Friday, June 23, 2017

Arkham House reprints from Neville Spearman



Books published by Arkham House (founded 1939) have long been collectible. In the first half of the 1970s, the small British publisher Neville Spearman Limited reissued a number of Arkham titles in hardcover, in their British first editions. Neville Spearman as a publisher was founded in 1955 by Neville Armstrong (1914-2008), who ran the firm until 1985, when he sold it. Neville Spearman published between five and six hundred books, many of which were very eclectic in subject matter. I have listed the twelve Arkham reprints below, chronologically (noting the geographical movements of the publisher at that time), and below that, alphabetically by author (which notes the one title which went into a second Neville Spearman printing). The Neville Spearman reprints aren’t nearly as rare as the Arkham House originals, but at least they allow readers to access those titles at more reasonable prices. Neville Spearman published a number of other titles of interest to readers of supernatural literature, including James Dickie's anthology The Uncanny (1971), and the George Hay-edited spoof, The Necronomicon (1978).

Chronologically

[Neville Spearman based in London]

1971
September.  Clark Ashton Smith, Lost Worlds 
            Clark Ashton Smith. Out of Space and Time

1972
September. Clark Ashton Smith, Abominations of Yondo
            Clark Ashton Smith, Genius Loci

1973
 [Neville Spearman moved to Jersey, Channel Islands]

1974
April. Robert Bloch, The Opener of the Way
            Rober E. Howard,  Skull-Face and Others
            Henry S. Whitehead, Jumbee and Other Uncanny Tales
August. August Derleth, The Mask of Cthulhu  
            August Derleth, The Trail of Cthulhu
December. Carl Jacobi, Revelations in Black
            David H. Keller, Tales from Underwood

1975
April. Fritz Leiber, Night’s Black Agents
Cover art by David L. Fletcher
1976
[Neville Spearman moved (partially) to Sudbury, Suffolk]


Alphabetically by author:

Bloch, Robert. The Opener of the Way (Jersey: Neville Spearman, [April] 1974) Arkham, 1945

Derleth, August. The Trail of Cthulhu (Jersey: Neville Spearman, [August] 1974) Arkham, 1962

----. The Mask of Cthulhu (Jersey: Neville Spearman, [August] 1974) Arkham, 1958

Howard, Robert E. Skull-Face and Others (Jersey: Neville Spearman, [April] 1974) Arkham, 1946
            2nd printing 1975  

Jacobi, Carl. Revelations in Black (Jersey: Neville Spearman, [December] 1974) Arkham, 1947

Keller, David H. Tales from Underwood (Jersey: Neville Spearman, [December] 1974) Arkham, 1952

Leiber, Fritz. Night's Black Agents (Jersey: Neville Spearman, [April] 1975) Arkham, 1947

Smith, Clark Ashton. The Abominations of Yondo (London: Neville Spearman, [September] 1972) Arkham, 1960

----. Genius Loci and Other Tales (London: Neville Spearman, [September] 1972) Arkham, 1948

----. Lost Worlds (London: Neville Spearman, [September] 1971) Arkham, 1944

----. Out of Space and Time (London: Neville Spearman, [September] 1971) Arkham, 1942

[Two other Smith reprints were announced but not published by Neville Spearman, comprising Tales of Science and Sorcery (1964) and Other Dimensions (1970)]

Whitehead, Henry S. Jumbee and Other Uncanny Tales (Jersey: Neville Spearman,
            [April] 1974) Arkham, 1944


7 comments:

  1. This is a very useful checklist, thank you. I wonder whether some, if not most, of the Spearman editions were actually printed in smaller quantities than the Arkham editions!

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  2. I found Skull Face and the Jacobi offering here in the US for next to nothing at second hand shops.

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  3. As it happens, I recently bought the Spearman "Jumbee"--from John Eggeling--because I had a jacketless Arkham of West Indies Night, wanted the companion volume, and didn't want to pay Arkham prices.

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  4. It's odd how certain Arkham titles are actually quite cheap. Marjorie Bowen's Kecksies, for example, which I recently found for £5.

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  5. Many of the AH titles were published in larger quantities than you would see from a mainstream USA publisher.
    The trick with AH titles is to find the early ones in fine/fine condition.

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  6. *sigh* I had one of the CAS titles (can't remember which), none of the Derleths (because I had them in paperback) & the Bloch, REH, Jacobi, Whitehead & Keller releases. Must've included them with my modest Arkham collection (22 then-in-print titles) when I sold it to help finance my move to Phoenix from SW Arkansas for grad school back in the summer of '81. Well, except for the REH. Somehow, that one went missing along the way & never turned up.

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