In "The Saturn Game," Scobie's:
"...copy of The Machinery Of Freedom...had nearly disintegrated..." (p. 23)
After repeated rereadings and referencings, my paperback copy of Poul Anderson's The Earth Book Of Stormgate eventually split into two parts and was sellotaped back together but then split again, this time into two parts and a separate page, and has more recently been replaced by a larger format hardback copy whose dust jacket is now frayed and torn. Likewise, a paperback edition of David Falkayn: Star Trader split in two with a torn page but has been replaced by a larger hardback copy whose dustcover is protected by a seemingly impenetrable transparent outer cover. We quote texts as if they subsisted in an abstract and universally accessible Platonic realm, and indeed they can now be preserved online, but nevertheless we often still rely on vulnerable physical copies.
Most of my currently possessed copies of Poul Anderson's works should outlast their present owner.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Even as long ago as 1971 I was such a fan of Anderson's stories that I more and more to get copies of them in hardcover form. THE DANCER FROM ATLANTIS, with Frank Frazetta's striking jacket cover painting was the first Anderson hard cover I purchased. Next came the Chilton Books editions of ENSIGN FLANDRY and FLANDRY OF TERRA, all three in 1971. Book prices were still low in those years, so the cost was no particular bother for me.
For the works of my most favored writers I prefer to get their books in hard cover form. When handled and stored with care hard backs will last much longer than paperbacks, which was why I gradually replaced most of my Anderson paperbacks with hardcovers. Also, the best way to protect book jackets is to place them within jacket covers, which is what I've done with almost all of the Anderson hardcovers I have. The chief problem I've had finding jacket covers of the right size.
I was very happy to find a very good copy of the Chilton Books edition of AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE at a used bookstore in 1988, albeit without the original book jacket. Many years later, sometime after 2010, I discovered and purchased a Chilton Books jacket cover for AGENT, with me not caring it cost a lot more than the book itself. At least it came with a jacket cover!
I still have a fair number of Anderson paperbacks, which I keep either for practical or sentimental reasons. Sometimes there's no hardcover version of an Anderson book, such as the revision of THE BROKEN SWORD, HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA, or ROGUE SWORD, etc. Others I'm sentimentally attached to, such as the 1959 Ace Books edition of WE CLAIM THESE STARS.
I could go on and on, but this is enough!
Ad astra! Sean
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