December 2024: Science Fiction (Pre-1960)

Pre-1960 Science Fiction materialized as the topic for the December 2024 meeting.  Offerings ranged from some of the most recognizable science fiction classics to little-known, mostly forgotten stories.

The featured books are presented here in chronological order of their original publication date.

A Journey to the Center of the Earth

Verne, Jules.  A Journey to the Center of the Earth.  London: Griffith and Farran, 1872.  First edition in English and first British edition.  A Journey to the Center of the Earth was first published in French in 1864 as Voyage au centre de la Terre; a revised and expanded edition was issued in 1867.  The first edition in English is one of the rarest of Jules Verne titles.  This copy is in very good condition; it is beautifully rebound in full leather, probably by the first owner in the 1870s.  

From the Earth to the Moon

Verne, Jules.  From the Earth to the Moon, Direct in Ninety-Seven Hours and Twenty Minutes: And a Trip Round It.  New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Company, 1874.  First American edition.  The novel was first published in French as De la Terre à la Lune, trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes in 1865.  From the Earth to the Moon was first translated into English in 1867.  This copy in the original publisher's gilt illustrated binding is in good condition.  Copies of From the Earth to the Moon are scarce in this attractive condition.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas

Verne, Jules.  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas; or, The Marvellous and Exciting Adventures of Pierre Aronnax, Conseil His Servant, and Ned Land, a Canadian Harpooner.  Boston: George M. Smith & Co., 1873.  First American edition.  The story was originally serialized in a biweekly French periodical, Magasin d'éducation et de récréation, from March 1869 through June 1870.  Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers was first published in book form in 1871, and first published in English as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas in 1872.  This copy, in fine condition, retains the original publisher's gilt illustrated binding.  Copies of this edition are scarce, and rare in such fine condition.

Looking Backward, 2000 – 1887 

Bellamy, Edward.  Looking Backward, 2000 – 1887.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1898.  Memorial edition with an introduction by Sylvester Baxter.  Looking Backward was first published in 1888 by Ticknor & Company.  Following Bellamy's death in 1898, Houghton Mifflin released this memorial edition, ten years after the original publication, with Baxter's introduction.  In 1888, the initial sales of Looking Backward were modest, but an enthusiastic review by Sylvester Baxter for the Boston Herald helped boost sales of the book, leading to the second edition published in 1889 by Houghton Mifflin (which had purchased Ticknor & Co. during that time).  This copy lacks its dust jacket and has some marks on the cover, but the pages are clean with no markings.

Ben-Beor

Bien, H. M.  Ben-Beor: A Story of the Anti-Messiah.  Baltimore: Isaac Friedenwald Co., 1891.  This obscure title is a science fiction pastiche to two classic texts, Lew Wallace's Ben Hur and Eugene Sue's The Wandering Jew.  Ben-Beor is divided into two parts.  Part I: Lunar Intaglios: The Man in the Moon, is a "counterpart" to Wallace's Ben Hur, in which the prophet Elijah journeys to the moon in a fiery chariot.  Part II: Historical Phantasmagoria: The Wandering Gentile, is a "companion romance" to Sue's The Wandering Jew.  This title is listed in Everett Bleiler's The Checklist of Fantastic Literature (1948).  This copy is in good condition with mottling to the cloth at the edges; the cover title is bright in gilt, though the lettering is dulled along the spine.

The Time Machine and The Invisible Man

Wells, H. G.  The Time Machine: An Invention.  Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1986.  Leather-bound with gilt decoration.  Wells's time travel story began as a series of loosely connected, fictionalized essays published in National Observer in 1894 but was not completed.  Wells reworked the story and serialized it in The New Review from January to May 1895.  It was published in book form in the United States on May 7, 1895, followed by the British edition on May 29, 1895.  There are textual differences between the two first editions; it is possible they were prepared from different manuscripts.  Nearly all modern reprints follow the British text.

Wells, H. G.  The Invisible Man.  Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1967.  Leather-bound with gilt decoration and "Invisible" blind stamped on front cover.  The Invisible Man was originally serialized in 1897 in Pearson's Weekly and published in book form later that year.  

An Antarctic Mystery

Verne, Jules.  An Antarctic Mystery.  Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1899.  First American edition.  The story was first published in French as Le Sphinx des glaces (The Sphinx of the Ice Fields) in 1897.  It was first translated into English and retitled as An Antarctic Mystery in 1898; this English edition was translated by Mrs. Cashel Hoey.  Verne wrote An Antarctic Mystery as an original sequel to Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838).  This copy in the original publisher's silver and white illustrated binding is in fine, virtually as-new, condition.  The steel blue cloth with silver gilt and white cover illustration evokes a sense of the cold Antarctic ice.

An Antarctic Mystery

Verne, Jules.  An Antarctic Mystery.  Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1900.  A subsequent printing, published one year after the first edition with a newly designed cover.  This edition contains 17 black and white illustrations on glossy stock.  This copy is in good condition; it lacks the dust jacket, but the interior is clean with no markings.

