Book Hauls!

j d worthington said:
Definitely that by Joshi, particularly the revised and restored text (2 volumes) as published by Hippocampus Press -- I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft. I'm currently rereading the second volume of that, and have been at times comparing it to the original Necronomicon Press version, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life... itself quite a substantial tome. I hadn't quite realized just how much had been cut in order to make that original publication. I knew the basic amount (roughly one quarter of the original ms.), but not the sorts of things which were missing. For example, a substantial discussion of "The Whisperer in Darkness" (following the synopsis of the story) was reduced from a few pages to a few paragraphs in the original edition; the restored discussion throws some interesting light on the tale in various aspects.

While this one is also a bit pricey compared to your usual outlay, I'm finding some quite reasonable offers nevertheless, especially considering that it originally went for $100 for the set. (HP has released a 2-volume tpb edition for $50, should you be willing to go that far.) I don't think his biography is likely to be outdone in our time....
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Two volumes? Wow, talk about being given the Mark Twain treatment. May have to wait a while on that one. You know what I really enjoyed? Joshi's introductory bio in his Penguin editions, The Call Of Cthulhu being the one I read (or was reading when it was swiped). Will keep monitoring Amazon, maybe a reader copy will pop up. Thanks again.
 
I've been on something of a buying spree of late...with the central emphasis being on philosophy along with some further literary criticism. Both of these areas I am deliberately building up in my library. Most of the following are Penguin Black Classics but I'll just list the titles. too many to do blurbs on.

Metaphysics - Aristotle *One of his key works.
Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes *One of Great Brittan's key political philosophers. Based on original 1651 text.
On Liberty and The Subjection of Women - John Stuart Mills *One of my favorite philosophers. On Liberty remains a relevant text.
Discourse on Method and Related Writings - Rene Descartes *Discourse on Method is probably still his most famous work.
A Treatise if Human Nature - David Hume *A seminal work now available in a single volume.
Critique of Pure Reason - Immanuel Kant *Another key text from which modern philosophy has sprung. A challenging text.
Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel *Hegel was a major influence on the later German Romantics on the 1800s.
Of the Social Contract and other Political Writings - Jean-Jacques Rosseau *Of the Social Contract remains relevant to this day.
Ethics - Benedict De Spinoza
Essays and Aphorisms - Arthur Schopenhauer. A huge influence on authors ranging from Tolstoy to Mann top Borges to Proust to Beckett.
Fear and Trembling - Soren Kierkegard. Key figure in the development of existentialism and again an influence on several authors from Auden to Kafka to Borges to Rilke to Salinger.
Philosophy Key Themes - Palgrave edn.
The Varieties of Religious Experience - William James *Brother of Henry James.
The Spectator Bird - Wallace Stegner. An American classic from a still underrated author.
The USA Trilogy - John Don Passos *Another underrated American great. Very nice Library of America edition.
Selected Poems and Letters - Arthur Rimbaud. One of the wild children of Poetry.
Margaret Atwood - Critical Reviews on her Fiction
Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare
Charlotte and Emily Bronte - Literary Lives
Jane Austen - Essential Criticism
Modernism and Style - Ben Hutchinson.

Next week I'll be picking up....

St Thomas Aquinas Selected Writings
St Augustine Confessions and other writings
On Living and Dying Well - Cicero

On order....
Herder Philosophical Writings Cambridge Edition *Herder was the key figure within the Sturm und Drang movement of the 1770s that gave rise to Goethe's classic Sorrows of Young Werther (pre cursor of German Romanticism) and Weimar Classicism which Goethe and his mate Schiller took up in later years.
 
hardsciencefanagain said:
I'm genuinely impressed, Gollum.
Do you have anything by my countryman Erasmus?
(bows to intellectually superior being)
Not being facetious:no Plato?
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Yep I have his In Praise of Folly. I'm yet to read it.

Plato I have several things including naturally The Republic.

Thanks for your kind sentiments.

Have a good evening (Sunday night here in Melbourne, Australia).
 
I have mixed feelings about your batch of philosophical buys, Gollum. On the one hand, you've bagged a lot of authors who are everywhere mentioned as major players. On the other hand, the implicit opinion embodied in the selection seems to be that (worthwhile) philosophy is a modern activity. Your earliest is Descartes and most of your selections are noticeably more recent than he is. Of course, I don't know what you already had on hand. Maybe your personal library already teemed with the Pre-Socratics (Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, etc.) Epicurus, Zeno, Plato, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, Plotinus, Boethius, &c. -- to stick just with Classical and Late Antique figures. I hasten to admit that I have read little of these except for Plato and Boethius! Nice to see you soon will be taking hold of some of the earlier work.

