and the original paperback edition now commands several hundred dollars to acquire due to its unparalleled presentation of the Goddess Isis.

As in the previous edition, the first part of Isis Magic helps you discover the many faces of Isis as seen through the eyes of Her devotees, from ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean world to the secret societies of the past and today’s Neo-Pagan groups and individuals. The second part offers a spiritual path that guides you in creating or deepening your own relationship with this most powerful and magical of living Goddesses.

To get your copy of this powerful new title and to get more information on this exciting new publishing house just click the icon below:

     Abiegnus House

The Dark Man: An Illustrated Poem
by Stephen King

About the Book:
Stephen King first wrote about the Dark Man in college after he envisioned a faceless man in cowboy boots and jeans and a denim jacket forever walking the roads. Later this dark man would come to be known around the world as one of King’s greatest villains, Randall Flagg, but at the time King only had simple questions on his mind: where was this man going? What had he seen and done? What terrible things…?

i have ridden rails…

More than forty years after Stephen King first wrote his breathtaking poem “The Dark Man,” Glenn Chadbourne set out to answer those questions in this World’s First Edition hardcover featuring more than 70 full-page illustrations from the talented artist behind The Secretary of Dreams.

i have slept in glaring swamps…

This Cemetery Dance Publications hardcover is a true marriage of words and art, with Chadbourne pulling the images from King’s imagination and illustrating them in magnificent detail. This incredible blending of King’s words with Chadbourne’s art creates a unique page turning experience you can return to again and again, always finding new details hidden on every page. You’ll discover hidden layers and mysterious secrets for years to come.

i am a dark man…

So who is the Dark Man and why is he traveling the country? The answers are terrifying….

Three unique editions to choose from

To reserve your copy just click on the cover art below for more information.

NOTE: We have a very limited supply of these and the publisher sold out of both the limited and the lettered edition in minutes of announcing it. We are selling our handfull of allotted copies on a first come first serve basis. This is a pre-order and is not expected to ship until late July early August.

THE DARK MAN: AN ILLUSTRATED POEM by Stephen King (First Edition Hardcover in Custom Slipcase)

World’s First Edition, First Printing SLIPCASED trade hardcover featuring a different dust jacket and shrink-wrapped with a deluxe custom-made slipcase and a collectible Glenn Chadbourne bookmark featuring a Dark Man drawing that doesn’t appear in the book

THE DARK MAN: AN ILLUSTRATED POEM by Stephen King (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover in Custom Traycase)

Traycased Signed Limited Edition of only 500 copies printed in two colors on a specialty paper stock, bound in a fine material with two-color hot foil stamping, a different dust jacket, a color frontispiece, satin ribbon page marker, and embossed endpapers, signed by Stephen King and Glenn Chadbourne

THE DARK MAN: AN ILLUSTRATED POEM by Stephen King (Signed LETTERED Edition Hardcover in Custom Traycase)

Signed Lettered Edition of only 52 copies printed in two colors on a specialty paper stock and bound in two different fine materials with gilded page edges, a different dust jacket, a different color frontispiece, a satin ribbon page marker, imported endpapers, a hand-drawn Dark Man illustration by Glenn Chadbourne in every copy, all protected in a custom deluxe traycase, signed by Stephen King and Glenn Chadbourne

Many of the books we carry are rare and we have a very limited quantity.

All books are sold on a first come first serve basis.

For the esoteric minded reader:

Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum by Elias Ashmole (First Edition Hardcover)

THE CATECHISM OF LUCIFER by Johannes Nefastos (Limited Edition Hardcover)

“Written as a counter-gospel for the Evangelical Lutheran catechism, but in addition to this, it represents a Gnostic form of Satanism on its own. In this book is outlined the path out of worldliness, out of theology mortally wounded by its false theodicy, even out of humanity taken as something small-minded, powerless and petty. The Catechism of Lucifer is founded upon the idea that by hating the perverted picture made of God by the Christian doctrine, we may truly attain higher possibilities for our Spiritual development and Empowerment. On this demanding but beautiful and meaningful path we are led by our innermost potential of ingeniosity, the divine Master Lucifer.

Book is in fine unread condition.

• Includes the following texts:
• The Ten Commandments of Lucifer
• The Satanic Credo in Three Creeds
• The Master’s Prayer in Six Articles
• Of Lucifer’s sacraments
• Of Demons
• Of Magic
• Of the Responsibility of the Individual
• Of Satan
• And many relevant quotations taken from the different sources of Star of Azazel’s literature.

