Since around 1992 or so, I’ve owned a copy of the trade edition of Dark Harvest’s anthology, Dark at Heart. Edited by Joe R. Lansdale and Karen Lansdale, this book contains 20 stories by many of the masters of the genre in the 1980s and 1990s. My copy was signed by a handful of writers, picked up at Armadillcon (a convention in Austin, Texas), I think. It’s one of my treasured possessions, and I’ve read some of the stories multiple times. In my copy, I can make out signatures by both Lansdales, Ardath Mayhar, Bill Crider, plus two signatures whose names are indecipherable; one might be Andrew Vachss, the other – who knows.

I don’t usually buy different editions of books that I already have, unless it’s a hardback to accompany or replace a paperback or trade paperback edition. Still, coming across a limited edition of this book, signed by ALL contributors, was just too tempting, especially as it was offered at more than half-off the original cover price of $45. Side by side, there’s nothing to differentiate these two books. The limited edition offers nothing extra, save that it’s numbered and signed by all contributors. The “deluxe first edition,” as the book states, is limited to 400 individually signed and numbered copies. It comes with a nice slipcase. Looking at the signatures, I still can’t figure out which two authors signed my old trade edition. The price is a sticker on the inside flap of the dust jacket, possibly overlaid on top of the trade edition price.

This isn’t my first limited edition Dark Harvest book, but it’s my first such anthology. Back when I first started to buy hardcover books, and also ventured into the small press market because some of my favorite authors had stories and books published there, I knew nothing about trade vs. limited editions. Paying $45 for a book in the early 1990s, to me at least, was a luxury I never would have permitted myself. Today, some small presses sell limited editions for $150 or more (and in some cases around $500 or more). I’d never envision myself paying a price like that, but who knows what things will look like in ten years. Will $150 seem like a pittance then? Will physical books even exist in ten years, or will it just be a matter of luxury, given the rising cost of everything?

Many authors who appeared in the pages of Dark at Heart now are dead. Dark Harvest as a publisher is but a memory. It’s a shame there aren’t more anthologies like this one. I’ll treasure both books, I think, for different reasons.