It’s been a while. I’m about to deliver a bunch of excuses, but they are reasonably valid. First though, what’s been going on on the Gnome Press front??
I’ve been acquiring books steadily though at a slower pace than in the past. Earthman’s Burden arrived, as did Mel Oliver and Space Rover on Mars. Earthman’s Burden was a bit of a disappointment – not quite the condition I imagined, but Mel and Space Rover is great. Very hard to get a good copy of that because it was, I suppose, a genuine juvenile title and subject to abuse by said juveniles and also popular for libraries. I’m extremely happy with it. 
I’ve also picked up some other titles since. A reasonable copy of Northwest of Earth by C.L. Moore, a worn copy GP’s first title The Carnelian Cube by L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt, an NF replacement for the my disappointing copy of Arthur K. Barnes’ Interplanetary Hunter and also an excellent copy of one of Gnome’s flagship titles (and another proud feather in my collecting cap) Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke. I’m very, very pleased with it. Click through for a bigger look.
The CD of Chalker and Owing’s The Science Fantasy Publishers is fantastic. A veritable mine of information on, well, everything in book SF really. It came with all the supplements as well. It has a nice large info-rich section on Gnome Press that I might deliver here sometime. I hope no-one will mind…
A few weeks ago I did a presentation on Gnome Press and my collection to a society who’s name escapes me at present. They have presenters each week on many and varied subjects for the interest of their members. It was an interesting and enjoyable experience delivering my passion to an audience of Koreans (I live in Seoul for those who aren’t aware..). I learned a lot in the process and would be keen to do it again sometime. I put together a PowerPoint presentation and spoke for an hour regarding a brief history of SF publishing up to the Golden Age and a little beyond, as well as talking about Gnome Press and their place in SF publishing history and my collection. I had my entire collection there and handed a few of the more interesting titles around for closer inspection. It was a bit nerve-wracking having my precious copies of Science Fiction Terror Tales and Against the Fall of Night passed around the group… The PowerPoint is quite large, but I’ll figure out a way to make it available here somehow. It is light on info so will be without context and as a result perhaps a little meaningless as I like to keep presentations to brief bullet points and do a lot of talking. But I guess it’ll be of interest.
So what exactly is going on that prevents me from keeping you up to date??
Chief among the reasons is that I am occupied with two jobs until 10:30pm, Monday to Friday – I have no free time at all during a normal week. On top of that, my business partner and I are getting a business off the ground here in Korea and when I’m not doing my day (and night) job, we are focused on that. Time is at a premium. Hence I have not read at all for about 6 months. I’m starting to feel it. My collection sits on the bookshelf staring at me reproachfully. Photography, my other interest, has slipped as a result also. I’ve given away the presidency of the Seoul Photo Club and dropped off that pastime significantly. I just have to make some time somehow as I’ve slipped into a routine that’s not conducive to hobbies.
More later…
The Great Gnome Press Science Fiction Odyssey 