Jack Vance Information Archive

The Jack Vance Information Archive

"Reload" this page for the latest information

10 Dec 2002

Simon Rogers reports that "Pelgrane Press has a new, signed limited edition color map of the Dying Earth now available. For details, see http://www.dyingearth.com/products.htm and click on the map thumbnail."

26 Sep 2002

Sasha Bilton reports that "Pelgrane Press are, for a very limited time only, offering signed copies of the Dying Earth Roleplaying Game. Jack Vance, Robin D. Laws and the other writers have all signed in the inside cover of a very few of our hard back editions. Theses books can only be bought in our Complete Collection, which also includes Cugel's Compendium Of Indispensable Advantages, The Players Guide to Kaain, Excellent Prismatic Sprays Iss. 1-3 and a copy of the Quick start rules. Visit http://www.dyingearth.com for more info."
On a related note, Simon Rogers notes that "Pelgrane Press have just released The Player's Guide to Kaiin, a 192 page source booked for the white-walled city. It includes an attractive map and over 100,000 words.
Ernesto points out an Italian Jack Vance bibliography website at www.fantascienza.com.

13 Jul 2002
- David Williams reports: In the new extension of Piers Anthony's autobiography, How Precious Was That While (Tor PB, June 2002), chapter 10 discusses some fellow SF professionals. On page 258 he recounts a visit with Keith Laumer, including the following passage that concerns Jack Vance: "He [Laumer] had good commentary on all aspects of writing. He asked how I liked the writing of Jack Vance, and I said I liked it, except for Vance's wooden dialogue. 'Not wooden, carved,' Laumer said. That made me pause; he was right, and I appreciated Vance more after that, and indeed, now consider him to be the genre's finest fantasy writer."
23 Jun 2002
- Goldfish has an excellent site with lots of Vance info at Gnome.
27 May 2002
- Mike Ralston reports that Kathie Huddleston has an interview with Jack Vance on the Science Fiction Weekly website.
30 March 2002
- Todd Triechel reports that the February 2002 issue of Locus magazine has a review by Jonathan Strahan of Coup de Grace and Other Stories, the initial volume of the Vance Integral Edition. Strahan's view is that although this is not a best-of selection, any of Vance's work is worthwhile and after all it's the only Vance collection in print. He calls "The Moon Moth" one of the all-time classics of SF, or words to that effect.
27 December 2001
- The latest issue of Science Fiction Chronicles has a cover story about the VIE. Click here for scans.
2 December 2001
- "Goldfish" reports: I got a mail from Tim Underwood (Underwood Books) that The Laughing Magician will be released sometime early 2002.
13 November 2001
- Robert J. Grieve, the Programming Director for Norwescon 25, says: "As your website reports, I am very pleased to be able to confirm that Jack Vance will indeed be the Writer Guest of Honor for Norwescon's 25th anniversary convention. It is indeed an honor and a privilege to have an author of Mr. Vance's caliber to head a very distinguished lineup of GoHs at the Pacific Northwest's largest SF/F convention."
- David Mead reports "An Encyclopedia of Jack Vance, 20th Century Science Fiction Writer by David G. Mead is being published by The Edwin Mellen Press in three volumes. Advanced special discounts are available; call 716-764-2788"
8 November 2001
- Rich Thomas reports that he new Tor schedule up to August 2002 is available online, and they are printing a new hardcover of Alastor in July. I assume that this is a reprinting of their earlier bundling of the trilogy.
- Sasha Bilton reports that Pelgrane Press has put up a signed copy of the Dying Earth roleplaying game on the Gaming Industry Disaster Fund Action site. We've also included laser printed proof of our yet to be released XPS 3 and Cugels Compendium of Indispensable Advantages.
28 October 2001
- Jerry Hewett reports that Willem Timmer has found an interesting site for Japanese language Vance books at http://www.ameqland.com/sfv/vance.htm
26 October 2001
- Mike Transreal reports that the Vance Integral Edition gets a mention on the Locus magazine news pages.
21 October 2001
- Dr. Ray Muzyka of BioWare Corporation has sent me a email which I have permission to share with you: "I'm a huge Jack Vance fan myself - he's my favorite author of all genres - and have many of his books (painstakingly collected over a decade from used bookstores, mainly). I'm also the joint CEO of BioWare Corp., which is a fairly-well known developer of roleplaying games such as Baldur's Gate (the series of BG games - two main games and two expansion packs - has sold over four million copies world-wide, translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and distributed in other languages and territories as well). In the developer credits of the original Baldur's Gate, we paid homage to our favorite authors - people who helped inspire us to make a fantasy roleplaying game in the Dungeons and Dragons universe - and Jack Vance was the first author we listed. Thanks for your work in paying tribute to this great author through your website - I enjoyed reading it."
14 October 2001
- A new website The Illustrated Vance showcasing pulp artwork illustrating Vance stories is now online.
- Vance Integral Edition merchandise can now be ordered online!
28 September 2001
- The second issue of The Excellent Prismatic Spray, the official magazine of The Dying Earth role playing game is now available. For more information visit www.dyingearth.com.
- Jerry Hewett confirms that Jack Vance is credited on the album "Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley" by Robert Palmer.
16 September 2001
- Hans ter Horst reports that the third book in the French comic La Cycle de Tschai is out; Le Wankh, volume I. You can view the book, a page or the series.
31 August 2001
- Matt Hughes reports that Jack Vance will be the guest of honor at Norwescon 25, in the Seattle-Tacoma area March 28 through 31, 2002.
29 August 2001
- David Williams reports that there is a nice review of Big Planet by Nick Gevers on the ABE Books website.
- The Vance Integral Edition has announced that they will be part of the Sfera booth at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair.
9 August 2001
- The Vance Integral Edition has announced the availability of a Deluxe Gift Edition, containing a selection of stories from the VIE. Information is available on the VIE Message Board.
19 July 2001
- Mike Transreal reports that "The current Interzone (June 2001) has an interview with Lucius Shepard. I quote,'The first science fiction that really zonked me was a book by Jack Vance called Emphyrio. After Vance I came to Ballard, Aldiss, Wolfe, and so on down the list. …My favourite science-fiction writer remains Jack Vance.'"
4 June 2001
- Mike Transreal points out that the Locus Magazine website has the announcement that Jack Vance is among this year's inductees into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
18 May 2001
- Gregg Parmentier points out that The Dying Earth has been nominated for a retro-Hugo award, to be presented at The Millenium Philcon this September.
05 May 2001
- Suan Yong has pointed out that a review of Tales of the Dying Earth has been posted to SlashDot ("News for Nerds".)
24 Mar 2001
- One of the blurbs on the back of the new L. Warren Douglas hardcover, The Sacred Pool, is quoted from "The Jack Vance Trading List" maintained by Jerry Hewett.
08 Mar 2001
- Amazon reports that the sequel to Ports Of Call will be available soon, but according to John Vance, Jack is still some months away from completing it.
01 Feb 2001
- Better late than never: The Dying Earth role-playing game is apparently finished. You can find details and ordering information at www.dyingearth.com.
- 24 of the 26 Deluxe editions of the Vance Integral Edition have been reserved.
05 Jan 2001
- Masserdotti Stefano reports that a new interview (in Italian) has been published on the Delos SF website.
15 Dec 2000
- Chun the Unavoidable has added another story in the Vance style to his website. I have not yet read it, so proceed at your own risk.
23 Nov 2000
- Hans van der Veeke received the following message from Amazon.com: "We have some news regarding your order for the book 'The Laughing Magician.' We are sorry to report that the official release date has been postponed. Release is now scheduled for 03/31/2001."
15 Nov 2000
- The guestbook was broken, but is now working again. Thank you for your patience.
22 Oct 2000
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
- Chun the Unavoidable has added a fiction section to his website, including a story called Cugel's Calling, "... a direct follow-up to Cugel's Saga (a la Michael Shea.)"
19 Oct 2000
- Sean Butcher points out that Gary Gygax says: "My favorite author of imaginative literature is Jack Vance." You can see the entire interview at the GameSpy website. (C.f. the Archive for 25 Jan 1999.)
09 Oct 2000
- Chun the Unavoidable has "started a website that'll contain quite a bit of Vance-related information. Most interesting, I suppose, will be the Jack Vance illustrated and annotated bibliography I've compiled of all the Vance books I've managed to lay my hands on (it has appeared elsewhere, sans illustrations and a few entries). It's to be found on: http://www.chunscorner.ic24.net/Editorial.htm."
27 Sep 2000
- John Vance says: "Dad handed the first three chapters of Lurulu off to Mom and me two or so months ago; I have run through the chapters doing bulk correction and Mom has started detail and final touches. I would guess six months before the story is off to the publishers."
06 Sep 2000
- From the Vance Integral Edition message board: Introducing the Cosmopolis Literary Supplement (CLS), featuring original literary works from authors who recognize in Vance a major influence. The first issue, with stories by Tim Stretton, Till Noever, and Zack Fance, is available in PDF format from the following webpage: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~suan/vie/cosmo.
05 Sep 2000
- Amazon has announced the publication this month of The Tales of the Dying Earth from St. Martin's Press in a trade paperback format with a list price of $17.95.
- The Laughing Magician is shown as to be published in October of this year.
11 Aug 2000
- Gregg Parmentier points out that SciFi.com has a dramatization of The Moon Moth available on their website at http://www.scifi.com/set/originals/moth/ in Real Audio. Poll results show a 9.1 out of ten rating.
05 Jul 2000
- The latest issue of Locus magazine, July 2000, has a review of Jack Vance: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography by Faren Miller, including a nice (B&W) picture of the cover. She devotes a lot of space to it, with generally a favorable review. "Overall, this book offers plenty of fascinations..."
- The same issue has a two-page ad for Tor Books that includes Tales of the Dying Earth, a trade paperback reprint of the SFBC's The Compleat Dying Earth.
03 Jun 2000
- Jerry Hewett has found a bibliography of Vance books published in Italian. To a completist, the list is rather daunting. You can see for yourself at http://www.cavaglia.com/catalogoSf/D0380.htm, starting about halfway down the page.
30 May 2000
- Jacques Garin reports: Le Cycle de Tschaï #1 comic is now available in Europe from Editions Delcourt. You can view a scan of one page.
13 May 2000
- Willem Timmer has found the web page for the publisher of Vance works in Greek, Alternative Factor. Most of the website is in Greek, but there is also an English Vance page.
08 May 2000
- Many people have reported that Amazon.co.uk has replied to orders for Lurulu with an email that states that the publisher has delayed the release of the book. To my knowledge, the book has not yet been completed.
28 Apr 2000
- The Spanish language publisher Gigamesh has quite a bit of information posted about their Jack Vance titles.
27 Apr 2000
- Hans ter Horst reports that Lurulu is announced for May 2 on Amazon.co.uk.
20 Apr 2000
- Mike Calder of Transreal Fiction reports: "I run a small SF&F shop in Edinburgh, Scotland. Just to let you know that Jack Vance: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography is now out in the UK. I had copies ordered direct and they just came in today (20th April 2000.) The signed and unsigned copies arrived together; the book looks v.nice."
15 Apr 2000
- Nick Gevers, Associate Editor for Infinity Plus, has written and posted an article titled Jack Vance: Lord of Language, Emperor of Dreams, a profile of Jack Vance. You can also view the complete text of the short story Green Magic. Reviews of a few Vance books are also available; see the bottom of either page.
- I have received a copy of the page proofs for Jack Vance: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography, and it looks very nice indeed. The "Biographical Sketch" by Vance is remarkably personal, covers his literary antecedents, and is an excellent read. I haven't read the rest of the book yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
12 Apr 2000
- Jacques Garin reports: Le Cycle de Tschaï #1 comic will be published the 18th of May in Europe from Editions Delcourt. You can view the cover here.
06 Apr 2000
- Sasha Bilton reports: "Steve Jackson Games, a big RPG publisher based in Texas are going to print an RPG based on Planet Of Adventure. We at Pelgrane Press are thrilled to bits to see more of Jack's work being used as source for roleplaying. Dying Earth is in playtesting at the moment, and we've a number of www.jackvance.org readers helping us."
- Bob von Tiehl mentions that "For the first time in my life, I went through my JV PB collection, saved the best obviously, and uploaded 19 paperbacks (including one "Ellery Queen") to e-bay with minimum bids of 1 cent, to run for one week.
31 Mar 2000
- Arthur Cunningham reports that Jack Vance: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography
  "... will be in our distributor's warehouse on 10th April. Tomorrow and Monday next they will be sending out pro forma invoices to everyone who has ordered in advance, requesting payment. Books will be sent out as soon as payment is received.
  In the end we decided to include a colour frontispiece of Jack Vance in all copies of the book, as it was such a good photo. The signed edition includes an additional plates section of sixteen-pages with photographs of JV and family (these include early photos of JV as a baby and young child!).
  We have received a large number of advance orders (several hundred) from fans who have shown great patience waiting for this book. I hope they and you find the wait to have been worthwhile."
25 Mar 2000
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
14 Feb 2000
- Douglas Wilson has found a new French Vance website.
20 Jan 2000
- Sasha Bilton reports: "Things are coming along very nicely; we've just announced who the designers and writers for the Dying Earth Role-Playing Game are going to be and it's caused a lot of interest in the game as Robin Laws and John Snead are two major figures in the RPG world. We're now looking for play testers of the game rules, from old hands to total strangers to the games. We expect first play test version to be ready early March. I'd be extremely grateful if you could ask your readers if any of them fancy trying the game for us. If they are interested, please email Simon@dyingearth.com."
- Rich Thomas reports: "The new Tor publishing schedule is out for the period to August. No sign of Lurulu. How this will effect the date given on Amazon.co.uk for the release of the UK paperback by Voyager I have no idea."
19 Jan 2000
- "Goldfish" reports that The Laughing Magician has been delayed until April.
13 Dec 1999
- Arthur Cunningham reports that Jack Vance: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography will be sent to the printers right after the holiday break.
02 Dec 1999
- "Goldfish" reports that Tim Underwood plans to send The Laughing Magician to the printers next week, which means he'd get the books back by Feb 1.
01 Dec 1999
- Mike Dennison reports that the following three books are listed on Amazon UK: Emphyrio, Paperback, 208 pages, Millennium Books ISDN 185798885X, pub 14 October 1999; Lurulu, Paperback, Voyager, ISBN 0006482104, pub 2 May 2000; Tales of the Dying Earth, Paperback, Millenium, ISBN 1857989945, pub 13 April 2000.
- Tim Stretton has pointed out that there is a nice two-paragraph mention of the Vance Integral Edition in the latest "issue" of Science Fiction Weekly. It's about halfway down the page at http://www.scifi.com/sfw/current/news.html.
