I bought my first Jack Vance book back in 1985, after hearing a recommendation for this author from Øyvind Myhre. Myhre’s a Norwegian SF and fantasy author, whom I read mostly between 1984 and 1988. In 1985 I was at a conference, and Myhre mentioned Vance as one of his favorite authors. When I returned home, I went straight away to a bookstore to look for books by Vance. I found one or two, and he quickly became my favorite author.
In 1987 I was in the US for three weeks. There I attended two week-long seminars, with a week in-between. That week, I crashed at someone’s house in New Jersey. While there, I took the bus and train into New York, and found some used book stores. I returned home with a stack of books, including many DAW editions of Jack Vance books. In 1988, I was back in the US, on a permanent basis. I found more Vance paperbacks. Once I began to widen my search, I started to acquire every Vance book I could find, mostly in hardback. I sought out every Underwood-Miller edition I could afford. At that time, some were bought for $15, which I thought was a great deal of money then. Now, some of these books are listed for ten times what I paid.
It’s been many years since I read all of Vance’s books. It’s also unusual these days to find any Vance book in paperback in the used bookstore (and even rarer in a bookstore that sells current books). Of the many Vance books I still have in paperback, 14 are DAW editions. (Most of my Vance books are in hardback now). I hardly ever look at the “V’ section while in used book stored in town.
However, I recently came across a pristine copy of the DAW edition of Vance’s Star King. This is the first of the five Demon Prince books. I own the Underwood-Miller books in hardcover, and only one of the DAW books in paperback—The Palace of Love. Other copies I’ve seen in book stores have been broken, mangled ones. This copy was in superb condition, and carried a sticker price of less than $4.
Yes, I deprived someone from discovering Jack Vance. Still, I wanted this book. Originally published in 1964, this DAW book was printed in September, 1978. I love the DAW covers, the yellow spines, the numbers listed on the covers, and even the smell of them. Finding any of the old DAW paperbacks in great shape these days is getting harder and harder, at least in my narrow locale. Perhaps if I went to other bigger cities I might have better luck.
In the past, I’ve tended to ignore some of the Vance paperbacks if I had them already in hardback. I’ve missed out on at least two DAW books in great shape for that reason (Nopalgarth and the Magnus Ridolph collection), and I still regret those decisions. Once, I had the Grafton (UK) editions of the Lyonesse trilogy, and I gave those away. That still gnaws at me.
My criteria these days? Be in good shape, and I’ll get it. After all, there is no other writer like Jack Vance. And, there never will be another writer like Vance.