Ixaxaar Occult Literature, 2013. First Edition Hardcover. Small Octavo. 82pp. Gilt decorated black faux leather, black textured endpapers, finished with a black silk ribbon and cream colour head- and tailbands, printed on embossed linen paper. Publisher’s printed bookmark loosely inserted.

THE INFERNAL COLOPATIRON: A Manual of Daemonic Theophany by S. Connolly (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

BACK IN STOCK!!! Selling quickly

Being a sacred grimoire of the walkers, detailing the olde ways of Demonolatry gate opening and the arte of daemonic theophany. Discusses centuries old, never before published Daemonolatry methods to produce Daemonic manifestations and includes the never before published Purswell ascension ritual, the pre-curser to the Dukanté version.

extured black faux leather, copper lettering to spine & copper sigil of Ocat, the “abyssal gatekeeper of the dead”, on upper board. Sigils and illustrations. Bibliography. Edition limited to 220 hand-numbered copies, consecrated and sigilised by the author, thus the limitation page may have an oleum smear from the anointing oil, or ink smudges from the blood infused ink. Called by the publisher: “A sacred grimoire of the walkers, detailing the olde ways of Demonolatry gate opening and the arte of daemonic theophany. The author discusses centuries old, never before published Daemonolatry methods to produce Daemonic manifestations and includes the previously unpublished Purswell ascension ritual, the pre-curser to the Dukanté version.” We note that each copy has printed within it a curse that is said to activate if someone steals or reproduces the book in any manner, including internet uploads. Not to be reprinted.

Book is in new unread condition

For the Horror Fiction connoisseur:

BRIDES OF THE IMPALER by Edward Lee (Signed Deluxe Leather Bound Lettered Edition in Traycase)

Traycased Hardcover Lettered Edition of 52 signed and lettered copies bound in leather with a satin ribbon page marker.

Book is in fine condition in a like traycase

About the Book:
Cristina Nichols fears the future, through the harrowing whispers of her past. She longs to forget the depraved abuses she suffered in her youth that left her afraid of love and passion. But something, somewhere, is suddenly tantalizing her, beckoning into a muse of carnal revelation and ecstatic fulfillment…

SECRET PASSIONS…

Deep in the cryptic New York City brownstone, something awakens, brimming with hot, real breath, libidinous longings and desires of the flesh the likes of which Cristina cannot conceive…

A SECRET LUST BURIED FOR AGES…

In the basement she finds it, the sinister evil finally unbound, reaching forth in vampiric bloodlust to prey upon her most forbidden fantasies and plummet her body and soul into a chasm of wantonness as black as the most timeless sin…

IMPALER

The secret will drench your desires in blood…

SERPENT GIRL by Ray Garton (Signed Lettered Edition Hardcover)

Steven Benedetti’s work has him driving the lonely highways at night, as it so often does. But tonight he passes a carnival and decides to stop for a break. At the carnival, Benedetti meets the Serpent Girl, a woman who stirs him like no other woman has, a woman who, like Benedetti, has a secret. They hit the night roads together and begin a journey that will change Benedetti forever.

Traycased Lettered Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies bound in leather with a satin ribbon page marker and extra full-color artwork

THE HORROR HALL OF FAME: THE STOKER WINNERS edited by Joe R. Lansdale (Deluxe Signed Leather Bound Lettered Edition in Traycase)

Traycased Lettered Edition of 52 (signed by the editor) and lettered copies bound in leather with a satin ribbon page and additional color artwork

Book is in fine condition in like traycase

Featuring full color cover artwork by Alan M. Clark and black & white interior artwork for every story by acclaimed artist Glenn Chadbourne

About the Book:
This landmark anthology collects for the first-time ever the Bram Stoker Award-winning short stories and novellas from legendary authors such as George R.R. Martin, Robert Bloch, Harlan Ellison, Jack Ketchum, Joe R. Lansdale, David Morrell, Alan Rodgers, and many, many others! The Stoker Award is presented annually by the Horror Writers Association, and this volume represents the very best fiction in the horror field!