17 Nov 1999
- Sasha Bilton reports: "I'm very pleased to announce the set-up of a new roleplaying games company, Pelgrane Press Ltd, which has bought the rights to produce various gaming material based on The Dying Earth books.... We've ... had a lot of support from people who found us via your jackvance.org website, so once again many thanks. The Dying Earth website is strangely enough found at http://www.dyingearth.com."
07 Nov 1999
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
03 Nov 1999
- Sasha Bilton reports that a Swiss company has just released a French language roleplaying game based on Lyonesse. The main page is at http://www.men-in-cheese.com/.
02 Nov 1999
- MartinG reports that "An Incomplete Annotated Bibliography" by C S Barlow is available on the Hologram Tales website.
23 Oct 1999
- "Goldfish" reports that Tim Underwood has pushed the publication date of The Laughing Magician until the middle of December.
10 Oct 1999
- Great photos of Jack and Norma from 1998 can be found on Paul Rhoads' website.
28 Sep 1999
- Arthur Cunningham reports on the status of Jack Vance: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography: "Everything is pretty much in place for printing. At the moment Jack and Norma Vance are looking over the proofs of the photo section which will be included in the 250-copy edition. I sent a proof of the whole thing to the Vance's - really just for information, but Norma Vance kindly read the whole thing out to JV, who I think was pleased with it!" Arthur requests that anyone who has had trouble contacting Turpin to please email him directly at Arthur.Cunningham@mail.bl.uk.
18 Sep 1999
- L. Warren Douglas recently signed a 5 book contract with Baen. To quote him in brief: "The first book, Simply Human, probably due out mid-2000, is SF, and I flatter myself that some of the characters are 'Vanceian,' after a fashion."
06 Sep 1999
- Donna Adams received an email from Tim Underwood regarding The Laughing Magician. The delay was caused by the inclusion of a very detailed map. The map was exhaustively researched, then rendered on a computer. This was not quite satisfactory, so the map is being redrawn by celebrated artist George Barr, who is nearly finished. Tim very much hopes to have the book out for Christmas, but will not make an official announcement until the book has been sent to the printer. I strongly suspect he will not be taking orders until then.
- Fokke de Haan reports that the second issue of the German fanzine Flammarion Ausblick has been published, with a lot of content about Jack Vance.
06 Aug 1999
- Some of you have already heard about The Vance Integral Edition on the Vance BBS. You'll be hearing a lot more about it, as it is very exciting. This will be an authorized set of the complete Vance canon, 60 volumes, with the author's preferred titles and text. We need (of course) people interested in purchasing the set, as well as folks who would like to volunteer typing, scanning and/or proofreading. It'll be time-consuming work, so do not decide to volunteer lightly. For more information see The Vance Integral Edition website at http://www.vanceintegral.com/.
26 Feb 1999
- Stephen Kent has received his copy of The Compleat Dying Earth from the Science Fiction Book Club, and has kindly forwarded scans of the dust jacket (150K).
23 Feb 1999
- I received a copy of Flammarion Ausblick number one. It looks like it contains a lot of interesting information, if only I could read it. I've posted scans of the front cover and back cover.
- Brian McCue reports that "Sunday I found Ports of Call available in trade paper at a Borders near me."
- Mike Asher reports that he's been slow to update JackVance.com because of a variety of new developments, including the birth of a daughter! Her name is Roswyn; does that sound familiar?
15 Feb 1999
- For more information about the new German fanzine Flammarion Ausblick mentioned Feb 3 below, send email to Ludger at Lu-Pe@t-online.de.
12 Feb 1999
- Arthur Cunningham has sent me the publication details for Jack Vance: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography, coming soon from The British Library. Check it out. More information, including scans, coming soon.
11 Feb 1999
- Gregg Parmentier reports that the Science Fiction Book Club issued The Compleat Dying Earth omnibus in December 1998. It contains all four books in the Dying Earth series. It also comes with a poster of the cover art. The book does not seem to be listed on their website.
5 Feb 1999
- The latest issue of Locus magazine, February 1999, has Ports of Call on the "1998 Recommended Reading List" for science fiction.
3 Feb 1999
- Fokke de Haan reports: I would like you to know that there is a brand new German fanzine for Jack Vance named Flammarion Ausblick. The first item, Nr.1 1998 looks very good and has 40 pages. It is printed in black and white and measures din A-5. (15x21cm). In this first number there are lots of articles and it is very nice to read. For more information you can contact the publisher at:
  Ludger Albrecht
  Klarenstrasse 30
  50354 Hurth-Kendenich
  Germany
25 Jan 1999
- Jerry Hewett has forwarded a scan of a Jack Vance article from the U.C. Berkeley "Daily Californian", March 17th 1941 issue; a jazz record review.
- Someone reports: "I just finished the new computer game Baldur's Gate and was pleased to notice something in the end credits. Appreciation was extended to authors Jack Vance and Fritz Leiber for their inspiring work. If I recall, Gary Gygax (D&D founder) was heavily influenced by Vance."
23 Jan 1999
- I have been informed that The Blue World has been published this month by publisher Bastei-Verlag, called Die blaue Welt.
21 Jan 1999
- The collection of Vance-related materials from Underwood-Miller has now been posted on the Virtual Tour of my Book Collection website. Click on Jack Vance in the left panel, and then Vanciana on the top panel.
- As many of you know, I've been having problems with my internet connection. It's better now, but still not ideal. I'm hoping to have a permanent connection within a month. The emailing of BBS messages to subscribers has resumed.
12 Jan 1999
- A copy of Thrilling Wonder Stories from Summer 1945, containing the first publication by Jack Vance, "The World Thinker", is available on ebay for a starting bid of $4. Although fairly hard to find (especially as it was a wartime issue), this is a ratty copy, so don't bid too high.
11 Jan 1999
- The Head of Publications for the British Library has informed me that Jack Vance: Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography has been delayed until after Easter, but that it is coming along nicely, with a "fairly stunning (and very different) wraparound dust jacket."
09 Jan 1999
- Stefano reports that Ports of Call has been translated and printed in Italy by Urania Mondadori in January. The title is Fuga nei mondi perduti.
06 Jan 1999
- The January 1999 issue of Locus magazine mentions Jack Vance at Utopia '98 (France), and has a small black-and-white picture of him signing something (looks like a paperback book.) Also mentioned is a new anthology The Old Stuff, edited by Gardner Dozois. Russell Letson states "The strengths of two stories punch right through their vintage patinas. Jack Vance's 'The New Prime' is saved from a wobbly premise by the flourishes of imagination and language that mark even his most minor work (which this isn't) ..." (the other story is Brackett's "The Last Days of Shandaker.")
05 Jan 1999
- Emailing of BBS messages to subscribers has been resumed. I still do not yet have a fast connection to the internet, so go easy on the downloads until I do. Also, service is spotty as our ISP tries to get used to our new location.
- I will now announce that I purchased a (hopefully) large collection of periphemera from Vance's specialty press publisher, and expect it to arrive in the next couple of weeks. I will be "displaying" it on my new website A Virtual Tour of my Book Collection. I will also be moving some of these pages (e.g. manuscripts) over there in the coming months. That website is a bit more sophisticated than this one; I'm using frames (although I'm still resistant to using either Java or Active-X.)
24 Dec 1998
- Jan Fornell reports: "While reading through the manuscript of Clifford Pickover's recent book The Science of Aliens the other day (one of my jobs is as an acquisitions editor for a Japanese publisher), I came across a curious reference to Vance. In the chapter on alien sex, under the sub-heading 'Alien Penises' to be specific, Pickover describes the odd genitalia of the Dirdir in some detail. Apparently there is to be an illustration as well, but unfortunately the manuscript I read didn't contain any illustrations at all and I haven't seen the published book. It might be worth checking out, though."
- There is one copy of this book available for $15 on ABE. It was published in 1998 by Basic Books.
- The Potters of Firsk audio program is now available in Real Audio. See the Vance Audio main page. It is over 2 megabytes, so you may want to wait until after Jan 4th when I have a faster internet connection.
5 Dec 1998
- The Easton Press leather edition of The Dragon Masters was just listed on Advanced Book Exchange for $30; it is not an auction.
- From about Dec 19th to the end of the year access to this web site may be spotty while we move to a new building. When the move is complete we should have a much faster internet connection, and one less prone to outages.
27 Nov 1998
- Tim Stretton points out that there is a nice review of Night Lamp at the Infinity Plus website.
26 Nov 1998
- Philip Bell reports: "Just received my copy of Ports of Call from Andromeda [U.K.] bookshop today. It is slipcased in green, in the same colour as the book cover, with a picture stuck to the front of the case. The book has no dustjacket, and has the title embossed in a silver like print. The Ltd page is no 301 of 350 copies. Andromeda wase provided with 15 copies, so I guess that must mean at least 15 or so other copies available from other sources perhaps. I'm disappointed with the quality of the book (manufacturing, not story!). It doesn't seem up to the usual standards, and several of the pages have been stuck together at the bottom. I'd be interested to hear how this compares to the original ltd edition." [Please reply via the BBS.]
21 Nov 1998
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
- Marc Volovic also has a trading list.
16 Nov 1998
- Four nice Vance books; Bad Ronald, Maske Thaery, The Dying Earth and The Work of Jack Vance are available on Ebay for very reasonable opening bids. I am inordinately pleased to note that my name is actually mentioned in the acknowledgements in that last book.
- Finally, I should have a much faster internet connection by January 1999.
10 Nov 1998
- The Other Change of Hobbit bookstore has a numbered limited edition of The Dying Earth for $500 at http://www.dnai.com/~ochobbit/collect1.html. [Sold]
05 Nov 1998
- A lot of six older Vance paperbacks is being offered on Ebay. What makes these interesting is that all of them are described as unread.
- For those of you who have asked, the copyright questions regarding the Captain Video scripts are being investigated. If you have any information please let me know.
03 Nov 1998
- I added another page to the Captain Video scripts website, and started a website for the copy of The Fox Valley Murders that Vance marked up reduce the wordage for the paperback edition.
- If you have an interesting Vance item send me a scan and description and I'll make a page for it.
29 Oct 1998
- Thanks to an incredibly generous gentleman, I now have copies of the Captain Video scripts from 1952-3 that were written by Jack Vance. A few are incomplete, and there are also some holographic fragments. These were all copied from the originals in the Mugar Memorial Library. (Their website has no global search; I was unable to find mention of these there.) I will post a few scans in the coming days. I will also be contacting Jack's agent about publishing these scripts, or making them available on the web. In just the first three pages I've read there are already indications of the Vancian sociological distinctions: "On Black Planet a man is either a noble or a failure."
- Check out the first page of one of the scripts on the Jack Vance - Captain Video page.
27 Oct 1998
- Rich Thomas reports: "Just checked the Tor website and their publishing schedule for Jan - Aug 99 is now up. The trade paperback of Ports of Call is slated for a March release. However, no sign of (hc) Lurulu. Maybe later in the year, hopefully!"
- Another copy, not quite as nice looking of Space Stories issue #2 from 1952, with Vance's "Planet of the Damned", is available on Ebay for a starting bid of $3.
24 Oct 1998
- Space Stories issue #2 from 1952, with Vance's "Planet of the Damned", is available on Ebay for a starting bid of $3.
18 Oct 1998
- David Weman reports: "There's an article about Jack Vance at Hologram Tales, written by C S Barlow. He gives short descriptions of a lot of Vance's books. Seems like a good starting point for someone who've just discovered Vance."
17 Oct 1998
- Richard Thomas reports: "At last; the current edition of Interzone (Oct 1998) carries a full review, by Chris Gilmore, of Ports of Call. It's an extremely positive review of the book and, to quote the end of the review: 'I have but a single complaint against this book - at a scant 300 pages there is nothing like enough of it. Indeed, the tour ends most abruptly, with many loose ends unaccounted for - is there perhaps a sequel in preperation? Can there be, please? PLEASE !'
- Fokke de Haan reports: "I just read the message about the new editions of Meulenhoff. Please notice that the Devilprinces already came out some weeks ago and that there is no slipcase! It was possible to order the 5 books at one time, in shrink-wrap, with a piece of paper with the titles on it wrapped around it, but it is certainly not a slipcase. Meulenhoff did give this shrink-wrapped edition a seperate ISBN number, but it sold out very quickly. You cannot find the different ISBN anywhere on the books, they are identical to the editions that are sold separately. It was a bit cheaper to buy them in a set of five."
- The Underwood-Miller edition of The Dying Earth, in less than perfect condition, is available on Ebay with a starting bid of $75.
- The Underwood-Miller signed and limited edition of The Five Gold Bands is available on Ebay with a starting bid of $40. I'm bidding on this one myself.
- I've been casually researching the Captain Video show that ran on the Dumont TV network from 1949 to 1955, as Jack Vance had written several of the scripts for that show. I found a website in The Netherlands with information about the show, with the note that the writer was "Maurice C. Brockhauser, and later: Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Sheckley, and Jack Vance." I also found a dealer with an original Captain Video script by Milton Lesser. My goal is to obtain transcripts of the shows by Jack Vance, and possibly kinescopes of those episodes. No doubt they are no less campy than any of the others, but I think it would be interesting to see.
15 Oct 1998
- Hans van der Veeke reports the following news about Jack Vance from Warp Magazine, the SF&F magazine from Meulenhoff:
  - Jack Vance has won the Warp Award 1998 for his novel De wilde vaart (Ports of Call). He won far ahead of other contestants. About a 1000 people voted.
  - The will be a special edition of the Durdane Trilogy coming in December 1998. Price will be Dfl 35,= (aprox. $15) for 488 pages.
  - There will be a new reprint of De duivelsprinsen. The five books can be bought as a set in a slipcase for Dfl 89,= (aprox. $45). It is also possible to buy them separately for Dfl 19,90 (aprox $ 10). The books have newly designed cover art.
  - Also Aanval op een stad is being published. It contains a selection of 'forgotten' stories from the master. Price is Dfl 30,= (aprox $15) for 320 pages.
- Hans adds: "Should anyone would want to order these books, I have asked a bookseller here in Groningen if he was willing to take orders from overseas. The bookseller 'Boomker & Savenije' are willing to do this. You can reach them by faxnumber ++31 50 3138291. You can address it to Jeroen."
- Mike Asher of JackVance.com has reduced the file size of the comic images by about 50%. I have updated the first five pages, the rest will follow soon.
