This weeks, new, rare and interesting items!

We’ve had a lot of titles come into the store this week along with the announcement of a few exciting, soon to ship advance orders from Cemetery Dance

STILL DEAD: BOOK OF THE DEAD 2 edited by John Skipp & Craig Spector (Signed Limited Edition) Dan Simmons, Tom Savini and More!

An anthology of horror stories based on the universe of George A. Romero features stories by Dan Simmons, Nancy Collins, Douglas Winter, and Bram Stoker Award-winner Elizabeth Massie, and includes the lost original script for Romero’s Day of the Dead!

This is a signed limited edition hardcover in custom slipcase. Book is signed by all contributors and is limited to only 500 copies and is in fine condition.

Still Dead: Book of the Dead 2

Foreword by Tom Savini
“Introduction: Nineteen New Ways to Kick Ass” by Skipp and Spector
“The Old Man and the Dead” by Mort Castle
“DONt/Walk” by Chan McConnell
“Necrophile” by Nancy A. Collins
“Rise Up and Walk” by K. W. Jeter
“One Step at a Time” by Glen Vasey
“The Ones You Love” by Skipp and Spector
“This Year’s Class Picture” by Dan Simmons
“Night of the Living Dead Bingo Women” by Simon McCaffery
“Abed” by Elizabeth Massie
“Come One, Come All” by Gahan Wilson
“The Prince of Nox” by Kathe Koja
“Beer Run” by Gregory Nicoll
“Prayer” by Douglas Morningstar and Maxwell Hart
“Calcutta, Lord of Nerves” by Poppy Z. Brite
“I Walk Alone” by Roberta Lannes
“Undiscovered Countries” by J. S. Russell
“Moon Towers” by Brooks Caruthers
“Passion Play” by Nancy Holder
“Bright Lights, Big Zombie” by Douglas E. Winter

BY BIZARRE HANDS by Joe R. Lansdale (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover in Slipcase)

This is the author’s first collection of horror stories .sixteen in all plus an introduction by Lewis Shiner ,interior illustrations by Mark Nelson and a perfect dustjacket illustration by J.K. Potter. “These are the kinds of stories one reads compulsively – helplessly enthralled by their seductive allure ,their perversions and truths ,their violence and centered peace.”

Bound in black cloth with red foil spine titles in matching black cloth slipcase which also has red foil spine titles.Issued in a limited signed and numbered edition of 500 copies of which this is #374/500 signed on the limitation page by Joe R. Lansdale by all.

Book is in fine condition in a fine dust jacket. Also includes a custom slipcase.

Two new advance orders announced by Cemetery Dance

OUT OF THE STORM by William Hope Hodgson (1st Edition Hardcover)

Seven stories by William Hope Hodgson, a supreme master of imaginative horror are here collected for the first time in hardcover.

This story collection contains:

• A Tropical Horror
• The Finding of the Graiken
• Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani
• The Terror of the Water Tank
• The Albatross
• The Haunting of the Lady Shannon
• Out of the Storm
• Biography of the author by Sam Moskowitz

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

MORE THAN MIDNIGHT by Brian James Freeman (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

Featuring an exclusive introduction by Michael Koryta, cover artwork by Vincent Chong, and original interior illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne

About the Book:
This collection features five tales of horror by Brian James Freeman that deal with both real and supernatural terrors. It explores locations you would never think to look in because sometimes we find our darkest demons in the most unexpected places.

• In “What They Left Behind,” a young man discovers something lurking in the basement of the old office building his father-in-law has purchased in a last ditch effort to save the family business. This thing in the basement is evil and it’s very, very hungry.

• In “The Final Lesson” you’ll meet Ronald, a mild-mannered high school teacher who has never lifted his hand in anger, but there is a darkness inside him, which has been building and boiling since his wife was brutally murdered… and he might not be able to control himself when he learns more about why she died.

• A family man discovers there are monsters taking over the world in “Among Us,” but he also learns that a chosen few can fight back if they’re willing to sacrifice everything they’ve ever known and loved.