• Table of Contents:
• “Introduction” by Joe R. Lansdale
• “The Scent of Vinegar” by Robert Bloch
• “The Calling” by David B. Silva
• “Chatting With Anubis” by Harlan Ellison
• “The Pear-Shaped Man” by George R.R. Martin
• “The Night They Missed the Horror Show” by Joe R. Lansdale
• “Lady Madonna” by Nancy Holder
• “The Box” by Jack Ketchum
• “Stephen” by Elizabeth Massie
• “The Red Tower” by Thomas Ligotti
• “The Boy Who Came Back From the Dead” by Alan Rodgers
• “The Night We Buried Road Dog” by Jack Cady
• “Metalica” by P.D. Cacek
• “Orange is for Anguish, Blue is for Insanity” by David Morrell

LAST EXIT FOR THE LOST by Tim Lebbon (Deluxe Signed Leather Bound Lettered Edition in Custom Traycase)

Traycased Lettered Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies bound in leather

Book is in fine condition in like traycase

cover artwork by Les Edwards

About the Book:
From multi award-winning and New York Times bestselling writer Tim Lebbon comes this huge collection of the very best of his short fiction.

His first short fiction collection As the Sun Goes Down (Night Shade Book), attracted rave reviews. Now, Last Exit for the Lost collects the best of Lebbon’s output from 2000 to the present day. Weighing in at over 560 pages and containing 150,000 words of fiction, it also features two brand new, never-before-published stories: the novelette The Evolutionary, and the novella Nothing Heavenly.

• In Kissing at Shadows, a man makes a yearly journey through an apocalyptic landscape to visit the memory of his wife…
• In The Stuff of the Stars, Leaking, a dead sea creature washed up on a remote beach proves to be more mysterious than it first appears…
• A man loses his son… and he will do anything to get him back In Perpetuity…
• In The Horror of the Many Faces, Watson witnesses his friend Sherlock Holmes committing horrendous crimes that the great man himself would have trouble solving…
• A boy meets a mysterious stranger who can heal dead animals in The Evolutionary… but is there some fearful design to their meeting…?
• And captured by angels or demons, a prisoner can find Nothing Heavenly in either…

Lebbon has been described as “…the most exciting voice in the horror genre since Poppy Z Brite and Bentley Little”, “…the most exciting new name in horror for years”, and “…one of the very few genuinely talented British writers of thought-provoking horror and dark fantasy”.

If you’re brave enough to step through this Last Exit, you’ll see why…

STORIES FROM THE PLAGUE YEARS by Michael Marano (Deluxe Signed Leather Bound Lettered Edition in Custom Traycase)

Traycased Lettered Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies bound in leather with a satin ribbon page marker

Book is in fine condition in a like traycase

Introduction by John Shirley

About the Book:
Stories from the Plague Years is the first fiction collection from award-winning fantasy author Michael Marano.

Nine tales are arranged in a haunting symphony that guides readers through a tour of the darkest landscapes of human existence. Here, fury and hate grow so strong, they cannot be held within one man’s body, and manifest themselves to devastating effect. Cities contain second, unseen cities populated by the vengeful ghosts of those who died too soon. Countries fall to famine and war.

But these are also the tales of love lasting beyond death, love existing beyond all hope, and friendships never forgotten. Included are the widely praised stories “Winter Requiem,” “The Siege,” and the controversial “Burden,” as well as two original novellas.

Marano, acclaimed for his evocative voice, paints lush portraits both terrifying and tender, injecting even the darkest of fantasies with a punk rock sensibility and a touch of the humane. With Stories from the Plague Years, he presents snapshots of a time when our world collided with evil, sickness, and self-destruction and left behind lasting scars on those who dared to survive.

KING BLOOD by Simon Clark (Deluxe Signed Leather Bound Lettered Edition in Traycase)

Traycased Hardcover Lettered Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies bound in leather and Smyth sewn with a satin ribbon page marker

About the Book:

Warm
Rick Kennedy feels pretty good. Tonight there’s going to be the party of the summer. The brother he hasn’t seen for years has just flown in, and this is the night Rick plans to do something about Kate Robinson — the beautiful girl he just can’t get out of his mind. In the pleasant village of Fairburn the evening air is warm…

Warmer
And this is the night that Rick encounters the mysterious stranger in the woods.

Hot
Soon he wakes to find 30,000 refugees choking the streets. People are running for their lives. Only there’s nowhere to run.

Hotter
The ground heats up inexorably. Roads melt. Cities erupt into flame. Lakes boil. Pockets of natural gas explode like nuclear bombs and geysers of scalding water flood through whole communities.