12 Oct 1998
- Charles F. Miller is auctioning some items on Ebay, including the limited editions of Emphyrio and To Live Forever.
- A proof copy of the Tor edition of Throy is available on Ebay with a starting bid of $15.
- The Tor omnibus edition of Planet of Adventure is available on Ebay with a starting bid of $24.
10 Oct 1998
- There's an extensive Italian bibliography for Jack Vance, and apparently all other SF writers, at http://www.cavaglia.com/CatalogoSF.
07 Oct 1998
- A copy of the Winston Vandals of the Void with dust jacket, but ex-library, is available on Ebay with a starting bid of $22.50.
06 Oct 1998
- Jack Vance is back at the top of the Internet SF Book Database rankings. Not only that, but Barry Hughart, another of my favorites, has made the top ten. Here it is (5.00 is a perfect score):
  - 4.91 (37) Lyonesse II: The Green Pearl (1985) Jack Vance
  - 4.89 (38) The Eyes of the Overworld (1966) Jack Vance
  - 4.89 (37) Lord of Light (1967) Roger Zelazny
  - 4.89 (29) The Dragon Masters (1963) Jack Vance
  - 4.88 (17) Replay (1986) Ken Grimwood
  - 4.85 (21) Maske: Thaery (1976) Jack Vance
  - 4.85 (21) Bridge of Birds (1984) Barry Hughart
  - 4.85 (14) A Game of Thrones (1995) George Martin
  - 4.84 (40) Cugel's Saga (1983) Jack Vance
  - 4.84 (26) The Face (1979) Jack Vance
03 Oct 1998
- Philip Bell reports that he "just received the latest catalogue from Andromeda today. Tim Underwood has apparently received Ports of Call back from the binder and they are identical to the originals in every way. Still expected late Sept/early Oct, which I guess given the date means October. No mention of how many copies have been bound."
29 Sep 1998
- Frank Denton reports (on the bbs) that the October 1998 issue of Locus magazine contains the following news items:
  - "Jack Vance will be honored October 31 at Futuro Scope, the European Theme-Park of the Moving Image in Poitiers, France. His appearance is being sponsored by the Province of Vienne and French publisher, Presses Pocket,celebrating 20 years of Vance publishing. They will issue the French edition of Nightlamp for the affair. Recently Jack and Norma Vance were among the guests of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen on the special Alaskan vacation cruise with Bill Gates as leading guest. Allen is a fan of Vance's work."
  - "Michael Shea's World Fantasy-winning novel Nifft the Lean resold to Baen via Donald Maass, for an omnibus with sequel The Mines of Behemoth."
27 Sep 1998
- The magazine with the very first appearance of a Jack Vance story is available on Ebay [$142.50 as of 1 Oct!].
11 Sep 1998
- DreamHaven Books has a copy of The Book of the Sixth World Fantasy Convention (Underwood-Miller) 1980 program book which includes new works by Vance, Leiber, and other work by Bloch, Ellison Poe and more. VG; stain on cover, edges bumped. $20.00. [Vance was the Guest of Honor.] [Sold]
- A copy of the Winston Vandals of the Void sans dust jacket, along with two other Winston editions, is available on Ebay
- A signed copy of the Tor edition of Nightlamp is available on Ebay.
- I'm having some difficulty connecting to the net, so this page cannot be updated as often as I'd like.
26 Aug 1998
- Hans van der Veeke is offering a copy of the original manuscript for Ports of Call in trade for some or all of the following books: The Dark Side of the Moon, The House on Lily Street and Bad Ronald. He won it in Meulenhoff's contest, and the letter from them is included.
- There's a decent-looking copy of the first hardcover edition of The Dragon Masters available on Ebay for a starting bid of $25.
17 Aug 1998
- Diana Hamilton passed along this tidbit: In yesterday's Washington Post Book World, editor Michael Dirda lists The Eyes of the Overworld among his choices for the 100 greatest comic novels (it is number 34 in the list.) The article will be available for the next 13 days at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-08/16/064l-081698-idx.html.
15 Aug 1998
- Interesting news from Andromeda Bookshop in the U.K.: It's a long story, but the upshot is that Underwood Books will be binding more copies of Ports Of Call exclusively to send to Andromeda. The total number produced will still be less than the 350 stated on the limitation page. As to whether there will be a discernable difference between the first binding and the second remains to be seen. You can read a transcription of the explanation from their catalog here, thanks to Marty Halpern.
- Shameless plug: I've finished (for now) listing the extra Vance books, mostly Underwood-Miller editions, on the Ebay auction site. You can view a list of all my items.
8 Aug 1998
- I just received my copy of De fantastiche werelden van Jack Vance from Fokke de Haan, and it is a beautiful piece of work indeed. Here is the description and info:
  - De fantastiche werelden van Jack Vance, privately published and bound by Fokke de Haan in March 1998, limited to 50 numbered copies. 49 pages in length, contains bibliographic information on all appearances and translations of the writings of Jack Vance in The Netherlands, with color scans of dustjackets and wrappers for nearly every edition and publication. Hardcover, 8.5" x 12", black cloth over boards, with a color plate of the cover from the Meulenhoff edition of _Tschai: De waanzinnige planeet_ printed on parchment and laid onto the cover.
  - Price is $30US ($20 for the book and $10 for the shipping).
    Fokke de Haan
    evenaar@worldonline.nl
    J.Rosenkrantzlaan 37
    2104 CC Heemstede
    The Netherlands
- Here's something you don't see everyday: Someone has five copies of the first edition of Maske: Thaery up for auction, with the bid starting at $8 each, plus $3.50 shipping. This is the book for which I have the complete manuscript.
6 Aug 1998
- The latest issue of Locus magazine has the results of their annual poll. Interestingly, Vance is rated the 11th best all-time fantasy novelist, but not in the top 30 for science fiction. He's rated 24th best novelist combined. The Dying Earth series is rated the 15th best fantasy novel prior to 1990, but is not represented on the 60 best SF novels for the same period. As far as I can tell, he is not listed elsewhere. Since I disagree with most of the other poll results, I'm not to upset.
3 Aug 1998
- Ports of Call is tied for second as the most-reviewed novel of 1998. With seven reviews, it is tied with Dinosaur Summer by Greg Bear, and behind Cosm by Gregory Benford which has nine reviews. This information was compiled by Al von Ruff, editor of the Internet Speculative Fiction DataBase.
1 Aug 1998
- Shameless plug: I've started listing some of my extra Vance books, mostly Underwood-Miller editions, on the Ebay auction site. Bids start at $9, with no reserve (with perhaps a few exceptions to come.) You can view a list of all my items.
- Len Canders, an acquaintance of mine, is coincidentally offering some of the Vance DAW paperbacks on Ebay. You can view a list of all his items.
30 Jul 1998
- Marty Halpern passed along my question to Paul DiFilippo regarding the latter's comparison of Vance to Dr. Suess (19 Jul 98 below). Mr. DiFilippo informs me "That review (of Night Lamp) appeared in SF Eye #15. I'll be reviewing Ports of Call in an upcoming issue of Asimov's". Now, of course, I have to find out how to get hold of SF Eye.
- Mythos Books is offering a number of the Charles Miller limited edition reprints from 1994-1995, including several of the leather editions, for issue price on ABE.
- Peter R. Booth is setting up a Jack Vance Webring, and I encourage everyone with a Vance website to join.
27 Jul 1998
- I've been informed that "there's a harsh dismissal of Ports of Call in the book review section of the current Analog magazine."
23 Jul 1998
- Jerry Hewett is helping a well-known commentator compile a short biblio of Vance first editions, and together they were wondering whether there exists a 1989 UK New English Library collection called Chateau D'If, predating the 1990 one from Underwood-Miller. If you have any info about this possibly "phantom edition", please send email to Jerry.
19 Jul 1998
- The August 1998 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine has a book review of Ports Of Call by Elizabeth Hand (pp. 32-35.) A rave review, and my sentiments exactly. However, in this review she states: "Critic Paul DiFilippo recently noted Vance's most obvious literary reference point, the works of Dr. Seuss." I'd like to read the article in which he explains his reasoning.
- In the August 1998 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, Paul Di Filippo mentions Michael Andre-Driussi's Vance Space (p. 134.)
- Also from Paul Di Filippo in the same article is the following: "Michael Shea is the only author ever permitted to write an official sequel to a Jack Vance book ... Really, I need say no more to indicate the high caliber of his work." Indeed not.
- A kindly Vancian has forwarded a scan of the poster that comes with The Science Fiction Book Club edition of The Demon Princes. There are obvious advantages to joining.
18 Jul 1998
- Jerry Hewett points out that his bibliography has the broadcast date of the Vance interview on Hour 25 as November 12th, 1976. Good call, Steven!
16 Jul 1998
- I have just received the following from a visitor who wishes to remain anonymous: "Since the beginning of the year Edward R. Hamilton Books has stocked remaindered hardcover copies of the Tor Alastor Omnibus ($4.95). They take payment in checks (no credit cards), and only ship to U.S. locations (and not P.O. boxes) at a price of $3.00 for shipping and handling (regardless of size of order)."
- Steven Crane has pointed out that " the Vance interview on Hour 25 was actually conducted and first broadcast circa 1975, not 1985. I remember it well."
- Hap Watson, a long-time collector of the Underwood-Miller editions, sends the following tip: "When searching on ABE, if you truncate Underwood-Miller to und* you will get many more postings than if you search vance (last name) and Underwood-Miller (publisher). Try it!
14 Jul 1998
- Chris McClelland reports: "I was at the Underwood Books web site yesterday and they have what I think is a new picture of the cover of The Laughing Magician. A release date of the end of August is listed with a price of $75. The print run is to be 550 copies."
- Due to popular demand, the Vance interview is now available in Real Audio format on the Vance Audio page.
- The speed of my server connection has been nearly doubled to 45 kB/s. If you don't notice any speed increase, blame the internet in general. I'm expecting a T-1 connection by the end of the year.
12 Jul 1998
- I just received the Vance collection I ordered from a dealer a while ago; some 60 books, mostly Underwood-Miller. I'll be sorting through them, and then will be auctioning off what I don't really want (I want them all to some extent) on Ebay.
30 Jun 1998
- I just received a brochure from The Science Fiction Book Club that includes The Demon Princes, "Jack Vance's universe-spanning epic about a man with a list of interstellar criminals in his pocket." What's interesting is that a free poster is included. Anyone have this poster? The book jacket artwork looks great.
- The latest issue of Locus magazine shows Ports of Call is tied for number three on the hardcover SF best-seller list. It is not shown in the top ten of the chains, so I presume it's the independent stores that are recommending this title.
26 Jun 1998
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
- A copy of the 1950 Hillman The Dying Earth has just been posted on the eBay auction site. There is an unknown reserve on it. (I bid on it once only to automatically monitor its progress; I will not be bidding on it again.)
23 Jun 1998
- Jerry Hewett reports:
  - Three-Legged Joe, privately published by Gan Uesli Starling in 1997 (it's pronounced "John Wesley" if I'm reading it right) and limited to 1000 copies; saddle-stitched magazine format (21.5 x 13.75 cms), 71 pages, with illustrations. An Esperanto translation, published in Shavian Script with an introduction to Esperanto and English to Shavian translation/transliteration tables.
  - Copies can be ordered for $6 each, including shipping, from Gan Uesli Starling, 224 Rose Place, Kalamazoo, MI 49001-2617. If the order is placed in Esperanto it will be sent free of charge. If you live outside the US you can contact Gan via email at 70642.736@compuserve.com and inquire about overseas shipping rates.
  - I've never seen anything published in Shavian Script before, so this copy of Three-Legged Joe almost looks like it was published by an alien race on another planet. A very attractive, if puzzling, publication! Gan has also translated The Moon Moth, and is in the process of editing it, but the eventual publication date is unknown.
4 Jun 1998
- The new issue of Locus magazine shows Ports of Call is number five on the hardcover SF best-seller list. This list does not include media tie-ins (like Star Wars.)
26 May 1998
- An interesting website has been created at www.jackvance.com. It is billed as "..The foremost Internet source for all things Jack Vance...", but there's very little available to see as yet. It'll be interesting to see what develops.
- I have bitten the expensive bullet and registered www.JackVance.org. If I ever get my faster website that's the URL I'll use. Until then, in a few days it should take you here.
- I've added two more pages of the manuscript to the Assault on a City page.
7 May 1998
- I have added the manuscript of Assault on a City to the manuscript pages. So far, I've posted only the first page.
4 May 1998
- Willem Timmer reports that Meulenhoff has announced that the contest for the advance copy of Ports of Call is over.
  - "More then 40 out of 183 people had the correct answer. My chance on the ARC was somewhere near 2% and you guessed by now: that was not enough."
  - "The interview with Vance was published on Saturday, April 18 in de Telegraaf. I missed it and will try to order backcopies. At least I will get a copy somewhere or a xerox of the article."
  - "On the Meulenhoff webpage an excerpt of the interview is given (in Dutch.)"
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
1 May 1998
- I just received a rather interesting copy of The Fox Valley Murders that I ordered a few days ago. Here's the catalogue description:
  - Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill Company, (1966).1ST EDITION. HC. Near Fine in lightly chipped, worn DJ. Vance's copy used to shorten the book. SIGNED by Vance..This was the author's copy to abridge the book. He writes opposite the title page: "Changes were made to reduce wordage--each word was like pulling off a toe nail--JV" This copy has heavy annotations and notes from the author in his attempt to reduce wordage..
  There are lots of editorial changes, even to the point of changing "Joe Bain" to "He." Jerry H. assumes these changes were made for the Ace paperback; I will try to verify that.
- Jerry Hewett reports that the artist for the Underwood Books slipcase illustration was Rick Berry. He also reports that the Underwood Ports of Call is now sold out.
24 Apr 1998
- There's a signed first edition of The Man In The Cage up for auction on eBay.
22 Apr 1998
- Steve Leon reports that there is a review of Ports of Call at http://www.sfsite.com/apr98b/port31.htm. Note that there are some spoilers in this review as well.
21 Apr 1998
- Joe Kalash reports that there is a review of Ports of Call at http://www.scifi.com/sfw/current/books.html. Note that there are some spoilers in this review.
- There's a nice copy of the 1981 World Fantasy Convention hardcover signed by Vance available on eBay. I'm not providing a link because I'm bidding on it, and am prepared to pay a pretty penny.
10 Apr 1998
- My Underwood Books edition of Ports Of Call has arrived! First, let me quote from the included form letter:
  - "Ports Of Call was ready in early March, but the slipcases were delayed for three weeks."
  - "Although the limitation page signed by Jack Vance says 'limited to 350 copies', there were only 271 copies of Ports Of Call manufactured."
  - "This will be Jack Vance's rarest first edition."
  - "P.S. The Laughing Magician, a deluxe limited edition of The Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel's Saga, with included manuscript fragments, should be ready by mid-July."
There's a copy of The Work of Jack Vance by Hewett and Mallett, Underwood Miller ISBN 0-88733-165-3, still in shrinkwrap up for auction on eBay.

