Or, as I call it, Eph Book. Published on Halloween night in 2024.
For reasons I’ll never understand the last two or three weeks Amazon has been toying with the price. First it was something like 4 cents off (yes, 4 cents). Then another cent scraped off now and then until finally they went down to $39.50 or so. Water torture stuff.
But now at $34.65 you can actually save a few bucks — if interested.
I don’t know, they might juggle again and drop somewhat lower. Maybe towards Xmas they’ll go nuts and knock it down more. A couple of years ago they cut $10 off the top heading into the big holidays — best discount I recall.
Usually Eph Book sits at $40, patient like a spider, waiting for someone to realize they really need it for reference into those arcane brochures and postcards that announced new Arkham House releases in the classic era when August Derleth helmed the firm. They catalogued the roll call for years as one title after another went out of print.
Collecting Arkham House ephemera — one of my all-time favorite bookman hobbies.
Creeping up on Halloween, I might as well get into the spirit with a bit about a dustjacket showcasing one of the many weird carvings crafted by horror and fantasy great Clark Ashton Smith.
My bookman pal Paul Dobish and I were talking about something bookish, which brought to mind a first run dustjacket on an Underwood-Miller book. I realized that he might not know about it, and Dobish is deep into that kind of thing — he discovered that the boards on the Arkham House first edition of Stanley McNail’s poetry collection Something Breathing featured three variants for the cloth covering. First he learned there were two shades of green, and kept at it until he found a third. A fourth? If it exists, Dobish stands most likely among people I know to stumble across the discovery.
I only know about the first run jacket because I ghost-edited Feast of Fear, interviews with bestseller Stephen King. You’ll find a small credit line that acknowledges I “compiled” that 1989 collection. And as an additional connection to that edition, Tim Underwood asked if he could use one of the Clark Ashton Smith carvings from my personal collection for the cover, for fun.
The limitation page for the U-M first — all boxed in slipcase —reports 600 copies, of which 550 are numbered, 24 are stamped “Presentation Copy” with the final 26 “lettered A-Z and leatherbound.” A trade hardcover followed from Carroll & Graf.
The image at the top features Dobish’s numbered copy — slipcase openside out on the left. He also has one of the 26 lettered copies bound in leather, but those were not issued with a dustjacket.
The jacket on that Dobish copy comes from a second run. Tim was unsatisfied with the first run of the jacket and had them redone.
The image at the bottom shows the first run jacket on the left and the second run jacket — the one generally used for the book — on the right.
The shot of the carving is the same on both, but the placement within the front jacket panel is different.
You’ll notice two discernible points:
The first run of the jacket (on the left) has more space between the carving and the spine edge to the left.
Easier to quickly check, the placement of the sub-title beneath the lips is different, as the carving “moves” in the space. If confused, use a ruler or pencil placed over the images to do a visual line from the corner of the lips down to the words.
On the second run (on the right) all the sub-title wording falls below the lips — none of it projects out to the left.
On the first run both the words “Conversations” and “with” start TO THE LEFT of the left corner of the mouth.
A minor change, but the first placement was driving Tim’s design sense nuts, I guess. Hence, he did another run.
Plunging into the quest, Dobish tells me that most copies of the first of Feast of Fear on ABEBooks feature a “stock image” of the book — but the stock image is of the first run jacket! My understanding when Tim was gave me both states of the jacket was that the one used on the print run would be the “corrected” second state.
If you get in on the hunt for the first state dustwrapper, then, tread with caution.
Another wrinkle to the narrative — which I knew nothing about, because I didn’t receive one of the leather copies — is that while the 26 lettered copies come without dustjackets, on the side of the accompanying slipcase they have tipped-in or pasted the front panel of the otherwise unused first run jacket. Dobish knows this detail because as a book dealer he handled several copies.
I don’t know, but perhaps that’s where the current “stock image” on ABEBooks originated. And I cannot say with certainty that some of the numbered copies may not have gone out into the world in the first state wrapper.