The House on the Borderland

Hodgson, William Hope.  The House on the Borderland & Other Novels.  Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1946.  This posthumous edition collects Hodgson's four major novels: The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" (1907), The House on the Borderland (1908), The Ghost Pirates (1909), and The Night Land (1912).  The dust jacket artwork is by Hannes Bok.

A Voyage to Arcturus

Lindsay, David.  A Voyage to Arcturus.  New York: The Macmillan Company, 1963.  This story was first published in 1920 after Lindsay agreed with his publisher to change the title and cut approximately 15,000 words from the text.  The book sold poorly when it was first released; only 596 copies sold out of the first print run of 1,430.  It did not sell well during his lifetime, but a second edition was published in 1946 shortly after Lindsay's death.  That edition sold well, and the book became highly influential as a sci-fi classic.  A Voyage to Arcturus was a major literary influence for C. S. Lewis's The Space Trilogy (see below).  This 1963 edition is the first reprinting after the 1946 rerelease.

Skull-Face and Others

Howard, Robert E.  Skull-Face and Others.  Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1946.  Robert Howard was the creator of Conan, Red Sonja and several other characters published in pulp magazines.  Skull-Face, the titular story in this collection, was originally serialized in Weird Tales magazine from October 1929 through December 1929.  This book was his third posthumously published omnibus.  The dust jacket artwork by Hannes Bok.

Who Goes There?

Campbell, Jr., John W.  Who Goes There?  Chicago: Shasta Publishers, 1948.  The novella was originally published in the August 1938 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine. Campbell used the pseudonym Don A. Stuart since he was the editor of Astounding.  The story was adapted to film in 1951 by Howard Hawks as The Thing from Another World, and again more accurately in 1982, as The Thing, by John Carpenter.  A prequel movie was released in 2011.  In 2018, a longer version of the story titled Frozen Hell was discovered in John Campbell’s archives.  A crowd-funded campaign allowed this new version to be published under the original Frozen Hell title.  The dust jacket artwork for this 1948 edition is by Hannes Bok.

The Space Trilogy

Lewis, C. S.  The Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.  Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 2003.  Three volumes.  Out of the Silent Planet, the first book in The Space Trilogy, was first published in 1938.  Perelandra, the second book, was published in 1943.  That Hideous Strength, the third book, was published in 1945.  This three-volume edition is leather-bound with gilt decoration.

The Tortured Planet

Lewis, C.S.  The Tortured Planet.  New York: Avon, 1958.  First thus.  The Tortured Planet is an abridgement of That Hideous Strength (1945) shortened by the author.  This abridgement is also the first paperback edition.

Sixth Column

Heinlein, Robert A.  Sixth Column.  New York: Gnome Press, 1949.  First thus.  This novel was first published under Heinlein's pseudonym Anson MacDonald in Astounding Science Fiction from January to March 1941.  In the story, the USA is conquered by Asia, and a small group of scientists schemes to re-establish the country.  This copy is in fine condition with its original dust jacket in vivid red and yellow with no fading.  

Rocket Ship Galileo

Heinlein, Robert A.  Rocket Ship Galileo.  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947.  First edition.  Rocket Ship Galileo was the first in a series of 12 classic science fiction novels written by Heinlein for the young adult market.  The 1950 movie Destination Moon directed by George Pal was loosely based on this novel and is considered one of the first “serious” science fiction films.  This copy is in near fine condition with its original dust jacket.  

Space Cadet

Heinlein, Robert A.  Space Cadet.  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948.  First edition.  Space Cadet is the second in a series of 12 classic science fiction novels written by Heinlein for the young adult market.  The early television series Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (1950 – 1955) was very loosely based on this novel.  This copy is in very good condition with its original dust jacket.  

Red Planet

Heinlein, Robert A.  Red Planet.  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1949.  First edition.  Red Planet is the third in a series of 12 classic science fiction novels written by Heinlein for the young adult market.  The novel was adapted by Gunther-Wahl Productions into an animated miniseries for Fox Kids in 1994.  This copy is in near fine condition with its original dust jacket.  

What Mad Universe

Brown, Frederic.  What Mad Universe.  Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1986.  This story was first published in 1949.  The novel humorously satirizes the conventions of American pulp science-fiction of the 1940s while simultaneously incorporating those stereotyped elements into its own story.  This satirical style creates an alternate universe in which, for example, recognizable sci-fi works such as H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds is flipped to become a factual political argument condemning the human colonization of Mars.  This edition is leather-bound with gilt decoration.

Worlds Beyond

Knight, Damon, ed.  Worlds Beyond, Volume 1, Number 1.  New York: Hillman Periodicals Inc., December 1950.

          .  Worlds Beyond, Volume 1, Number 2.  New York: Hillman Periodicals Inc., January 1951.

          .  Worlds Beyond, Volume 1, Number 3.  New York: Hillman Periodicals Inc., February 1951.

Worlds Beyond was a short-lived science-fantasy fiction magazine producing only three volumes from December 1950 to February 1951.  It was edited by science fiction writer Damon Knight and included sci-fi stories by contemporary genre writers such as William F. Temple, C. M. Kornbluth, Jack Vance, William Tenn, Harry Harrison, Lester del Rey, and Poul Anderson.  Most of the stories were reprinted from other sources, but some were new stories making their first appearance in print.  The third issue contains the debut of Harry Harrison's "Rock Diver," which popularized the sci-fi concept of matter penetration, or the ability to pass through solid objects.