Burning
Survivors search desperately for refuge in a landscape burning forever hotter beneath their feet. But they have yet to confront the Grey Men — and the demons inside themselves…

Giant Crabs Are Approaching!

Roger Corman gave us a black and white premonition, and now carbon dioxide is making it a reality.

Dateline: 10 April 2013

Giant crabs are crawling toward shore, and they are ravenous for flesh.

Yes, really. But they really only want oysters, not people.

University of North Carolina’s (UNC) Aquarium Research Center scientists discovered that the current level of carbon dioxide is allowing blue crabs to get larger, menaer, and voraciously hungry.

Oysters are the favorite food of these crabs, and the big, insatiable crabs can wipe out an oyster bed rapidly. This according to UNC’s Justin Baker Ries, marine geologist.

A 2009 study published in the journal Geology related that Chesapeake blue crabs grew nearly four times faster in tanks containing water with high levels of carbon than in low-carbon tanks. The result was “like watching lions tear apart lambs;” the aggressive crabs ripped open oyster shells and gobbled up their insides.

Cool Links (click):

1. The Crabs of Guy Smith

2. Giant Blue Land Crabs

3. More crabs

Dateline: 1 May 2013

Jamestown settlers ate teen girl, Smithsonian says …

Forensic anthropologists say marks found on the girl’s bones, uncovered during a recent archaeological excavation, suggest her brain, among other parts, was eaten by starving settlers.

“The chops to the forehead are very tentative, very incomplete,” Douglas Owsley, a forensic anthropologist at the institute, said on Wednesday. “Then, the body was turned over, and there were four strikes to the back of the head, one of which was the strongest and split the skull in half. A penetrating wound was then made to the left temple, probably by a single-sided knife, which was used to pry open the head and remove the brain.”

Douglas Owsley speculates that this particular Jamestown body belonged to a child who likely arrived in the colony during 1609 on one of the resupply ships. She was either a maidservant or the child of a gentleman, and due to the high-protein diet indicated by his team’s isotope analysis of her bones, he suspects the latter. The identity of whoever consumed her is entirely unknown, and Owsley guesses there might have been multiple cannibals involved, because the cut marks on her shin indicate a more skilled butcher than whoever dismembered her head.

It appears that her brain, tongue, cheeks and leg muscles were eaten, with the brain likely eaten first, because it decomposes so quickly after death. There’s no evidence of murder, and Owsley suspects that this was a case in which hungry colonists simply ate the one remaining food available to them, despite cultural taboos. “I don’t think that they killed her, by any stretch,” he says. “It’s just that they were so desperate, and so hard-pressed, that out of necessity this is what they resorted to.”

So beautiful. Such a sad end.

Horror novels try to create abstract representations of the horrific things that humans endure. The greatest fears were that Jamestown settlers despaired and were forced to cannibalism. It now appears that it really happened. It was 400 years ago, so the terror is long over. May their ghosts rest now that the revelation of the secret they protected has been revealed.

Read more here:

Smithsonian Report

Yahoo News Report

For the esoteric minded reader:

The Book of Abrasax. A Grimoire of the Hidden Gods by Michael Cecchetelli (Signed Leather Bound Limited Edition)

“The Book of Abrasax is concerned with operations of practical magic, and there are chapters on spacial, protective, amorous, wealth, curse, and transcendent operations. Cecchetelli sticks very close to the original texts from which he draws but is also not afraid of making changes, additions, and insertions when needed. This is actually the real genius of the book. Former attempts have stayed so close to the original that they omit things where the papyri is worn, and refuse to make even the most obvious changes for fear of not passing academic scrutiny. Mike understands that the needs of the academic and the needs of the magus are not always the same. He has the intelligence, wisdom, gnosis, and frankly daring to alter the text in accordance with the intended goal: producing a workable modern grimoire.”
-Inominandum-

This is a signed leather bound Practitioners Edition. This is number 55.

Book is in fine condition.

CHILDREN OF CAIN by Michael Howard (First Edition Hardcover)

The mid-twentieth century witnessed the birth of popular occultism in the West, including an interest in witchcraft. At the forefront of popular witchcraft was Wicca, a recension of ceremonial magic and nature worship advanced by Gerald Gardner and Alex Sanders, now widely regarded as a religion. However, lesser-known streams of the witch-current thrived the shadows, having older historical roots, and linked to an ancient body of practice – witch-bottles, knotted cord spells, curses, exorcisms, sexual magic, and charms ranging from the conjuration of angels to protection of livestock and hearth.

