The Island of Doctor Moreau H. G. Wells (First edition)

“An animal may be ferocious and cunning enough, but it takes a real man to tell a lie.”
― H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau

 

First binding state. Original yellow-brown cloth, spine stamped black, pictorial cover stamped black and red. Publisher’s device in blind to back panel corner. 32 pages of inserted Publisher’s ads to rear, beginning with “The Time Machine.”

The Island of Dr. Moreau is one of H.G. Well’s most celebrated works. The novel explores a variety of philosophical themes including humanity with regard to identity and its relationship with nature, as well as a complex examination of morality in various situations. The Island of Dr. Moreau centers around the experience of a shipwrecked Englishman named Edward Prendick who finds himself on a remote island where the vivisectionist Dr. Moreau conducts horrific experimentations where he surgically alters animals by adding human traits.

H.G. Wells was a prolific author who is considered one of the “fathers of science fiction.” Although he never won the honor, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature on four different occasions. His formal education focused on biology which greatly influenced the nature of his work. He is best known for the novels The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and The Island of Dr. Moreau.

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Twilight Eyes Dean R. Koontz (Signed Presentation Copy)

“When one day ends, the next begins, for in this infinite universe there is no final conclusion to anything, definitely not to hope.”
―Dean Koontz, Twilight Eyes

Author’s Presentation Copy. Signed and inscribed by the Author, “To — –, Great teacher, mentor, friend. Here’s something very different for me, [several more lines were written] [signed] Dean R. Koontz 12/15/85”. Dust Jacket wraparound cover art by Phil Parks.

Originally titled Land of Enchantment, Dean Koontz’ Twilight Eyes follows the monster murdering rampage of its protagonist Slim. The title is a reference to Slim’s enchanted eyes that allow him to see through the veil the goblins hide behind, as well as giving him prophetic visions of the future.
Dean Koontz is a celebrated author that has topped the chart of the New York Times Best Seller List a whopping 14 times for both hardcovers and paperbacks and has sold over 450 million books to date. Koontz’s literary career spans many genres focusing on horror and suspense fiction early on and diversifying to satire, mystery, sci-fi, and fantasy in his later works.

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The History of Civilization by Edward E. Smith, PH.D (Signed, First Edition)

This set contains six volumes of the “Lensman” series: Triplanetary; First Lensman; Galactic Patrol; Gray Lensman; Second Stage Lensmen; and Children of the Lens. First edition thus. Limited to 75 numbered and signed six-volume sets, this set number 60 of 75. All volumes numbered and signed, the first volume also inscribed as follows: “To Melvin ___, Dear Melvin, I appreciate most sincerely your liking my stuff well enough to subscribe to the “History”. Thanks a million, [signed] Doc (Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.)” Brown leather backed maroon cloth covered boards, spines lettered in gilt, top edges stained light purple. One of the field’s truly legendary rarities. Owings & Chalker called this set, “A collector’s daydream.”  

The History of Civilization is a phenomenal set that presents Smith’s Lensman series. The Lensman series is a literary triumph that was the runner-up for the 1966 Hugo Award for Best All-Times series, second only to Isaac Asimov’s seminal Foundation series.

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Lord Horror by David Britton (First Edition) Harlan Ellison signed

“Lord Horror makes most horror fiction look tame and safe. Awesomely grotesque, unstoppably imaginative, hideously funny, it’s a truly dangerous book.”  – Ramsey Campbell  

[1989] First Edition. Harlan Ellison’s copy, with his signed bookplate to front pastedown (unread and without his blindstamp). HC w/DJ.    

 David Britton was an accomplished and controversial author and co-founder of the subversive Savoy Books publishing house, as well as two small press magazines Weird Fantasy and Crucified. Regularly in contention with British authorities, Britton actually served jail time for publication considered “obscene”.   

Originally published in 1990 Lord Horror was a hugely controversial novel that was the last book banned in the UK where it was withheld from 1991-1992. The piece, although clearly satirical in nature, was seen as wildly offensive as it used Nazi propaganda to tell the story of WWII traitor Lord Haw-Haw (radio broadcaster William Joyce) who takes the moniker of Lord Horror in the novel

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Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke (Signed, First UK)

“There were some things that only time could cure. Evil men could be destroyed, but nothing could be done with good men who were deluded.”
― Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood’s End

 Signed by the Author on a bookplate fixed to the front pastedown endpaper. First British printing. First state binding of blue cloth with spine lettered gilt. Pictorial dust jacket. 

Initially, an idea within his short story Guardian Angel, Arthur C Clarke developed Childhood’s End into a harrowing tale of dystopia in the guise of utopia being controlled by oppressors in the form of benevolent leaders. William DuBois of the New York Times called the book “a first-rate tour de force that is well worth the attention of every thoughtful citizen in this age of anxiety.”

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Virgil Finlay Original Art

Virgil Finlay (American)
Cover art for Fantastic Universe November 1959
Art 15” x 10 3/4”; Framed 20 1/2” x 15 1/2”

Known best for his contributions to the world of pulp art, American artist Virgil Finlay covered a wide variety work in the genre of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Finlay started his career as an artist at the young age of 16 and started to submit his work to the horror pulp magazine Weird Tales at the age of 21. He left his mark by appearing in a total of 62 issues including the final issue of Weird Tales in September 1954.