Yeah, another nightmare for Halloween — and hey, arch book collectors love this sort of thing.
Me, thank god I have both states of the jacket on my copies and don’t have to worry about it.
Randal Brandt of the Bancroft Library popped in the image above — he’s at the podium giving a talk for Cal’s Homecoming events on Saturday October 10. On the screen behind him you’ll see the cover of the 1982 edition of the Dashiell Hammett Tour book.
“My Homecoming talk (the space was HUGE!) went well. Here’s a shot from the event, with the slide from the Origin Story section.”
As I say in an intro to the essay “Collecting San Francisco Mysteries” as featured in Death Lit:
Near the end of the article I report that I have retired from the fray, donating my assembled collection to the Bancroft Library, accessible to anyone interested in some criminous research. But then what happened?
Bancroft librarian Randal Brandt, another big fan of David Dodge, decided to put up a website devoted to San Francisco area mysteries, keeping it updated as new titles continued to appear. And gradually he expanded the scope to cover all California mysteries, so Bancroft probably needed to add lots more shelving.
Randal thus is explaining how the kernel of my donation of San Francisco Mysteries led on to the next stage, collecting LA mysteries, Fresno mysteries — the works.
But as I say in Death Lit, “Collecting everything isn’t necessarily bad — so many try — but I prefer the specialized quest myself. If you want a new hobby, I suggest sticking with the classic that kicked it all off. . . .”
Offhand, I don’t recall the Continental Op showing up in Jeopardy! clews before now. Usually it’s Sam Spade or Nick and Nora Charles — or Asta. Sometimes Lillian Hellman or Joe McCarthy. San Francisco.
On Friday October 2 —S43 E15 — first round. $1000 clew. Category: Red to be Read.
Picture of Hammett as Ken Jennings does voice-over on the following:
One of the earliest tough guy detectives, the Continental Op shows up in 1929’s Red Harvest by this author
Autograph Hound Saturday — and Brian Leno got so excited over his new bust of King Kong he began digging in his extensive files of John Hancocks, and look what he’s found:
Here’s some King Kong fun.
The drawing of Kong is signed by the three principals in the film, Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot and Robert “Bob” Armstrong.
The Armstrong is a little messy but he added 1934, which helps a lot.
It also bears the signature of John Northpole, who played a sailor in Kong. He had parts in Citizen Kane, Captain Blood, One Million B. C. and others. Pretty obscure autograph.
Noble Johnson played the chief of the natives on Skull Island. Extremely hard John Hancock to come across. Friend of Lon Chaney Sr., he appeared in The Most Dangerous Game, Lost Horizon, The Mummy. Noble also played Queequeg in the John Barrymore version of Moby Dick.
I don’t know who did the drawing of Kong, but above the Fay Wray signature, underneath Kong’s left shoulder, I can make out either 1934 or HS 34. It’s tough.
It’s possible to come across the three top dogs on one sheet, I guess — but I’ve never seen another one. To have Noble Johnson and Northpole with them is a little mind boggling.
I got this sheet and my Meriam C. Cooper from the same dealer and believe in the authenticity of both items.
The Cooper signed envelope is a beauty. Commemorating Armistice Day, it also has Kosciuszko Squadron beneath Cooper’s autograph — a Polish Air Force Squadron he helped found in 1919. We all know Cooper played one of the pilots that gave Kong hell atop the Empire State Building.
As I get older I’m starting to sell stuff off, but these two items will stay with the collection. Pretty sure about that.
“Just wanted to show you my new purchase,” Brian said. “I think it’s cool as hell and it’s the right Kong — not the later bullshit. Judging by his nostrils I’d hate to be around when he blows his nose.”