Player Piano

Vonnegut, Kurt Jr.  Player Piano.  Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 2004.  This story was first published in 1952.  Player Piano is Vonnegut's first novel.  It was nominated in 1953 for the International Fantasy Award.  In 1954 it was released in paperback and retitled Utopia 14 in an attempt to reach more sci-fi readers.  This edition is leather-bound with gilt decoration.  

November 2024: Radio

Book collectors tuned in to Radio for the November 2024 meeting.  General books about radio and radio broadcasting ranged from dramas during the golden age of radio to the importance of news broadcasts during World War II.  Most of the books and manuscripts shown focused on specific radio programs and notable broadcasts, starting with the infamous 1938 Halloween Eve broadcast of The War of the Worlds.

Radio Broadcasts

The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds

Wells, H. G.  The War of the Worlds.  London: William Heinemann, 1898.  First edition.  H. G. Wells's classic science fiction alien invasion story was first published in serialized form in 1897.  The full novel was published in 1898 by William Heinemann in the UK and by Harper & Brothers in the US.  The story has been adapted and dramatized numerous times into various media including film, television, comics, audio recordings, live concerts, and, most notably, radio.

On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles directed and narrated a radio drama of The War of the Worlds for the Halloween episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a CBS Radio Network program.  The show was performed and broadcast live and lacked commercial interruptions.  While the Mercury show was introduced in its normal style, the 60-minute dramatic interpretation was presented mainly as a series of news bulletins and on-the-scene reports of a violent Martian invasion.  Some listeners misunderstood the dramatization and believed the news bulletins were real; other listeners who tuned in late or only heard a portion of the broadcast mistook it as a genuine news broadcast.  Panic and hysteria ensued from coast to coast, and telephone switchboards not only at CBS but also at newspaper desks, police stations, and hospitals all over the country were inundated with panic-stricken callers.  CBS, other broadcast networks, newspapers, and police departments across the country worked all through the night to restore calm, convince people they were safe, and assure the public that the broadcast was fictional.

The War of the Worlds (Classics Illustrated)

Wells, H. G.  The War of the Worlds.  Classics Illustrated, Number 124.  New York: Gilberton Company, 1955.  Adapted by Harry G. Miller.  Illustrated by Lou Cameron.  This Classics Illustrated comic adaptation of The War of the Worlds includes a full-page description on the inside cover of the 1938 radio broadcast, including some anecdotes of panicked reactions to the show.

The Panic Broadcast

Koch, Howard.  The Panic Broadcast: The Whole Story of the Night the Martians Landed.  New York: Avon Publications, 1970.  Howard Koch wrote the now-infamous radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds presented by Orson Welles.  His book The Panic Broadcast covers the aftermath of the October 30, 1938, radio broadcast.  It includes an introductory interview with Arthur C. Clark along with newspaper articles, political cartoons, photographs, and other materials documenting the pandemonium caused by the presentation.  It also includes the full text of the original radio script.

The War of the Worlds (Deluxe Illustrated Edition)

Holmsten, Brian and Alex Lubertozzi.  War of the Worlds: Mars’ Invasion of Earth, Inciting Panic and Inspiring Terror from H.G. Wells to Orson Welles and Beyond.  New York: Sourcebooks Inc., 2003.  Deluxe illustrated edition.  Foreword by Ray Bradbury and Afterword by Ben Bova.  Audio narration by John Callaway.  This is a revised and updated edition of Holmsten and Lubertozzi's The Complete War of the Worlds (2001).  The book contains an overview of the broadcast and its aftermath along with the radio play script and biographical information on H. G. Wells and Orson Welles.  The book is accompanied by an audio CD which contains the complete October 30, 1938, radio broadcast, Orson Welles's press conference the following day, and a recording of an interview between Orson Welles and H. G. Wells.

Other Broadcasts

Flash Gordon and the Power Men of Mongo

Raymond, Alex.  Flash Gordon and the Power Men of Mongo.  Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Company, 1943.  Flash Gordon first appeared in a King Features Syndicate comic strip on January 7, 1934.  The space adventure was created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond.  In 1935, Flash Gordon appeared on radio over the Mutual Broadcasting System on the west coast.  The Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon aired in 26 fifteen-minutes episodes broadcast from April 27 to October 26, 1935.  The first four episodes quickly encapsulated the first year of the syndicated comic strip, and the remaining episodes concurrently followed the printed comic's storyline.  In the final installment of the radio serial, the principal human characters, Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, and Dr. Hans Zarkov, land in a wilderness where they encounter Jungle Jim.  Like Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim was another comic strip series being adapted to radio, and the final Flash Gordon episode transitioned into the Jungle Jim replacement series.

