15 OLD VINTAGE A.E. VAN VOGT SCIENCE FICTION PAPERBACKS
VINTAGE 1970’s SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS
WRITTEN BY ONE OF THE GREAT CLASSIC SCI~FI AUTHORS
COOL VINTAGE COVER ART! - VERY RARE & COLLECTIBLE!!
    
15 SCARCE EARLY 1970’s A.E. VAN VOGT SCI~FI PB BOOKS
It's Fall down along the Chesapeake and we are proud to offer up on Ebay this week for your reading pleasure, this great set of 15 different vintage Science Fiction novels by the famous author A. E. Van Vogt.
These books are all paperbacks and from the 1970’s, a classic period in Science Fiction books and publishing. There are some real gems here. The covers are great and worth the opening bid just for their cool artwork alone.
Alfred Elton van Vogt (1912 – 2000) is one of the most popular and highly esteemed writers of the Golden Age of Science Fiction.
He starting his writing career by writing for 'true confession' style pulp magazines like True Story, then switched to Science Fiction. Van Vogt's first published SF story, "Black Destroyer" (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1939), was inspired by ‘On the Origin of Species’ by Charles Darwin. The story depicted a fierce, carnivorous alien stalking the crew of an exploration spaceship. It was the cover story of this issue of Astounding, the issue often described as having ushered in the Golden Age of science fiction. The story became an instant classic and eventually served as the inspiration for a number of science fiction movies. In 1950 it was combined with "War of Nerves" (1950), "Discord in Scarlet" (1939) and "M33 in Andromeda" (1943) to form the novel “The Voyage of the Space Beagle”(1950).
In 1941 van Vogt decided to become a full time writer, quitting his job at the Canadian Department of National Defence. Extremely prolific for a few years, van Vogt wrote a large number of short stories. In the 1950s, many of them were retrospectively patched together into novels, or "fixups" as he called them.
One of van Vogt's best-known novels of this period is Slan, which was originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction (September - December 1940). Using what became one of van Vogt's recurring themes, it told the story of a 9-year-old superman living in a world in which his kind are slain by Homo sapiens.
In 1944, van Vogt moved to Hollywood, California, where his writing took on new dimensions after World War II. Van Vogt was always interested in the idea of all-encompassing systems of knowledge -- the characters in his very first story used a system called 'Nexialism' to analyze the alien's behavior, and he became interested in the General Semantics of Alfred Korzybski.
He subsequently wrote three novels merging these overarching themes, The World of Null-A and The Pawns of Null-A in the late 1940s, and Null-A Three in the early 1980s. Null-A, or non-Aristotelian logic, refers to the capacity for, and practice of, using intuitive, inductive reasoning, rather than reflexive, or conditioned, deductive logic.
He said many of his book ideas came from dreams, and indeed his stories at times had the incoherence of dreams, but at their best, as in the science fantasy novel ‘The Book of Ptath‘, his works had all the vision and power a dream can impart. Throughout his writing life he arranged to be awakened every 90 minutes during his sleep period so he could write down his dreams.
In the 1950s, van Vogt briefly became involved in L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics projects and his writings slowed. He resumed writing again in the 1960s, mainly at Frederik Pohl's invitation, while remaining in Hollywood with his second wife, Lydia Bereginsky, who cared for him through his declining years.
“Van Vogt knew precisely what he was doing in all areas of his fiction writing. There's hardly a wasted word in his stories... His plots are marvels of interlocking pieces, often ending in real surprises and shocks, genuine paradigm shifts, which are among the hardest conceptions to depict. And the intellectual material of his fictions, the conceits and tossed-off observations on culture and human and alien behavior, reflect a probing mind...Each tale contains a new angle, a unique slant, that makes it stand out.” (Paul DiFilippo)
This is a group of 15 different original Science Fiction Books by A.E. VanVogt. The books in this auction include:
“SLAN“
BERKLEY MEDALLION BOOKS
1970 2nd PRINTING
“THE WEAPON MAKERS“
POCKET BOOKS NEW YORK
1979 FIRST PRINTING
“PTATH“
ZEBRA BOOKS ~ KENSINGTON
FIRST PRINTING 1976
“THE WORLD OF NULL-A“
BERKLEY MEDALLION BOOKS
1974 PRINTING
“THE HOUSE THAT STOOD STILL“
POCKET BOOKS NEW YORK
1980 FIRST PRINTING
“THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER“
ACE BOOKS
1970’s EDITION(?)
“THE UNIVERSE MAKER“
ACE BOOKS
1970’s EDITION(?)
“THE PLAYERS OF NULL-A“
BERKLEY MEDALLION BOOKS
1974 PRINTING
“THE MIND CAGE“
POCKET BOOKS NEW YORK
1978 FIRST PRINTING
LIGHT WATER DAMAGE
“EMPIRE OF THE ATOM“
1976 MANOR BOOKS NEW YORK
“THE WAR AGAINST THE RULL“
ACE BOOKS
1970’s EDITION(?)
“THE WIZARD OF LINN“
1975 MANOR BOOKS NEW YORK
LIGHT WATER DAMAGE
“THE CHANGELING“
1976 MANOR BOOKS NEW YORK
“MASTERS OF TIME“
1975 MANOR BOOKS NEW YORK
“THE WINGED MAN“
BERKLEY MEDALLION BOOKS
1967 3rd PRINTING
The artwork on some of these great Sci Fi books typify the lurid covers of the kind that graced 'Astounding Science Fiction', 'Galaxy Science Fiction' and other classic pulp science fiction magazines of the 1930's - 1950's. These great books are worth the opening bid just for the cool old 1960's and 1970’s sci-fi art covers.