Although he had a great eye for color composition, Finlay was best known for his detailed pen and ink illustrations. Finlay used techniques such as hatching, a technique that allows for texture by aligning a series of close, parallel lines, and stippling, which is a series of small dots used for shading, to add depth realism to the deceivingly simple medium for which he was best known. Additionally, Finlay would use scratchboard, which is a subtractive medium that uses a sharp object to deliberately remove a typically dark, top layer of pigment to reveal a white bottom layer that was the basis to many of the hyper-saturated black and white illustrations Finlay produced.

Finlay’s artistic influence was acknowledged with his induction into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2012. He also won one of the inaugural Hugo Awards as the best interior illustrator of 1953.

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Stand on Zanzibar John Brunner (Author’s copy) (First edition)

“It’s [a] common platitude that knowledge is neutral but every now and then it would be useful if it was on your side and not theirs.”
― John Brunner

First Edition. Author’s copy with his bookplate to pastedown. Also, his handwritten and signed party invitation for the Publication “July 17th”, on his home stationary tipped in to the ffe. “Publication is on the 17th of July + we’re having a small party to celebrate. How about coming up and having a bite to eat with us beforehand? Shall we say 6PM Sharp? Best John B…”. A fantastic piece. Hugo Award Winner for Best Novel, 1969. Dystopian novel of Earth in 2010.

Stand on Zanzibar is a highly-acclaimed novel that won that won both the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the BSFA Award in 1969, as well as the Prix Tour-Apollo Award in 1973. One of the unique features of the of this work is the time Brunner spent on the development of the world in which it is set. The novel has a rich and compelling narrative that is only enhanced by the intermittent chapters that are solely dedicated to the reader’s emergence into the highly-detailed future world. The central plot of Stand on Zanzibar is focused on overpopulation, and the potential destruction wrought from its imbalance, through the eyes of two New Yorkers in the year 2010.

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The Ghost Pirates William Hope Hodgson (First edition)

Original red cloth, spine and cover lettered gilt. 12-page catalog at rear. Frontispiece illustration by Sidney H. Sime.

Science-Fiction, horror and fantastic fiction writer William Hope Hodgson uses his unique experience as a sailor, and his love of the sea, to add an air of authenticity to his work  The Ghost Pirates. Everett Bleiler described the value of  The Ghost Pirates in  The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, saying that it is ”one of the great sea novels… highly original in detail and well done. Although it is overshadowed as visionary horror by the more spectacular  The House on the Borderland and  The Night Land, as a work of art, it is finer.” This opinion is reaffirmed by celebrated author Robert Weinberg who said that the novel is “one of the finest examples of the tightly written novel ever published.”

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The Way Down the Hill & The Pink of Fading Neon Tim Powers; James P. Blaylock (Signed Author’s Copy) #2/50

Axolotl doubleback. Limited, #2 of 50 leather bound copies. AUTHOR’S COPY, inscribed on the front free endpaper, “My personal copy given to me by the publisher, [signed] Tim Powers.” SIGNED on the limitation pages by both Authors and the Introducers, Edward Bryant & Charles De Lint. Grey leather with silver foil lettering on the covers. 66pp. Not issued in dust jacket. Private Press, Fantasy.

As is typical in the work of Tim Powers, The Way Down/The Pink of Fading Neon is a work in the style of “secret histories”. This literary genre expresses an alternate, or revisionist, interpretation of a historical event that has been ignored or intentionally suppressed by scholars. These events may be real or fictional, but the motive of a fresh interpretation is to enlighten the audience to a perspective they would have otherwise been ignorant. For Tim Powers, a secret history novel would include supernatural elements, creating a piece that sits happily among other works of fantasy and sci-fi. Powers had close relationships with other significant authors of the sci-fi community, including Philip K Dick. In Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which was later produced as the Bladerunner series, the character “David” was based on Powers. In Power’s novel Declare he explained his view on history and the way that he engaged with it in his works, “I made it an ironclad rule that I could not change or disregard any of the recorded facts, nor rearrange any days of the calendar – and then I tried to figure out what momentous but unrecorded fact could explain them all.

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The Stand Stephen King (First Edition with Slipcase)

“The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there…and still on your feet.”
― Stephen King, The Stand

First Edition. Slipcased in a bright red clamshell with faux-leather/gilt pastedown on spine. Not price clipped.

A plot originally developed in the short story Night Surf, The Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy novel set in a world ravaged by a weaponized strain of influenza.  The Stand marks the first appearance of King’s recurring antagonist Randall Flagg who would be a player in at least 9 other of King’s novels including The Eyes of the Dragon and The Dark Tower series. As is typical with King’s body of work, The Stand was adapted into other forms of media including a graphic novel published by Marvel Comics, as well as an ABC television mini-series. Most recently, The Stand is in early development to be released as an 8-part miniseries that will precede the release of a widely anticipated feature film.

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