Editions of TP's short stories

[Cal McInvale]

John Mascaro <Mascaro at humnet.ucla.edu> wrote:

>. . . "Mortality and Mercy in Vienna."  It is a beautiful little booklet.
>Off-sized, about 5 3/4" X  8 1/4", the cover is white, matte paper not much
>thicker than the rest of the pages, with the title and author's name in all
>lower case typescript across the top in three lines.

[descriptive stuff deleted]

>There's no date of publication.  On the back of the last page it says "First
>published in EPOCH in Spring 1959 Vol IX no. 4,"  below that "Cover
>photograph by Jim Pennington," and below that "ISBN 0 85652 023 3."
>
>SO:
>
>Does anybody know anything about these editions? (John Krafft, does your
>Magus-like knowledge ken a whit on any of this stuff?)
>Or aloe books?
>Or other editions of early short stories published before SLOW LEARNER?
>Or who Jim Pennington might be?

Aloes Books is a London-based company that did several unauthorized
editions of Pynchon's works.  The edition you have sounds like the second
printing, done in 1976.  (The "first" printing, of which there are several
versions [so it's not really a single printing at all], has either a
reddish or brownish cover.)  Other similar editions include "Low-Lands,"
"The Secret Integration," and "The Small Rain."  Another company, Tristero,
did an edition (with two printings) of "Entropy."  As for "Jim Pennington,"
I haven't the foggiest.

As I mentioned, these are unauthorized editions of Pynchon's work... which
means they are extremely rare and very valuable.  I don't have pricing
available on these, but I will check into it.  (Of course, this means you
will have to fend off substantial offers, including some of my own.)

And speaking of book collecting: I would like to know what "collectible"
editions of Pynchon's works you folks might have.  I'm sure none of you
will part with the really good stuff, but I'm in the market for a variety
of things.  This includes various hardcover editions, early paperback
editions and magazines with stories and essays.

>I wish I knew how I could scan that photo on to this net.  It is so
>enigmatic and mesmerizing.  Gotta be . . . .

Try scanning it into gif or jpg format, compressing it (using zip, bin-hex
or uuencode, depending on your type of machine), and then making it
available via e-mail or ftp to anyone who'd like a copy.


Cal McInvale        e-mail:  godot at rt66.com
WWW: http://www.rt66.com/godot/welcome.html
--------------
What is most appealing about young folks, after all, is the changes, not
the still photographs of finished character but the movie, the soul in
flux.  -- Thomas Pynchon