Leno adds, “It was sculpted by David Allen, a stop motion guy famous for the King Kong Volkswagen commercial back in the 70s, I believe. Find it on YouTube. I’ve heard the woman Kong clutches in the commercial is actually the granddaughter of Fay Wray, but I don’t know if that’s true.
“He did work on The Howling, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Puppet Master movies, Bride of Re-Animator and more.”
Using the spines of the Og novels as a clew, it looks as if Kong is enthroned atop this cabinet in the Leno Library.
Not to say he may not have it travel around some, looking for Fay Wray.
Behind Kong on the left are a couple of the slipcase years of The Cimmerian issues. I’m guessing the books to the right contain some of Brian’s essay work. Among other things he’s known for, in an issue of The Cimmerian Brian was the first guy to dope out — in print — that Robert E. Howard saw the movie King Kong.
Ten years ago I admit I was shocked to see Fritz Leiber show up as a clew on Jeopardy!Not him by name, but his 1964 paperback original novel The Wanderer, which copped the 1965 Hugo for Best Novel.
This time Fritz gets the name drop while The Wanderer lurks silently in the background.
Catching up on the DVRed backlog of the recent Jeopardy! Masters I see that on September 1 — S4 Ep5 Quarterfinal 10 — in the Double Jeopardy round we have:
Category: Sci-Fi Tech & Innovation
This type of sphere that surrounds & harnesses the power of a sun has inspired writers like Fritz Leiber
Victoria Groce was first on the buzzer: “What’s a Dyson sphere?”
Correct. Fritz used the concept in The Wanderer.
As I’ve said before — and say all the time — The Wanderer is one great science fiction novel. And if filmed correctly would make for the best disaster movie ever. The first thirty odd pages are somewhat slow, setting the scene, but once Earth’s moon begins breaking apart and a lunar astronaut desperately pilots a small space craft through the floating chunks of the planetoid, hey, the brakes are off.
The news first manifested as rumor. John D. Haefele heard that Will Murray had died. Didn’t want to believe it. Tom Krabacher, who chatted with Will only a couple of weeks ago during PulpFest, thought the idea might have come about because a little-known actor of that name passed away. Perhaps the recent internet “Bill Murray death hoax” might have accidentally snagged Will’s sleeve and tugged him along for a minute.
I corresponded with Will casually, from 1991 on, and saw him holding down his table the few times I attended PulpFest. Will, Krabacher and I sat in on a panel about editing Weird Tales. Most memorably, he contacted me when he was in San Francisco for a conference and we got together after nightfall so I could show him the Hammett sites. Best of all, the late great Bill Arney was home in Sam Spade’s apartment that evening, so Will got a chance to visit the sanctum sanctorum.
Will was thoroughly conversant in Hammett, of course. I said it here and I’ll say it again now: his discovery that the story “The Diamond Wager” was not written by Hammett was a major coup in Hammett Studies, and a boon to fans like me who always thought that story sucked eggs. Cut it off the list, as fast as possible.
His history of the Western pulp magazines is a masterpiece. His scholarship in Lovecraft, primo. His coverage of such pulp heroes as Doc Savage and The Shadow, what can you say? The standard.
And then you have his long career as a neo-pulp writer, from ghosting The Destroyer paperbacks under a house name before taking on Doc Savage with his first Doc adventure, Python Isle, and assuming the house name Kenneth Robeson. More recently he has taken Tarzan to Mars to swashbuckle with John Carter, had Doc face off against King Kong, and more — much more.
I don’t know if you could just say, flat-out, that Will Murray stands as the greatest of the neo-pulp writers. Philip Jose Farmer did his bit, too, though for sheer pulp production numbers, Will’s output smokes him. And a writing team such as Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child can’t be ignored — neo-pulp for sure, but using their own variations of the form and reaching bestseller status.
Depends on how you calculate it, I guess. But I don’t think you can leave Will Murray’s life work out of that calculation. Top ten? Hell. Top five, at least.
