As many of you know the world of literature (one of the many worlds he occupied) lost a legendary figure this month when Sir Arthur C. Clarke passed away. In January he gave an interview from his hospital room in Sri Lanka.
Clark smiled. “I’m often asked when I think the space elevator will be built,” he said. “My answer is about 10 years after everyone stops laughing. Maybe 20 years. But I am pretty sure that the space elevator is an important element in future space travel.”
Read the full interview at IEEE Spectrum…
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Gary Gygax has died. Most of the Book Shop Blog readers are probably scratching their head at who Gary Gygax is, but in certain parts of the internet there is a great weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth over this. Gygax (along with Dave Arneson) was the creator of the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game which is the quintessential nerd hobby. Many people spent their formative years chucking polyhedral dice on Friday nights.*
D& D spawned legions of books, plus TV shows, movies, video games, and helped created the gaming industry as we know it. Tabletop roleplaying games like D&D helped drive the creation of the videogame industry. Many of the most popular videogame franchises are roleplaying games.
Early books command high prices from gamers because once people started gaming, they tended to hold onto their books and never let them go. Many are highly sought after collectibles. Many also came in box sets, so it’s rare to find the book, the box, and all the contents of the box in good condition.
Expect early D&D and AD&D books to see a bump in sales at this news. (we sold one the day the news broke!) A lot of the early books had material that was later cut out due to legal issues or just play bad taste. Some were even recalled. Some books to be on the lookout for:
Deities and Demigods- 1st edition- The first editions contained stuff that was later cut out due to some questions about legality. Look for Cthulhu. (of H.P. Lovecraft fame) If he’s in there, it’s the first edition. $60 and up, depending on condition
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual AND Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide- Two more “oops, maybe we shouldn’t have put that in there books” $200+ depending on condition
The Dragon Magazine- early issues. Dragon is still in production. It provided lots of supplementary material. Early issues may go for $100 and up. #1 expect over $200
Early numbered modules- It varies a lot depending on the module. The earlier the better. Many were reprinted later, making them less valuable. The truly valuable ones were ones that weren’t reprinted or had some sort of massive difference between editions.
AD&D Palace of the Silver Princess- 1st edition- Look for the Orange Cover. Due to questionable content, the first printing of this goes for big bucks…. To the tune of $3050 on Ebay for a copy still in the shrink wrap. Later editions aren’t worth anywhere near that.
The original printing of Dungeons and Dragons pamphlets- HA! Good luck finding these pamphlets! Later printings (5th and later) show up relatively frequently and average $150 and up. The earlier you go, the higher the price climbs. There aren’t a lot of complete sets in good condition left. They were loved to death and fell apart.
For booksellers, if you happen to trip over some of these early items, you will probably have better luck selling that on Ebay than on ABE or Biblio. The hard core players aren’t looking for them there so won’t find them. If it’s languished in your shop for awhile, put it on the auction block.
(*I still have quite the collection of polyhedral dice and game every Friday night, but nobody but other gamers wants to hear about THAT. Gaming stories make non-gamers eyes glaze.)
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Neil Gaiman and HarperCollins have decided to release Neil’s book, American Gods, for free across the Internet. Here is the link
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Here’s the third installment of the Bookseller’s Gazette, an on-going feature collecting references to specific rare or out-of-print books that pop-up in national publications.
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Blog post: Charles Gatewood photo exhibition in San Francisco, BoingBoing 2/6/08
Counter-culture photographer, Charles Gatewood is showing photos from his recent Wall Street series (together with earlier work) at San Francisco’s Robert Tat Gallery, February 7-March 29. Gatewood’s books (including several on tattooing and modern primitives and one with William Burroughs) sell in the $20-100 range.
Blog post: ‘It’s So Incredibly Tulsa’: Bill Hader’s Book Picks, Papercuts - New York Times 1/31/08
One of the funny cops from Superbad gives his science fiction reading list. Including: Nine-Hundred Grandmothers by R.A. Lafferty and Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. Both books are in (or barely out of) print but firsts or early attractive editions from these authors are always good stock.
Blog post: Philip K. Dick’s YA Novel, Papercuts - New York Times 2/7/08
David Itzkoff wrote a column on contemporary genre writers trying their hand at young adult fiction and followed-up with a blog post on Philip K. Dick’s Nick and the Glimmung. Published in the UK in 1988 the book lists for $30-60 and has yet to be pubbed in the US.
Newspaper article: Death photo of famed war reporter surfaces after 63 years [Ernie Pyle], Associated Press (link USA Today), 2/4/08
A rare battlefield photo of the remains of Pulitzer-prize winning WWII reporter Ernie Pyle (re)surfaced recently. As first reported, the photo had not been seen in 63 years but subsequent updates indicate that it was published twice before: in a 1979 North Carolina paper and in Buddy Ernie Pyle: World War II’s Most Beloved Typewriter Soldier by Rudy Faircloth. Faircloth’s book was an “83-page personal memoir contain[ing] examples of Pyle’s writings and Faircloth’s recollections of meeting Pyle and being nearby when he was killed.” Presumably self-published, I can find no copies of this book listed online.
Pyle firsts in hi-grade Djs are listing for $40 and up. Pyle’s columns ran in Scripps Howard Chain newspapers (notably the San Francisco Daily News) from 1935-44. Well-preserved copies containing key columns might do well in eBay’s WWII memorabilia categories.
Magazine article: Father of the Amazons by Pete Lewis, 1961, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 2008
Bud Webster reviews this curious-sounding 1961 science-fiction, sleaze hybrid published by Kozy Books. Collectible copies are listed for $10-25.
The Bookseller’s Gazette is edited by William Smith of Hang Fire Books. Read his blog and visit his store here.
Issue #1 of The Bookseller’s Gazette | Issue #2 of The Bookseller’s Gazette
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A whole family of birds has been eating berries, spitting them out and pooping all over my car. I am now driving about disguised as a giant purple berry poop.
I'm not sure which family of birds they are. Or what kind of berries they're gobbling up. But this picture shows someone being caught red-handed--so I thought he would do. He is a Wax Wing, who is also a "Masked Berry Thief", who is apparently "one of the most frugivorous birds in North America". (A fancy show off way of saying "this bird eats the most berries of anyone else around here.")
There's another family (actually I think it might be more like a tribe or a nation) of birds who lives on just one lone tree on my street. And chat non stop all day long. (I think they may be "one of the most chativorous birds in North America".) Needless to say, you never want to be parking under their tree.
Purple Poops. Just one of the hazards of parking on the street in New York City.