• As “Pulled Into Darkness” opens, Edward is certain of only one thing in life: eventually his wife will find a way to kill him. Her previous failures won’t stop her from trying again and again until she succeeds… and tonight one of them won’t be leaving the house alive.

• Finally, a lonely young man’s very unusual job is taking a heavy toll on him in “Answering the Call.” He stays in the homes of the deceased during their funerals to answer the phone, receive deliveries, and deter thieves who might have seen the obituary in the newspaper. The young man has witnessed a lot of strange things over the years in the homes of the dead, and today his job will truly become a matter of life and death…

These five stories showcase Freeman’s dazzling virtuosity and imagination as his characters descend into the depths of madness. Find out why Richard Matheson has called his writing “spooky stuff” and why Stewart O’Nan has said his stories have “great velocity and impact.” There is darkness all around us, and Freeman isn’t afraid to shine a light onto the things that scare us the most.

Hardcover Limited Edition of 750 signed (by Brian James Freeman, Michael Koryta, and Glenn Chadbourne) copies bound in full-cloth and Smyth sewn

INDIAN SUMMER by Rick Hautala (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

It’s Friday, October 6th, the third day in a row the temperature has hit the high eighties. A genuine Indian summer heat wave.

Twelve year-old Billy Crowell and his friends are playing homerun derby at Pingree Park when the town’s fire horn starts honking. Everyone stops and counts the series of toots and they decipher the code: there’s a forest fire approaching town.

Billy and his friends join the firefighters as they attempt to protect their town from the raging forest fire, but the fire isn’t the only danger in the forest. Soon Billy is separated from the group, disoriented and lost. Daylight is fading fast and the forest is growing darker by the minute.

Before too long, Billy stumbles upon the mutilated corpse of a deer, and the true horrors of the woods are soon chasing after him as night consumes the land…

Hardcover Limited Edition of 750 copies signed by the author, bound in full-cloth and Smyth sewn

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Only Two more days to take advantage of our:

Miskatonic Books Holiday Sale!

25% off all in stock items at Miskatonic Books. Many of our items are rare and we only have one in stock, items will go on a first come first serve basis.

You will need to use coupon code “DEC8” at checkout to receive your discount.

Advance order items and the Cthulhu Christmas Ornament are restricted from this sale.

We are adding new books daily!

Just Arrived and Shipping

Just click on the cover art to get more information about reserving your copy of any of the books below.

We recently received the new two volume set of CENTURY’S BEST HORROR FICTION edited by John Pelan and published by Cemetery Dance Publications. This has been over a decade in the making and is one of the most anticipated books of the year. If you haven’t reserved your copy do so quickly as we don’t expect these to last long.

About the Books:
Cemetery Dance Publications commissioned a spectacular two-volume anthology project under the editorship of noted author and historian of the horror genre, John Pelan.

John selected one story published during each year of the 20th Century (1901-2000) as the most notable story of that year — all 100 stories were then collected in this amazing two volume set to be published as The Century’s Best Horror Fiction.

The ground rules were simple: Only one selection per author. Only one selection per year.

Two huge volumes, one hundred authors, one hundred classic stories, more than 700,000 words of fiction — history in the making!

Trade Edition hardcovers bound in full-cloth and Smyth sewn with a full color dust jacket — two deluxe volumes