My favorite Will moment was when he mentioned in an author’s bio that he had developed the first documented case of “pulp lung.” With his house filled with pulps, with the brittle edges of the wood pulp paper breaking off and drifting around like dust in a coal mine, with a lifetime hands-on with those mags and the literature they spawned — what imagery.
No one else came close to having a case of pulp lung anything like Will Murray. R.I.P.
Autograph Hound Saturday and the always reliable Brian Leno pulls something from his legendary trove for us to ponder. A novel from Jane Gaskell’s The Atlan Saga, sent to the Atlantis buff and LASFS regular Henry M. Eichner — young Ray Bradbury dubbed him “the Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang” and delighted in arguing with him. I don’t know, but the dedication to “Atlantisisfs” may well indicate the book wasn’t for Eichner’s use alone, but something for him to pass around among other interested Los Angeles fans.
On August 26, 2026 Brian reported:
This is just something I dug up today. The signature is on some sort of paper glued in.
I’ve never read Gaskell but I know her autograph is fairly rare. She is still alive, but I think she’s become a bit of a recluse. I can’t find any signature of hers for sale on eBay or ABE.
Also dug the receipt up this morning. Obviously very important, the paper shows that my signed copy of The City belonged to the Atlantis scholar Henry M. Eichner and the book was sent to him personally by “Jane.” A very cool piece of ephemera.
I don’t have a copy of Eichner’s posthumous Atlantis book — Atlantean Chronicles (1971) — but I’ll probably pick one up (God knows it’s cheap enough). Stick it beside Gaskell’s inscribed novel.
Autograph Hound Saturday yet again, and we bring our old pal L. Sprague de Camp back with another John Hancock. He also does the weirdest personal “I” that I (imagine a regular I) recall offhand.
De Camp of course mightily messed up the Lancer Conan series back in the day — in terms of lit content, with his and Lin Carter’s additions to “the saga.” The books themselves did extremely well in the marketplace, since they had Conan yarns by Robert E. Howard and a bunch of great covers by Frank Frazetta.
The Lancers put me on the road to where I am now by demanding I write “Conan vs. Conantics” back in 1976.
De Camp loved REH’s Conan tales and wanted to write something similar. His Achilles heel was that he never grasped that the Sword-and-Sorcery genre didn’t have to serve as superficial entertainment. And so REH wrote “Beyond the Black River” and de Camp typed out a lot of crap.
The copy on display is a recent addition to the Brian Leno Library. He’s right about de Camp’s backlist not bringing in serious loot — with the exception of his first novel, Lest Darkness Fall, which has standing for those folk collecting Golden Age of Science Fiction cornerstones.
Brian dropped me a note on August 8, 2026 to report:
Something I got today. Trust me I didn’t wake up one day and say to myself that I needed another L. Sprague de Camp signature.
But I thought the inscription was interesting enough for me to buy it. Sprague states he wrote The Tritonian Ring after discovering REH and thought: Why couldn’t he do something like that?
Obviously he could never get close to writing like Howard, although God knows he tried way too many times.
The paperback version of this title had by far the best cover — Frank Frazetta, of course. Jim Cawthorn apparently used Lee Van Cleef as his model for the cover painting in this hardback version. I guess the subpar cover was a collaboration between George Barr and Cawthorn. Both of these artists did better work without the other.
One thing about Van Cleef — I’m willing to bet he could kick the shit out of any monster de Camp sent his way.
I paid 30 bucks and change for this copy, well worth it for the inscription. On a whim I went to ABE and took a gander at other prices. When the book came out it cost $12.50 and I found a label-signed copy for about 16 bucks. That’s pretty sad. I know de Camp signed a lot of shit in his lifetime but low prices also tend to show that today he’s just not that collectable.
Welcome to a hard-boiled and not without noir blog with news and reviews, occasional outbursts of maniacal Autograph Hound activity, plus archival records from the forty-five year run of The Dashiell Hammett Tour.
