Today was tax refund day in Finland, so I took my wife out to dinner. Then we hit a bookstore, and she got me my birthday present:
Over 100 stories by over 100 different authors including Lovecraft and Dunsany and Merrit and Blackwood and CAS and Bradbury and Leiber and Kafka and Bloch and Jackson and Campbell and Martin and Barker and Ellison and Brite and King and Kiernan and Miéville and Gaimon and Ligotti and TONS MORE. Over 1000 pages. Looks to me like a one stop shop for the Weird.
(book's website here)
They also had this hardcover Lovecraft edition, a beautiful looking book, gilded pages and all... but I already have a set of Arkham House hardcovers so I can't really justify the purchase.
"They also had this hardcover Lovecraft edition, a beautiful looking book, gilded pages and all... but I already have a set of Arkham House hardcovers so I can't really justify the purchase."
ReplyDeleteIf you want justification, this is currently (oddly enough given it's from B&N) the definitive edition of HPL's work. The Arkham House S. T. Joshi editions, which is what I presume you own, are riddled with typos, mangled punctuation, omitted words, etc. The 2nd printing of the B&N collection (identifiable by the purple ribbon marker) begins from the S. T. Joshi texts, and corrects all of the many errors. The work on this was done by Martin Andersson, a friend of Joshi's. I don't have the link handy, but if you google his name and HPL's, you'll find out just how extensive the problems were. Buy it!
Happy almost birthday!
ReplyDeleteIt's my bday in a few days. I had a feeling you might have been another crazy Sag.
ReplyDeleteLet me echo and say happy almost birthday! That book looks like a great collection. As far as the Lovecraft goes, that is the edition I have. It is definitely the best edition I have seen, and it is a joy to read. It just feels right to read Lovecraft from a nice, weighty tome.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday! Mine is next week. My gifts to myself will be Carcosa and Isle of the Unknown and their extras.
ReplyDelete>>If you want justification, this is currently (oddly enough given it's from B&N) the definitive edition of HPL's work. The Arkham House S. T. Joshi editions, which is what I presume you own, are riddled with typos, mangled punctuation, omitted words, etc.
ReplyDeleteSearching around a bit seems to indicate that the first printing of the Barnes & Noble edition had all the typos, and those are corrected with this second printing.
I wouldn't know about content changes but I can say that the Arkham House editions I have seem tight, and even have the correct "titan blur" at the end of Haunter of the Dark that seems to have been used as an example of what was wrong in the first B&N edition (printed as "titan blue").
I have the 2nd print Lovecraft hardback as well, and it is a thing of beauty. I had a hodge-podge collection of HPL books, but not every story, so it was nice to get a hold of this. Well worth the $20 US.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Happy Birthday, Jim! May it be truly weird.
I can't wait for this book to reach the states. The Vandermeers have their own shelf on my bookcase.
ReplyDeleteJim, have you read any of Jeff Vandermeer's fiction? There's a book called "The City of Saints & Madmen"; it's a mosaic novel, but there's some really weird and really creepy things going on in most of the stories. I suggest you take a look at it.