By chance I acquired a pair of books published by Owlswick Press. This was a small press than ran from 1973 through 1993, founded by George Scithers, who at one point also edited Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. These two books are Anita, by Keith Roberts, and The White Isle, by Darrell Schweitzer. I bought two the books from Schweitzer, along with another one of his books.
Anita collects 16 stories about a witch, written years before either Discworld (Terry Pratchett) or Harry Potter (J. K. Rowling). Published in 1990 and illustrated by noted fantasy artist Stephen Fabian (who illustrated many Jack Vance books, ad tons of other fantasy books), the production value of the book is quite stunning. I don’t know the production run, but apparently Schweitzer had a bunch of these books still in his garage and was selling some of them at quite cheap prices.
The White Isle is Schweitzer only debut novel. The Owlswick edition is from 1989, also illustrated by Fabian. The book was signed by Schweitzer, a nice addition, with a gorgeous wrap-around cover. I mainly wanted the Keith Roberts book, but I could not pass up a hardcover book at the price listed, and as the cover looks interesting I hope the book will match it.
