F & SF Book Co., T-K Graphics, Other Bygone Genre Book Suppliers

[Extollager]

This thread is a place for recalling sources that supplied books and perhaps other materials (e.g. long-play recordings) in the genres of fantasy and science fiction prior to the online era. These vendors mailed catalogs containing offerings from multiple publishers. I don't intend this thread as a place for discussion of the SF Book Club, or the mail-order side of particular publishers.

It would be particularly interesting to hear from anyone who worked in such a business.

 

[Extollager]

It seems that Ted Pauls was founder of T-K Graphics of Baltimore. Someone named Richard Minter might have been associated with the F & SF Book Company, but I'm not sure. Maybe these notes will jog some memories. T-K may have been most active in the mid-1970s or so. I think F & SF Book Co (not associated with The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) was already well established by then and continued into the 1980s at least.

For many fans, these would have been important sources for books that we couldn't find locally.

 

[tinkerdan]

Here's an interesting story that includes a bit about Mr Minter and F & SF book company.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=749297208424032&id=306251739395250

Ted and wife to be Karen mentioned at Balticon 8
http://www.bsfs.org/b08hist.htm
http://www.abebooks.com/T-K-Graphics-1984-Annual-Catalog-Pauls/6665543564/bd

 

[tinkerdan]

There seem also to be references to a Richard Witter�s F&SF Book Co[Not sure if this is an error]

http://lauriepowerswildwest.blogspot.com/2010/10/walker-martins-favorite-weird-tales.html

http://hevelincollection.tumblr.com/post/31414166480/heres-the-summer-1968-catalog-from-f-and-s-f

 

[Extollager]

"There seem also to be references to a Richard Witter�s F&SF Book Co"

I'll bet Witter is right and Minter was a mistake. Thanks.

 

[Extollager]

I should mention that The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction used to sell some of the books reviewed in the magazine, by mail-order. I have 1950s issues that offer volumes of Tolkien's Rings trilogy. This arrangement must have been helpful for many readers who weren't connected to fannish outlets and whose local book stores (if any) didn't make such books available.

 

[Extollager]

...Here's what the July 1956 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction offered through its Readers' Book Service -- same address as its editorial offices:

Novels

Asimov - The End of Eternity
Brown - Martians, Go Home
Dickson - Fear Is the Same
Helvick - Overdraft on Glory
Heinlein - Double Star
Herbert - The Dragon in the Sea
Kornbluth - Not This August (which I just read)
Schneider - The Golden Kazoo
Toombs - Good as Gold

Fantasy Novels

Boston - The Children of Green Knowe
Tolkien - The Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers, Return of the King ($5 each)

Anthologies

Conklin - Science-Fiction Adventures in Mutation

Short Stories

Boucher - Far and Away
Bradbury - The October Country
Oliver - Another Kind
Clarke - Reach for Tomorrow
Russell, Bertrand - Nightmares of Eminent Persons
Sheckley - Citizens in Space

Non-Fiction

Bernstein - Search for Bridey Murphy
Daniel & Others - Myth or Legend?
Izzard - The Abominable Snowman
Rosen - The Viking Rocket Story
Ruppelt - Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Snow - Who's Who in Oz
Wilkins and Moore - The Moon: A Complete Description
Donald Day - Index to the Science-Fiction Magazines, 1926-1950

Unclassifiable [Their term]

Smith - Age of the Tail

Juveniles

Bradbury - Switch on the Night
Norton - Star Guard
Sutton - Venus Boy
Gallant - Exploring the Moon
Wyler and Ames - Golden Book of Astronomy

Verse

Drake - This Tilting Dust

Humor

Kelly - The Pogo Peek-a-Book; Potluck Pogo
George Price's Characters

Some of these, everyone will have heard of. Some of them -- ???

The ad says that one can also order any hardcover book reviewed in its pages "during the past year."

 

[Extollager]

Has anyone seeing this done business with a supplier that specializes in selling new and/or used sf and fantasy books? Note: I'm not thinking of publishers selling by mail, e.g. a mail order department for Tor Books, etc.

 

[Extollager]

I'm reviving this thread in hopes that someone might have kept catalogs from T-K Graphics, Corner-Stone Book Shop, and F&SF Book Company. I'd be interested in scans from the 1970s through, say, 1982, if anyone has such to offer. I was thinking of writing up a piece about these outfits for Beyond Bree, since I am sort of the resident nostalgist. I don't seem to have saved any of my catalogs, though.