The Story of Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen

Packer, Eleanor.  The Story of Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen.  Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Company, 1938.  The Big Little Book 1456.  Edgar Bergen (1903 – 1978) was an American radio performer, comedian, and ventriloquist best known for his routines with a wooden dummy, Charlie McCarthy.  In 1937, Bergen became a regular cast member of The Chase and Sanborn Hour, a radio program on NBC's Syndicated Radio Network which aired from 1929 to 1948, performing sketches with Charlie McCarthy.  In 1949, Bergen moved to CBS with a weekly television program The Charlie McCarthy Show.  Packer's The Story of Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen includes four illustrated stories in which Charlie McCarthy is more like a real person interacting with Edgar Bergen in something of a father-son relationship.  The stories are retellings of classic vaudevillian Bergen-McCarthy radio sketches, including "Charlie's School Days," "Two-Gun McCarthy," "Charlie's Lemonade Stand," and "Charlie Goes to the Doctor."

Nota bene: Legend around Orson Welles's 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds (above) holds that some listeners who mistook the broadcast as real may have been listening to The Chase and Sanborn Hour with Edgar Bergen on NBC, which aired at the same time as The Mercury Theatre on CBS, and switched over during the musical interlude, thereby missing the show's introduction and thinking the news bulletins were real.

The Great Jowett

Greene, Graham.  The Great Jowett.  London: The Bodley Head, 1981.  The Great Jowett was first written as a radio play for the BBC, and was broadcast on Saturday, 6 May 1939.  It was produced and narrated by Stephen Potter.  It was first published in 1981 in a limited signed and numbered edition of 525 copies, of which 500 were for sale.  This copy, number 121, is accompanied by a typed signed letter, dated 27 October 1981, from the publisher's marketing director informing the bookseller:

As you know, this edition is limited to 500 copies.

The book has been greatly over-subscribed and we are therefore able to supply only a part of the order you placed with us.

The edition has now been exhausted.

The play focuses on Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893), a classics scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, and his struggle to serve as Master of the school while working on his translation of Plato.  Greene attended Balliol from 1922 to 1925, thirty years after Jowett's mastership, but Jowett's legacy still loomed large.  Greene wrote the radio play in the 1930s, when "the old school" alumni spirit was still strong.  It is the only radio play penned by Greene.  

From the Third Programme

Morris, John, ed.  From the Third Programme: A Ten-Years' Anthology.  London: Nonesuch Press, 1956.  The BBC Third Programme was a British national radio station broadcasting from 1946 to 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3.  It focused on intellectual and cultural movements; its programming included dramatic plays, author conversations, poetry readings, and documentary features.  It was criticized for its high-brow or elitist content and panned as "two dons talking."  To commemorate its first ten years of broadcasting, the network published this anthology of some of its favorite programs, including contributions by noted authors such as V. S. Pritchett, Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, Bertrand Russell, E. M. Forster, André Gide, Maxim Gorky, Edward Sackville-West, T. S. Eliot, and Thomas Mann.  This copy is from a limited edition of 1300 tall copies issued in a custom slipcase.  This copy is number 123.

The Fallen Idol

Greene, Graham and Charles Hatton.  The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene: Adapted from the Film Story by Charles Hatton: Produced by Ronald Mason.  BBC Home Service.  16 and 18 March 1968.  Original typescript of the radio play broadcast on BBC Home Service Saturday, 16 March, and Monday, 18 March 1968.  The radio play was adapted by Charles Hatton from the 1948 film The Fallen Idol, which was an adaptation of Graham Greene's 1935 short story "The Basement Room."  Among the cast of this production, Dame Judi Dench is the most recognizable actor today.  This was Hatton's own copy, later gifted to journalist Jack Haden.  

Yes and No

Greene, Graham.  Yes and No by Graham Greene: Directed by John Tydeman.  BBC Radio 3.  25 January 1983.  Yes and No is a short one-act stage play written by Graham Greene, inspired by his observations of interactions between Sir John Gielgud, director, and Sir Ralph Richardson, actor, during rehearsals for the original 1959 production of Greene's The Complaisant Lover.  Yes and No was first performed at The Haymarket Studio Theatre, Leicester on 20 March 1980.  In August 1981, actor Clive Francis, wrote to John Tydeman, the Assistant Head of Drama, Radio, at the BBC, suggesting Yes and No as a radio play; Tydeman wrote back immediately asking for a copy of the script (which had not yet been published) and thanking him for the suggestion, calling it a "smashing idea."  The project came to fruition and Yes and No was recorded for radio on 25 January 1983, with Clive Francis as the Director and Alex Jennings as the Actor; the production was directed by Tydeman himself.  For the radio play, only the opening line, spoken by the Director, was altered.  In the stage play, the Director begins, "Ah, punctual I see.  A great virtue in a young actor.  Have you been here long?"  For the radio play, the Director's opening line was adapted to, "On stage waiting.  Punctuality is a great virtue in a young actor.  Have you been here long?"

This original typescript was the property of Clive Francis and was the script used by Alex Jennings during the studio recording.  It contains the alteration of the first line in Francis's hand and prompts and voice notes in Jennings's hand.  The script is accompanied by Tydeman's typed signed letter of 13 August 1981 to Francis.  This script and letter were obtained directly from Clive Francis in 2019.