9 Apr 1998
- Locus magazine for April contains two reviews of Nebula Awards 32 (Harcourt Brace).
  - Gary K. Wolfe says "[one of the stories] takes far fewer risks with its central Big Idea than does the oldest story in the book, Jack Vance's The Men Return ... Vance, using an idea still stunning in its audacity, imagines a world in which cause and effect have been suspended, and then manages to write a narrative consistent with that world. That his 40-year-old tale seems more at home next to [Jonathan] Lethem than to Levinson seems to suggest that there are indeed some very different traditions at work in SF."
  - Faren Miller says "Lest we think all wit, eloquence, and offbeat ideas are recent developments in a 'gentrified' genre, recently named Grand Master Jack Vance demonstrates an abundance of them in the reprinted 1957 story The Men Return. For the man behind this audacious (and influential) tale, we get vivid and charming portraits from his colleague and near-neighbor Robert Silverberg, and from his pal Down Under, Terry Dowling.
- A brief review of Ports Of Call is available on the Locus website at http://www.locusmag.com/Books/Latest.html.
30 Mar 1998
- Stuart David Schiff of Whispers Press is selling some unique horror, fantasy and scifi items from his collection, including some Jack Vance items. Go to ABE, and browse the inventory of Whispers. Don't bother asking about the manuscript of Assault On a City, or the review copy of the Underwood-Miller The Dying Earth, because they're mine.
21 Mar 1998
- Just reported: Nebula Awards 32, edited by Jack Dann (Harcourt Brace, 1998), contains Grand Master tributes to Jack Vance by Robert Silverberg and Terry Dowling, and the short story "The Men Return" (1957).
20 Mar 1998
- GaaBooks (John Langford) has just listed a slew of Vance books on ABE at what I consider unreasonably low prices. Included are Underwood-Miller, Dobson, and rare hardcovers that are ex-library (and hence cheap.) The two states of the U-M Suldrun's Garden are particularly nice.
- Ger Lindeman reports that he picked up a Dutch copy of De wilde vaart (Ports of Call) in his local bookstore. Apparently the Meulenhoff and Tor editions were released within a week of each other, and as yet it is unclear which was first. (This, of course, is important to fanatical book collectors.)
19 Mar 1998
- Neil Williams, Bookseller (Canada) has just listed The Pleasant Grove Murders Bobbs Merrill 1967 for US $95. As always, please let me know if it's sold.
16 Mar 1998
- I've received several reports that people have purchased Ports of Call from their local bookstore. Enjoy! If you discuss the book on the BBS, put a spoiler warning in the subject heading.
15 Mar 1998
- Richard Chandler reports that he received an email message from Amazon.Com that his order for Ports of Call had just been shipped ($17.47 + 3.95 S&H). Does this mean that Tor Books is first?
- Book Wizard has listed the following items on ABE:
  - Dark Ocean/Strange Notions 1/500 signed mint in box no dj two volume set. $75.
  - House on Lily Street first edition, signed plate by Fabian laid in 1/450 fine. $95.
  - View from Chickweed's Window first edition signed, also signed Fabian plate laid in f/f. $90.
12 Mar 1998
- Leonard Shoup has just listed a decent copy of the first edition of Big Planet in a damaged DJ for $50. As always, please let me know if it's sold.
- Willem Timmer reports that Meulenhoff has notified him that the contest for the Vance manuscript is only open to Dutch or Flemish readers. They did not say how this would be enforced. He should be receiving more info next month.
09 Mar 1998
- Beth Meachem, an editor at Tor Books, reports that "Jack is about 60,000 words into Lurulu, as of Wednesday (04 Mar). I hope he'll have it done in a few months. We'll schedule it as soon as it's delivered, but not before." (Lurulu is the sequel to Ports of Call.)
- According to the March issue of Locus, the publication date of The Laughing Magician from Underwood Books will be July 1998.
07 Mar 1998
- Willem Timmer filed the following report:
  - "Just read on Meulenhoff's page that they will issue Ports of Call in March. Does that mean that it could be a first world wide?"
  - "The thing that really hit me is that they announced a contest for the manuscript of Ports of Call. This is something they have never done before as far as I recall, and was my original suggestion to Meulenhoff in September 1997. Their response was that the copy should stay in the archives." [Mike sez: See 7 Oct 97 in the archive.] "I will do my best to win the manuscript, as they call it." [We believe it is an uncorrected proof.]
  - "Also announced was an interview with Vance next month in a big Dutch newspaper. I think I will buy some extra copies and I do hope it is a new interview."
  - The 4th printing of Nachtlamp will be published soon.
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
06 Mar 1998
- Jack Vance is now only number 2 on the SF Book Database Toplist at http://skogsviol.ce.chalmers.se/SF_archive/Vote_db/.
23 Feb 1998
- The SF Site has a brief description of Night Lamp (trade paperback) on their February new releases page.
16 Feb 1998
- Joe Kalash reports that Ports of Call is reviewed in the lastest issue of Locus magazine.
- Graham Holroyd has just listed a bunch of Vance books on ABE, including a signed copy of The Languages of Pao Avalon 1957 for $250. He accepts layaways and trades.
- Night Lamp is now available through the Science Fiction Book Club.
- I hope no one minds this site joining the Rare Books Ring (see bottom of page.) Between the two rings I've got both readers and collectors covered.
12 Feb 1998
- Gregg Parmentier reports that the trade paperback of Night Lamp is now available; ISBN 0-312-86472-8 for $14.95.
8 Feb 1998
- Richard Thomas reports that he received the following email from Tim Underwood: "... Publication date of The Laughing Magician by Jack Vance should be Spring, 1998, with 'more details to follow shortly'. There will only be a collector's edition, no trade edition, and the price is not yet set. This item should not be linked to Amazon.com. Publication of Ports of Call by Jack Vance should be February 1, 1998. $60. plus $5 shipping by UPS in the US, $10 to Canada, and $18 surface overseas, $28 air express overseas ..."
- I contacted Tim, and he adds that he should have copies of Ports of Call ready to ship by "the second or third week of March. Color art (on the slipcase) is by Rick Berry. Bound in linen, with the usual acid-free paper and smyth-sewn binding. The text in our edition will be very slightly different here and there from that in the April Tor Books edition. The limitation page, signed by Jack Vance, says '_____ of 350 copies', but we are only printing 250 copies. It'll be a rarity in years to come."
- Willem Timmer reports that a major seller of Dutch Vance editions lists the following:
  - De wilde vaart / druk 1 (Ports of Call) ISBN: 9029056460 Uitgever: Uitgeverij Meulenhoff Bindwijze: Paperback/pocket Soort: Nog niet verschenen, levertijd onbekend f 34.90
  - Nachtlamp / deel jubileum editie / druk 1 ISBN: 9029057033 Uitgever: Uitgeverij Meulenhoff Bindwijze: Paperback/pocket Soort: Nog niet verschenen, levertijd onbekend f 25.00
  - "De wilde vaart refers to non scheduled freight shipping (versus regular lineboats say: New York - Rotterdam) Meulenhoff has chosen for a paperback version (alas.) The title and type of book are relative new information.
  - A new announcment is the Jubilee edition of Nightlamp, a cheaper paperback than the present edition which had its 3rd printing in March 97. So will see what the jubilee aspect looks like. I rather they had made it into a nice hardback, something they are very capable of. I assume/gamble it will be published in March as that was the month they tried to get Jack Vance over to Holland."
2 Feb 1998
- Book Wizard has just posted a plethora of Vance books on ABE, primarily the Underwood-Miller limited editions. The one I most wish I could afford is Dark Side of the Moon one of 11 copies in leather. None of the books offered are inexpensive.
31 Jan 1998
- A copy of the 1950 Hillman The Dying Earth has just been posted on the eBay auction site. The starting bid is $25, and there is no reserve. (It was tempting to keep quiet about it, but I already have a few copies of my own.) Don't let auction fever get the best of you!
29 Jan 1998
- Tim Skellett reports: "Jack Vance's visit to the Netherlands has been cancelled because of his failing health, according to an email I just received from the Publicity Dept. at Meulenhoff's."
- The Science Fiction Book Club (U.S.) is offering a Demon Princes omnibus, containing all five novels, in its mid-winter issue.
20 Jan 1998
- A signed copy of the 1950 Hillman The Dying Earth has just been posted on ABE for $150. It is additionally inscribed by John W.Campbell; perhaps they did a signing together. It is being offered by Leonard Shoup. As usual, let me know if it sells.
13 Jan 1998
- Reed Orenstein at rloano@aol.com just listed a bunch of Underwood-Miller Vance books, as well as the Easton Press edition of The Dragon Masters for $22.50, on ABE.
11 Jan 1998
- Michael Miller reports that he was able to order the Brandywyne edition of Rhialto The Marvellous in his local Waldenbooks. The clerk said there were plenty at the distributor.
10 Jan 1998
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
8 Jan 1998
- [Sold for $102.50!]A signed copy of the paperback first edition of To Live Forever is up for auction on eBay. Auction closes 14 Jan 98.
5 Jan 1998
- Terry Doyle reports that Bookpages has the two Kinell Ellery Queen books, The Madman Theory and A Room to Die In, for peanuts.
1 Jan 1998
- Willem Timmer found the following three books on the Fat Cat Books website:
  - Bad Ronald, Underwood-Miller, 1982, Fine, Fine $30.00
  - Green Magic - Underwood-Miller, 1979, Fine+, Fine, #82 of 175 $75.00
  - The Space Pirate, Toby Press,1953 - VG, digest sized $30.00
29 Dec 1997
- I have just added a new WorldFAQ by John Chalmers: Tschai of the Planet of Adventure Tetralogy.
24 Dec 1997
- The British mass-market paperback of Night Lamp for £5.99 is due out March 1998.
- Apparently the Dobson first hardcovers (British) of various Vance books from the 60's and 70's are still in print, and still available at their issue price. I ordered some last year, and although shipping to the States was pricey, it was cheaper than buying them used, and they were in mint condition. You can order them from Bookpages, among other places.
23 Dec 1997
- Bill Allison reports that he found a new, shrink-wrapped copy of the Brandywyne edition of Rhialto The Marvellous in his local Waldenbooks for a mere $11.97! As most of you know, Brandywine books were signed, limited, slipcased books printed by Underwood-Miller in cooperation with Waldenbooks. Apparently they've decided to bring them out of storage for the holidays. To the malls!
22 Dec 1997
- The Vance BBS is back on line. Be gentle; no double-clicking. If it crashes again I will need to start a new one from scratch.
20 Dec 1997
- The Vance BBS has crashed! I will restore a backup copy monday, but any message posted in roughly the last week will be lost. In the meantime it is unavailable.
- Remy Wetzels reports: "According to Meulenhoff, Jack Vance will visit the Netherlands in 1998! Reasons for his visit:
  - half a century as a writer
  - 3 decennia being published at Meulenhoff, and
  - his new book Ports of Call"
18 Dec 1997
- I have just received my copy of "Vance Space" by Michael Andre-Driussi, published December 1997 (52pp) by Sirius Fiction. It looks to be an impressive piece of work, with a lot of detail about each planet. I especially like browsing the descriptions of the societies, with those wonderful category names (on what planet will you find Fexels?), and also the "useful terms." From the description supplied by the publisher:
  - "Vance Space," a booklet of around 10,000 words, takes the form of a passport to adventure. Dozens of worlds (drawn from thirty of Vance's novels) are listed in travel guide/almanac format, with physical and cultural details, travel tips, and local phrases. In the appendices there is a tentative timeline linking the majority of Vance's science fiction in a "future history" context.
  - There are also two galactic maps: one showing the relative positions of the five galactic empires, the other showing the more "local" space of the Oikumene. This second map, located at the center of the booklet, is unique in that it locates the real stars that Vance has used and plots their positions within 1,000 light years of Earth.
  The price is $5 US, plus $1 shipping in the US, $3 international airmail (CA residents add $0.41.) For more information, click here.
- [Sold] The paperback edition of Take My Face by Peter Held has shown up on ABE for $12 plus $5 shipping. Contact Leonard Shoup at lshoup@worldchat.com for more info. Let me know if it's sold.
- Also just listed on ABE is The Dying Earth Hillman 1950, very good for $75 from Wrigley-Cross Books at wrigcros@teleport.com.
- A couple of Vance French paperbacks, Langages de Pao and Livre d'or de la science-fiction have been listed by Librairie Henri-Julien in Montreal at jfsylvain@henri-julien.com.
9 Dec 1997
- I have just added a new WorldFAQ by John Chalmers: The Lyonesse Trilogy.
8 Dec 1997
- Hans ter Horst sez: "I just received this mail from Tim Underwood: 'Publication of Laughing Magician has been pushed back to May 1998 in order to get out Ports of Call. Ports of Call will be ready February 1. $60 plus $25 air freight or $12 surface mail. Limited to 350 copies signed by Jack Vance.'"
- (I'm hoping the mail costs are for overseas shipping only.)
- I have trimmed some of the older messages on the BBS for quicker page loading. The older messages are available for viewing, but not replying.
2 Dec 1997
- Ms found on a newsgroup. Kevin Maroney sez: "We (The New York Review of Science Fiction) have an upcoming article discussing Vance's 30 or so sf novels which can relatively easily be identified as part of the same "history"; the author (the brilliant Michael Andre-Driussi) suggests that there are hints that The Last Castle and The Dragon Masters lead in to The Dying Earth, but does not conclusively link them".
- I have just added two WorldFAQs on Jack Vance, maintained by John Chalmers: The Oikumene of the Demon Princes Pentology, and The Dying Earth.
25 Nov 1997
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
- A number of the Underwood-Miller limited editions have showed up on Advanced Book Exchange over the weekend.
11 Nov 1997
- Stuart Nelson reports: "I received a letter from Norma Vance the other day, in which she mentions that Tor is aiming for a February release date for Ports Of Call. She says also that Underwood is trying to get their edition out before that. Of course, you never know with a small publisher. Seems to me the lettered edition of Night Lamp is about 16 months late now. Norma said that there may be textual differences to the two editions, as there has been further revisions to the manuscript for Underwood, but Tor is ready to go with an earlier version. Rather annoying, huh? Also, Jack is hard at work on the second Ports Of Call book, which has a working title that Norma did not inform me of."
10 Nov 1997
- [Sold] Here's another big chance: "Vandals of the Void John C. Winston Company 1953, stated lst ed., red cl cv, sl fd, crns bent, dep's int g, 8 vo, 213 pp, great endpaper designs by Alex Schomburg, no dj, The price of the book is US$ 20.00. The seller is Betty Mittendorf bkslinen@ne.uswest.net. (402)-331-5832." Let me know if it's sold.
29 Oct 1997
- The new Fantastic Collectibles catalog has two items of interest to the Vance collector; neither are listed under "Vance". The printed catalog precedes the website catalog by two weeks.
  - The Dying Earth Hillman paperback in VG for $90, minus a 20% discount until Nov 27, and
  - Thrilling Wonder Stories Summer 1945 for $8, containing Vance's first published story.
- Website's been down most of today. Sorry for any inconvenience.
27 Oct 1997
- [Sold] Here's your big chance: "Vandals of the Void John C. Winston Company Good Condition Hardback Some reading wear at top and bottom of book - First Edition - No Dust Jacket - U S Book Rate Postage Included in Price. The price of the book is US$ 9.00. ONE MILLION PAPERBACKS, usedbook@tminet.com, Ph: 1-805-822-1220." Let me know when it's gone.
22 Oct 1997
- Fokke de Haan reports from the Netherlands: Meulenhoff will continue the hardback publications from Jack Vance. They have confirmed the publication of two reprints in Spring 1998: De huizen van Iszm (The Houses of Iszm) and De kokodkrijgers (The Kokodwarriors). Also they told me the Dutch title for Ports of Call has not been chosen yet. I have strongly recommended that they publish a hardcover edition, but they wont say whether it will be hardcover or paperback.
7 Oct 1997
- Willem Timmer reports from the Netherlands:
  - Meulenhoff announced the publication date for Ports of Call (translated into Dutch) as March 1998. I challenged Meulenhoff to give away the ARC to me [preferable] or to use it as a prize in a contest for buyers of the book (maybe in their SF&F magazine WARP); no luck , they declined, and needed the ARC for their files.
  - For this month [oktober] Meulenhoff announces another set of 4 small hardcover reissues of Vance: The Last Castle, Morreion, The Dragon Masters, and Son of the Tree.
  - According to Fokke de Haan, another 2 small hardcovers will be published in 1998, bringing this series of special editions 'in honor of JV' to 11 total.
  - All of which leaves me with the conclusion that Ports of Call can only be read during the Christmas holidays in English, if and when the USA publisher [Underwood] gets the book published on time.
6 Oct 1997
- Mark Adams says that Ports of Call is now listed on TOR's schedule for April 1998.
- Night Lamp will be published by TOR as a trade paperback March 1998. Not a mass-market paperback, so it must have sold well enough.
- I found this reference in a book description for the Dying Earth paperback: "'It was an instant collector's item even at the time of publication, and today it is even more highly collectible. It is a prize in any fantasy or SF collection. The book turns up on auction catalogs sometimes, but true Fine condition copies are scarce.' --Lovisi, Gary Instant Expert: Collecting Science Fiction And Fantasy (1997)." Anyone have more info on the source of this quote?
1 Oct 1997
- Just listed on ABE: "Vandals of the Void, Philadelphia, Winston 1953. Book vg-/chip btm frt DJ, sm chips spine. 1st edition. Binding is hb. US$ 65.00." This seems a great deal, and she is charging only $2 shipping (US.) The seller is Dorothy Meyer, (773) 233-3368.
- Also from ABE: "Lyonesse: Madouc, hardback with dj, ex lib with few marks, fep removed, bright, tight, clean, excellent condition, underwood-miller, 1989, US$ 18.00." The seller is Book Rescue (914) 429-5156.
24 Sep 1997
- There's a review of Night Lamp by David Langford in the May/June 1997 issue of Vector, published in the U.K.
12 Sep 1997
- Jack Vance has yet again dominated the The Internet SF Book Database current list of best books, although not as decisively as in previous weeks. You can view the entire list right here, or the list showing only the Vance books right here (courtesy of Till Noever.) Don't forget to vote if you haven't already.
6 Sep 1997
- No further news of Mr. Vance's health. Hopefully it was just an excuse to get out of traveling.
- I should have mentioned that the Underwood Books web site is preliminary; a sneak preview for us. The on-line ordering is not yet working.
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
- I have added this page to the Ring of Books webring (bottom of this page.) I do not want this site associated with anything commercial or controversial, so let me know if you have any comments about this.
4 Sep 1997
- Curt Phillips sez: "My inquiry to Chattacon brought the response that Jack Vance will definitely NOT be a guest at the next convention due to illness."