By the way, have you read Thomas Nagel's "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" I haven't, but I gather that that is a worthwhile recent essay.
 
ok,first handful

Niven neutron star
Cogswell the Third Eye
Goulart Chameleon Corps(includes IGNATZ,PLEASE STAND BY ,RAKE!!)
E.Hamilton Outside the universe(My guess:cover by Valigursky)
James Blish The Star Dwellers
 
I just checked my Ace edition of the Hamilton and of course no artist was listed. It looked like the same guy who did Crashing Suns but of course no art credit was there either. You're probably correct.
 
are we both talking Ace F 271?

WHOA
Leinster Operation Outer Space,the Aliens,Twists in Time
*LIVE TRANSMISSION*
ye gods ,covers by Rich Powers
e pluribus Unicorn ,again powers
a way home,Gaughan cover(fairly obvious)
quicke,the smelling saltyep thought so,my tying is goung
 
again,lice transmission
floks red it while it happens
my god must be at least 50 booc in theres

OK,got my wind back again and my typing
ok deep breath

well,fisrt impression:lotsa covers by Powers,lots of established names

gonna dive back in
 
you'll like this one,dask
hamilton the sun smasher,with an Emsh cover(guessing that one,but knowing what i know of cover art,that's got to be correct/starhaven by "Jorgenson".
and an F&sf with Shepard and Barker,both novellas
 
Extollager said:
I have mixed feelings about your batch of philosophical buys, Gollum. On the one hand, you've bagged a lot of authors who are everywhere mentioned as major players. On the other hand, the implicit opinion embodied in the selection seems to be that (worthwhile) philosophy is a modern activity. Your earliest is Descartes and most of your selections are noticeably more recent than he is. Of course, I don't know what you already had on hand. Maybe your personal library already teemed with the Pre-Socratics (Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, etc.) Epicurus, Zeno, Plato, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, Plotinus, Boethius, &c. -- to stick just with Classical and Late Antique figures. I hasten to admit that I have read little of these except for Plato and Boethius! Nice to see you soon will be taking hold of some of the earlier work.

By the way, have you read Thomas Nagel's "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" I haven't, but I gather that that is a worthwhile recent essay.
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To clarify Yes I have a lot of the usual suspects of earlier times including Plato, Socrates, Aristotle Epicurus, I don't have much on the Pre-Socratics. I should have said this haul was focused on building up my 'post-Medieval' (so to speak) collection.

The reason for my recent surge of interest in philosophy is two-fold. I've been listening to a lot of recent BBC4 podcasts on Philosophy (as well as other programs) and have become extremely interested in ideas. Secondly I know that philosophical thought has influenced literary fiction and I'm interested in tracing this aspect both on a broadly social level (incl. literary movements) as well as an individual (author) one.

I have heard of Thomas Nagel but never read "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?". Thanks for the suggestion..:)
 
GOLLUM said:
I've been on something of a buying spree of late...with the central emphasis being on philosophy along with some further literary criticism. Both of these areas I am deliberately building up in my library...
Click to expand...

Any particular themes?
 
Received John McPhee's Annals of the Former World (geology omnibus) and a copy of the 1968 fanzine Niekas #20 today. Niekas was notable then for its Tolkien-related material, but didn't limit itself to such.
 
GOLLUM said:
To clarify Yes I have a lot of the usual suspects of earlier times including Plato, Socrates, Aristotle Epicurus, I don't have much on the Pre-Socratics. I should have said this haul was focused on building up my 'post-Medieval' (so to speak) collection.

The reason for my recent surge of interest in philosophy is two-fold. I've been listening to a lot of recent BBC4 podcasts on Philosophy (as well as other programs) and have become extremely interested in ideas. Secondly I know that philosophical thought has influenced literary fiction and I'm interested in tracing this aspect both on a broadly social level (incl. literary movements) as well as an individual (author) one.

I have heard of Thomas Nagel but never read "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?". Thanks for the suggestion..:)
Click to expand...
Our messages seem to have crossed, since my question appears after you answered it. But you were responding to an earlier message.
 
My knowledge of the philosophical greats stems largely from the following:

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table.
David Hume could out-consume
Schopenhauer and Hegel,
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as sloshed as Schlegel.

There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya'
'Bout the raising of the wrist.
SOCRATES, HIMSELF, WAS PERMANENTLY PISSED...

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could stick it away;
Half a crate of whiskey every day.
Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle,
Hobbes was fond of his dram,
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart: "I drink, therefore I am"
Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed!
 
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