This was Traditional Witchcraft, whose origin in part lies with the sorcery of the cunning-folk of Britain and Colonial America. Though largely avoiding the popular occult limelight, from 1970 onward, elements of Traditional Witchcraft experienced a partial emergence into the public through such publications as Paul Huson’s Mastering Witchcraft, the writings of Robert Cochrane and Evan John Jones, and Andrew Chumbley’s Azoëtia: A Grimoire of the Sabbatic Craft.

Based on over forty years of research and private collaboration with practitioners, Michael Howard’s Children of Cain is the definitive history of Traditional Witchcraft and its key operatives in Britain and the United States. Supplemented with diverse photographs and illustrations, many appearing for the first time, the book artfully encompasses the unique legacy of Traditional Witchcraft – those who bear the Mark of the Exile as a sign of hidden power: the Children of Cain.

Book is in new unread condition

THE DEVIL’S RAIMENTS by Martin Duffy (Limited Edition Hardcover)

In occult literature, the Vestments of the Art Magical are poorly understood, principally because few save the body of initiates behold them. The robe, mask, hood, mantle, garter, and veil, constituting the exterior arrayments of the witch, trace their pedigree to a number of magical sources, each constituting a mystery of form and function. These mystical underpinnings often possess a deeper arcanum, being both emblematic of specified witch-powers and serving a hidden ritual purpose. In ‘The Devil’s Raiments’, Martin Duffy examines the relationship of the sorcerer to that which clothes him, with particular emphasis on the witch-cult. Also explored is the modern perception of the witch as the Naked Enchantress, as well as some of the older historical rationales for the portrayal of nudity in witchcraft. The text is illustrated with five original drawings by Sussex artist Steve Damerell.

First edition. Octavo, hardcover with dust jacket. 96 pp. Limited edition of 800 copies only. Issued as Three Hands Press Occult Monograph No. 2. A fine copy, as new in dust jacket.

MYSTICISM: INITIATION AND DREAM by Andrew D. Chumbley (Limited Edition Hardcover)

Richmond Vista, CA, USA: Three Hands Press [ Xoanon ], 2012. First Edition Hardcover. 8vo. 56pp. Fine cloth spine, papered boards, gilt lettering to spine, bibliography. Standard hardcover edition, limited to 1,000 copies. A monograph by British occult author Andrew D. Chumbley (1967-2004).”Written as an undergraduate as SOAS University of London in 2001, “Mysticism: Initiation and Dream” would foreshadow the concerns of Andrew Chumbley’s later doctoral research on the transcendental nature of the magical dream. In the course of his exposition, the concepts of the Initiatic Dream are traced to furthest antiquity, epitomized by the participatory nature of the Mystic within the Oneiric Realm. The axiomata of Dream Reification and Rarefaction are introduced as defining processes of this twilight pilgrimage, both of a gnostic and illuminative character. At the time of his matriculation, Chumbley had already established a solid reputation as an occult author and practitioner of widely varying spiritual disciplines. His highly-acclaimed books Azoetia (1992) and Qutub (1995) arose not only from the solid foundation of magical practice and theory, but also from a highly complex mystical dream system, perfected for many years. Though forming the core of his coursework, Mysticism – together with the bulk of his SOAS essays – were written in a transcendent dialogist style altogether in concord with the body of his occult work.” NEW book, fine in fine dust jacket.

 WEST COUNTRY WITCHES by Michael Howard (Limited Edition Hardcover)

In this second volume in what is to be a four book series, the author examines the Craft sorcery and folklore of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset. Rich in folklore and folk traditions, the West Country has always had an aura of mystery and magic, and this is reflected in its past and the various races and their spiritual beliefs who have occupied it down the centuries.

Richmond Vista, CA: Three Hands Press, 2010. First Edition, limited Hardcover. 8vo. 224pp. Deluxe hardcover edition. Fine maroon cloth with gilt titling to spine and device to upper board. Brown endpapers. Title page and in-text llustrations, bibliography. A limited edition of 250 copies

 

For the Horror Fiction connoisseur:

THE WOMAN by Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee (Deluxe Lettered Edition in Custom Traycase WITH BONUS NOVELLA!)

“He is, quite simply, one of the best in the business, on par with Clive Barker, James Ellroy, and Thomas Harris.”
— Stephen King

The Woman (Featuring A Brand New Bonus Novella!)
by Jack Ketchum & Lucky McKee

Update for Collectors:
The Lettered Edition sold out within 72 hours of being officially announced.

