General Fiction – Carey, Carson, Carter, Chute & Colette

Though my head is still somewhere in William Gibson land after finishing his latest fiction Zero History this morning, I will endeavour to distract my mind and resume with more offerings on this blog in the general fiction category.

Firstly, Edward Carey’s wonderful and strange Observatory Mansions.

Closely followed by that other more famous Carey, Peter Carey’s 1988 Booker winning novel Oscar & Lucinda.

Twisted Kicks by Tom Carson is one of the first and best rock n roll novels. There have not been many written at all. Published in 1981 my paperback copy of the novel is an Arena edition published in 1984.

Now on to more of my Angela Carter collection, mostly Virago paperbacks.

Carolyn Chute is an American novelist and political activist. Her best known novel is The Beans of Egypt Maine. This King Penguin Edition has a wonderful cover in a primitive/naive style,

And finally, The Tender Shoot a collection of stories by French novelist Colette translated by Antonia White. I was a great fan of Colette in my youth and have many of her books in old Penguin editions which I’ll get round to displaying later. This edition was published by Farrar, Strauss & Giroux in the 1970s.

Next – John Crowley

Picador Books Part 4 – Peter Carey, Angela Carter, Bruce Chatwin & Lindsay Clarke

Australian author Peter Carey began his illustrious career as a short story writer, his first published collection being The Fat Man in History. I do not have a copy of this book, but I do have in Picador editions his collection Exotic Pleasures, and his first novel Bliss.

Angela Carter’s novel Heroes and Villains, was one of the first Picador books issued in 1972 and also represents for me the discovery of her work. I subsequently went on to collect a lot of her later books in hardcover first editions. The Picador cover shows The Temptation of St Anthony a portion of the Isenheim Altarpiece by Grunewald

Bruce Chatwin, noted novelist and travel writer gained popularity from the publication his first book, In Patagonia, a travel book that seized the imagination of the reading public with its then unusual approach to travel writing. I did have a Picador edition of this book, but it has gone missing in action. I do however still have his wonderful novel On The Black Hill which remains one of my all time favourite novels, and two shorter novels Utz and The Viceroy of Ouida.

An odd writer, Lindsay Clarke ,wrote a couple of unusual metaphysical romance novels, The Chymical Wedding and Alice’s Masque. I have read them, and though not blown away by the story, remember them being an enjoyable reading experience.

Next – Dali to Gurdjieff

General Fiction – Brautigan, Burgess, Calvino, Carter & Cortazar

Most of my Richard Brautigan paperbacks are in Picador editions which I shall get down to displaying soon, but here are two in US paperback editions. The Revenge of the Lawn is a 1972 Pocketbooks edition and Dreaming of Babylon was published by Delta in 1978.

I recall that Enderby by Anthony Burgess as being an entertaining novel, though I have not read it for years. This 1973 Ballantine edition describes the novel as an “hilarious and touching portrait of the artist in middle age”.

Italo Calvino I discovered back in the early 1970s. It was Cosmicomics that first blew my mind, so naturally I continued to collect his books. The editions below are only a few of his books in my library. There are more in Picador editions.

Angela Carter is one of my all time favourite writers. I have an almost a complete collection of her novels and non fiction writings. Below is a 1972 Panther paperback edition of her novel Love.

I can’t really recall if I ever read Julio Cortazar’s novel Hopscotch, in any event I certainly don’t remember anything about it.

Next – Joan Didion and Isak Dineson

The Divine Angela Carter

I've spent most of yesterday and today scanning books in the small bookshelf so as to expedite the process of displaying them here. There's quite a few entries coming your way, but before that here is my precious Angela Carter first edition collection.

The first time I came across Angela Carter was in 1972 when Pan Books released the new paperback line of Picador which introduced a whole new world of exciting new writers to the book reading public. Angela Carter's Heroes and Villains was one of the first to be issued in the new Picador format and when I read the book, I became an instant Carter zealot. I sought out her books thereafter and acquired quite a good collection of first editions. I only regret that I haven't got The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr Hoffman in the British first edition. I do however have the American first edition, renamed The War of Dreams. I ordered it in especially thinking it to be a totally new book, but discovered my mistake when it arrived. Not that I minded; it was good to have the book in hardcover anyway.

So here they are...

I have other Angela Carter books in paperback which I'll get to later on.