Table of Contents
1901: Barry Pain — The Undying Thing
1902: W.W. Jacobs — The Monkey’s Paw
1903: H.G.Wells — The Valley of the Spiders
1904: Arthur Machen — The White People
1905: R. Murray Gilchrist — The Lover’s Ordeal
1906: Edward Lucas White — House of the Nightmare
1907: Algernon Blackwood — The Willows
1908: Perceval Landon — Thurnley Abbey
1909: Violet Hunt — The Coach
1910: Wm Hope Hodgson — The Whistling Room
1911: M.R. James — Casting the Runes
1912: E.F. Benson — Caterpillars
1913: Aleister Crowley — The Testament of Magdelan Blair
1914: M. P. Shiel — The Place of Pain
1915: Hanns Heinz Ewers — The Spider
1916: Lord Dunsany — Thirteen at Table
1917: Frederick Stuart Greene — The Black Pool
1918: H. De Vere Stacpoole — The Middle Bedroom
1919: Ulric Daubeny — The Sumach
1920: Maurice Level — In the Light of the Red Lamp
1921: Vincent O’Sullivan — Master of Fallen Years
1922: Walter de la Mare — Seaton’s Aunt
1923: George Allen England — The Thing From—”Outside”
1924: C.M. Eddy, Jr. — The Loved Dead
1925: John Metcalfe — The Smoking Leg
1926: H.P. Lovecraft — The Outsider
1927: Donald Wandrei — The Red Brain
1928: H.R. Wakefield — The Red Lodge
1929: Eleanor Scott — Celui-La
1930: Rosalie Muspratt — Spirit of Stonhenge
1931: Henry S. Whitehead — Cassius
1932: David H. Keller — The Thing in the Cellar
1933: C.L. Moore — Shambleau
1934: L.A. Lewis — The Tower of Moab
1935: Clark Ashton Smith — The Dark Eidolon
1936: Thorp McCluskey — The Crawling Horror
1937: Howard Wandrei — The Eerie Mr Murphy
1938: Robert E. Howard — Pigeons from Hell
1939: Robert Barbour Johnson — Far Below
1940: John Collier — Evening Primrose
1941: C.M. Kornbluth — The Words of Guru
1942: Jane Rice — The Idol of the Flies
1943: Anthony Boucher — They Bite
1944: Ray Bradbury — The Jar
1945: August Derleth — Carousel
1946: Manly Wade Wellman — Shonokin Town
1947: Theodore Sturgeon — Bianca’s Hands
1948: Shirley Jackson — The Lottery
1949: Nigel Kneale — The Pond
1950: Richard Matheson — Born of Man & Woman
1951: Russell Kirk — Uncle Isiah
1952: Eric Frank Russell — I Am Nothing
1953: Robert Sheckley — The Altar
1954: Everil Worrell — Call Not Their Names
1955: Robert Aickman — Ringing the Changes
1956: Richard Wilson — Lonely Road
1957: Clifford Simak — Founding Father
1958: Robert Bloch — That Hell-Bound Train
1959: Charles Beaumont — The Howling Man
1960: Fredric Brown — The House
1961: Ray Russell — Sardonicus
1962: Carl Jacobi — The Aquarium
1963: Robert Arthur — The Mirror of Cagliostro
1964: Charles Birkin — A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts
1965: Jean Ray — The Shadowy Street
1966: Arthur Porges — The Mirror
1967: Norman Spinrad — Carcinoma Angels
1968: Anna Hunger — Come
1969: Steffan Aletti — The Last Work of Pietro Apono
1970: David A. Riley — The Lurkers in the Abyss
1971: Dorothy K. Haynes — The Derelict Track
1972: Gary Brandner — The Price of a Demon
1973: Eddy C. Bertin — Like Two White Spiders
1974: Karl Edward Wagner — Sticks
1975: David Drake — The Barrow Troll
1976: Dennis Etchison — It Only Comes Out at Night
1977: Barry N. Malzberg — The Man Who Loved the Midnight Lady
1978: Michael Bishop — Within the Walls of Tyre
1979: Ramsey Campbell — Mackintosh Willy
1980: Michael Shea — The Autopsy
1981: Stephen King — The Reach
1982: Fritz Leiber — Horrible Imagings
1983: David Schow — One for the Horrors
1984: Bob Leman — The Unhappy Pilgrimage of Clifford M.
1985: Michael Reaves — The Night People
1986: Tim Powers — Night Moves
1987: Ian Watson — Evil Water
1988: Joe R. Lansdale — The Night They Missed the Horror Show
1989: Joel Lane — The Earth Wire
1990: Elizabeth Massie — Stephen
1991: Thomas Ligotti — The Glamour
1992: Poppy Z. Brite — Calcutta Lord of Nerves
1993: Lucy Taylor — The Family Underwater
1994: Jack Ketchum — The Box
1995: Terry Lamsley — The Toddler
1996: Caitlín R. Kiernan — Tears Seven Times Salt
1997: Stephen Laws — The Crawl
1998: Brian Hodge — As Above, So Below
1999: Glen Hirshberg — Mr. Dark’s Carnival
2000: Tim Lebbon — Reconstructing Amy

We’ve also just receive some very collectable editions for your genre library.

a beautiful copy of SESQUA VALLEY AND OTHERS by W. H. Pugmire signed limited edition hardcover.

