VAULT OF THE AGES.
Philadelphia, Toronto: The John C. Winston Company, [1952]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#163476)
More Details about VAULT OF THE AGES
THE ROBERT AND PHYLLIS WEINBERG COLLECTION
By Boyd White
Recently, Lloyd Currey showed me a copy of the classic science fantasy collection A Gnome There Was (1950) inscribed by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, the wonderful husband-and-wife team who often wrote under the pseudonym “Lewis Padgett.” Lloyd was discussing the provenance of the book, how he had sold it to Robert Weinberg many years ago only to have it come into his hands again now that Bob is no longer with us. As I was reading the inscription, Lloyd remarked, “I think this copy might be unique. I have never seen another inscribed copy.” We could easily apply this same sentiment to Bob himself. He was one of a kind, a unique individual whose like we won’t see again.
As a teenager growing up in rural Tennessee in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I loved receiving catalogs from Weinberg Books in the mail. When I would come home from middle school and one of Bob’s catalogs was waiting for me on the kitchen table, I would race to my room and read it from cover to cover. I had already developed a love for the pulps from reading Bantam paperback reprints of Doc Savage. Likewise, the Ballantine two-volume paperback edition of Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (1973) with its marvelous cover artwork by John Holmes had introduced me to H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Frank Belknap Long. Unsurprisingly, Bob’s catalogs always increased my appetite for such fare tenfold. Who was the Spider? The Phantom Detective? What were “shudder pulps”? Would I enjoy Leigh Brackett or Cornell Woolrich?
Being the son of factory workers, I had very little money those days, only what I could earn from running errands and mowing neighbors’ lawns. The first collectible books I ever purchased were in-print Arkham House titles featured in Bob’s catalogs—Joseph Payne Brennan’s Stories of Darkness and Dread (1973), Gerald W. Page’s Nameless Places (1975), and Mary Elizabeth Counselman’s Half in Shadow (1978). These works formed the basis for my love of weird fiction, and I dreamed about books that I knew I could never hope to afford like Lovecraft’s The Outsider and Others (1939) or a first edition of Ray Bradbury’s The October Country (1955). After I earned my driver’s license and began operating a forklift part time at a local K-Mart, I soon found myself placing a telephone order for Manly Wade Wellman’s Worse Things Waiting (1973) for the outrageous price of $75 from a somewhat intimidating—or so it seemed to me at the time—New York bookseller named L. W. Currey, who had also started sending me catalogs in the mail.
Bob Weinberg’s 40+ year career as a collector, editor, author, bookseller, and publisher is widely known. A complete list of his accomplishments could easily fill a substantial volume. Anyone who visits his official website can’t help but be astounded by the breadth and depth of his interests as a collector—Robert E. Howard, H. Rider Haggard, Nero Wolfe, Frank R. Paul, Virgil Finlay, Kelly Freas, EC comics, Uncle Scrooge, and anything related to the pulps. As a publisher, Bob reprinted numerous pulp classics, often rare or obscure titles like The Octopus, The Scorpion, or Dr. Death, in addition to issuing key reference works such as Mike Ashley’s The Complete Index to Astounding/Analog (1981). As a bibliographer, Bob made significant scholarly contributions, most notably The Weird Tales Story (1977), The Louis L’Amour Companion (1993), and his masterwork, A Biographical Dictionary of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (1988), which remains an essential resource for the field and which, like The Weird Tales Story, won the World Fantasy Award.
In Fahrenheit 451 (1953), Granger, the leader of a group of exiles who have literally become living books by memorizing entire works to preserve their contents from the firemen, tells Montag, “’Grandfather’s been dead for all these years, but if you lifted my skull, by God, in the convolutions of my brain you’d find the big ridges of his thumbprint.” I never met or spoke with Bob Weinberg, but he did start a lifelong conversation with me about books through his catalogs during my formative years. I am certain he holds a similar place in the lives of many other collectors and readers. The closest we come to eternity is through what leave behind, our families and our children, the stories and anecdotes that loved ones recite about us. Bob’s life and work reminds us that books last forever. I still haven’t bought a copy of The Outsider and Others or a first edition of The October Country, but I have all the books I purchased from Bob’s catalogs. I wouldn’t trade them for the world.