Tolkien's Gown and Outside of a Dog

Gekoski, Rick.  Tolkien's Gown & Other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books.  London: Constable & Robinson Ltd., 2004.  First edition.  Rick Gekoski is a rare and antiquarian book dealer, author, and bibliographer.  He conceived and recorded a series of short 15-minute segments titled Rare Books, Rare People for BBC Radio 4 which aired in 2003.  He revised those broadcasts into chapters for this book.  Each chapter tells the story of a particular book Gekoski acquired, catalogued, and sold.  Each book is a stunning copy, often with an exceptional provenance, inscription, or other feature which makes it highly valuable.  Gekoski tells the fascinating stories behind not only the books themselves, but also, in some cases, the notable people who sold the books to him and the people who bought those books from him.  This copy is signed by the author on the title page.

Gekoski, Rick.  Outside of a Dog: A Bibliomemoir.  London: Constable & Robinson Ltd., 2009.  First edition.  Like Tolkien's Gown, Gekoski's next book offers more stories of acquisitions and sales of some remarkable books.  Outside of a Dog, however, is more of a memoir of Gekoski's own career told through a few specific sales.  The book shows his evolution from a general antiquarian bookseller to a dealer highly specialized in the papers and archives of prominent writers and his work to get those archives into the special collections of leading libraries and institutions.  This book is a revision of Gekoski's BBC Radio 4 series Lost, Stolen or Shredded.

General Radio

Berlin Diary

Shirer, William L.  Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934-1941.  New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1941.  First edition.  William L. Shirer (1904 – 1993) was an American journalist and war correspondent who began his career in radio in Europe.  He first worked for the Berlin bureau of Universal Service, before being hired by Edward R. Murrow for the CBS Radio team, known as "Murrow's Boys."  During the pre-war period, Shirer, based in Berlin, attended Hitler's speeches and party rallies in Nuremberg.  When Germany annexed Austria, Shirer quickly left for London where he broadcast the first uncensored eyewitness account of the Anschluss.  He returned to Berlin and began to produce and broadcast 30-minute radio news segments from five European Capitals—Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Rome, and London—using telephones and the available radio technology.  Shirer was the first to broadcast these "world news roundup" segments, a format still used by news broadcasters today.  By 1940 Shirer knew he had to leave Germany, as the Gestapo was building an espionage case against him.  He left in December 1940, smuggling his diaries and notes—firsthand accounts of events in Nazi Germany—which became the basis for this book.  Shirer later returned to Europe in 1945 to report on the Nuremberg trials.

Radio Plays and How to Write Them

Hatton, Charles.  Radio Plays and How to Write Them.  St. Ives: Matson's Publications, 1948.  First edition.  Forward by film director Martyn C. Webster.  Charles Hatton was an accomplished author, theatre critic, and scriptwriter.  He authored several novels, a children's book, and two stage plays.  He wrote more than 500 sketches and plays for radio.  His full-length radio plays consisted of both original stories and adaptations of other works, including The Fallen Idol, and adaptation of the film of the same name based on Graham Greene's short story "The Basement Room" [see above].  In Radio Plays and How to Write Them, Hatton draws from his broadcasting experience and offers tips for writing various types of radio plays.  The book includes two of Hatton's original radio plays along with notes and analysis of each.  

Matson's Publications was a short-lived publisher focused on how-to guides for aspiring writers, releasing a handful of books between 1946 and 1949 with such other titles as Breaking into Fiction, Writing for Broadcasting, Encyclopedia of Article Ideas, The Writers' and Photographers' Reference Guide, and Money from Entertaining.  These books are scarce and difficult to find today.

The Great Radio Heroes

Harmon, Jim.  The Great Radio Heroes.  New York: Doubleday & Company, 1967.  First edition.  Harmon looks back to the recent past to the golden age of radio to consider the role radio dramas played in the lives and imaginations of its young listeners.  He examines the love affair people had with radio programs and postulates how young listeners used their imagination to conjure up better images of their storied heroes than the representations later depicted by television.  The Great Radio Heroes provides analysis and reprinted scripts from such radio dramas as I Love a Mystery, Gangbusters, The Shadow, Inner Sanctum, Batman and Robin, Superman, Tom Mix, The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet, and Adventures by Morse.

On the Air

Dunning, John.  On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.  First edition.  Hardcover with illustrations.  This 840-page encyclopedic reference book in one volume contains more than 1500 entries on classic radio shows which aired from the 1920s through the 1960s.  Entries include such broadcasts as Amos 'n' Andy, Fibber McGee and Molly, Ozzie and Harriet, Sam Spade, Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour, Father Knows Best, and The March of Time.  Each entry contains such information as broadcast dates, casts and personnel, anecdotes, and a detailed overview of each show's background, format, and content.  Beyond the facts and details, Dunning's entries provide a fascinating account of each program by taking the reader behind the scenes to capture the feel of the performance and providing engrossing biographies of the people involved in the show.

 

October 2024: Poetry

    Collectors gathered on October Third

    To commemorate the writing of verse.

    National Poetry Day was observed

    With charming books, some alike, some diverse.

    

    Brittle leaves creaked as pages slowly turned,

    Revealing phrases from days long gone by.

