Latest Updates - A. E. Van Vogt

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Comment by JimEss SUBS:

Added cover.

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Comment by JimEss SUBS:

Back cover added.

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Comment by ppint.:

daw books simultaneous near-identical first printings sharing merkin-printed covers, first edition

fix-up/rewrite of three novellas, with new material

cover art by vincent difate (signed, credited)
b+w frontispiece (unsigned, uncredited)
cover price $1.25
near-meaningless daw books collector no.224
176pp. including titles, indicia etc.

refer to indicia to see if carcass of copy held was canadadian- or merkin- printed
no priority established nor liable to be, both stating first daw printing, january 1977
and both bearing full first printing history number-string 123456789

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Comment by ppint.:

ha! - you're right. i shouldn't've been anything like so categorically and definitely absolute.

what i meant was, ''during the lengthy period that 25¢ was so overwhelmingly predominantly the only price of merkin-distributed mmpbs that many publishers didn't bother to print 25¢ upon the covers of many/all of their mmpbs, a cover price of 35¢ wasn't ever a consideration by the merkin newsstands' customers, or the five and dime store owners (shop-keepers), 35¢ wasn't even a recognised mmpb pricemark.''

(and the mmpb was primarily a phenomenon arising from the merkin news distribution system, being treated very like a monthly magazine, being distributed the month before the cover date and its covers being strippable-off for ''return'' for credit in the printed month of publication; some mmpb publishers later started to get relatively small print-runs of their titles' carcases printed in canada, possibly to avoid any importation tax liability, or to satisfy some other canadian legislation - but many did not, whether because they didn't make any great attempt to distribute their mmpbs thither; and those that did, generally still had the covers merkin-printed, either slightly varying them with a canadian cover price, or printing two prices upon all of the one print-run.)

edit 12/2/24: i think i've re-written it to say what i meant tolerably clearly...

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Comment by annaloog:

??? 1950s Ballantine PBs, like this example, have a 35c cover price. And Signet's 'S' price code indicates 35c.

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Comment by ppint.:

the 25¢ - 35¢ pairings of elsewise identical, simultaneous or near-simultaneous mmpbs around this time do not seem to be separated in time sufficiently to indicate a price rise across/in any mmpb publisher's general catalogue, and 35¢ was never an industry pricemark for merkin mmpb editions during this period of the heyday of the almost universal 25¢ merkin mmpb.

the 35¢ cover-priced copies almost certainly indicate a split between 25¢ mmpb prices for copies intended for general distribution, and 35¢ priced copies intended for distribution north of the parallel, in canada.

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Comment by ppint.:

contents:

the proxy intelligence (novella) if vol.18 #10, 10/1968
the problem professor (novelette) , thrilling wonder stories vol. xxxiv #3, 8/1949; thrilling wonder stories bre 12/1949; both: as ''project spaceship''
rebirth: earth (ntte) astounding vol. xxx #4, 12/1942 as ''the flight that failed'' by e. mayne hull
the gryb (ntte) astounding vol. xxv #2, 4/1940 as ''repetition'' (a rull series story)
the invisibility gambit (ntte) astounding vol. xxxiv #2, 4/1943 as ''abdication'' by e. mayne hull (an artur blord series story)
the star-saint (ntte) planet stories vol.4 #11, 3/1951

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Comment by JimEss SUBS:

Covers added.