The journey continues with more gruesome goodies, this time from Patten Books in St. Louis. This truly was one of my best horror hauls ever! The shop's paperback horror section was an awesome sight: shelves packed with books in good-to-excellent condition, starting with a wide selection of anthologies, and continuing from floor to ceiling with novels I've been searching for for years as well as titles I hadn't known even existed!
Before I even knew it I had a stack of over two dozen titles, and could have added another 12 easily. Only two were priced in that collector category, but what the hell, I had 'em in hand and I can see they're mint. Aaaaand... my wonderful girlfriend extraordinaire even footed the bill!
So if you're ever around St. Louis, stop in Patten Books. Believe it or not, I left some great books behind! Now on to Kansas City...
I think your prizes here are the Charles Birkin book (I've seen that paperback only once in my lifetime in a real used bookstore. Very scarce.) and the Sarban book - a "literary horror" classic. Nice job on finding the Ray Russell paperback, too. I like all three of those novellas. One became that campy William Castle movie Mr. Sardonicus. DOCTORS WEAR SCARLET is on one of those "Best of Horror" lists (can't remember which one), but I didn't think it was anything very special.
ReplyDeleteThe Color Out of Time, get on it.
ReplyDeleteRussel is always great, but I haven't read the very same copy of Doctors Wear Scarlet that I've had for years. The KEW collection is decent, Vampire Junction kinda bored the shit out of me, but that Davis Grubb collection is one of my favorite books that I own. Exceptional haul so far. (I mention these books as I have the same copies that you now do)
Oh, and Ringstones. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteMy picks of the bunch would be the books by Charles Beaumont, Davis Grubb, Charles Birkin, Sarrantonio, and Stark/Westlake. The last book is, of course, not horror, but is part of the greatest series in crime fiction.
ReplyDeleteJea--lous!
ReplyDeleteIn Kansas City, your best bet is Half-Price Books near Westport and Prospero's Books on 39th.
ReplyDeleteWorth a stopover in KS is The Dusty Bookshelf in Lawrence, KS and Manhattan, KS.
Prospero's Books was a hit!
ReplyDeleteOn our way back from a return from a overnight stay in Dover, my wife suggested we stop over in Rochester, Kent to have a look round. She wanted me to see a great 2nd hand bookshop she visited on a last shopping trip there with her mum. All I can say I was well impressed, Baggins book bazaar claimed to be the largest 2nd hand book shop in England. It was truly massive, two whole floors, top to bottom full of great finds. I brought a great lot of books, which are hard for me to find,
ReplyDeleteThe Entity and For the love of Audrey rose by Frank de Felitta
Midwich cockoos by John Wyndham
Waldorf and Magic inc by Robert Heinlein
Plus a shop further down hand two more great finds I could not resist
Slime by John Halkins
A coven of vampires by Brian Lumley
I was well happy with this collection I brought and Will you would love the pictures on the paperback front cover of these books I found.
Good call, Ron Clinton, I didn't even see The Mourner in there. I actually just finished reading it a few weeks ago and is a great bit of sleight of hand. A really fun read.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I am immediately attracted to Panther!. Is it people in the jungle getting stalked by a killer panther? A panther that escapes from the zoo? Somebody's illegal pet that suddenly goes crazy? Whether all or none of these scenarios, I am most curious...
ReplyDeleteWhat a score Will! The Beaumont is collectable and all the Birkin's are scarce I tried to gather all those back in the early 70s! I have that same one. One of my other favorites is The Magic Toyshop by Carter. They made a low-budget film from that one later too. Sarban is really scarce I know, Grubb too -I have that one from my childhood. I would love to see this bookshop!
ReplyDeleteMy Holy Grail at this time is the first Lisa Tuttle collection called" Nest of ...Evil?" -or something with Nest in it,cant remember? But it's so $$$ online!
Happy Hunting!
The Lisa Tuttle book is NEST OF NIGHTMARES; I reviewed it here back in January after I found a cheap copy in a UBS...
ReplyDelete