2 Sep 1997
- Willem Timmer sez: "Slaven van de Klau is a reissue, a small hardcover with dustjacket by Peter Jones. Meulenhoff told me today that Ports of Call lies on the desk of the editor, no publication date has been set yet, but it will be translated asap."
- Anders Monsen sez: "The September Locus lists December 1997 as the publication date of Ports of Call. The Laughing Magician has been pushed back to March 1998 or so."
- I have been allowed to mention that I have completed proofreading Ports of Call. It is excellent in all respects! Classic yet immortal Vance. Oh, the dialogue! I will say no more.
31 Aug 1997
- The Meulenhoff Top Tien lists Nachtlamp as number 5, and Slaven van de Klau (a new reissue?) as number 10.
17 Aug 1997
- Ralph C. Brooks reports that he has one more extra copy of Rhialto the Marvellous, Brandywine Books 1984, DJ by Fabian in slipcase available.
- I just picked up a remaindered copy of A Century of SF 1950-1959, edited by Robert Silverberg, published in 1996 by MJF Books. It contains Vance's The Gift Of Gab.
- Please let me know if you have any way to contact the rock performer Robert Palmer or his agent for an upcoming book about Vance. (He is apparently a Vance admirer, and was to have contributed an introduction to one of the story collections.)
- Vance's To Live Forever (in VG condition) sold for $316.25 at Pacific Book Auctions sale #138, but not to me.
10 Aug 1997
- Tim Hays sez: "Dan Simmons' latest book The Rise of Endymion is dedicated to Jack Vance -- '...our greatest storyteller' and to Carl Sagan."
7 Aug 1997
- One of my spies reports that the typeset manuscript of Ports Of Call has a copyright date of December 1997.
5 Aug 1997
- Underwood Books now has a web site! It includes a Jack Vance page, which has a description of the upcoming Laughing Magician. You can also order books directly online. Overall a nicely designed website indeed.
- Tim Underwood reports that Ports Of Call has been typeset. I can't wait!
- Till Noever has supplied an English translation of the anonymous Spanish review of The Moon Moth.
1 Aug 1997
- Mark Adams sez: "I called Tim Underwood's number earlier this week and learned that publication of The Laughing Magician was late, and I was advised to get back in touch around December".
27 Jul 1997
- Joe Bergeron has posted a beautiful digital image of Mazirian and T'Sain in the Lake of Dreams on his website.
26 Jul 1997
- Someone sent me something in Spanish (I think) about a Spanish ("La edición en castellano") collection of Vance stories; you can view it here. I hope it does not contain anything objectionable. I would appreciate a translation, and the source.
- D Brooke & Son Booksellers have Light From a Lone Star 1985 Nesfa Press listed on ABE for $325.
21 Jul 1997
- BMD Books has a presentation copy of The Green Pearl for sale for $120. What makes this copy unique is that it is from the library of Roger Zelazny (although there is no indication of this in the book itself.)
18 Jul 1997
- Ken Beatty reports that Amazon.Com has The Laughing Magician from Underwood Books listed as being available September 1997.
17 Jul 1997
- I have added two more photos to the Vance Photos page.
16 Jul 1997
- Tim Hays reports: "Amazon.com has both the trade paperback and the hardcover versions of The Demon Princes Vol 1 omnibus at 30% off cover price. Have received both versions now via WWW ordering. These books were unavailable here in the Washington DC area at any of my usual sources."
14 Jul 1997
- After a weekend of being unavailable, thanks to Earthlink, my web pages are back online. GTE is installing fiber-optics in this area, and hopefully our server will be connected via a cable-modem within a month or two.
7 Jul 1997
- The SF-Lovers Convention Listings shows:
- Pacific Book Auctions is offering:
5 Jul 1997
- Jerry Hewett sez: "Just now read that Jack will be the GOH at ChattaCon XXIII, January 16 - 18 of next year (page 51 of the June 1997 issue of Science Fiction Chronicle). Details from chattacon_info@mindspring.com." [This email address seems to be invalid.] Please contact me if anyone has more info. Perhaps Mr. Vance has decided to become a more public figure!
4 Jul 1997
- Rudy's Books has a page listing only Vance books for sale [no longer valid].
1 Jul 1997
- I have added four screen capture images from the Sci-Fi BUZZ TV interview to the Vance Photos page.
- You can find a selection of British and U.S. Vance books at Solaris Books.
30 Jun 1997
- George R. R. Martin is offering Rhialto The Marvelous starting at $1.99 on eBay.
29 Jun 1997
- Dangerous Visions Bookstore reports that The Demon Princes #1, recently re-issued by Tor Books, had a hardcover print run of 5,000 copies, and the Orb trade paperback had a run of 7,500 copies.
- I have added a second photo of Mr. Vance on the Vance Photos page.
28 Jun 1997
- According to Willem Timmer, Meulenhoff will add to "the 4 beautiful hardcovers from this Spring, another 4 in September this year. (This info coming from the dustcovers of the first 4 HC's.) They are all well-known stories, but the edition is a collector's dream to see."
- The Meulenhoff web site also has an article on Frank Herbert, with a quote by Vance about him. It is apparently taken from the introduction to the Easton Press edition of Dune. (Translation courtesy of Willem Timmer.)
  - "When Frank Herbert died on February 11, 1986, the world of science fiction lost one of her most striking authors. He wrote 18 novels and 38 short stories, representing a broad spectrum of the genre. However it is inevitable that Herbert will be remembered primarily as the creator of the chronicles of Dune."
- For the first time, eBay auctions has a Vance book on consignment; Ecce and Old Earth, with a starting bid of $2. The book description contains a nice synopsis of the story. It does not state the edition, so ask the consignor if you care about that.
27 Jun 1997
- I have posted a transcript of the interview aired on the Sci-Fi Buzz show on the Sci-Fi channel.
- Steven Rosenberg has short list of Vance books for sale.
- I received a copy of Meulenhoff's Dutch science fiction and fantasy magazine Warp for Voorjaar 1997, courtesy of Willem Timmer via Jerry Hewett, and the top tien science fiction and fantasy - tweede halfjaar [second half of year] 1996 starts with number one being Nachtlamp. (It is currently #9 on their website.) Also, Remy's Vance Site is rated #23 in the "50 aardigste SF spots op het Net".
- I'm back from vacation.
5 Jun 1997
- Joe Schwab has kindly granted me permission to post his Master's thesis from 1992, titled Vance, Magic and Wonder: A Study of Jack Vance's Fantasy Works. Check it out! (130K)
- I will be changing the BBS to a completely new commercial system; look for it soon!
4 Jun 1997
- From the Sci-Fi BUZZ Show page:
  - "Legendary author, JACK VANCE! He has written so very many great books & essays....he is a legend in the genre. And he does not grant many interviews! But the BUZZ was lucky enough to be allowed into Mr. Vance's home for an in-depth interview of the author of such works as The Dying Earth and Nightlamp. He recently was awarded the coveted GRAND MASTER AWARD at this year's NEBULA ceremonies....meet the great JACK VANCE in our author's corner."
  - This will be BUZZ Show #181, which will air on Thursday, June 5th (7pm & 11pm Pacific) as well as Saturday, June 7th (10am Pacific) and Sunday, June 8th (6am Pacific.) This is on the SciFi channel, which your webmaster does not receive.
2 Jun 1997
- Joe Bergeron has added a photo of himself and Mr. Vance to his essay called A Visit to Jack Vance, which he wrote for the 1992 Magicon.
27 May 1997
- The Science Fiction Book Club is offering Night Lamp for $11.98 to its members.
23 May 1997
- A public apology: I had the wrong radio station listed for the Jack Vance Interview that aired on the Hour 25 science fiction radio show. This was politely pointed out to me by the current host (who did not ask for an apology.) I do want to say that KPFK in southern California is one of my favorite stations.
20 May 1997
- Straight from the horse's keyboard: "We will be airing the feature on Mr. Vance as a part of our BUZZ Show #181, which will air on Thursday, June 5th (7pm & 11pm Pacific) as well as Saturday, June 7th (10am Pacific) and Sunday, June 8th (6am Pacific.) We hope you enjoy it and thanks for watching Sci-Fi Buzz!"
- I will try to get permission to post the video, audio or transcript here, if they don't post it on their BUZZ website.
18 May 1997
- I just heard that "Sci-Fi Buzz will be doing a segment on Vance in the near future (I don't have dates), and it will include some footage from Kansas City." Sci-Fi Buzz is a show on the Sci-Fi cable channel; I will try to find out more info.
10 May 1997
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
6 May 1997
- Michael Canick at canick@panix.com has three copies of the Toby edition of Space Pirate listed in his Mystery List #7, from $8 to $40, depending on the condition.
- There were plenty of Vance books available at the Burbank Book Fair last weekend, including several dealers with signed copies of Night Lamp for $40. Prices in general seemed high this time.
1 May 1997
- Despite my suggestion, it seems that the Nebula Awards ceremony was not taped for posterity. The SF show Reality Break apparently taped some video, and I'm trying to track them down. Send me email at mikeb@massmedia.com if you have any info about audio, video or text versions of Mr. Vance's speech.
- There's a brief "play-by-play" commentary of the awards ceremony, including Vance's speech at http://www.scifi.com/transcripts/nebula-97.7.html about 75% down the page. Thanks to Melisa of the SFWA for pointing this site out to me. The King In Yellow Vance referred to is a collection of horror stories by Robert W. Chambers from 1895.
24 Apr 1997
- I just received the new catalog from L. W. Currey. He has fine 1sts of The Pleasant Grove Murders and The Fox Valley Murders for $300 each, and Emphyrio for $600, as well as the signed/limited Underwood-Miller edition of Big Planet for $165. Currey is at (518) 873-6477.
22 Apr 1997
- Arthur Cunningham has asked me to post this announcement here, and I am more than happy to oblige. The key features are listed here, and you can view the entire announcement on its own page.
21 Apr 1997
- Gregg Parmentier of The Vance Phile fame has returned from the Nebula Awards Weekend. He sez:
18 Apr 1997
- Tomorrow is the day for the Nebula Awards ceremonies. They will "braodcast" them live via IRC; for more info visit http://www.scifiweekly.com or point your IRC client to events.scifi.com at 8 p.m. EDT on Saturday, April 19, and join channel #auditorium to participate.
- David Gerrold replied to my announcement on Compuserve of Vance's Grand Master Award thusly: "about focking time."
- Keith Purtell has a brief essay about Jack Vance on his new web site.
- My old friend and man-about-library David M. Rose points out that "Microsloth's billionaire co-founder (and apparently the third richest fellow in the world) Paul Allen has put up a personal page. In his hobbies or personal interests section, he lists his favorite books, and among them is the item Anything by Jack Vance".
- Jeff Hill has compiled a list of printer's errors in chapters 2 to 7 of the Grafton edition of The Eyes of the Overworld.
14 Apr 1997
- P.S. Thomas Vintage Books has just listed a bunch of Vance paperbacks on The Advanced Book Exchange, including the Hillman The Dying Earth for $80 and The Four Johns as by Ellery Queen for $8.50.
10 Apr 1997
- I've been playing at Alta Vista again, and found yet another (incomplete) Vance bibliography at the Alexandra Palace zeitgeist Society. Alta Vista now has a weird data-entry method for Java-enabled browsers. I'm a little bummed that this site is not well-represented, but that's life.
6 Apr 1997
- Ralph C. Brooks has several copies of Rhialto the Marvellous, Brandywine Books 1984, DJ by Fabian in slipcase for $58 plus $3 shipping and insurance within the U.S. I've already purchased my copy from Ralph.
- Jack Vance has yet again dominated the The Internet SF Book Database current list of best books, although not as decisively as in previous weeks. You can view the entire list right here. Don't forget to vote if you haven't already.
5 Apr 1997
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
3 Apr 1997
- Remy points out that Vance's Dutch publisher, Meulenhoff, is now on-line. Their top tien starts off with Nachtlamp. There's more about Vance, but of course it's in Dutch.
28 Mar 1997
- Peter R. Booth has expanded his website to include reviews and an essay on Cugel the Clever.
- Jerry H. Jenkins has expanded (and moved) his poetry page, with more references to Jack Vance. Start with Almery.
25 Mar 1997
- Henri Gooren points out that "The latest (March 24) edition of SciFiWeekly contains a favorable review of Remy Wetzels' Jack Vance Archive. Look for it under http://www.scifi.com/sfw/current/site.html. In their News section they also announce the SFWA Grand Master Award for Jack Vance." In addition, nice things were mentioned about Gregg's The Vance Phile.
- Till Noever (till@adi.co.nz) in New Zealand has an extra copy of the Underwood signed/numbered Night Lamp that he would like to trade for another signed UM first edition in mint condition, or similar item. He's open to offers and/or suggestions.
- For those of you wondering, I did send the Guestbook to Mr. Vance, and have not yet heard back about it. I'll post it here if I receive a reply.
22 Mar 1997
- I received a short message from Stephen Fabian regarding my visit to his Home Page. Sez he: "I should be adding more items to my website soon, including those Vance books that I did for Underwood & Miller. The last Vance book that I did for Underwood was The Laughing Magician, which has yet to come out."
- Name server woes have caused this website to be hard to reach the last few days. The situation has been remedied.
- After another naughty picture, I have included a filter so that HTML commands may not be included in BBS messages.
19 Mar 1997
- Tor Books has acknowledged Jack Vance's Grand Master Award on their home page.
- Someone from AOL spammed the BBS with an obscene photo early this morning. I remove such messages as soon as possible, but it might be wise to preview messages when a child is watching.
13 Mar 1997
- Book Eddy (bookeddy@compuserve.com, 423-637-3339) has a nice selection of Vance books at reasonable prices, including the Underwood-Miller Lyonesse: The Green Pearl in slipcase for $65. Tell them you heard about them here.
11 Mar 1997
- The article by Ralph B. Sipper that was published in the Aug 5 1979 L.A. Times, Jack Vance: the prodigious invisible man of science fiction (Hewett M67) has been transcribed to text by Michael Smith. The scanned images version is still available (500K.)
10 Mar 1997
- Jack Vance, America's premier author of stylish, atmospheric science fiction, was chosen today by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) to receive the organization's highest honor, the prestigious Grand Master Award.
- Here is a pre-release version of the press release.
- According to a reliable source: "Needless to say, I'm overjoyed about this announcement. I've spoken to Jack Vance on the phone, and he and his wife, Norma, are coming to Kansas City to accept the award. He mentioned that he never attends conventions anymore (among other reasons, due to his failing eyesight), but he's delighted to come to KC for this. So his presence here is a very rare opportunity for us."
3 Mar 1997
- I have posted the entire article by Ralph B. Sipper that was published in the Aug 5 1979 L.A. Times, Jack Vance: the prodigious invisible man of science fiction (Hewett M67.) I met Mr. Sipper at the Santa Monica book fair last weekend, and he kindly granted me permission. It is scanned images only, for a total of about 500K (grey-scale JPGs.) Let me know if you'd like to volunteer to transcribe it into a text file.
- I mailed a printout of the guestbook to Mr. Vance today.
28 Feb 1997
- Gregg Parmentier reports that the Tor edition of Night Lamp has already had a second printing. Sez he: "As a matter of fact, I delayed enough before buying my copy that I got the second printing when I first ordered it in Mid-January! 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2." This is of course excellent news, but now you must be careful when using mail-order to make sure you get a first printing (if that's what you want.)
27 Feb 1997
- Steve Smith has created an awesome comic book based on chapter two of The Dying Earth: Mazarian the Magician. A decent graphics display and a bit of patience is recommended, but well worth it.
17 Feb 1997
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
15 Feb 1997
- George R. R. Martin is offering two more Vance paperbacks on ebay's Auction Web; Emphyrio and Magnus Ridolph. I've bid the minimum on them already ($3), but I won't be bidding any higher.
12 Feb 1997
- David Aronovitz's (finebook@mich.com) latest catalog has several Vance items, including a copy of the very rare Isle of Peril in DJ for $750 [sold 14 Feb 97].
- I will be forwarding some of the guestbook entries to Mr. Vance in the next week or two.
- You can now search this entire website for specific keywords. You can access the search page via the contents page.
2 Feb 1997
- I've found the Fabian On-Line Home Page. Although not listed in his bibliography there, this must be the illustrator of so many Jack Vance books.
- I have finally added a guestbook to this website. No particular reason, except that I was home sick today. I've also added two enhancements to the Vance BBS; automatic email notification, and a global search. Enjoy!
1 Feb 1997
- George R. R. Martin is offering a set of paperback first editions of the five-volume Demon Prince series by Jack Vance on ebay's Auction Web. The first three volumes date from the mid 60s and are in very good condition. Bidding starts at $9.99 for the five books. Search for "Vance" to check out the bidding. From his description: "Vance is without question the finest living science fiction writer, and the Demon Prince series is one of his best."
30 Jan 1997
- Jack Vance has yet again dominated the The Internet SF Book Database current list of best books. You can view the entire list as of today right here. Don't forget to vote if you haven't already.
27 Jan 1997
- Richard Thomas points out that TOR's publishing schedule now contains The Demon Princes, Volume 2 by Jack Vance (simultaneous hardcover and Orb trade pb) for September 1997 publication.
24 Jan 1997
- Ken Beatty reports that TOR's publishing schedule now contains The Demon Princes, Volume 1 by Jack Vance (simultaneous hardcover and Orb trade pb) for May 1997 publication. He says it will be an omnibus edition in two volumes, printed on acid-free paper (as usual for modern TOR books.)
19 Jan 1997
- Henry Kaiser spoke to Mr. Vance today, and reports that Night Lamp is a complete book, but that Ports of Call, which he completed yesterday, is the first half of a new story.
- Willem Timmer would like everyone to know about a new dealer at Bibliofind, G Holroyd in New York (716-225-4879/fax716-227-2015), who has Vance hardcovers and paperbacks for reasonable prices, with reasonable shipping costs (Willem is in The Netherlands.)
17 Jan 1997
- Check out the new and improved The Jack Vance Archive website, and let Remy know if you have any suggestions or comments.
14 Jan 1997
- Jerry Hewett has found a new (Oct 1996) edition of The Languages of Pao, published by Lightyear Press, over at Amazon.Com. If you have any info about it, please let Jerry or me know.
13 Jan 1997
- Dark Carnival bookstore in Berkeley CA, will be having Jack Vance in to sign books this Saturday, January 18th (my wife's birthday, darnit), from 3 to 5pm. They are at 3086 Claremont Ave, Berkeley CA, 94705, (510) THE-DARK (a recording) or 510-654-READ.
- Henry Kaiser reports that Vance told the owner of Dark Carnival that Night Lamp is just the first half of a book. Could Ports Of Call be a sequel?
12 Jan 1997

Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.

11 Jan 1997

L. W. Currey has a ton of Vance books available. Check out his catalog.
Mike Stout (mstout@xnet.com) has the following Jack Vance paperbacks available, all in very good to fine condition with good spines.
- Planet of Adventure #1, City of the Chasch, 1968, Ace, G-688
- Planet of Adventure #2, Servants of the Wankh, 1969, Ace,66900
- Planet of Adventure #3, The Dirdir, 1969, Ace, 1969, 66901
- Planet of Adventure #4, The Pnume, 1970, Ace, 1970, 66902

27 Dec 1996

I received the signed copies of Night Lamp I ordered from Crown Books in Sunnyvale today; a 15% discount off of the $23.95 cover price, plus $2 per book shipping. Jerry Hewett called them about his order, and they said all orders had been shipped on 18 Dec. Also, they have 144 copies left, 80 of them signed! The phone number is (408) 732-7057.
The automated BBS emailing system went haywire during the upgrade, and has been discontinued until further notice. I apologize for the flurry of extra mail yesterday.

20 Dec 1996

Al von Ruff has posted an index of SF reviews for 1996. Two Vance books are included:
- Alastor
  - Absolute Magnitude, Fall 1996
  - Asimov's Science Fiction, Jun 1996
- Night Lamp
  - Interzone, December 1996
  - Locus, November 1996
Our server is now running on new software, with a faster hard drive. Please report any anomalies.

19 Dec 1996

Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.

9 Dec 1996

I just received a brief update from Tim Underwood of Underwood Books:
- The Laughing Magician will be a collector's edition of the complete saga of Cugel the Clever. It will either be out in mid-February or mid-March, depending if I get it off to the printer next week, or in mid-January.
- The special leather edition bindery guys are tied up in late Fall with holiday work, so it'll be a while yet with the lettered Night Lamp.
- I'll be visiting Jack around Christmas, and will give you an update as to what's happening with him and with Ports Of Call, his current sf novel in progress.

6 Dec 1996

Noted writer and poet John Boston posted this mini-review in rec.arts.sf.written:
- The trade edition of Night Lamp finally appeared. It's one of Vance's best novels of recent years. On the one hand, there's nothing in it you haven't seen before: the fairy-tale/McGuffin plot (reminiscent in ways of The Cadwal Chronicles), the status-obsessed societies full of people who talk in stilted prose like diplomats in a 1930s comedy film, the wholesome young man of modest means who comes out on top of the said fairy-tale plot by pluck and determination, etc., etc. On the other hand it's extremely well done and with more of an edge than usual. The satire is Swiftian in places. It's a fairly long book (380 well-packed pages), but there's a reasonable balance between plot movement and digression, unlike The Cadwal Chronicles, which was noticeably padded.
- Vance is by no means my favorite writer, and I like his recent output less than a lot of his work of the 50s and 60s (which leaned more on ideas and less on style), but this is as good an example of his recent work as you'll find.
John Langford of GAA Books still has a bunch of U-M Vance books at great prices. He has a new searchable database, or email him for the list.

5 Dec 1996

Gregg Parmentier would like to draw our attention to Article 22253 of rec.arts.sf.misc:
The Internet SF Book Database Current Toplist:

Mean  No of
Score Voters  Title (Publishing year)                  Author
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.00 ( 8) The Eyes of the Overworld (1966)             Jack Vance
5.00 ( 8) A Wrinkle in Time (1962)                     Madeleine LEngle
5.00 ( 7) Lord of Light (1967)                         Roger Zelazny
5.00 ( 6) The Lions of Al-Rassan (1995)                Guy Gavriel Kay
5.00 ( 6) Dragonflight (1968)                          Anne McCaffrey
5.00 ( 5) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)  C S  Lewis
5.00 ( 5) The Last Unicorn (1968)                      Peter Beagle
5.00 ( 5) The Killing Machine (1964)                   Jack Vance
5.00 ( 5) Cugel's Saga (1983)                          Jack Vance
5.00 ( 5) A Wind in the Door (1973)                    Madeleine LEngle
5.00 ( 5) 1984 ()                                      George Orwell
4.89 (10) The Dispossessed, An Ambiguous Utopia (1974) Ursula LeGuin
4.87 ( 8) The Shadow of the Torturer (1980)            Gene Wolfe
4.85 ( 7) Tiger! Tiger! (1956)                         Alfred Bester
4.85 ( 7) The Dirdir (1969)                            Jack Vance
4.85 ( 7) Lyonesse III: Madouc (1989)                  Jack Vance
4.85 ( 7) Lyonesse II: The Green Pearl (1985)          Jack Vance
4.85 ( 7) City of the Chasch (1968)                    Jack Vance
4.83 (12) Childhood's End (1953)                       Arthur Clarke
4.83 ( 6) Time for the Stars (1956)                    Robert Heinlein
4.83 ( 6) The Serpent Mage (1986)                      Greg Bear
4.83 ( 6) The Pnume (1970)                             Jack Vance
4.83 ( 6) The Claw of the Conciliator (1981)           Gene Wolfe
4.83 ( 6) The Citadel of the Autarch (1983)            Gene Wolfe
4.83 ( 6) Servants of the Wankh (1969)                 Jack Vance
... with much more Vance on the complete list.  Go vote!

27 Nov 1996

Mark R. Kelly has compiled The Locus Poll Database, which lists winners and runners-up for all of the locus polls over the years. Jack Vance is well represented there.

25 Nov 1996

Ray Bowman's Fantastic Collectibles is now on the Web. He has a nice assortment of paperbacks and pulps, with a few hardcovers as well.

23 Nov 1996

Jerry Hewett points out that when doing a search on Bibliofind, one should search for "J Vance"; I had been using "Jack Vance". You'll find The Man in the Cage; New York: Random House, 1960. First Edition, NF in dj (sl wr, sl darkening) US $80, and a lot more besides.

21 Nov 1996

Lori Ubell has the following books available:
- ACE D-295 Slaves of the Klau/Big Planet. (Ace Double) A near fine copy with just the tiniest chipping along cover bottom and spine. $9.
- ACE F-185 Dragon Masters/Five Gold Bands. (Ace Double) Fine with tiny cover crease, tiny chipping. $8.
- ACE M-141 The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph/The Brains of the Earth. (Ace Double) Slight cover crease else Fine. $6.
- ACE M-149 The Eyes of the Overworld. Near Fine with spine crease. $6.

20 Nov 1996

Anders Monsen has found a bunch of Vance books, including many Underwood-Miller editions at Cobblestone Books.

14 Nov 1996

Rushton Potts (508) 862-0500 has the following items in catalog #48:
Cugel's Saga Underwood-Miller at $75; the Avalon Big Planet, F/NF with 1/2 inch chip at spine top for $110; To Live Forever NF/NF "Signed by author, clean probable ex-lib" for $350; and all four Planet of Adventure British editions F/F for $110. An interesting catalog: He has a Niven book inscribed to Niven's mom, and an anthology signed by John Lennon's assassin. Tell him you heard about him here.

10 Nov 1996

David Luckhardt reports:
- I went to the Vance signing at SuperCrown Books in Sunnyvale yesterday. He and his wife showed up a little late due to bad directions, but were in good spirits and (apparently) health. His vision is still quite poor, don't know if it has degraded any further.
- He is using a PC-based system that both puts the written characters at least at double-size on the screen, and (I believe) also reads it out loud. He said he is considering getting a "book reader" system, and wants it to be portable. I think this is a system that scans books and reads the text out loud, but it could be something that already runs off digitized data. I briefly discussed PC-based audio systems with him, but since I do Macintosh mostly I wasn't able to get into much detail.
- Really enjoyed your Vance website. I discussed his websites with him, but he didn't seem to know about them, and I wasn't able to judge his level of interest.
Jerry Hewett and Terry Doyle report they've found a U.S. source for non-English Vance books-in-print; Adler's Foreign Books (German and Spanish). Search for "Vance, Jack".

7 Nov 1996

Chalmers has a SF Book Database where you can vote for the books you like and dislike, and also add to the list. Vance is well-represented there.

6 Nov 1996

There is a list of Top SF rated by Russian readers, and Vance is not on it. If you are Russian, and enjoy Vance, vote!

5 Nov 1996

Adder's Choice Bookstore has a large selection of French science fiction and fantasy books for sale, with prices in US dollars. I have ordered two books, including Un Monde D'Azur, Robert Laffont, Ailleurs et Demain, 1970, 1st.
Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.

30 Oct 1996

Arthur Cunningham says that the Harpercollins British edition of Night Lamp will be a trade paperback, not a hardcover. He has heard no news about a British hardcover.

29 Oct 1996

Waterstone's Books in the U.K. shows Night Lamp as being available for ordering now. The info: Hardback, £9.99 / Publisher: Harpercollins Publishers / Publication Date: 06/01/1997 / ISBN: 0002246538
I have more or less completed my Jack Vance Underwood-Miller Bibliography up through 1992. Please let me know if you have any additions or corrections.

28 Oct 1996

Supercrown in Sunnyvale has confirmed Nov 9, 2:00-4:30pm for the Vance signing. They currently have 150 copies of Night Lamp in stock, with more coming. They will also have several copies of the limited edition available. You can call (408) 732-7057 right now and order copies to be signed and shipped to you. The organizer of this signing said that Jack had a signing earlier this year, and so many people showed up with so many paperbacks that he was thinking of never doing another signing. Crown may limit the number of books to be signed per time in line to just a few (in addition to any new books purchased.) Vance may not want to stay the whole 2.5 hours, so get there early.
Hap Watson is compiling a Collector's Guide to the Underwood/Miller Jack Vance publications. He would appreciate hearing from anyone who has seen or who has seen advertised a leatherbound edition of Underwood/Miller's Galactic Effectuator. Hap's address is 702 E. Broad Street, Westfield, NJ 07090.
Morton Kevelson has found a typo in Night Lamp: "Three short paragraphs were repeated on the bottom half of page 230 of the TOR edition. I noticed this error in the Strand copy I bought earlier this month and found it in the latest copies as well."

25 Oct 1996

Anders Monsen has found another bit of Vanciana on the web; this time on David Langford's Oct 1996 Ansible, in a review of Who Else Writes Like? A Readers' Guide to Fiction Authors: "Fans of Jack Vance's baroque wordplay will find themselves directed to Patrick Tilley and David Wingrove."
Dangerous Visions Bookstore has a large selection of Underwood-Miller editions (at the bottom of the page) available for purchase.

24 Oct 1996

Henri Gooren has pointed out the review of Night Lamp (with minor spoilers) on the SciFi Weekly book reviews web page. "If Charles Dickens and Dr. Seuss teamed up to write a space opera, they might manage to come up with something as imaginative, whimsical and entertaining as Night Lamp."

21 Oct 1996

Just in: I've heard that the Vance signing in Sunnyvale has been pushed back to Nov 9th, and perhaps to Nov 16th. Nothing definite yet, so don't make travel plans. Also, you will apparently be able to order signed copies for mail delivery, but not until they actually get the books in stock. I will try to stay on this and post when the books are available for ordering, and when the actual date of the signing is determined. Now back to your regularly scheduled web pages.

18 Oct 1996

Thomas Books (tom@poisonedpen.com) has the 1/300 signed-limited edition of When the Five Moons Rise for $60 and the 1/500 Ecce and Old Earth for $75, both from Underwood-Miller, in their latest catalog. Tell them you saw it here.

