FS: A PLEASING TERROR M.R. JAMES

corto.maltese1.DeleteThis@gmail.com wrote:

> Lawrence Chalmers wrote:
> > Ashtree Edition in very fine shape. Please email mme if inteested. I
> > don't want to deal with ebay or paypal
>
> Oh man, please reconsider.
> Yes it is worth a nice bit of money but I bet that you will soon start
> cursing yourself for having sold it...
>
> all best,
>
> Tom

Tom:

But with a little shrewd scouting you could always pick up very decent
later impressions of all the original volumes for the same price.
There's no competition in my mind. Plus as well as having genuinely
vintage books, you'd be able to read the damn things, because the font
size and page margins are suitably generous.

You and I may be the right side of fifty, but an awful lot of older
collectors despise small print because of the gradual decline in one's
ocularity.

Besides, from a purely speculative point of view, now that James is
coming out of copyright it won't be long before someone else comes
along and reprints James, which will almost certainly have an immediate
negative effect on other latter-day reprints.

CB
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Zarok wrote:
> corto.maltese1.DeleteThis@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > Lawrence Chalmers wrote:
> > > Ashtree Edition in very fine shape. Please email mme if inteested. I
> > > don't want to deal with ebay or paypal
> >
> > Oh man, please reconsider.
> > Yes it is worth a nice bit of money but I bet that you will soon start
> > cursing yourself for having sold it...
> >
> > all best,
> >
> > Tom
>
> Tom:
>
> But with a little shrewd scouting you could always pick up very decent
> later impressions of all the original volumes for the same price.
> There's no competition in my mind. Plus as well as having genuinely
> vintage books, you'd be able to read the damn things, because the font
> size and page margins are suitably generous.
>
> You and I may be the right side of fifty, but an awful lot of older
> collectors despise small print because of the gradual decline in one's
> ocularity.
>
> Besides, from a purely speculative point of view, now that James is
> coming out of copyright it won't be long before someone else comes
> along and reprints James, which will almost certainly have an immediate
> negative effect on other latter-day reprints.
>
> CB

Well, before I bought the Ash-tree book, I already had a nice
illustrated big hardcover collection edited by Cox. And next to that
basically all the ghost stories in a very cheap paperback (Wordsworth
classics or something like that - and that one has really small
print!), and still I think that the Ash-tree book is something to
treasure. For example I do like the many footnotes. And then there is
the collection of other MRJ output, such introductions he wrote and so
on. It is obviously a work of love.
It is true, the print could have been a bit bigger, but then it
wouldn't fit anymore in one volume. I think it is still very readable.
The print and margins of this book never bothered me, while it does
bother me in the Tartarus collected Aickman, that really should have
come in 3 books for the price.
Of course there will be more reprints but will these offer all the nice
touches of the Ash-tree edition? I doubt it. Actually, I have the gut
feeling (untainted by any knowledge about bookselling) that this
collection if reprinted as a relatively affordable paperback could
still find a new audience.

ciao, Tom
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Zarok wrote:
>
> But with a little shrewd scouting you could always pick up very decent
> later impressions of all the original volumes for the same price.
> There's no competition in my mind.

Such as it is...

> Plus as well as having genuinely
> vintage books, you'd be able to read the damn things, because the font
> size and page margins are suitably generous.
>
> You and I may be the right side of fifty, but an awful lot of older
> collectors despise small print because of the gradual decline in one's
> ocularity.
>
> Besides, from a purely speculative point of view, now that James is
> coming out of copyright it won't be long before someone else comes
> along and reprints James, which will almost certainly have an immediate
> negative effect on other latter-day reprints.


Nonsense. "A Pleasing Terror" is now considered the definitive M.R.
James volume. Reprints will have no effect on the valure of this
volume. As has been pointed out repeatedly, reprint editions tend to
draw attention to a work and if anything help drive the price up. This
is a concept that you apparently failed to grasp during your abortive
stint at selling books.

Cheers,

John
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> But if you don't want to bother selling them off, at the very least
please, please **give** them away to someone who'll appreciate them." I
just don't think I could rest easy in my grave if that portion of my
collection were to end up in a dustbin.

That is a good attitude. Feel free to put me in your will !


Tom
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