Autograph Hound Super-Sunday (Revisited), and the noted book and pulp collector Kevin Cook returns to one of his favorite authors, “Viv.”
The shots of the dustjacketed books were taken by Victoria Cook in the wilds of Kevin’s library.
Take it, Kevin:
On a visit to the London home of legendary British science fiction and fantasy collector/dealer/ publisher and researcher extraordinaire George Locke, I was shown a pile of dust jackets and advertising material from the files of British publisher Hodder & Stoughton that George had purchased.
He told me to look through to see if there were any dust jackets that I wanted to purchase. I already had a copy of The Lady of the Terraces in dust jacket so I initially started to skip past, but my eyes seemed stuck to it.
There was something different with the jacket in my hand.
I examined it carefully.
The author’s name on the right side of the jacket was incorrect.
Instead of E. Charles Vivian, it read Charles E. Vivian. Otherwise, the jackets are completely identical except for the placement of the “E.”
I showed it to George but he simply dismissed it as a mistake that H&S obviously corrected prior to the book’s publication. Yes, no disagreement there.
I saw something more desirable, though, purchased it, and placed it on a jacket-less copy of the book. I think that I can state that I have the only “Charles E. Vivian” dust jacket in existence.
Probably the only copy of a book with the author named as Charles E. Vivian — and Viv had a lot of pen names.
It would also have to be the first state of the jacket.
Just another one of many treasures that I can thank George for from our decades of book trades and purchases with each other.
The inscription is from the E. Charles Vivian copy.
