Anders Monsen

Lost worlds and ports of call

Tag: Dark Harvest

More book acquisitions

January 1, 2024 /

Here I go again, trying to fill in some gaps in my collection decades after I stopped collecting certain books…

Back in the 1990s I picked up several books published by Dark Harvest. This was a small press that started with some great original collections, new horror novels, and reprints. Then the small press/collector’s market, suffered major contractions. Dark Harvest as a publisher ceased to exist. This is the story of many small press publishers; they forget their primary market, or the people in charge change or leave, and then they cease to exist. The same seemed to happen with Arkham House, Golden Gryphon, Carcosa, and many more.

Although there’s one elusive Dark Harvest book that I keep trying to track down, without much success, I had picked up a few others recently.

I read Chet Williamson’s novel, Dreamthorp, recently. Not having read anything by Williamson, I probably missed this book and Reign, both published by Dark Harvest. I bought Reign in a limited, signed edition from a dealer who also listed some Dean Koontz editions.

All three of the Koontz book are unsigned trade editions. To me they form a sort of trilogy, at least in the titles—The House of Thunder, The Key to Midnight, and The Eyes of Darkness. Although they arrived as unopened shrink-wrapped books, possibly due to the age of the books or how they were stored two of the books had some minor spotting on the end papers. I had a copy of another Koontz book from Dark Harvest—Shadowfires—but at some point moving books around, or double-stacking them due to lack of space, the dust jacket developed a tear. Still, it will be interesting to read these books, as it’s been many a year since I last read anything by Dean Koontz. I believe there’s still one more Dark Harvestbook by Koontz out there, so maybe one day I will stumble across it.

Arkham House is another interesting publishing house. I own many of their books published after 1975; older books fetch a premium on the collector’s market, and I’m not quite willing to go there yet. Arkham House published two Lucius Shepard books, The Jaguar Hunter and The Ends of the Earth. Again, a case of buying one book years ago, and then finally coming across the other one, and now The Ends of the Earth joins its partner on my shelves.

All these books were ordered online, sight somewhat unseen. That’s not always ideal, especially with the light spotting on two of the books. Still, these are not books you find in your local used book store, given that they are published by small presses and all originally appeared around thirty years ago (or more).

Filling in the gaps

September 17, 2023 /

Lately I’ve been able to buy some books from the 1980s and 1990s that I missed when they first appeared. The first of these is Dreamthorp, by Chet Williamson, published by Dark Harvest, which I acquired in a signed/limited edition format. After I read a few Williamson stories from his Borderlands Press little books series, the name stuck. When I came across someone selling a copy I bought it. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on the to be read stack at the moment, which admittedly is fairly tall.

I also picked up a short novel from Lucius Shepard, The Scalehunter’s Beautiful Daughter, published by Mark V. Ziesing. Shepard’s written some great short stories, so I look forward to reading this one.

Lastly, I bought a copy of Pat Cadigan’s SF novel, Mindplayers, for under $10. The book is signed, which doesn’t mean as much to me, but having read several or her stories, I look forward to visiting the past and reading this novel.

At the same time I also picked up a bunch of books in a short-lived series that I’m still putting together. Only 29 books were published in this series, which ran from October 1989 to June 1992. I firmly believe that I’ll run into the issue of the last few being out of my price range, but I’ll do what I can, as once I have the bug I’ll put it to my self-defined limit as much as possible.

There are many other books from those two decades that I wish I had, and maybe I’ll start filling in those gaps more, as I rarely read any of the current stuff these days.

Dan Simmons’ Carrion Comfort

December 9, 2021 /

Back in 1989 I bought a paperback copy of Dan Simmon’s massive novel, Carrion Comfort. It had been published as a limited edition hardcover by Dark Harvest, and small press out of Illinois. At that time I was a poor student and couldn’t afford such luxuries, and anyway most copies of the Dark Harvest books that weren’t bought by individuals found their way into dealers’ hands who jacked up the prices.

As the years passed, I watched prices for this edition rise, and never pulled the trigger on buying a copy. Until now – 2021. I don’t frequent SF conventions any more, where I can peruse actual copies of books and look for imperfections. I have to rely on descriptions on the internet, which are suspect at best. Sure, I probably overpaid, but the person who sold it advertised a copy with the original wrapper. This usually means no spine damage, so I went ahead and bought it.

I can’t say I remember much about the novel. After all, I read it back over 30 years ago. I remember it’s about vampires, but not your usual blood-sucking kind. Since then I’ve bought almost all of Simmons’ books. There are exceptions. I don’t have the hardcover of Hyperion, which sells for $500 (if the seller is generous). I now own 24 books published by Dark Harvest, many accumulated when the prices were retail. That publisher long since has vanished, and several of their books exist that I lack; the only one I care about now is the 3rd volume of Night Visions.

So, first impressions of this book? Well, it looks good. I did read the prologue, and plan of reading the rest of the novel soon. I’m thrilled to finally have this copy, and only Hyperion in hardcover would make my Simmons collection complete (well, there are two recent books I haven’t picked up, but I’m not too thrilled with his recent work, so it can wait — sorry, Dan).

Still, this all goes back to my view of myself as a sort of haphazard collector. With books (authors) as with music, my tastes are both narrow and eclectic. I do wonder how to structure my collection once gone – to whom do I bequeath this small but moderately valuable collection? In the meantime, I do savor holding and reading these special books, produced by special publishers. If only I were more of a fanatic…Da

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