Thursday, December 22, 2011

Lost and Found Paperback Science Fiction

Today's stash of Lost and Found comes from an antique store, I have always driven by, but never stopped at.  You know the kind, looks like it could be an interesting joint to take a look at.  This one happens to be the sister store of the one I found the copy of Top Notch #1, which is another story.  This place didn't turn up any pulp magazines but did have a nice box of 45 or so vintage 1960 to 1970 paperbacks in a large box.  I glommed on to that at a nice Christmasy 50% off!  It makes for a tough decision on which one to read first, you can tell by looking at all the covers that they make it even harder.  

The Asimov book has cover art by Berkey and reprints material from Fantasy and Science Fiction mag, Amazing, If, and The Saint Detective Mag.

The Gardner F Fox book has a cover signed JB, is from 1973 and has that notoriety of the Saturday night Live characters, one influenced the other. 

The Leigh Brackett has a cover by Grey Morrow, 1967, reprinting stories from Planet Stories, Startling Stories, Amazing Stories and Fantasy and Sciencefiction.  All great pulp stories






This one by Marion Zimmer Bradley has a cool looking cover by Jack Gaughan, who did a cover or two for my old fanzine Cloak and Dagger, as well as a bunch for my pal's Harry's mag Fantasy News.  It has interior illo's by Jack too, his tour-De-force was his pen and ink drawings I think. 




The Delany has a great cover and 400 and some pages from 1966.  The Dick book from 1974 looks like a good read from the back cover blurb, "he was a skilled mender-or, as he liked to think of it , healer-of ceramic pots.  In a mostly plastic world, he was unemployed"...Another cool cover too. 

The De Camp book is the third in a series, looks like, I'll be looking for the other 2 from 1977 or so, another well  done cover, signed at the bottom cut off  J. Ha-something.  The De Camp-Fletcher Pratt book The Incomplete Enchanter with the really fine Jeff  Jones cover, the fact that its a fantasy book, and because its a reprint of the May and August  1940 issues of The Unknown a Street and Smith pulp, make it my first choice to read.  Oh, and was dedicated to John W. Campbell too! The third  DeCamp-Pratt book with a awesome cover by Esteban Maroto and interior illo's by Edd Cartier, is from Oct. 1941 issue of Unknown Worlds, this would be my second choice for reading.  Its from 1979.

That's the first 9 of 25 covers I have of the 43 I bought, the next bunch tomorrow.  Any one have a favorite from these please give me your opinion, thanks!


2 comments:

  1. I agree with you about reading the de Camp and Pratt fiction from UNKNOWN first. One of the great pulp titles and it's still possible to put together a set of the 39 issues.

    But the best as far as quality would be the Philip K. Dick novel. Not his very best work but still above just about anyone else in SF at the time.

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  2. Hey Walker, Yeah, your right, it is possible to still put together a set of Unknown, I have a small bunch myself, and everyone I read was excellent, Norvell Page's Prester John stories come to mind. I also have the Raymond Chandler issue Nov. 1939 with his story The Bronze Door, never got to read that yet! And I see I have the May 1940 issue with the De Camp and Fletcher story in it, called The Roaring Trumpet and I though it was very good. That takes care of half the paperback The Incomplete Enchanter. So, maybe I should consider the Phil K Dick as a first read. Thanks for the input. Jonathan

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