    New books, finely bound, by authors concerned

    With memories of moments gone awry.

    

    Names you recognize like Poe and Thoreau,

    In first edition or facsimile,    

    Bring fond memories reading Longfellow

    Or Dickinson… though not so cheerily.

    

    The poets' words both challenge and inspire,

    But the book itself is a work of art.

    We caress the paper folded in quire

    And cherish the tome with all of our heart.

Thanatopsis and other Poems

Bryant, William Cullen.  Thanatopsis and other Poems.  New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, n.d (c. 1890).  "Thanatopsis" was first published in the North American Review in 1817.  The poem was written by a teenage Bryant between 1811 and 1816 as a rejection of Puritanical conservativism.  His father discovered the poem in Bryant's desk and submitted it for publication without his son's knowledge.  Bryant revised "Thanatopsis" and published it along with nine other poems in 1821.  The collection was expanded in 1832 and caught the attention of a larger literary audience, establishing Bryant as one of the great poets of his generation.  This copy is a reprint of the 1821 edition by its original publisher.

The Raven and Other Poems

Poe, Edgar A.  The Raven and Other Poems.  New York: Wiley and Putman, 1845.  First edition.  "The Raven" was first published in Poe's name as an "advance copy" in the January 29, 1845, issue of the New York Evening Mirror.  It was published four more times in periodicals in February and March 1845 before its first appearance in book form on November 19, 1845, in The Raven and Other Poems.  Poe meticulously and methodically penned the poem with close attention to rhythm, meter, and rhyme; he aimed to compose a poem which would appeal to both regular readers and critics.  "The Raven" was an instant success with both readership groups, prompting Wiley and Putnam to publish two volumes of Poe's works in close succession: Tales in June 1845 and The Raven and Other Poems in November 1845.

The Song of Hiawatha

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth.  The Song of Hiawatha.  Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1855.  First edition.  Longfellow's epic poem of Hiawatha and Minnehaha was first published on November 10, 1855, after months of anticipation.  As early as August 1855, The New York Times teased the release of "Longfellow's New Poem."  The publication was met with extremely mixed reviews of both its structure and content.  Some critics attacked the use of trochaic tetrameter, finding trochees trite and overused, while The New York Times critic condemned the epic for its Native American characters, claiming there "is no romance about the Indian."  In contrast, other critics praised the "strange, beautiful poem" and defended its indigenous characters.  Despite the fights among its critics, the poem was immediately popular with readers.  The book sold well—Longfellow calculated that 50,000 copies sold in the first 2 years—and continued to do so for decades.  The epic remains one of Longfellow's best-known poems, alongside "Evangeline" and "Paul Revere's Ride."

The Song of Hiawatha

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth.  The Song of Hiawatha.  New York: Newson & Company, n.d. (ca 1940-1945).  Standard Literature Series edition.

The Song of Hiawatha

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth.  The Song of Hiawatha.  Chicago: J. G. Ferguson Publishing Company, 1968.  Facsimile of the 1890 edition illustrated by Frederic Remington.

Leaves of Grass
Frontispiece and title page

Leaves of Grass

Whitman, Walt.  Leaves of Grass.  Portland, ME: Thomas Bird Mosher and William Francis Gable, 1920.  Facsimile edition of the 1855 text.  Whitman's poetry collection was first published in 1855, though he continued to revise and expand it throughout the rest of his life.  Whitman self-published Leaves of Grass with the help of James and Andrew Rome, printers in Brooklyn whom Whitman had known for many years.  The first edition was printed without the names of either the author or publisher, though the work was not intended to be anonymous; the frontispiece was a steel engraving of Whitman, which offered the authorship of the poetry.

Whitman released six, seven, or nine editions—depending on which scholar you consult—between 1855 and 1892.  While the 1855 first edition contained only 12 poems, the 1892 "deathbed edition" contained nearly 400 poems.  At the end of 1891, Whitman wrote upon completion of the final edition, "L. of G. at last complete—after 33 y'rs of hacking at it, all times & moods of my life, fair weather & foul, all parts of the land, and peace & war, young & old."

Whitman considered the 1892 edition to be the final edition and proclaimed it "to absolutely supersede all previous ones."  While the revised and expanded version remains in print and is readily available, most collectors are interested in the earlier editions, the original 12-poem version chief among them.  Facsimile editions of the 1855 first edition are generally more popular than the final edition.

Leaves of Grass

Whitman, Walt.  Leaves of Grass.  New York: Eakins Press, 1966.  Exact facsimile of the 1855 first edition.

Leaves of Grass

Whitman, Walt.  Leaves of Grass.  New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997.  Hardcover facsimile of the 1855 first edition.

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War

Melville, Herman.  Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.  New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1866.  First edition.  Battle-Pieces is a collection of 72 short lyric and narrative poems about the battles and personalities of the Civil War and its aftermath.  Melville dedicated the work "To the Memory of the Three Hundred Thousand Who in the War For the Maintenance of the Union Fell Devotedly Under the Flag of Their Fathers."  The critical response to Battle-Pieces was tepid; critics appeared sympathetic to Melville's memorial tribute, but were mostly unmoved by it.  Fewer than 500 copies sold in the first two years, which barely covered half of the publication's printing costs.  The poor sales of the first edition make the book scare for collectors today.

