Other Books, Other Covers: Grendel / John Gardner (Ballanatine 28865)

Title: Grendel

Author: John Gardner

Cover artist: Michael Leonard

Illustrated by: Emil Antonucci

Estimated value: a few bucks

[Happy belated Halloween!]

[Wraparound! Medieval King Kong's got some flexible toes.]

Page 123~

I snatch up a stone and hurl it. It smashes his mouth, spraying out teeth, and penetrates to the jugular. He drops to his knees, gets up again. The air is sweet with the scent of his blood. Death shakes his body the way high wind shakes trees. He climbs toward me. I snatch up a stone.

~RP

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Other Books, Other Covers: The Pulp Jungle / Frank Gruber (Sherbourne Press, 1967)

Title: The Pulp Jungle
Author: Frank Gruber
Cover artist: ["Jacket Design by Czeslaw Z. Banasiewicz"]

Estimated value: $40




Anecdotes from the pulp trenches. Invaluable. Dude knew everyone and wrote for everyone and comes across as a sane, no-nonsense, hard-working guy. Great portrait of a man trying to make it as a professional writer (mysteries and westerns) through the Depression and beyond. Main lesson: work harder. Write more. Write now. Write everything. Oh, and be honest. He's big on decency and honesty, even when the world around you is full of liars and chiselers. He's Marlowe-esque, that way.

Page 123~

We were just making talk. I was forty years old in 1944, not likely to be drafted, and Steve had varicose veins. So we encouraged Heinie and he talked about his novel. The next morning, cold sober, he would come in and shudder.

"What the hell was that nonsense we were talking about yesterday? Me go over to Italy? I'm fifty-two years old, I've got no business in a shooting war."

I don't know who Heinie Faust is, but several pages earlier, Gruber says of him: "Heinie was the most prolific writer of all time. He was also the biggest boozer I have ever known."

~RP

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Other Books, Other Covers: The Antigua Stamp / Robert Graves (Random House, 1937)

Hello. Your regularly scheduled program of vintage paperback covers + commentary will resume shortly, but I wanted to take a little time to showcase some covers of other books I have lying around my house—hardbound books (w/ and w/o dust jackets) and paperbacks that fall outside the purview of my main collection. My cover-love knows no (or few) bounds. So let's get ready for random!

Title: The Antigua Stamp
Author: Robert Graves
Cover artist: Saul Steinberg

Estimated value: $100-$125

"Robert Graves' First Modern Novel"

I own this 1st U.S. edition of The Antigua Stamp, in very nice condition. I don't know why. This was probably a book sale purchase from some years back. I was probably thinking, "First edition by a famous author with the dust jacket still in fantastic shape? And it's how much? 50 cents? Uh … oh why not?!"

Back cover features notices for other RH books, including James Joyce's Ulysses. "Complete in one volume, including Judge Woolsey's historic decision; $3.50"

Page 123~

"Funny sort of novel my brother seems to be writing. Diet of Worms, twin noblemen, and modern scientists."

~RP

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