About the Book:
The Woman is the powerful story of the last survivor of a feral tribe of cannibals who have terrorized the east coast from Maine into Canada for years now. Badly wounded in a battle with police, she takes refuge in a cave overlooking the sea.

Christopher Cleek is a slick, amoral — and unstable — country lawyer who, out hunting one day, sees her bathing in a stream. Fascinated, he follows her to her cave.

Cleek has many dark secrets and to these he’ll add another. He will capture her, lock in his fruit cellar, and tame her, civilize her. To this end he’ll enlist his long-suffering wife Belle, his teenage son and daughter Brian and Peg, and even his little girl Darlin’, to aid him.

So the question becomes, who is more savage? The hunter or the game?
About the Bonus Novella:
Cow by Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee takes place a year after the novel ends, but to say anything else could spoil some of the surprises!

Traycased Lettered Edition of 52 signed and lettered copies bound in leather with a satin ribbon page marker

Book is in fine condition in like traycase

SERPENT GIRL by Ray Garton (Signed Lettered Edition Hardcover)

Steven Benedetti’s work has him driving the lonely highways at night, as it so often does. But tonight he passes a carnival and decides to stop for a break. At the carnival, Benedetti meets the Serpent Girl, a woman who stirs him like no other woman has, a woman who, like Benedetti, has a secret. They hit the night roads together and begin a journey that will change Benedetti forever.

Traycased Lettered Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies bound in leather with a satin ribbon page marker and extra full-color artwork

WICKED THINGS by Thomas Tessier (Deluxe Lettered Edition in Traycase)

This Cemetery Dance Limited Edition hardcover includes the bonus novella “Scramburg USA” by Thomas Tessier!

Update for Collectors:
The Lettered Edition sold out within 72 hours of being officially announced.

About the Book:
Private investigator Jack Carlson is traveling to the small, remote upstate city of Winship to look into a rash of suspicious insurance claims.

Like the farmer who accidentally blew himself up in a garnet mine, and the teenager who died in a peculiar car crash.

The Winship police and Medical Examiner appear cooperative but offer no real help.

Local insurance agent Joe Bellman is evasive and fearful.

And shortly after meeting Jack, both Bellman and his secretary Chris Innes turn up dead, an apparent case of murder-suicide.

Jack isn’t buying any of it.

As he pokes behind the Norman Rockwell exterior of Winship, he finds a place smoldering with crime, corruption and bizarre religious fervor. He becomes involved with a club dancer named Kelly, who may know some of the secrets but who may also be a mortal threat to Jack.

The town of Winship is itself part of the puzzle, a place where unseen choirs can be heard, where the ground appears to glow, creating confusion and mental disorder in anyone nearby, where gangs of young thugs roam free to bully and beat people.

A friend of Kelly’s disappears in an open meadow, as if swallowed up by the earth.

Behind it all may be a cherubic old priest, Father Jimmy.

And as Jack tries to unravel the growing number of mysteries — both criminal and mystical — he finds himself in a fight to save his own life, and sanity…

The Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine debuted (1949) as primarily a reprint pulp magazine, but Anthony Boucher had big plans. He began to create what might be considered a high brow approach to what had been sicentifiction in the 1930′s and was being coined Sci-Fi in the 1950s, and the magazine and the concept were magnificent triumphs ushering in the mature era of “SF”.

F&SF was already venerable and venerated by 1973. This blogger, as a teenager, was grabbing copies at the local drug store as often as he could. But, senior year of High School came and then college and eventually this collection of magazines ended up in a box, and then moved from place to place. The numerous copies from the 1970s began to be jostled and one by one given away to friends, or to some charity, or simply disapperead until only one was left, alone, forgotten, and rotting away in the garage. Until last week.

Note the mildew coating, and the ratted edges where the paper became friable and fell away. The cover, by Don Davis is a take off of the flag planting on Iwo Jima (23 Feb 1945).

Like a forgotten copy of the Necronomicon or a tattered copy of a play about the King in Yellow, there lay at the bottom of a cardboard box a mildewed copy of the August 1973 F&SF. The pages were yellowed, and covered in fungus. A healthy dose of paper towels and lysol, and much of the microbial detritus was removed, and then a quick flip of the pages in a fresh breeze cleared most of the rest of the dirt stuck on the edges of the pages.

Inside, a treasure trove was re-discovered.

