The “Value” of Old Magazines

Cast-offs. Read and discarded. That’s what pulps and newsstand magazines were considered.

Yet to a certain group of people, they are Aladdin’s lamp or pirate’s treasure chests buried in the sand.  Lin Carter’s life was changed when as a little boy he found a closet full of old pulp castoffs.  H. P. Lovecraft went to school, met two boys named Munroe, and he was introduced to pulps for the first time. At this writer’s local Half-Price bookstores (a chain of used bookstores originating out of Texas), there are often found 50 cent copies of ancient science fiction magazines and while some of the fiction does not hold up – one does find writers who were once up -and-comers and who got their start there. Unknowns such as Ray Bradbury, or Richard Matheson, or Harlan Ellison.

In the October 1973 Analog P. Schuyler Miller (1912-1974) had a small “column” in which he digressed into a little history. Before there were internet forums and blogs, there were “letters to the editor”. No one knew, but he was only mere months from shuffling from this mortal coil, but his memory was still vivid. The then-publication of Mirage’s “Planets and Dimensions” accumulating arcana of Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961) included the fire-fight between Smith and Miller in the letter columns of Wonder Stories.

He relates, “…two of [Mirage's] best items are excerpts from a ‘debate’ Clark Ashton Smith, an established poet and author, carried on in the letter columns of Wonder Stories with a twenty-year-old-me. At twenty, I was valiantly espousing an overdue “new wave” that would bring the values of mainstream writing (Victorian mainstream writing, I guess) to fantasy and science fiction. Smith defended the old values, as I do now. He felt fantasy gave a writer more elbow-room (a term he would never have used, but I can’t find the one he did use) than stories tied to the known and limited.”

Upon that statement, and after four decades or so, perhaps the deceased Smith won the argument with Miller. If the Fates are kind, Miller and Smith are still debating with Ackerman and Lovecraft in some writer’s heaven. If not, we can imagine such things, because we still have the fantasy genre alive with us.

Ultra Low Limited Edition of Richard Matheson’s Classic HELL HOUSE

HELL HOUSE by Richard Matheson (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

With only 100 of this deluxe edition being published they won’t last long. One only have a handful of this title and we are offering a discount on preorders of this item so reserve you copy soon.

Just click on the cover art below to get more information and to reserve your copy.

A shining exemplar of the haunted house genre, Hell House is a terrifying classic. Now in a new edition with a a fine front cover image cover gallery and from old editions, a movie poster, and a lengthy, 30-page interview with Matheson by James H. Burns. William F. Nolan has written a insightful introduction to the book wherein he talks about the novel and his long relationship with Matheson.

This edition is oversize at 7 x 10 inches with a printed cloth front panel, and luxurious velvety cloth spine and back panels. The book is enclosed in a cloth-bound slipcase lined with black on the inside. The book also has a top-edge stain and ribbon marker. There are color endpapers and a cover gallery inside, along with a handsome photograph of Matheson. This classic novel has finally received the deluxe treatment it deserves. At only 100 copies for sale, it will sell out quickly.

Each numbered copy is signed by William F. Nolan, Harry O. Morris, and James H. Burns. There is a facsimile signature by Richard Matheson which Mr Matheson and his representative authorized. The edition is limited to 100 copies for sale. Sample page spreads appear below.

New Arrivals From Robert E. Howard, William Peter Blatty, Richard Matheson And More!

POWER OF DARKNESS by Robert Aickman (Limited Edition Import)

This is a preorder and is expect to ship in late may. Choose “bill me” at check out and you won’t be invoiced until the book is ready to ship.

Robert Aickman (1914-1981) is considered by many to be one of the finest exponents of the modern ghost story, and he is certainly versatile. In this collection the reader is offered the experience of visiting a disused lead-mine, the Houses of Parliament, a séance in a dreary suburb, and a sun-drenched Greek island. The dust jacket for the first edition of Powers of Darkness (first published in 1966) stated ‘. . . in every case his readers will experience that authentic chill which is the hallmark of the supernatural.’
Mark Valentine points out in his Introduction to this new Tartarus Press edition that Aickman was striving to achieve something approaching poetry in his writing, and ‘he often does this in the service of the strange and sinister.’

Contents:

• ‘Introduction’ by Mark Valentine
• ‘‘Your Tiny Hand is Frozen’
• ‘My Poor Friend’
• ‘The Visiting Star’
• ‘Larger Than Oneself’
• ‘A Roman Question’
• ‘The Wine-Dark Sea’.

