Monday, January 27, 2014

The Man Who Made Models

WooHOOO!!! The Centipede Press edition, The Man Who Made Models - The Collected Short Fiction Volume 1 just arrived today! Man, what a beautifully published book. Of all the small-press editions of Lafferty, this trumps them all in terms of quality of materials, construction, and printing. The paper even smells good. I now have in my hand copy 136 of a limited edition of 300 copies, signed by Michael Swanwick, author of the introduction, John Pelan, editor and publisher, and Jacob McMurray, cover artist.

Contents:

  • Introduction by Michael Swanwick
  • The Man Who Made Models
  • The Six Fingers of Time
  • The Hole on the Corner
  • Square and Above Board
  • Jack Bang's Eyes
  • All But the Words
  • The Ungodly Mice of Doctor Drakos
  • Frog on the Mountain
  • Narrow Valley
  • Condilac's Statue or Wrens in His Head
  • About a Secret Crocodile
  • Days of Grass, Days of Straw
  • The Ninety-Ninth Cubicle
  • Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne
  • Parthen
  • The Skinny People of Leptophlebo Sttreet
  • Rivers of Damascus
  • Afterword by John Pelan (the publisher)


Thanks to the Centipede Press for such a magnificent volume. I will wash my hands carefully and read extensively tonight!

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7 comments:

  1. Thanks for the heads-up; I'll be looking for my copy this week.

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    1. I believe it will take a few weeks for him to get all the copies out the door--if I understand, it is just the publisher and his wife doing all the shipping. If all copies are packaged as carefully as mine was (bubble wrapped and packed in a large-ish box with posters and extra covers for other books from Centipede Press--beautiful artwork and amazing printing by the way), then each copy will take a bit of time to package and and ship.

      I have no idea what order he is shipping the books in. My copy was #136 out of 300.

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  2. Awesome!

    I'm still debating on whether or not to buy it. As a grad student, it's hard to justify over $50 for a collection that only has three stories I haven't read.

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  3. Got mine, copy 168. Beautiful book, still gathering thoughts about the content and arrangement.

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  4. There's sloppy editing in the first story, which is a shame. "Every masterwork of the world has been produced [when] the temperature was exactly fifty-nine." on p.18. "He made a model witch-doctor for fun and revenge, and by his own account he made [it for?] from self-defence." on p.19. "And my doctor more or less told me that I was, though in mor[e] weasel words." p.34.

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    1. And twice in the first story, he refers to Jon Skaber as "Jan." The other stories appear to be in much better shape. Only one minor typo jumped out at me in "Jack Bang's Eyes." I'm only up to "All But the Words" so far.

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  5. I see the publisher is now selling unsigned copies for $45.

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