A very rare signed limited edition of Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts by W. H. Pugmire

This is one of only 250 signed and numbered hardcover limited editions.  Book is in fine condition in a fine dust jacket

Contents:

• O, Christmas Tree
• The Ones Who Bow Before Me
• Born In Strange Shadow
• Another Flesh
• Immortal Remains
• Selene
• The Darkest Star
• The Songs of Sesqua Valley
• The Heritage of Hunger
• The Imp of Aether
• The Million-Shadow One
• The Child of Dark Mania
• The Hands That Reek and Smoke
• The Host of Haunted Air
• The Woven Offspring
• The Place of Old Insanity
• The Zanies of Sorrow
• Beneath An Autumn Moon

THE INHABITANT OF THE LAKE & LESS WELCOME TENANTS by Ramsey Campbell (First Edition Hardcover)

The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants is a collection of fantasy and horror short stories by British author J. Ramsey Campbell, who dropped the initial from his name in subsequent publications. It was released in 1964 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,009 copies and was the author’s first book. The stories are part of the Cthulhu Mythos. Campbell had originally written his introduction to be included in the book The Dark Brotherhood and Other Pieces under the title “Cthulhu in Britain”. However, Arkham’s editor, August Derleth, decided to use it here.

The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants contains the following tales:

•     “A Word From the Author”
•     “The Room in the Castle”
•     “The Horror from the Bridge”
•     “The Insects from Shaggai”
•     “The Render of the Veils”
•     “The Inhabitant of the Lake”
•     “The Plain of Sound”
•     “The Return of the Witch”
•     “The Mine on Yuggoth”
•     “The Will of Stanley Brooke”
•     “The Moon-Lens”

References in popular culture

The band Iron Maiden’s song Still Life ( from the classic 1983 album Piece of Mind ) was inspired by the story The Inhabitant of the Lake. The lyrics deal with a man who sees spirits or beings in the lake and becomes obsessed with them. After many nightmares and visions of the images in the water, he eventually becomes insane and ultimately jumps into the pool with his female companion. The lyrics end with the ominous verse ” Oh,we’ll drown together. It, will be forever. Nightmares…forever calling me. Nightmares…now we rest in peace”, so the listener can safely assume the person has killed himself, as well the female.

FEAR ITSELF:THE HORROR FICTION OF STEPHEN KING with Stephen King, Peter Straub and more (Signed)!

A fascinating examination of King’s early novels (Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Firestarter, Cujo and The Dark Tower) and short stories. Contributors include Peter Straub, Burton Hatlan (King’s former English professor), Fritz Leiber, Alan Ryan, Deborah Notkin, Don Herron, and others.

This copy is inscribed, signed and dated to the owner of the book by both Stephen King and Chuck Miller  Date signed is 10/30/82

5000 copies of the first edition were printed and very few were inscribed by Stephen King. A true rarity!

This copy is in near fine condition in a near fine dust jacket.

Interview with a Book Collector: Mark Valentine

I would like to thank Ray Russell of Tartarus Press for bringing this video to my attention.

We have several Mark Valentine books in stock at Miskatonic Books. Just click on the book cover below to see our list of titles.

In the video, Mark Valentine discusses the following writers: Arthur Machen, Walter de la Mare, Lord Dunsany, M.P. Shiel, William Gerhardie, R. Austin Freeman, William Hope Hodgson, Algernon Blackwood, Hubert Crackanthorpe, H.A. Manhood, Claude Houghton, E.E. Dorling, David Lindsay, Ronald Fraser, Park Barnitz, Norman Boothroyd, Francis Brett Young, Sarban, W.F. Morris, Denton Welch, Oliver Onions, Eric Lyall, Peter Vansittart, J.C. Snaith, Mary Butts, Frank Baker and Phyllis Paul. He ends with a discussion of the classic “British Rainfall, 1910″.