Table of Contents including now legendary writers and artists.

It included the 1973 debut of Karl Edward Wagner’s classic In the Pines, a story by a young David J. Skal, and the results of a “Feghoot” contest.

I suddenly realized that this was a 40 year old magazine. But how could that be? It seemed like only yesterday I had bought it and brought it home. But if I were honest, after 40 years the mildewed copy that was once freshly minted had fared only a little better than my 57 year old arthritic body.

In the Pines has been eloquently reviewed by Stefan Dziemianowicz:

… he published the book’s lead-off story, “In the Pines”, in a 1973 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The tale is a retelling of sorts of Oliver Onions’ classic ghost story “The Beckoning Fair One” (which Wagner references in his story) and it shows how well Wagner understood the mechanics of the horror tale. Onions’ story tells of an author who rents a house and who crumbles psychologically under the influence of a former female tenant whose ghostly presence has imbued the place. In Wagner’s story, a husband who moves temporarily with his wife to a remote cabin in Tennessee to recuperate emotionally following the death of their young child falls under the spell of a ghostly woman who disappeared from the premises half a century before. Atmospheric and laden with portents and foreshadowings, the story builds to a powerful climax in the final paragraphs. It’s the first of several of Wagner’s tales to feature a femme fatale as an embodiment of supernatural horror.

Skal has become a notable scholar of Dracula movies and a legendary film critic. We lost Wagner at a much too young of an age. And the heady days of scientifiction, Sci-Fi, and SF are now mostly reflected by a television network called SyFy.

And a “feghoot”? Now almost forgotten, the original feghoots were penned by Reginald Bretnor under his pseudonym of Grendel Briarton (an anagram), and collected most notably in Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot. We would now call these flash fiction, and they almost always contained or ended with a tortured pun of a notable phrase. (A tradition now carried on by Stephen Pastis in his comic strip Pearls Before Swines).

Here is a Pastis “feghoot” from a Sunday strip, 27 Jan 2013:

Below, a selection of the badly damaged pages featuring “In the Pines”. They were salvageable enough for scanning. Click any image to expand to full size for closer examination.

Don Davis. As noted, above, Don Davis paid homage to the 1945 photograph of the Planting of the American flag on Iwo Jima. In the years since, the photograph has become mildly controversial, but at the time – only slightly more than a generation after the end of WWII – it was still considered a powerful patriotic symbol. Then only 21 years old (b. 1952), Davis has had an amazing career in space art.

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If you haven’t reserved your copy just click on any of the photos below for ordering information.

The haunted Sesqua Valley lies hidden in the Northwest, surrounded by forested hills.  A region of dream and madness, it seduces the lunatic soul with the dangerous and captivating marvels of the Outside.  Linked to the woodland of this valley is the shadowed forest of the Dreamlands, from which Nyarlathotep and his night-gaunts seep into the world of wakefulness so as to tempt and corrupt humankind.

With this collection of new original fiction, Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire investigates his Lovecraftian locality as never before, with new novelettes that take the reader deep into the mysteries of an eldritch land.  Chief among they who haunt Sesqua Valley is its first-born beast, Simon Gregory Williams, who in this book is revealed as a creature of secret feelings and dark alchemy. BOHEMIANS OF SESQUA VALLEY is a showcase of Pugmire’s continual obsession with the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft, to whom this book pay homage.

A collection of six novelettes of over 50,000 words

Contents:

• Introduction by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
• In Memoriam: Robert Nelson
• One Card Unturned
• An Ecstasy of Fear
• Unhallowed Places
• This Splendor of the Goat
• A Quest of Dream
• The Strange Dark One

Paperback books were not intended to endure through the ages like a medieval manuscript, nor were they considered valuable or collectible. They were to be read and trashed. In 1968, the paperback book industry was beginning to experiment with new gluing processes. In the scheme of things, they may have made the book process cheaper and faster – we’re not sure about this – but the long term effects were not good. Looking back 45 years, we see that the product did not last. In this example, the paper discolored from the hot melt fumes, oxidation, and the glue did not hold.

In this expert blog post by Werner Rebsamen, we read.