Philadelphia, Toronto: The John C. Winston Company, [1952]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#163476)
More Details about VAULT OF THE AGES
New York: Walker and Company, [1988]. Octavo, boards. First edition. (#163146)
More Details about THE YEAR OF THE RANSOM
Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1986. Octavo, full brown leather. First edition. (#162491)
More Details about FOUNDATION AND EARTH
New York: Farrar, Strauss and Company, 1946. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-viii [1-2] 3-309 [310-312: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original pebbled black cloth, spine panel stamped in gold, top edge stained gray. First edition. (#162336)
More Details about THE LAST CIRCLE: STORIES AND POEMS
New York, Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., [1939]. Octavo, pp. [1-10] [1-2] 3-274 [275-278: blank] [note: last two leaves are blanks], original navy blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in silver, top edge stained light blue, fore-edge untrimmed, bottom edge rough-trimmed. First edition. First printing with "F&R" monogram on copyright page. (#161259)
More Details about TALES BEFORE MIDNIGHT
New York, Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., [1939]. Octavo, pp. [1-10] [1-2] 3-274 [275-278: blank] [note: last two leaves are blanks], original navy blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in silver, top edge stained light blue, fore-edge untrimmed, bottom edge rough-trimmed. First edition. First printing with "F&R" monogram on copyright page. (#162335)
More Details about TALES BEFORE MIDNIGHT
New York, Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., [1937]. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-viii [1-2] 3-305 [306-312: blank] [note: last three leaves are blanks], original light blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black, top edge stained black, fore-edge rough trimmed. First edition. First printing with publisher's "FR" monogram on copyright page. (#161258)
More Details about THIRTEEN O'CLOCK: STORIES OF SEVERAL WORLDS
Chicago: Shasta Publishers, [1953]. Octavo, cloth-backed boards. First edition. (#162229)
More Details about THE DEMOLISHED MAN
Philadelphia: The Prime Press, [1949]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 1-232, original blue cloth, spine panel stamped in gold, all edges untrimmed. First edition. (#163630)
More Details about LORDS OF CREATION
London: Philip Allan, [1934]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5 [6-8] 9-249 [250-256: ads], original gray cloth, spine panel stamped in black. First edition. (#161230)
More Details about MONSTERS: A COLLECTION OF UNEASY TALES
London: Philip Allan, [1933]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-255 [256: ad], original dark blue cloth, spine panel stamped in black. First edition. (#161231)
More Details about NIGHTMARES: A COLLECTION OF UNEASY TALES
London: Philip Allan, [1934]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5 [6-8] 9-243 [244: blank] [245-256: ads], original green cloth, spine panel stamped in black. First edition. (#161232)
More Details about POWERS OF DARKNESS: A COLLECTION OF UNEASY TALES
New York: Ballantine Books, [1957]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162387)
More Details about THE FROZEN YEAR
Canberra City, Australia: Graeme Flanagan, July 1979. Octavo, pp. [1-2] 3-62 [63-64], illustrations, pictorial self wrappers, stapled. First edition. (#163711)
More Details about ROBERT BLOCH: A BIO-BIBLIOGRAPHY ... [caption title
[London]: Macmillan [1969]. Octavo, boards. First British edition. (#162284)
More Details about THE TODD DOSSIER, [by] Collier Young [pseudonym
Los Angeles: Utopia Publications, n.d. [1948]. Large octavo, title leaf and ten plates, laid into pictorial paper portfolio. First edition. (#162474)
More Details about A PORTFOLIO OF DRAWINGS BY HANNES BOK
New York: Gnome Press, [1949]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162537)
More Details about THE THIRTY-FIRST OF FEBRUARY
New York: Gnome Press, [1949]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162538)
More Details about THE THIRTY-FIRST OF FEBRUARY
New York: Ballantine Books, [1955]. Small octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162382)
More Details about FAR AND AWAY
Philadelphia, Toronto: The John C. Winston Company, [1959]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#163488)
More Details about THE STAR CONQUERORS
New York: Gnome Press, Inc., [1952]. Octavo, boards. First edition. (#162543)
More Details about THE STARMEN
Sauk City, Wis. Arkham House, 1947. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162715)
More Details about DARK CARNIVAL
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964. Octavo, cloth-backed boards. First edition. (#162372)
More Details about THE MACHINERIES OF JOY: SHORT STORIES
Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1950. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162373)
More Details about THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES
New York: Ballantine Books, [1955]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Probable earliest state of the hardcover trade binding with publisher's monogram stamped upside down on spine panel (Currey binding B1). (#162374)
More Details about THE OCTOBER COUNTRY
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162375)
More Details about SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1973. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162707)
More Details about STORIES OF DARKNESS AND DREAD
New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, Inc., 1953. Octavo, boards. First edition. (#162498)
More Details about THE LIGHTS IN THE SKY ARE STARS
Chicago: Shasta Publishers, [1951]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162230)
More Details about SPACE ON MY HANDS
Ashcroft, British Columbia: Ash-Tree Press, 1997. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#163336)
More Details about SOMEONE IN THE ROOM: STRANGE TALES OLD AND NEW. Edited by Jack Adrian
Reading, Pennsylvania: Fantasy Press, [1956]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162234)
More Details about ISLANDS OF SPACE
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1976. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162681)
More Details about THE HEIGHT OF THE SCREAM
Los Angeles: Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc., 1950. Octavo, light yellow-green cloth, spine panel stamped in black. First edition, first binding. (#163364)
More Details about THE RAT RACE [by] Jay Franklin [pseudonym
Chicago, New York: F. Tennyson Neely Publisher, 1895. Small octavo, pp. [1-2] [1-9] 10-316 [317: ad] [318: blank], original pictorial green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in brown, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. First edition. (#162322)
More Details about THE KING IN YELLOW
New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1936. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 1-308 [309-312: blank] [note: last two leaves are blanks], original green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black, fore and bottom edges rough trimmed, pictorial endpapers. First edition. (#162460)
More Details about HAWK OF THE WILDERNESS
Philadelphia, Toronto: The John C. Winston Company, [1952]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162238)
More Details about ISLANDS IN THE SKY
New York: Ballantine Books, [1957]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162386)
More Details about CYCLE OF FIRE
London: Brown, Watson, Ltd, [1958]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. (#162732)
More Details about THE GRIP OF THE STRANGLER (THE HAUNTED STRANGLER) by John C. Cooper. Adapted from the Screenplay...
New York: Atheneum, 1977. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162523)
More Details about SILVER ON THE TREE
London: A Four Square Book, [1967]. Small octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. (#163736)
More Details about NOT AFTER NIGHTFALL: STORIES OF THE STRANGE AND TERRIBLE
Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. Publishers, 1931. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 1-386 [388-392: blank] [note: final leaf is a blank], original orange cloth, front panel stamped in black and blind, spine panel stamped in black. First edition. (#161268)
More Details about BRIGANDS OF THE MOON
New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1923. Octavo, pp. [1-10] 1-341 [342: blank], original light yellow-brown cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First U.S. edition. Code "I-X" on copyright page. First binding of light yellow-brown cloth stamped in black. (#161267)
More Details about THE GIRL IN THE GOLDEN ATOM
Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1929. Octavo, pp. [1-10] 1-351 [352-358: blank] [note: last three leaves are blanks], original red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First edition. (#161270)
More Details about THE MAN WHO MASTERED TIME
Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1930. Octavo, pp. [1-12] 1-345 [346-348: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original light orange cloth, front panel stamped in brown and blind, spine panel stamped in brown. First edition. (#163191)
More Details about TARRANO THE CONQUEROR
New York: Twayne Publishers, [1954]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#163199)
More Details about THE DELUGE
Philadelphia, Toronto: The John C. Winston Company, [1956]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#163489)
More Details about THE LOST PLANET
New York: Avalon Books, [1960]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162416)
More Details about WALL OF SERPENTS
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1970. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162673)
More Details about DEMONS AND DINOSAURS
Newark, New Jersey: Edited and Published by Joel Frieman, July 1968 (volume 1, number 2). Large octavo, single issue, illustrations, facsimiles, offset, pictorial wrappers, stapled as issued. (#163698)
More Details about