Mark Valentine is an English author, biographer, editor and book collector.

His short stories have been published by a number of small presses and in anthologies since the 1980s, and the exploits of his series character, “The Connoisseur”, an occult detective, were published as The Collected Connoisseur in 2010. As a biographer, Valentine has published a life of Arthur Machen, and a study of Sarban. He has also written numerous articles for the Book and Magazine Collector magazine, and introductions for various books, including editions of work by Walter de la Mare, Robert Louis Stevenson, Saki, J. Meade Falkner and others.

Valentine also edits Wormwood, a journal dedicated to fantastic, supernatural and decadent literature, and has also edited anthologies.

The cat that appears in the video is called Percy

 

This Week’s New and Notable at Miskatonic Bookstore

THE COLLECTED FICTION OF WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON Five volume set (first edition hardcover)

Five volume set of William Hope Hodgson’s most valued fiction. Set is getting very tough  to find these days in first edition with some volumes fetching hundreds of dollars over original cover price.

This series collects all of Hodgson’s novel’s and short stories into a matching five volume hardcover set. It will include many stories that have not been available since their initial magazine publication, or only collected in the original Eveleigh Nash collections. Each book shall be over 400 pages long, and will feature over 200,000 words of fiction.

Volume I: The Boats of Glen Carrig and Other Nautical Adventurs
Volume II: The House on the Borderland and Other Mysterious Places
Volume III: The Ghost Pirates and Other Revenants of the Sea
Volume IV: The Night Land & Other Romances
Volume V: The Dream Of X & Other Fantastic Visions

SONG OF KALI by Dan Simmons (1st Edition Hardcover)

The novel Song of Kali, relates the gruesome action that ensues when the daughter of an American journalist is kidnapped in Calcutta, India, by deranged, bloodthirsty worshippers of the Hindu goddess Kali. Faren Miller, writing in Locus, described Song of Kali as “harrowing and ghoulish,” adding that it “makes the stuff of nightmare very real indeed.”

Winner of the 1986 World Fantasy Award

Book is in fine condition in a fine dust jacket

THE DOLL WHO ATE HIS MOTHER by Ramsey Campbell (signed first edition)

A woman’s car hits a lamp-post and her brother loses his arm in the crash, literally. She then finds a nightmare unleashed in Liverpool, with overtones of witchcraft, possession and cannibalism.

Authors first published novel and nominated for a World Fantasy Award. Book is signed by the author on the title page.

Book is in near fine with a bump to the back bottom corner else fine. With a fine dust jacket.

UNIVERSE by Robert Heinlein

Their world was a giant spaceship, its purpose and destination lost in centuries of drifting among the stars.

New York: Published by Dell Publishing Company, Inc., [1951], 1951. Small octavo, cover painting by Robert Stanley, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Dell 10¢ Book 36. Paperback original, a “Dell 10 cent book.” Later expanded into Orphans of the Sky. Part of his future history series.

This copy looks to never have been read and has been carefully cherished for 60 years. With the exception of some toning to the pages due to age and some very very light rubbing to spine this is a perfect copy.

DAY DARK NIGHT BRIGHT by Fritz Leiber (Limited Edition)

From the publisher

“Midnight House is pleased to announce a landmark event for devotees of the best in science fiction: a new collection of stories by Fritz Leiber! Assembled here we have a selection of some of Mr. Leiber’s most renowned tales with a liberal dose of rarities that have been unavailable in any form for many years. Considered by many to be the greatest writer in the field of fantastic fiction, Fritz Leiber’s long and productive career spanned fifty years. This present collection assembles stories from sources ranging from the pulp magazines of the 1940’s to modern “slicks” like Esquire. As a special treat, this book includes a “lost” novelette, “Night Passage”, which was recently discovered in the author’s papers at the University of Houston. Most of the stories gathered here are making their first appearance in book form or have been virtually unobtainable for many years. Fritz Leiber was the winner of every major award for science fiction, fantasy, and horror during his career. While many of his novels remain in print, much of his great short fiction has been virtually unobtainable for decades.”

This copy is in new unread condition. One of only 500 copies published this is a PC or publisher’s copy.