Ultima Thule

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth.  Ultima Thule.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1880.  First edition.  Ultima Thule is a small poetry collection; the titular poem is an ode to George Washington Greene, an American historian and lifelong friend of Longfellow, whom he befriended in Italy in 1828 and became a traveling companion of during their extended time in Europe.  Other poems in the collection include an ode to President Garfield and laments on the deaths of fellow poets Robert Burns and Bayard Taylor.  This copy is signed and dated by Longfellow, 1880, on a tipped in plate at the front.

Poems of Nature

Thoreau, Henry David.  Poems of Nature.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1895.  Selected and edited by Henry S. Salt and Frank B. Sanborn.  Poems of Nature is a posthumously selected collection of fifty poems composed early in Thoreau's life, before he turned twenty-six; some of these poems were published during his lifetime.  Thoreau wrote prolifically, but he often destroyed works which did not meet his expectations or the "exacting requirements of his friend [Ralph Waldo] Emerson."  From among the published poems and those unpublished works preserved by Thoreau, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, an American journalist and biographer of Thoreau, and Henry Shakespear Salt, a British writer and social reform campaigner, selected what they considered to be his best poems.  They considered his best works to be those which held personal significance to Thoreau himself—Emerson remarked that Thoreau's "biography is in his verses"—and exemplify his poetic character.

Poems: Third Series

Dickinson, Emily.  Poems: Third Series.  Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1906.  Edited by Mabel Loomis Todd.  Dickinson wrote as many as 1,800 poems, but only ten were published during her lifetime.  After Dickinson's death, her younger sister, Lavinia, sought to publish her sister's poems.  She turned to her brother's lover, Mabel Loomis Todd, for assistance, but a feud erupted between the women which resulted in the poems being divided between the two.  The poems in Todd's possession were the first to be published; many of them were extensively edited, mostly for punctuation and capitalization, though some were also reworded.  Todd published the first volume, Poems, in 1890.  Poems: Second Series was published in 1891, followed by the third series in 1896.  Each of the three series ran through multiple printings before the turn of the century.

Poem XVI: "A Book"

Last Poems

Housman, A. E.  Last Poems.  London: Grant Richards Ltd., 1922.  First printing, first impression.  Last Poems was the final poetry collection published by Housman during his lifetime.  Errors were found in the book after the 4,000 copies were printed and bound.  Housman was fastidious about punctuation and was annoyed by the omission of punctuation marks in the first two lines of poem XXVI, "The half-moon westers low, my love."  The chastised publisher offered to insert an errata slip in the remaining copies, but Housman replied, "No, don't put in an errata slip. The blunder will probably enhance the value of the first edition in the eyes of bibliophiles, an idiotic class."  The errors were corrected in subsequent impressions.  This first impression is identifiable by the lack of a comma at the end of the first line and lack of a semicolon at the end of the second line of page 52.

Poem XXVI: "The half-moon westers low, my love"

This copy belonged to Graham Greene and bears his youthful ownership signature on the front inside cover.  Housman's poetry was influential to Greene, and he often quoted Housman in his nonfiction and personal correspondence.  In his travel book Journey Without Maps (1936), Greene recounts how he recited poem XL, "Tell me not here, it needs not saying," while trekking through Liberia in 1935.  He wrote how the poem:

 

        had a curious fascination for me during those weeks; it was like a succession

        of pleasant sounds in a foreign language; it represented the huge difference

        between this nature and what I had previously known; I used to reserve it as

        a last resort for when I could think of nothing else and recite it very slowly to

        myself, wondering whether I had covered a hundred yards between the first

        and the last verse.

Public School Verse: An Anthology, Volume III, 1921-1922

Gilkes, Martin, Richard Hughes, and P. H. B. Lyon, eds.  Public School Verse: An Anthology, Volume III, 1921-1922.  London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1923.  First edition.  Public School Verse was an annual series showcasing poetry by public high school students.  The poems were written while the students were still in high school in the academic year 1921-1922, though they may have been in college by the time the anthology was published in 1923.  Volume III featured several young writers who went on to notable literary careers such as Peter Quennell, Graham Greene, Christopher Isherwood, and A. L. Rowse.  This volume was the first appearance in print together for Greene and Isherwood, who were third cousins.  Greene's contribution, "The Gamesters," was never reprinted.

The Best Poems of 1925

Strong, L. A. G., ed.  The Best Poems of 1925.  Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1925.  First edition published concurrently by multiple publishers in the United Kingdom and the United States.  The Best Poems of… was an annual anthology of poetry which appeared in some American or British periodical during the year under review.  This 1925 anthology contains poems by such recognizable writers as Stephen Vincent Benet, Edmund Blunden, T. S. Eliot, Graham Greene, Vita Sackville-West, Siegfried Sassoon, Edith Sitwell, and W. B. Yeats.  Greene's contribution, "A Tramp Finds Himself Inspected By an Owl," first appeared in Westminster Gazette, September 6, 1924.

