Didn’t work out…
Well, my little plan didn’t come to fruition. There was a pristine, unfolded dust jacket on eBay I hoped to pick up for my suntanned version of The Castle of Iron. No such luck. I was leading the bidding at 30-something dollars when at the last moment the sale price jumped up to $325. Wow. I hope they enjoy it. So, I’m stuck with a severely sunned but otherwise NF copy. Oh well. I also picked up a nice copy of Judith Merril‘s SF: The Year’s Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy from Mike at Mars Books and Wood. This is the very first of an annual series of which GP published the first four installments. I picked it up sight unseen, but Mike is cool, I trust his judgment when he says it’s in Near Fine condition…. I’m looking forward to it.
The Great Gnome Press Science Fiction Odyssey 
October 5, 2009 at 10:13 am
You might try Facsimile Dust Jackets L. L. C.
http://www.facsimiledustjackets.com/cgi-bin/fdj455/index.html
While they don’t list CASTLE OF IRON, with only 4,000 jackets listed on the site out of 28,000 available, 25+ Gnome Press DJs are among the 4000. All priced at $22 each—
The site owner says “…If you’re looking for a certain jacket feel free to ask and I’ll see if I have it. “
October 5, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Thanks Mark. Yes, I have often considered facsimile jackets. But what to they really contribute?? I think I’ll write a post on that sometime. Cheers.
October 5, 2009 at 9:39 pm
What do they contribute? I guess that would be a decision that varies by the collector. I own the two Red Jacket facsimile books plus the twelve Easton reprints of various Gnome, Fantasy, and Hadley titles. I do own VG copies of the original Gnome Press MEN AGAINST THE STARS and THE MIXED MEN.
And I’ve purchased several facsimile DJs over the years— mainly to just spruce up the looks of my book shelves. As cheap eye candy.
I’m looking forward to your MIXED MEN review. And your take on real vs fake DJs.
October 6, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I’ve bought a few of Mark terry’s facsimile djs. I think they’re only a solution for very, very rare and very, very expensive books. Most I’ve bought were pretty decent facsimiles, some don’t really come that close to it. So I bought some I didn’t use in the end. Just framed them for decoration.
I still think an original will always feel more “right” to the eye and I certainly think it would be no use for a book like “castle of iron”. But that’s just my opinion. A bit of sunning.. so what? all of them have it. Lousiest ink you can think of.
…and I won’t say what I think of spending $325 in a dj for a book that I’ve never seen sell for more than $50 – even if it belonged to the great Hannes. No need to be rude here.