17 Oct 1996

Check out the homepage, and the books of L. Warren Douglas. The acknowledgements to the first book in his Arbiter series, Stepwater, starts out "Jack Vance, for setting the standard I aim for. Jack, when I finish writing a novel, the first thing I do is reread one of yours, and ask myself if I'm getting any closer." Chris Bunch says "...[it] owes a debt to Jack Vance..." Jerry Hewett says his books are excellent. I just got a copy, and I'll let you know.

15 Oct 1996

Jerry Hewett has received some Russian hardcover Vance books. Reliable sources say that the pages are made from recycled toilet paper. I will post further developments as they, er, emerge.

7 Oct 1996

Till Noever has written a review of Night Lamp, and has kindly allowed me to post it here. "Night Lamp is a profoundly satisfying book..."

4 Oct 1996

Morton Kevelson reports: "The TOR edition of Night Lamp is out. I just bought a "review" copy at the Strand bookstore, Broadway & 12th Street, in New York City. The book runs 380 pages; jacket art by Vladmir Nenov. The Strand sells 'review' copies at 1/2 price. They do get multiple copies and expect additional copies of Night Lamp to 'trickle in.'" [Note: this 'review' copy was sans promotional materials.]

30 Sep 1996

I have received the uncorrected proof of the TOR edition of Night Lamp. You can see images of it, as well as the text of the blurbs on the rear cover, on the Night Lamp Images page.

29 Sep 1996

Pandora's Books is now on Bibliofind, so that a search for Jack Vance now yields a ton of items for sale.

27 Sep 1996

Just heard from Tim Underwood. He says "Jack got an excellent review in the Sept 16 Publishers Weekly for Night Lamp."

25 Sep 1996

The manager of the Supercrown in Sunnyvale has confirmed Nov 2, 2:30-4:30pm for the Vance signing. I will verify this shortly before then, as these things often get re-scheduled or cancelled.
Jerry Hewett has discovered Hebrew editions of Vance published in Israel. If you know of any Vance that is not listed in the bibliography or the bibliographic updates, please let him know!
Jerry Hewett also has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.

19 Sep 1996

John Langford of GAA Books has a brief catalog of Vance books for sale.

17 Sep 1996

I received an email from a TOR publicist about Vance signings:
Thanks for your inquiry regarding Jack Vance signings. Jack will appear on Nov. 2nd at the Supercrown Bookstore in Sunnyvale, CA, 408-732-7057, speak with Michael Rightor. The Supercrown is Jack's only signing to date. We do hope to set up further signings for Jack in the Oakland area for November and December. I'll do my best to keep you informed.
John Langford of GAA Books has the following first editions for sale: two copies of the first of Cugel's Saga ($12 and $18), a thrashed ex-library of the 1st of Emphyrio with xerox DJ, yet signed ($15), the U-M Green Magic for $16, Maske: Thaery ($18), and The Gray Prince ($15.) Ask him for detailed descriptions.

11 Sep 1996

I found another reference to Vance on the rec.games.frp.dnd newsgroup (via Deja News): Apparently issue #26 of Dragon magazine lists the "player stats" for the Cugel the Clever character.
I also found a reply by Terry Pratchett to my query about his reply to someone else's query about Vance "borrowing" ideas: It's too hard to explain, but you can read the original reply and his later reply. It still won't make sense.
I will be on vacation (of sorts) from Sep 12 to Sep 17, and during this time may not get a chance to update this page. In the meantime, please post any late-breaking Vance news on the BBS.

9 Sep 1996

I called the Super Crown in Sunnyvale, and they will be rescheduling the Vance signing. According to the manager, there have been "production delays", so the TOR edition of Night Lamp is not expected to be available until the end of October. They plan to have Vance in for signing the first weekend of November. The date won't be definite until next week (at which point I'll post the info here.)
Iliad Books ac506@lafn.org (818)509-2665 has The Last Castle by Vance, Jack Underwood/Miller 1980 Very Good + DJ Very Good + Signed by both author and illustrator, and numbered (157/200); also signed by illustrator on laid-in card. Illustrated by Alicia Austin. $65.00.

7 Sep 1996

I just received an interesting email message from Marty: "Just wanted to let you know that Jack Vance is tentatively scheduled to appear at Super Crown on El Camino Real in Sunnyvale, California, on Saturday, October 12, from 2:00-4:00pm. This will be a signing for the TOR edition of Night Lamp." If this is his only signing (or perhaps even if it's not), I will be there!
DMK Books has a catalog containing a number of interesting Vance items (8,626 bytes) for sale. Ask for a complete catalog via email, and tell him you saw it here.

4 Sep 1996

Locus has an index of all the books they've received between 1984 and May 1986, and of course it includes many Vance works. You can find them at http://www.sff.net/locus/b326.html#A6041. Thanks to Jerry Hewett for pointing this out; he has his own Locus entry at http://www.sff.net/locus/b153.html#A2678. The main Locus website is quite interesting.
Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.

2 Sep 1996

I received the latest catalog (#105) from L.W. Currey today. He has 44 Vance items, fewer than usual for such a large catalog (4443 items), and nothing that hasn't been listed in his previous catalogs, as far as I can tell. His phone number is (518) 873-6477.
Just found The Advanced Book Exchange, a search service for out of print books. They have quite a few Vance titles in their database, with a few pleasant surprises (and several unpleasant ones, price-wise.)

31 Aug 1996

Intertain.com has Night Lamp (coming soon) listed for $20.95. They seem to have good prices on new books.

30 Aug 1996

Found a picture of Jack taken by Robert Sneddon at Magicon in Orlando, 1992, where he was GoH. Used with permission.

27 Aug 1996

The University of Texas at Austin has a net-browsable catalog, with an extensive collection of Jack Vance books in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (featured in A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes.) Most of the collectible titles are from The L.W. Currey Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection. (Thanks to Anders Monsen for the reminder!)
Jack Vance is described as "possibly the best science fiction writer today" by Oyvind Myhre in the text of a speech delivered to the Second European Libertarian Convention in Norway in 1985. The Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction (ed. by Peter Nicholls, Granada, London, 1981) describes Myhre as "a prolific writer of considerable story-telling power."
I have received my copies of Underwood Books' Night Lamp! You can see (large) scanned images of the traycase and dust jacket on my new Night Lamp page.

26 Aug 1996

I've found a reference to Jack Vance in alt.fan.pratchett, where Pratchett himself pays tribute to Vance. I am still trying to track down the article that was referenced in the message, in hopes of determing what the similarity between The Cadwal Chronicles and The Light Phantastic was supposed to be.
Jerry Hewett will be at Worldcon in Anaheim CA this weekend. If you are interested in meeting him, and perhaps getting him to sign your copy of the Vance bibliography, send him some email.
Server was down again all weekend, for which I apologize again. When this happens, try going to http://massmedia.earthlink.net/~mikeb/jvm/ instead.

23 Aug 1996

Jerry Hewett has actually received his copies of Night Lamp from Underwood Books! He says it's a beautiful book, in a very nice traycase.
Jerry also says that The Laughing Magician will be a compilation of all the Cugel the Clever stories and all of the artwork.
I have added the manuscript of Parapsyche to this site, which necessitated a redesign of the manuscript pages. Please let me know of incorrect linkage, or any other errors.
I now have a scanner at home (hooked up to my portable; very convenient), so I have been adding to my images collection. I run out of things to say about each book that's not already in the bibliography, so if you have any suggestions please email them to me.

22 Aug 1996

Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
R.F.&C. Ward Books in the U.K. has the following three items available:
- 1940 VANCE.J - ARAMINTA STATION.(1ST.88.DW.F.)F. £12.00
- 5059 VANCE.J - ECCE AND OLD EARTH:BK2. OF THE CADWEL.(1ST.92.DW.F.BK.F £15.00
- 6357 VANCE.J - THE MOON MOTH.(1ST.75.DW.VG.BK.VG £14.00

18 Aug 1996

Tall Tales has the following two items in their catalog #22:
- 190. Vance, Jack. The Dying Earth. San Francisco, CA; Underwood-Miller, 1976. First hardcover edition. Very fine in very fine dust jacket. $125.00
- 191. Vance, Jack. Son of the Tree. S.F.; Underwood-Miller, 1983. First hardcover edition. Very fine in very fine dust jacket. $45.00

16 Aug 1996

Future Fantasy Bookstore lists The Laughing Magician by Jack Vance, as being available in November of this year for $60. See The Vance Phile #5 for more info about this book.
David Brain has graciously allowed us all to see the text of a letter from Jack Vance written September 20, 1990. Please let me know if you have any correspondence you'd like to share with others.
The new Nelson Freck & Second Story Books catalog (DC #42) has The Man in the Cage NY:Random, 1960, 1st, vg in DJ with 1/8 inch rear tear for $300. This used to be a reasonably common title. 301-468-9689 voice and 301-770-9544 fax.

15 Aug 1996

John Langford of GAA Books has four copies of the 1985 NESFA Press edition of Light From a Lone Star (Hewett A74) available for sale. Two of them are 1/800 signed trade copies for $15 each, and two are 1/200 signed/limited copies for $30 each. Act quickly before they are gone.
I have re-designed the images page so you can get more textual information without viewing the large versions.

13 Aug 1996

Gregg Parmentier is looking for reviews, articles, parodies or anything else Vance-related for the next issue of The Vance Phile. If you have anything you'd like to contribute please email him at gregg-parmentier@uiowa.edu.

12 Aug 1996

I received a brief email message from Tim Underwood about Night Lamp. He just found out from the slipcase manufacturer that "they are very late with the slipcases, in part due to delays in getting the materials I ordered; -- the right color foil stamp, the right color ribbon, the right cover cloth, etc. The problem is, slipcases, or in this case, traycases, take hand work to make. The people who make them are usually box manufacturers, and they do their hand work when their other stuff is slow."
I have purchased the hand-corrected ribbon manuscript of Parapsyche (Amazing Stories August 1958, Hewett B64), and should receive it next week. I will be creating a page for it soon thereafter. If you know of any person or institution with Vance manuscripts, let them know I would like to put scans of them on the web. I have heard that at least one manuscript was written with different color inks for each character, and that even the handwriting style is different for each.
My internet service provider is not providing service; we've been offline all weekend. The problem is that our server is rather unique; a "Class C" that is connected on a 28.8 dialup. Every time there is a glitch at Earthlink, for example this weekend's major power outage, they have to manually get us back on line with their name server. I believe if you go directly to http://massmedia.earthlink.net/~mikeb/jvm/ you can get to this page at any time.

6 Aug 1996

You may now view the entire text of the Vance interview by Marty Halpern in HTML form, instead of (large) scanned images.

5 Aug 1996

Official news from Tim Underwood: We should have the slipcases (finally) early next week and we'll be shipping Night Lamp immediately thereafter. We will be notifying everyone of this later this week. Our mailing address has changed slightly and is now: Underwood Books / PO Box 1609 / Grass Valley, CA 95945 / Phone # for credit card orders: (916) 274-7997 (voice) or 274-7179 (fax) (Please mention that you saw the info here.)

The 600-copy deluxe limited edition of Night Lamp signed by Jack Vance is $60 + $4 UPS shipping to a street address in the USA.
Shipping charge to a USA address by Priority Mail is $8.
Shipping charge to Canada is $8 (by UPS) to a street address, or $10 to a post office box.
Overseas shipping is $20 air, or $8 by surface mail.
We will be issuing a twenty six copy $160 lettered leatherbound edition in September. These should be ordered now. Advance payment is not required.

Joe Bergeron has posted an essay called A Visit to Jack Vance, which he wrote for the 1992 Magicon. Check it out!
Mark V. Grieshaber has graciously volunteered to transcribe the Vance Interview conducted by Marty Halpern from GIF to text format. I will post it here as soon as it is available.

3 Aug 1996

No news is bad news: I still haven't heard anything from Tim Underwood regarding the U.S. release of Night Lamp.
I'm having fun creating graphics for my websites. If this is really annoying, please send me email right away. Somebody stop me!

28 Jul 1996

Booksite now lists Night Lamp as coming soon with the following order info: Publisher: Tor Books. Publshed: 10/01/96. ISBN: 0312856857. Binding: Trade Book. Price: $23.95 ~~~ Your Price:21.56.
There is now a Jack Vance Audio Page. You can hear The Potters of Firsk as it was first broadcast on the Dimension X series on July 28, 1950 (46 years ago today!) You can also hear a 90 minute radio interview Vance gave in the mid-80's (more information requested.) Both require the Echospeech Plugin, which is available at no charge.

25 Jul 1996

The Virtual Bookshop has the following temptation:

Vance, Jack (Ellery Queen) A Room To Die In Kinnell, London, 1987, Uncorrected Proof, Very fine (2 volume Set) in wrappers. Only known set of proofs for Kinnell hardcover edition. With letter of Authenticity from Richard Lewis. $400

You can now register to automatically receive email whenever this page is updated.

23 Jul 1996

Just caught this on the White Dwarf Books catalog of forthcoming books, in the September section. Note that they are in Vancouver Canada, and so the price is in Canadian dollars.

Vance, Jack. Night Lamp. Tor, 33.95 hc. A new science fiction novel. A young man quests to discover the secrets of his own origin, hidden by his adoptive parents, and lost with their untimely murders.

22 Jul 1996

Rushton Potts has dust jackets for the first editions of The Deadly Isles (VG) and The Pleasant Grove Murders (NF) for $18 and $20 respectively. His phone number is (508) 862-0500. Tell him you heard about him on Mike Berro's web page.

17 Jul 1996

The Vandals of the Void offered by Pacific Book Auction Galleries at ($80/$120) (see the archive for details) fetched $126.50.

2 Jul 1996

Gregg Parmentier has released issue #7 of The Vance Phile! Includes a new After The Fact! bibliography addendum, and three fantastic articles, including an interview with the translator of the Dutch version of Nachtlamp.

30 Jun 1996

Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.

29 Jun 1996

According to Locus magazine, Night Lamp will be published by HarperCollins/Voyager in the U.K. as a hardcover for a January 1997 release.

28 Jun 1996

Bibliofind is a new catalog of dealers' catalogs, with a nice search engine. It recently found: Vance, Jack: Vandals of the Void.; Phila 1953 lst (stated) Winston. 213p. VG Fine science fiction $40.00. I presume that is sans DJ.

24 Jun 1996

I have written a little book report on The Honourable Mr Tawnish by Jeffery Farnol. Farnol was mentioned many times in a recent Vance interview as being a big influence on his writing. I am happy to "publish" anything related to Vance that you'd care to submit.

23 Jun 1996

In his latest catalog Barry R. Levin has a signed copy of A Room To Die In, Kinnell 1987 for $75. In the description, Barry states: "Vance was forbidden by his contract to sign copies of books written under the Ellery Queen pseudonym. He was very embarrased when he realized that he had signed this copy by mistake at an autograph party." Barry's phone number in Santa Monica CA US is 310-458-6111.

The only signed "Ellery Queen" I have is the Pocket Books first edition of The Four Johns signed "Jack Vance" on the title page.
Gregg Parmentier has a signed edition of A Room to Die In that he got signed at Magicon by Vance. Vance said nothing about a problem with signing them there in 1992. Gregg suggest that possibly he is not supposed to sign them "Jack Vance", since his was signed "Ellery Queen" and initialed "JV".

22 Jun 1996

The Aardvark Bookstore ("Good used books with a modicum of entertaining trash") in San Diego has what looks to be a VG copy of The Dying Earth Hillman for $50. I did not open the plastic bag to check the condition inside. Their phone number is 619-284-7715.