Powers of Darkness is a sewn hardback of 226+ xii pages, printed lithographically, with silk ribbon marker, head and tailbands, and d/w and limited to only 350 hardcover editions

THE EXORCIST AND LEGION Special Edition by William Peter Blatty (Signed Limited Edition)

About this Special Edition:
Featuring two classic William Peter Blatty novels in one beautiful volume for the first-time ever, this oversized deluxe special edition will be a must-have for any collector of horror! This incredible collector’s edition also includes original B&W artwork by acclaimed artist Keith Minnion and a career spanning interview conducted by Cemetery Dance Managing Editor Brian Freeman, covering Blatty’s life and career from the 1950s to the present. Both the Limited Edition and the Lettered Edition are signed by William Peter Blatty and there are no plans at this time to publish a trade edition of this special volume.

A Note From the Author:
“I have for many years envisioned The Exorcist and Legion to be one continuous read, even though the former is a fact-based, clearly ‘religious thriller,’ while the story of Legion delivers more excitingly on the level of a pure ‘entertain-ment.’ Never-the-less, it is Legion and not The Exorcist that is by far the more ambitious work in that the demonic homicides that police Lt. Kinderman is investigating are of much lesser concern to him than solving that case of cosmic homicide that for eons, and for so many and for so long, has been the foremost stumbling block to belief in a benevolent Creator, namely the so-called  ‘Problem of Evil,’ to which Legion brazenly offers a solution.”

A WITCH SHALL BE BORN by Robert E. Howard

“By the side of the caravan road a heavy cross had been planted, and on this grim tree a man hung, nailed there by iron spikes through his hands and feet. Naked but for a loin-cloth, the man was almost a giant in stature, and his muscles stood out in thick corded ridges on limbs and body, which the sun had long ago burned brown…”

— Robert E. Howard, “A Witch Shall Be Born”

book is in near fine condition in a near fine dust jacket.

Published in 1975

RED NAILS by Robert E. Howard

Pursing the beautiful Valeria in the Black countries, Conan happens upon a strange, walled city in the midst of a desert. Conan and Valeria become enmeshed in a civil war, a war driven by ancient hate and blood-lust that threatens the few surviving inhabitants of Xuchotl.

One of only 3,500 copies published and lavishly illustrated by George Barr.

This copy is in near fine condition with a very light bump to the bottom front corner.  Dust Jacket is in near fine condition with some light fading due to age.

Published in 1975.

THE WEIRD TALE by S. T. Joshi (Trade Hardcover)

The leading critic of supernatural literature here examines the roots of the “weird tale” (as Lovecraft called it) through detailed examinations of five “founding fathers” of the genre: Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, and H.P. Lovecraft. The result is a thorough study of the art, craft, philosophy, and aesthetics of an enduring genre of fantastic literature.

SOMEWHERE IN TIME / WHAT DREAMS MY COME by Richard Matheson (Signed Limited Edition)

Two classics SOMEWHERE IN TIME and WHAT DREAMS MAY COME in one signed limited edition hardcover in custom slipcase.

Published by Dream Press, published 1991

One of only 350 signed and numbered copies in slipcase this is number 67 Book is in fine condition in fine dust jacket. Slipcase has some light rubbing else fine.

Charles Beaumont

It’s strange how karma in horror works.  Things turn in rhombic ways to coincide to a singularity.

Charles Beaumont (1929 – 1967) was born in Chicago as Charles Leroy Nutt, but reportedly to a sadistic mother. He hated his name, as it was frequently ridiculed by kids, and later changed it. He dropped out of high school in tenth grade to join the army, kicked around at odd and sundry jobs until he sold his first story to Amazing Stories in 1950. His next big break came when Esquire rejected a science-fiction short story by Charles Beaumont that depicted a world where heterosexuals were in the minority. In 1955, Hugh Hefner agreed to publish it in Playboy. It was Charles Beaumont’s science fiction short story, “The Crooked Man”.

A “southern California” group was loosely formed back then, and among the members were Richard Matheson, and Ray Bradbury – who took notice of Beaumont and assisted him.  Beaumont went on to do numerous Hollywood scripts. Attracting the attention of Rod Serling he placed a number of scripts in the first few seasons of the Twilight Zone. Perhaps his most notable episode was “The Howling Man”.

Later, Beaumont worked with Roger Corman, adapting in 1963 Lovecraft’s “The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward”. As HPL was barely known, it was pawned off as a Poe story. Corman coaxed Vincent Price to star with knockout Debra Paget, and veterans: Lon Chaney, Jr. (Wolfman) and Elisha Cook, Jr (of Maltese Falcon Fame). Beaumont, himself to die young, adapted a script by Lovecraft who died much too young for the world of horror. Each left a great legacy.

Obituary of Charles Beaumont

Above is a news clipping obituary. Below, a trailer for the 1963 Corman movie.