Philadelphia, Toronto: The John C. Winston Company, [1953]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#163496)
More Details about BATTLE ON MERCURY by Erik van Lhin [pseudonym
Philadelphia, Toronto: The John C. Winston Company, [1952]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#163495)
More Details about ROCKET JOCKEY by Philip St. John [pseudonym
Philadelphia, Toronto: The John C. Winston Company. [1953]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#163498)
More Details about ATTACK FROM ATLANTIS
Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1975. Large octavo, boards. First edition. (#163045)
More Details about EARLY DEL REY
Philadelphia, Toronto: The John C. Winston Company, [1956]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#163500)
More Details about MISSION TO THE MOON
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, [1961]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#163501)
More Details about MOON OF MUTINY
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1947. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162658)
More Details about DARK OF THE MOON: POEMS OF FANTASY AND THE MACABRE
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House: Publishers, 1962. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-121 [122-124: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], boards. First edition. (#162656)
More Details about 100 BOOKS BY AUGUST DERLETH
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House: Publishers, 1959. Octavo, decorated boards. First edition. (#162655)
More Details about ARKHAM HOUSE: THE FIRST 20 YEARS 1939-1959. A HISTORY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Mycroft & Moran: Publishers, 1965. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162647)
More Details about THE CASEBOOK OF SOLAR PONS
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Mycroft and Moran, 1945. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162649)
More Details about "IN RE: SHERLOCK HOLMES" THE ADVENTURES OF SOLAR PONS
[Sydney: The Whitman Press Pty. Ltd.], n.d. Octavo, boards. First paperback (and first Australian) edition. (#162728)
More Details about MISCHIEF IN THE LANE
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House: Publishers, 1948. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162693)
More Details about NOT LONG FOR THIS WORLD
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1945. Octavo, pp. [1-8] [1-3] 4-274 [275: colophon] [276: blank], original black cloth, spine panel stamped in gold. First edition. (#162692)
More Details about SOMETHING NEAR
Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, [1984]. Octavo, cloth-backed boards. First edition, first printing. (#163409)
More Details about ROBOTS, ANDROIDS, AND MECHANICAL ODDITIES: THE SCIENCE FICTION OF PHILIP K. DICK. Edited by...
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1950. Octavo, pp. [i-vi] vii-viii [1-2] 3-70 [71-72: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original black cloth, spine panel stamped in gold. First edition. (#162611)
More Details about A HORNBOOK FOR WITCHES: POEMS OF FANTASY
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1948. Octavo, cloth. First U.S. edition. (#162636)
More Details about THE FOURTH BOOK OF JORKENS
London: Michael Joseph, [1954]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162462)
More Details about JORKENS BORROWS ANOTHER WHISKEY
Akron, Ohio, New York: The Saalfield Publishing Company, 1935. Small square octavo, not paginated (circa 160 pages), illustrated with film stills, original pictorial stiff wrappers. First edition. (#162727)
More Details about CHANDU THE MAGICIAN. Adapted from the Photoplay "The Return of Chandu, the Magician" by...
London: John Long, Limited, [1924]. Octavo, pp. [1-7] 8-254 [255: ads] [256: blank], original decorated sea-green cloth, front panel ruled in blind, spine panel stamped in black and blind. First edition, first printing. (#161235)
More Details about DRAUGHT OF ETERNITY
London: Hodder and Stoughton Ltd, n.d. [1923]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-286 [287-288: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], pictorial title page, original decorated orange cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First edition. (#161236)
More Details about MY LADY OF THE NILE
Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1920. Octavo, pp. [1-10] 1-394, inserted frontispiece with illustration by P. J. Monahan, original blue-green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in brown. First edition. (#161234)
More Details about THE FLYING LEGION
Reading, Pennsylvania: Fantasy Press, 1947. Octavo, pp. [1-9] 10-96, cloth. First edition. (#163647)
More Details about OF WORLDS BEYOND: THE SCIENCE OF SCIENCE FICTION WRITING. A SYMPOSIUM
Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, [1985]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 1-175 [176: blank], cloth. First edition. (#163027)
More Details about MAX BRAND: WESTERN GIANT. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK SCHILLER FAUST. COMPILED AND EDITED,...