The very first attempts to establish some guidelines in this regard for our bookbinding industry go back to June 1966. The Research and Engineering Council of the Graphic Arts, working with suppliers of adhesives and large book-manufacturing plants, had uniform books adhesive bound and tested at various facilities. The results of those books tested during the first round were rated “inconclusive” and erratic. Although most of the book manufacturers used the same testing equipment, many of them had their own procedures. … Decades ago, 1968 to be exact, Kolbus and National Starch and Chemical tried to use hot melt for case making … they promoted it with actual examples. It never caught-on. Spreadability of the hot melt adhesive is problematic. … The use of hot melt was a dream that unfortunately did not come true

Above, you can see the pages have completely come undone.

Above you can see the exterior wear, and the interior oxidation stain likely from the hot glue fumes. The book has no odors, so it probably was never in a home with smoking. There are tears in the cover, so the book was not gently handled.

Above are interior pages. One set, the pages have become disjointed. The edges closest to the glue have become more friable (brittle). The other image shows two pages still joined together.

A little about this book. Hans Stefan Santesson (8 July 1914 – 18 February 1975), was a French-born, American editor, writer, and reviewer. His career spanned the Unicorn Mystery Book Club (1940s, 1950s), Fantastic Universe (1956 – 1960), US edition British New Worlds Science Fiction (1960), US version Saint Mystery Magazine (1959 – 1967), several science fiction and fantasy anthologies:

The Fantastic Universe Omnibus (1960)
Rulers of Men (1965)
Gods for Tomorrow (1967)
Flying Saucers in Fact and Fiction (1968)
Crime Prevention in the 30th Century (1969)
The Mighty Barbarians: Great Sword and Sorcery Heroes (1969)
Gentle Invaders (1969)
The Mighty Swordsmen (1970)
The Days After Tomorrow (1971)

Santesson lived a somewhat eccentric life. He had an editorial office formerly rented by Saint Mystery Magazine (at the corner of 5th and 42nd St) for his own use after the magazine died. The building only had DC power. A blogger tells this anecdote: One day his Pakistani friend Choudry popped in, desperately asking where he could sell a 1000 pound lot of shrimp before it defrosted. I don’t think that any of these people realized how poor Hans had become since his last regular employment ended, and: The office was piled high with books. One day I noticed a new book on top of a pile. It was a new book by his friend, Ivan Sanderson. Something about flying saucers having been observed entering and departing from various bodies of water around the world. I asked Hans if Ivan was crazy or if he was just some sort of con artist? Hans replied,”as Ivan’s oldest and best friend. For more of this fascinating anecdote, the link is here.

Fans of Fantastic Universe revolted – the fans were revolting? – when Santesson took the editorship and began to insert flying saucer articles. He was 42 years old, and took the first issue of September 1956. He was considered an “outsider” by the fans, not a science fiction guy. His attendance at conventions made it worse, as he tended to be quiet and stand-offish. He was not “Frat boy” fan. P Schuyler Miller, a subsequent editor, felt the magazine had been uneven and “exasperating”. Amazing Stories took notice, and published its own flying saucer edition in October 1957. From the contents of the paperback book, one can see Santesson leaned heavily on the earlier Fantastic Universe contents.

Harlan Ellison eulogized Santesson’s quiet greatness: He’s gone, he died alone … a solitary man … a sad man … he was … important to all of us … always had a writing assignment for us even when there was no assignments available; often paid us out of his own pocket …

The paperback book’s contents are:

Introduction, Hans Stefan Santesson
The Flying Saucer Myth, Lester del Rey, Fantastic Universe (Aug ’57)
Now Meet the Nonterrestrial, Ivan T. Sanderson, Fantastic Universe (Jan ’59)
Welcome, Stranger, Robert Bloch. Satellite (Apr ’57)
Our Saucer Vacation, Fritz Leiber, Fantastic Universe (Dec ’59)
A Saucer of Loneliness, Theodore Sturgeon, Galaxy (Feb ’53)
Amused Visitor, John Stephens
The Night Before Christmas, Nancy Forsythe Coe, 1959
Neither Snow Nor Rain [“Not Snow Nor Rain”], Miriam Allen deFord, If (Nov ’59)
Sense of Wonder, Bertram Chandler, New Worlds (Oct ’57) and Fantastic Universe (Feb ’58)
Cassidy’s Saucer, Edward D. Hoch
Pickup, Aidan van Alm, Fantastic Universe (Jan ’60)
Little Green Men, John Nicholson, Fantastic Universe (May ’58)
Exile from Space, Judith Merril, Fantastic Universe (Nov ’56)
Press Conference [“Visitor from the Void”], Richard Wilson, Amazing (Oct/Nov ’53)