The Grave of Arthur

Chesterton, G. K.  The Grave of Arthur.  London: Faber & Faber, 1930.  2 pages.  Ariel Poems No. 25.  Illustrated by Celia Fiennes.  A poem about King Arthur.  A large-paper edition printed on English hand-made paper, published concurrently, was limited to 350 copies hand numbered and signed by the author.  While the number of copies of the smaller, unsigned edition is unknown, they are as equally scarce as the limited edition for collectors today.  The Ariel Poems was a series of booklets, consisting of 38 titles, published between 1927 and 1931.  Of the 38 titles, The Grave of Arthur was one of three poems by Chesterton printed in the series.  A second Ariel Poems series, published in 1954, consisted of 8 titles.

The Seafarer and The Wanderer

Gordon, I. L., trans.  The Seafarer.  London: Methuen, 2002.  "The Seafarer" is an Old English poem of undetermined authorship and date providing a first-person account of a man alone at sea.  It is recorded only in the Exeter Book, an anthology of Old English poetry produced in the late Tenth century.  The poem has been translated into contemporary English many times, as far back as Benjamin Thorpe's first English translation in 1842.  In the 1920s and 1930s, J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon collaborated on a translation, but the work was left unfinished when Gordon died in 1938.  Gordon's wife, Ida, resumed work on "The Seafarer" and published it under her own name in 1960.

Cole, Bethany, trans.  The Wanderer.  New York: Barnes & Noble Press, 2022.  Illustrated by Bethany Cole.  Like "The Seafarer," "The Wanderer" is another Old English poem of undetermined origins preserved in the Exeter Book.  It, too, has been interpreted many times, and Tolkien and Gordon also collaborated on a translation while working on "The Seafarer."  Bethany Cole, while pursuing her Master of Arts in English, was persuaded to read and translate "The Wanderer" from the Old English.  She then compared her draft to other modern English translations, including Tolkien's.  She found most of them to be plain but felt Tolkien's translation captured the ethos of the poem, which inspired her to revise, illustrate, and publish her own translation.

A Quick Look Behind

Greene, Graham.  A Quick Look Behind: Footnotes to an Autobiography.  Los Angeles: Sylvester & Orphanos, 1983.  Greene quit pursuing a career in poetry following the failure of his first poetry book, Babbling April (1925), but he continued to write poetry throughout his life for himself.  He wrote love poems to his mistress, and he wrote poems about significant moments in his life.  He did not write these poems intending them to be published, but two friends, the publishers of Sylvester & Orphanos, convinced him to let them publish some of his non-romantic poetry.  Because the poems memorialized important personal experiences, he subtitled the book "Footnotes to an Autobiography," as they evoked the emotions rather than the facts of those moments.  The poems are arranged in reverse chronological order from the 1980s to the 1920s.  The fine press book was published in a limited edition of three hundred signed and numbered copies.

Progressive variant bindings

Shown here are three bindings of the book representing various stages of the publication by bookbinder Bela Blau.  The first copy, in a plain beige cloth, was the binder's first bound copy to test aspects of the book and likely used to measure the book for the slipcases which needed to be made.  The second copy, in beige cloth stamped with blue flowers, was the original idea for the binding.  The publishers rejected it because "it did not print well."  This is the binder's dummy copy; it is signed by the author but is out-of-series of the limited edition.  The third copy, in blue blind-stamped cloth, is the final product.  This is the binder's personal copy; it is signed by the author but is out-of-series of the numbered copies.

Bilbo's Last Song

Tolkien, J. R. R.  Bilbo’s Last Song (At The Grey Havens).  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990.  32 p.  Illustrated by Pauline Baynes.  Within Tolkien's legendarium, "Bilbo's Last Song" is a dramatic lyric Bilbo Baggins is said to have composed as he contemplated his impending death.  When Tolkien wrote the poem is unknown, but it was forgotten until 1968 when Margaret Joy Hill, a secretary helping the 76-year-old author move to a new house, discovered it.  Tolkien later gifted the publishing rights to Hill as a token of his gratitude.  Bilbo's Last Song was first published in book form in English in 1990.  Prior to that, it was published in a Dutch translation in 1973, and in English on a poster in 1974.

Poems from The Hobbit

Tolkien, J. R. R.  Poems from The Hobbit.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.  Illustrations by J.R.R. Tolkien.  This miniature book extracts all of the poems in The Hobbit and illustrates them with 30 of Tolkien's own drawings and paintings.

Poems from The Lord of the Rings

Tolkien, J. R. R.  Poems from The Lord of The Rings.  London: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.  Illustrated by Alan Lee.  Poems and songs composed by the characters are sprinkled throughout The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Those poems are extracted and published here in one volume.  

The Columbia Book of Civil War Poetry

Marius, Richard, ed.  The Columbia Book of Civil War Poetry.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.  First edition.  This anthology of Civil War war poetry brings together decades of war and post-war era poetry by northern and southern soldiers, African Americans, and women in one volume.  Each poem is prefaced with a vignette by Marius which includes a biography, historical context, or other information about the poem or poet.  The poetry is complemented by Civil War photography from the Mathew Brady Collection.  This copy is signed by Richard Marius on a tipped in page.