Currently on eBay from Gunnison of Adventure House — with a Buy It Now tag of $100 — you’ll find what may be John D. Haefele’s first book. Copy no. 41 of 45 numbered copies.
He’s not sure — Haefele, not Gunnison.
Last year Haefele began to question the idea that his 2006 Cimmerian Library booklet was his first book — even though his Author Blurb in A Look Behind the Derleth Mythos says it is so. (100 copies of that one — and try to find one.)
But the Supplement — done as a contribution to the Esoteric Order of Dagon a.p.a. — would push his start date all the way back to 1997.
Feeling that he might be showing disloyalty to The Cimmerian, Haefele agonized over the question and later told me, “I consider my first article in The Cimmerian to have been my first professional sale, and my first book published by The Cimmerian Press my first professional or true book.”
Of his numbered opus for the EOD, he said, “The Supplement was my first attempt at a book, an unfortunate not-ready-for-prime-time vanity publication. . . .”
I don’t know — Buy It Now for $100 I’m sure is steeper a price than you’ll find for most items which might be categorized as EOD zines. I imagine it’s much, much more than you’d be charged for entire mailings of the EOD.
I don’t have a dog in this fight. Either limited booklet could well serve as Haefele’s first book.
And however much he may agonize over the question in spare moments, neither Haefele nor I will decide which item kicks off his run. The call will be made by the collectors, in the open marketplace.