Their condition is excellent throughout and much better than usual for these books. These books were often printed cheaply and are usually found with creased and slanted spines, quite worn, and heavily aged. These books are all in decent condition with bright bold colors, tight, minimally slanted spines and very minimal wear. The vintage Space and Alien art on the covers is excellent with bright sharp colorful graphics. A couple of the covers have some wear and or some light water marks, but not too bad. Overall very nice!
This is a real nice selection of 15 different books by one of the great Science Fiction authors of the period. These novels feature some of the best Science Fiction writing ever done. Van Vogt is often cited by other SF Authors as one of their inspirations.
I have shown a scan of these classic books in the pictures above to show the great cover art. If there are any that you want more detail on, just ask. I feel that they are worth the low opening bid just for the cover art alone. An excellent addition to any dealer's, collector's, or fan's collection.
These can be read, re-read, and displayed wonderfully for years to come. What a Fabulous addition to your Sci Fi Book collection or a great gift to put away for that special collector in your life. Please see the pictures for the best sense of the condition. And Please check out our other Vintage items we have up this week for auction.
The Space Age technically began on October 5, 1957 with the Soviet "Sputnik 1" satellite, which got in orbit ahead the U.S. Explorer I and after the Vanguard blew up on the launch pad. Not long afterwards, the USSR launched the dog Laika in Sputnik II, then sent Lunik I to the moon, and returned close-up lunar photographs with Lunik III (1959). But until people went into space, it seemed to the "mundane" world as little more than a fad, and not giving reality to "that crazy Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon stuff."
More people feared what rockets could deliver to targets on the ground than to destinations in the cosmos. The threat of nuclear war, and growing fears about the effects of atomic radiation, gave a unique perspective on the wonders and worries of the modern world and gave Science Fiction Authors plenty to write about.
Science Fiction magazines went through a boom and bust cycle during the late 1950's and early 1960's. 15 different SF magazines were launched in 1950, notably "Galaxy", "Worlds Beyond" and "Science Fantasy." This boom peaked about 1953 (in terms of the number of titles on the news stands), clearly began to diminish in 1955, and then fell off a cliff when, in June 1957, America's largest magazine distributor, American News Company, stopped operating, leaving many magazines stranded with no way to get distribution. By the late 1950's, the age of Pulp had gone the way of the dinosaur.
The 1960's was the decade when human beings first went into space, with tentative suborbital flights in the X-15 and Mercury-Redstone, with a single orbit by Gagarin in Vostok-1, then longer orbits, the first woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova in 1963), then two astronauts at a time, three at a time, and then ... of course .. to the moon and back with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins in Apollo 11 (1969).
Space was not just for astronauts, of course. The first weather satellite was launched in 1960, the first live transatlantic television by satellite was in 1962 (Telstar), and either one of these applications launched an industry that more than paid for the manned extravaganzas. Both the USA (Mariner 4) and the USSR (Zond 2) launched interplanetary probes in 1964. Both USA and USSR soft-land unmanned spacecraft on the Moon (1966) as part of a Moon Race, which the losing USSR later claims it was never in.
It was the heyday of the Science Fiction book, which along with television and Hollywood films, continued to push science fiction magazines into a lesser space in the imagination. For the first time, science fiction books regularly hit the best-seller list, and the top writers began to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in advance for their novels.
The new wave of Science Fiction books became the major medium connecting authors to readers. Important novels were published in the 1960's by many different Authors. These classic editions of Science Fiction novels are excellent examples of that class of books.
They don't get much better than this! Truly rare, quality books - worthy of any sci fi, space, martian, ufo, spaceship or book collection! To the right buyer, these beautiful old Science Fiction Books are both a collectible and an investment!
It is impossible to be an expert in all realms of collecting, and I am honestly representing these items to the best of my knowledge and ability. I ask that you be a responsible bidder and read the description and examine the photographs and scans carefully. I also encourage you to ask any questions you may have during the auction to help clarify identification or condition; as I may inadvertently omit information that you, as a collector, feel is important. We encourage you to ask questions if you are not sure about what you are bidding on. If you want further details or further photos of the item we are selling, just let us know. As you can see from our feedback, we are willing to work with you and keep you informed so that we both have a positive transaction.
As these books are heavy and bulky, the wining bidder is to pay $4.50 (In USA) for safe, quality, packaging, handling and shipping. Foreign Bidders welcome but postage will be assessed based on your location. If you have special mailing requests or needs, let us know when acknowledging your winning bid. Insurance is always available but winner to pay added cost. We will gladly ship to any international location, but this will have to be arranged after the auction. We usually wrap the item, take it to the shipper and find out the different shipping rates and then let the international buyer decide which route is best for them.
Payment can be made by any of EBay’s accepted methods, but PayPal is preferred. Contact us and we can arrange a payment method that suites your needs. Our Paypal link is the same as our EBay seller name ‘jjrbyrne’. Almost all of our items are sent out to winners within 2 working days. Most of our Paypal buyers get their items sent out the next day. Look at our feedback to see the fast, quality shipping we do.
We go to great lengths to properly pack items for shipping. We take pride in our customer service and quickness in shipping your order. We do not charge extra for this. We are not like all the rest, we are the BEST!! We usually contact winning bidders within 1-2 days but your timely reply with your name and shipping address is encouraged.
Check out the feedback responses we have earned from well over 2,400 happy and satisfied E-Bay traders and then bid on this item with confidence that you are going to receive a quality item.
ADD THESE GREAT OLD VINTAGE SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS TO YOUR COLLECTION TODAY!! |
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