London: Scion, Ltd, [1950]. Octavo, pp. [1-5] 6-128, pictorial wrappers. First edition. (#162258)
More Details about 2,000 YEARS ON. By Vargo Statten [pseudonym
London: Scion Limited, [1951]. Octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. (#162256)
More Details about CATACLYSM! by Vargo Statten [pseudonym
London: Scion Limited, [1952]. Octavo, pictorial wrappers. First edition. (#162257)
More Details about THE G-BOMB by Vargo Statten [pseudonym
Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1985. Octavo, cloth-backed boards. First edition. (#163595)
More Details about SILVERTHORN
[North Webster, IN: Delirium Books, 2012.]. Small octavo, pictorial boards. First edition. (#163753)
More Details about SORROW CREEK
New York: A Torquil Book distributed by Dodd, Mead & Company, [1961]. Octavo, boards. First edition, trade issue, the earliest, with price "$2.95" at upper right corner of dust jacket flap. (#162297)
More Details about BATTLE FOR THE STARS
New York: Frederick Fell, Inc., [1949]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162425)
More Details about THE STAR KINGS
London: The Readers Library Publishing Company Ltd., n.d. [1927]. Small octavo, pp. [1-13] 14-250 [251: blank] [252: printer's imprint] [253-256: blank] [note: first and last leaves used as front and rear paste-downs], original decorated red-brown boards, front and spine panels stamped in gold. First edition in English. (#162736)
More Details about METROPOLIS
New York: Gnome Press, [1949]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162973)
More Details about SIXTH COLUMN
Hicksville, New York: The Gnome Press, Inc., [1959]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162551)
More Details about THE UNPLEASANT PROFESSION OF JONATHAN HOAG
London: Stanley Paul & Co., 1909. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-276 + 12 pages of publisher's ads at rear, inserted frontispiece with illustration by Sidney H. Sime, original red cloth, front panel stamped in gold with blind stamped border, spine panel stamped in gold, bottom edge untrimmed. First edition. Probable first binding of red cloth with lettering in gold on front and spine panels. (#161229)
More Details about THE GHOST PIRATES
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House: Publishers, 1957. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162629)
More Details about ALWAYS COMES EVENING: THE COLLECTED POEMS
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House: Publishers, 1963. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162630)
More Details about THE DARK MAN AND OTHERS
New York: Gnome Press, Inc. Publishers, [1952]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162584)
More Details about THE SWORD OF CONAN
Austin, Texas: Theta Press, [1970]. Octavo, boards. First edition. (#163572)
More Details about OLE DOC METHUSELAH
Ashcroft, British Columbia: Ash-Tree Press, 2001. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#162276)
More Details about A PLEASING TERROR: THE COMPLETE SUPERNATURAL WRITINGS. General Editors: Christopher Roden and...
Philadelphia, Toronto: The John C. Winston Company, [1953]. Octavo, boards. First edition. (#163481)
More Details about PLANET OF LIGHT
Chicago: Shasta Publishers, [1952]. Octavo, cloth-backed boards. First edition. (#162245)
More Details about THIS ISLAND EARTH
Philadelphia, Toronto: The John C. Winston Company, [1958]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. (#163479)
More Details about THE YEAR WHEN STARDUST FELL
New York: Tor, [1992]. Octavo, boards. First edition. (#163403)
More Details about THE SHADOW RISING
New York: Random House, [1975]. Octavo, cloth-backed boards. First edition. (#163426)
More Details about DRAGONFLY [by] K. R. Dwyer [pseudonym
[London]: Piatkus, [1985]. Octavo, boards. First hardcover edition. (#162468)
More Details about THE SERVANTS OF TWILIGHT [by] Leigh Nichols [pseudonym
London: Collins, 1987. Octavo, boards. First British (and first trade) hardcover edition. (#162334)
More Details about SHADOWFIRES [by] Leigh Nichols [pseudonym
London: W. H. Allen, 1984. Octavo, boards. First edition. (#163142)
More Details about DARKNESS COMES
New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Auckland: Bantam Books, [2000]. Octavo, imitation leather. First edition. (#163380)
More Details about FROM THE CORNER OF HIS EYE
New York: Published by Berkley Publishing Corporation Distributed by G. P. Putnam's Sons, [1975]. Octavo, boards. First edition. (#163312)
More Details about NIGHTMARE JOURNEY