19 Jun 1996

Check out the new newsgroup rec.collecting.books. It's not for buying and selling, but for the discussion of everything relating to collecting books.

11 Jun 1996

Ray F. Bowman has a VG copy of the first edition of The Dying Earth for $90 (up 50% from his last catalog.) He also has the Toby Space Pirate in G+ for $6, and the Ballantine pb To Live Forever in VG+ for $6. His address is Box 167, Carmel, IN 46032. Still not even a phone number, let alone an email address.

10 Jun 1996

The TOR Publishing Schedule page now lists Night Lamp (two words, sic?) as an October 1996 release, hardcover only (no trade pb indicated.)

9 Jun 1996

I was lucky enough to correspond with Marty Halpern, author of A Meeting With Jack Vance, Conducted April 15, 1989, published in Paperback Parade number 17 (March 1990) (Hewett L.11), who supplied some interesting info about the interview.
Pandora's Books (Grant Thiessen) is still the best place on the web to buy used copies of Vance books. Incredible selection, and his database is accurate! For example, he has the Canadian Pocket Books edition of The Dying Earth (Hewett A1.j) for $5.

7 Jun 1996

Tim Underwood sez: "Nightlamp will be finished at the printer in a couple weeks--the book, not the dustjacket. We're having to redo the dustjacket and that will probably mean that I won't have finished books ready to mail until mid July."
A search of Amazon.com books yielded a list of books by and about Vance in print. However, large databases such as theirs are notoriously inaccurate.

5 Jun 1996

The Fantasy Centre in London has two copies of The Dying Earth Hillman paperback for sale. One is with the spine a little creased, pages brown, else fine for £200, and a second copy with slight spotting and creasing, almost fine for £120. No email, but their phone number is 0171-607-9433.

4 Jun 1996

Michael Levy (mlevy1@gl.umbc.edu) reports that Vance is mentioned in passing by Harlan Ellison in White Wolf's recent compilation. He says on page 20, "Jack Vance still refuses to speak to me because I voted against Goldwater." I suspect one should take anything Ellison says with a grain of salt, but, still, it's interesting.
Michael Levy has also submitted his report on chapters two and three of the Maske: Thaery manuscript.

31 May 1996
- Oasis Bookstore (jamesd@cg57.esnet.com) has an updated selection of used Vance paperbacks, including non-US editions, as well as a couple hardcovers, and one non-Vance book by mistake (tip o' the hat to Per Sundfeldt for catching it.)
30 May 1996
- My order from The Internet Book Shop finally arrived today. I ordered 6 of the Dobson hardcovers from their catalog at 7.95 pounds each. I received The Killing Machine, The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph, Star King, The Moon Moth and The Brains of Earth. The Dirdir was out of print. They all were price-clipped (originally 2.95 pounds), but in as-new condition (minus some bad packing; no bags.) I guess there's also no VAT on exports. The only downside was that they thought I wanted 4-day UPS shipping, for which they charged me 26 pounds! I charged it all on plastic, and I ain't gonna pay that. It took over a month for them to ship the order anyway!
28 May 1996
- Check out the new Jack Vance, a study in brief, an essay of his work by Peter R. Booth.
- Rushton Potts has Big Planet Avalon 1957, with a half-inch spine chip at top for $110, and The Green Pearl limited edition for $70. His phone number is (508) 862-0500. Tell him you heard about him on Mike Berro's web page.
24 May 1996
- The Other Change of Hobbit (email Dave Nee) bookstore in Berkeley has the #87 of 111 edition of the signed-limited The Dying Earth available, slightly bumped, for $500.
22 May 1996
- L. W. Currey has his first catalog on the Web, and it contains (only!) three Vance books; Big Planet, The Dragon Masters, and Eight Fantasms and Magics.
21 May 1996
- Book Mountain in Colorado has four Vance books for sale, including the signed-limited editions of Ecce and Old Earth and Madouc for the original issue price.
18 May 1996
- The European science fiction and fantasy book dealer Adder's Choice Bookstore has a number of French Vance books for sale, including first editions (thus?), with prices in US dollars, listed on their French Collections page.
17 May 1996
- Highlights from the Jack Vance interview in the April issue (#36) of Aberrations magazine:
  - The Dying Earth paperback recently sold at auction for $5000. (Can this be true?)
  - He is "halfway through...Ports of Call."
  - The first two Magnus Ridolph stories, which he says "were rotten", caught the attention of a producer at 20th Century Fox, who hired him to do a treatment, and perhaps the script. The producer was kicked upstairs, and his projects put on the shelf. (I want to see that shelf!)
  - Vance admires John D. MacDonald, P.G. Wodehouse, historical adventure author Jefferey Farnell (Farnol?), and the E. R. Burroughs Barsoom books. (Anyone read any Farnol?)
- Michael John Thompson has the following item for sale in his catalog 20:
  313. VANCE, Jack. BIG PLANET. New York: Avalon Books, 22 East 60th Street. 1957. 1st edition. Red cloth. Faint bumping to corners else a fine copy in a near fine dust wrapper with some light dust soiling to rear panel. $125.00
15 May 1996
- I just purchased the April issue (#36) of Aberrations, an "adult science fiction, fantasy & horror" magazine, because the lead story is "An Interview with Jack Vance." I haven't read it yet (this being my lunch hour), but it's 4.5 pages with a large unflattering picture. I did skim it, to discover that "Cugel" rhymes with frugal, as I always suspected. I will read it tonite, and report back about it. Sorry if this is old news, but I'm excited about it.
- Jerry Hewett says: Just received a "check list" from Easton Press regarding their leather-bound "Masterpieces of Fantasy" series -- and it looks like one of the titles will be Vance's The Dying Earth. Dunno if it will be signed or not (the general impression I have from their literature is that it won't be, but I could be wrong!), but if you're a rabid completist like I am you should probably get your order in early! If you'd like more information:
  The Easton Press
  47 Richards Avenue
  Norwalk, CT 06857-5706
  800-367-4534 (MoF subscription #)
  800-243-5160 (Customer Service #)
- Pacific Book Auction Galleries is having a SF sale, which includes the following:
  439. Vance, Jack. Vandals of the Void. Jacket. First Edition. Philadelphia: John C. Winston, [1953]. The rare first edition of Vance's first hardcover book. Short tear to upper front jacket panel, else near fine. (80/120).
13 May 1996
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
10 May 1996
- Nightlamp is now available in The Netherlands! Hans Verkuil (hans@wyst.hobby.nl) has already purchased copies. You can view the front cover at Remy's The Vance Archives. The bibliographic information, courtesy of Hans and Jerry Hewett, is:
  as: Nachtlamp. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1996, 464 p., paper. [Dutch]
  
  COLLATION: p. 4 unnumbered-[464], as follows: half title, p. [1]; blank, p. [2]; title page, p. [3]; Eerste druk april 1996 / Vertaling Annemarie van Ewijck / Omslagillustratie Nico Keulers / Copyright (C) 1996 Jack Vance / Copyright Nederlandse vertaling (C) 1996 J.M. Meulenhoff bv, / Amsterdam / Meulenhoff-*M is een imprint van J.M. Meulenhoff bv, Amsterdam / Oorspronkelijk verschenen onder de titel Nightlamp / ISBN 90 290 5060 8, p[4]; text p. 5-464.
  
  BINDING: 22.6 x 15.1 cm.
  
  NOTES: Translated by Annemarie van Ewijck. Cover art by Nico Keulers.
1 May 1996
- Pacific Book Auction Galleries is having a SF sale, which includes the following:
  272. Vance, Jack. To Live Forever. Dark blue cloth, spine lettered in dark red. Jacket. First Edition. New York: Ballantine, [1956]. Currey's "A" binding. Author's scarce 4th book. Sunning to jacket spine & front panel extremities, stain along rear jacket joint, otherwise fine in very good jacket. (300/400).
- Linda B. Guillis sez: Just happened to pick up a Jack Vance Sunday and wondered if you'd be interested? Araminta Station, 1988 British Edition paperback(New English Library), second impression, March 1988.
30 Apr 1996
- Oasis Bookstore has a selection of used Vance paperbacks, including non-US editions.
- Fireside Books (fireside@infinet.com) is offering:
  Throy. Fine condition in a fine dust jacket and a very good+ slip case. Copy number 376 of 500 signed by Jack Vance. Published by Underwood-Miller in 1992. 186 pp. $75.00 ppd. in the US (I'll add the minimum I need to for overseas mailing).
  Ecce and Old Earth. Fine condition in a fine dust jacket and a very good+ slip case. Copy number 328 of 500 signed by Jack Vance. Published by Underwood-Miller in 1991. 313 pp. $75.00 ppd. in the US (again, I'll add the bare minimum to cover overseas mailing).
  If you or someone else would like them both, I'll make a package deal of $135.00 (10% off).
28 Apr 1996
- A bookstore in Sweden, SF-Bokhandeln, shows Night Lamp as being available in Okt (October, I presume), in inb format, which means "inbunden", which means "hardcover" (thanks Göran!). It is apparently the American edition, and not a translation.
- I've added a bunch of Vance-related sites below. Some only mention Vance, but I try to be complete.
21 Apr 1996
- A note from Jerry Hewett: The Internet Book Shop has a slew of Dobson first hardcover editions available for just about what they were issued at! Like a copy of _The Palace of Love_ for £7.95 (!!!). I ordered a Dobson _The Face_ a couple of months ago for around $10 U.S. (can't remember the exact price in pounds), and received an immaculate copy. For rabid collectors that want the original hardcovers of these Vance editions it's definitely bargain-basement / garage sale pricing for as-new books.
- Jerry Hewett checked for Ellery Queens and found both Kinnell hardcovers (_The Madman Theory_ and _A Room To Die In_) available for £9.95.
- I've ordered about five of the Dobsons from the iBS today, and I'll let everyone know if they were actually first editions (£7.95 each plus postage).
- Ed Treverton (treverton@aol.com) has a 1st of The Dying Earth, near fine for $200.
20 Apr 1996
- Scott Burns (Bernachs@aol.com) has a short list of magazines with Jack Vance stories he has for sale.
19 Apr 1996
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
- I have added three more images to my Maske: Thaery Manuscript page.
15 Apr 1996
- Acorn Books has the following for sale: Big Planet pbk $15. Brave Free Men, Signed pbk $15. Emphyrio, Signed pbk $15. Planet of Adventure #1: City of Chasch, Signed pbk $15. Cadwal Chronicles Book I 500/signed $100. Cugal's Saga, 500/signed $100. Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden, 500/signed $100. Lyonesse: Green Pearl, 600/signed $100. Brave Free Men in "F&SF" signed $15. Place of Love, Cloth, signed $65.
11 Apr 1996
- Gregg Parmentier says: I got a notice in the mail today from Underwood Books giving me the opportunity to reserve my copy of _Nightlamp_. It is mentioned as a run of 600 at $60 + $4 shipping. It is expected to ship in late June, having just gone to the printer.
- A friend of mine who has proofread NIGHTLAMP agrees with Tim Underwood that it is the best Vance book in over ten years.
- I just read on the "rec.arts.sf.written" newsgroup that Michael Shea's new sequel to NIFFT THE LEAN will be serialized in "Tomorrow" magazine. Anyone who likes Vance should like Shea's fantasy books. Let me know if you have any more info about it, especially regarding possible book publication. The address of the magazine is Tomorrow Speculative Fiction/The Unifont Company, Inc./Box 6038/Evanston, IL 60204. 6 issues...$20.00 basic rate, more for 1st class, Canadian, overseas.
26 Mar 1996
- The new Gerry Kleier catalog (#34) has Los Cuatros Johns as Ellery Queen, San Juan 1978. 1st Puerto Rican edition of The Four Johns. Upper corner torn from fep else fine in a photo-illustrated dust jacket. Don't bother ordering it, as I already have, but he does have a lot of interesting science fiction at reasonable prices. His web page does not have the latest catalog as of this writing, and he says he checks his email only once a week, so by all means get on his mailing list.
25 Mar 1996
- Jerry Hewett has an updated list of duplicate Vance books for trade.
21 Mar 1996
- The Vance Marketplace at Remy's The Vance Archives is now fully functional. You can buy, sell and trade there, as well as on my Vance BBS (which is operational again.)
19 Mar 1996
- The new Nelson Freck & Second Story Books catalog (DC #37) has THE PLEASANT GROVE MURDERS NY:Bobbs-Merrill, 1967, 1st, ink mark on front fly o/w near fine in DJ for $165. I don't know if that's a good price or not. 301-468-9689 voice and 301-770-9544 fax.
- I'm told the latest Currey catalog (#104) has four pages of Vance material. I keep forgetting to let him know of my new mailing address.
12 Mar 1996
- The new Robert Gavora catalog (#69) has an uncorrected proof of the first edition (Berkley trade paperback) of LYONESSE available for $90. Gavora can be reached via email at rgavora@teleport.com, or (503) 231-7338. Interestingly, it is the only Vance item in the catalog.
5 Mar 1996
- I have added a Jack Vance Bulletin Board to this website. I will continue to post announcements here (and still solicit info for this page), but everyone is welcome to post messages on the BBS. The BBS may be more useful than a mailing list.
26 Feb 1996
- I had the following email exchange with Micole Sudberg, Assistant Editor at Tor Books:
  - Me: I run (one of many) web pages devoted to Jack Vance, and I would like to post more information about his upcoming books NIGHTLAMP and PORTS OF CALL. I did not see anything about them on the TOR web pages. Is there any info about either of them that you can share? Genre, est pub dates, hardcover or paperback, etc.
  - Micole: They're both sf, and will appear first in hardcover. _Nightlamp_ is scheduled for October 1996. _Ports of Call_ isn't firmly scheduled yet; I believe that it's not yet written.
23 Feb 1996
- Aaron McEmrys has a list of Vance books for sale, many signed.
18 Feb 1996
- Jerry Hewett reports that both NIGHTLAMP and PORTS OF CALL will be first available as signed limited editions. They will be published by either Tim Underwood or Chuck Miller (details to come.) Tor will publish the American trade editions in Fall 1996, and Meulenhoff the Dutch edition.
17 Feb 1996
- I found a message on Usenet dated 12 Jan 1996 from Micole Sudberg, Assistant Editor at Tor Books (micole@tor.com), saying that NIGHTLAMP was slated for a Fall 1996 publication. It is also still not listed on their web page, which goes up to August 96.
16 Feb 1996
- Jerry Hewett has copies of the trade edition of THE WORK OF JACK VANCE by Hewett and Mallett for sale for $40 each (includes postage), and would be glad to sign them. Send email to Jerry for more information. He also has a massive stock of JV paperbacks and hardcovers he uses for trading.
- Jerry Hewett reports that:
  - NIGHTLAMP will be published within two months.
  - PORTS OF CALL is in the proofreading stage with an unknown publication date. Tim Underwood reports that this is the best Vance he's read in ten years.
  - Annemarie van Ewyck (Dutch translator) reports that NIGHTLAMP is 651 pages long(!), and expects to hear about a firm publication date soon.
- Pandora's Books has two copies of the first edition of THE DYING EARTH, one for $60 and the other for $120. They also have a slew of other Jack Vance titles.
15 Feb 1996
- Ray F. Bowman has a VG copy of the first edition of THE DYING EARTH for only $60. His address is Box 167, Carmel, IN 46032. Not even a phone number, let alone an email address.
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Comments and suggestions about this website should be sent to
Mike Berro at mikeb@massmedia.com.