The Great Gnome Press Science Fiction Odyssey

…to my undertaking.  My name is Aaron and I’d like you to take a couple of minutes to read about a bit about the history and rationale driving this site.  Also, it’s a good idea to check out the How To Use This Site page to get maximum benefit out of these pages.

A Short and Quick Synopsis of This Site:

1. I collect classic science fiction books from specialty publisher Gnome Press.

2. I photo-document the books – describing and providing an analysis of their physical condition.

3. Finally, I read the books and pen a review.

What’s behind all this?:

I had just gotten into collecting 1st edition science fiction when I was lying in bed reading A.E. van Vogt’s wonderful book The Mixed Men and it occurred to me I could be doing something not altogether unusual in methodology, but perhaps unique in content: record my journey collecting and reading 1st edition science fiction from a small publishing house called Gnome Press.  At that stage – November 2008 – I had not long made the decision to focus on collecting Gnome Press and I think The Mixed Men was perhaps my third or fourth GP acquisition.

Probably the main reason behind this undertaking is that information on Gnome Press and their books is disparate and hard to find.  Because I like to be knowledgeable about things I take an interest in, when I started collecting them I tried to find information on the Internet.  It was very scant.  About the only concentrated source of info was Wikipedia, but any information outside of the few big titles was very limited.  There are of course many reviews readily available on the web for these, but for the many others there is absolutely nothing.  Well, nothing meaningful, so I’m attempting to fill that gap.  Maybe one day, someone might find all this useful.  Regardless, it’s certainly fun and interesting for me.

I guess other more mundane day-to-day things will crop up around here from time to time.  The focus however, intends to be upon Gnome Press, the stories, the actual books themselves and my ‘odyssey’ collecting and reading them.

And an odyssey it will indeed be.  There are quite a few very, very sought after and valuable titles in the Gnome Press stable.

So, who is Gnome Press anyway?

You probably haven’t heard of them.  They were publishing from 1948 until 1962 before capsizing.  Only 14 years in business.  But if you are any sort of science fiction fan, you will certainly have heard of at least some of their books and many of the authors they published.  Let me give you a couple of examples:

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

The Menace From Earth by Robert A. Heinlein

Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke

Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard

Also less well known but nonetheless significant milestones in science fiction literature such as Wilmar Shiras’ Children of the Atom and Clifford D. Simak’s City.

All 1^st editions too, impressive, huh??

Authors such as Frederick Pohl, Robert Silverberg, Hal Clement, Jack Williamson and Andre Norton to name a few were all published at some point by Gnome Press.  It’s a stellar but almost unknown stable of books to all but serious collectors.

I hope you enjoy this site and perhaps appreciate what I’m attempting to do here.  Please, if you have any comments, advice, and most importantly, any information regarding the books and/or Gnome Press, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or two, or you can contact me directly at aaron.raisey@gmail.com

Much Appreciated and…

Enjoy!!

Kind Regards
Aaron