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ABOUT THE MIRAGE PRESS, LTD.

[From The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, by Jack L. Chalker & Mark Owings]: Because of the origins and themes of this press, and how subsequent presses followed the same path, we're going to take a little extra space here and discuss the growth of amateur magazines devoted to fantasy and horror in general, leading into this publisher's story.

    The amateur press started as serious little magazines, mostly essays and poetry and not generally on matters fantastical. The early SF amateur press was equally serious, with some excellent magazines and fine bits of research coming out of them. It is generally felt that the first true SF fanzine that was not for an amateur press association was Alan Glasser's The Time Traveler, but even though it was solid SF-oriented and bore little relation to the Lovecraft-inspired apa materials that came before, it was still out of, and essentially a reaction to, that material.

    It was only natural that H.P. Lovecraft, who essentially married the amateur press concept to science fiction and fantasy, would continue to be the stimulus of such "fanzines" long after the death of the founder. In the 1940s such magazines as Searles' Fantasy Commentator and Laney's The Acolyte kept up a lively and intensive study of weird fiction, and they were only the cream of the crop; similar efforts in the Glasser tradition were also the rule for straight SF. But by the middle and late fifties, science fiction fandom held such serious endeavors in bad repute; they were "sercon" (serious and constructive) in a time devoted to light frivolity and in-jokes mixed with (mostly leftist) politics. Goodbye Lovecraft, farewell Wollheim, hello Paul Krasner, whose The Realist was probably as serious as the fan press got in that period, and Cry of the Nameless, a huge regular fanzine out of Seattle composed almost entirely of letters from SF fans around the world sounding off (a sort of pre-technological version of today's Internet newsgroups).

    There were a number of causes for this, not the least of which was the death of Weird Tales and other magazines, the tremendous downturn in fantasy output and sales, a period of time when Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings would go nowhere and have to wait another fifteen years to become an instant best-seller. This was coupled to the tenor of the times. In a decade dominated by the Cold War, the A-bomb, and fallout shelters, and with the concurrent loss of most of the SF and just about all the fantasy magazines, "faanish" fun, escapism, was the natural credo of the new, young fans of the late fifties and early sixties. The old guard was still out there, led by Sam Moskowitz, Les Mayer, Sam Russell and a lot more, but many had gone pro or semi-pro with their work or had somewhat shifted emphasis (although not interest), as this was still before academia discovered SF. The closest thing to serious and constructive was George H. Scither's Amra, devoted to Robert E. Howard and that school of writing, but that wasn't really very serious and was as popular for its art as its sometimes serious but often looney articles and features.

    In 1958, when Jack L. Chalker was only fifteen but already an avid science fiction reader and occasional fanzine contributor, he sent away some hard-earned money to an outfit in Verona, Pennsylvania called The Werewolf Bookshop. It was a grab-bag operation; you sent in five bucks and got ten hardcover books--randomly chosen by the proprietor. Most were junk and worse, of course, but one was a copy of the Arkham House edition of The Throne of Saturn, by S. Fowler Wright. Although not terribly impressed with the contents, he remembers to this day being struck by the look and design of the book, the feeling that it was somehow special and different. On its jacket were advertised many other books that seemed even more interesting, so he wrote to Arkham House and in the process launched an extended correspondence with August Derleth that ran, on virtually a weekly basis, from the summer of 1958 until Derleth's death thirteen years later. At almost the same time he answered an ad for Pick-A-Book in Hicksville, NY, and began an equally spirited correspondence with Gnome's Martin L. Greenberg. A letter writing demon at this point, Chalker also began corresponding with many of the great writers of the past and present, most of whom were unaware of just how young he was.

    Chalker discovered SF fandom when only 12 by responding to a letter in a comic book by an SF fanzine editor in Alabama trying to build a circulation. Within six months he was writing for fanzines, and before the end of 1959 he had joined the Washington Science Fiction Association. By 1961, Chalker was 16 years old, had published two issues of a fanzine and was just starting to go to SF conventions. Unfortunately, he came from a poor family, and it didn't take many conventions for him to realize that if he didn't have anything to sell he couldn't feed his growing convention habit. With no money and not even a mimeograph (his first fanzine was done on a high school's mimeo---and paper, and ink, etc.--and it wasn't even his high school!), he took in partners with regularity. Our requirement of a consistent imprint falls down with his operation, too, since the books he produced over the years, starting with borrowed mimeography, came out under a variety of names (and was in fact listed in the 1966 Index to the Science-Fantasy Publishers as The Anthem Series--incorrectly).

    What is consistent is that the late David Prosser, a professional book illustrator and portrait artist who also did Chalker's fanzine covers, came up with the Mirage symbol pictured above as it is today and which was registered as a TM by and for Jack L. Chalker (as opposed to the fanzine or the press) and used, from 1962 to this day, on all the things he had a major hand in producing as well as being on his letterhead then to now. Thus, we have chosen to list everything under The Mirage Press, Ltd., since Mirage was associated with everything from 1961 on and had become the consistent name of all Chalker genre operations by 1966. It might be noted at this point that the Mirage logo was drawn only four times, two of those integrated into magazine covers. All subsequent renditions, which must number in the tens of thousands, come from those third and fourth rendering by Prosser.

    The name itself comes from the title of Chalker's Hugo-nominated fanzine of the Sixties, launched at a time when little serious was being done in amateur magazines and patterned after F. Towner Laney's fanzine of the late 1940s, The Acolyte. The title Mirage was the winner in a contest to name the magazine, suggested by a Kentucky fantasy fan named Gene Tipton. Chalker's initial fanzine, Centaur, was of the "faanish" frivolous type, and it was only after he decided to change the format and focus after having been loaned a set of Acolytes that he decided to change the name as well. The second issue, a transitory one, was called Kaleidoscope on the inside but had a blank where the title would have been on the cover, and so the first Mirage is issue #3. The change in emphasis had several causes, first and foremost the fact that nobody else was doing this sort of thing then while everybody else was doing what Centaur had attempted, and, of course, there was the Derleth influence as well. The fact was, as Chalker realized almost immediately, since there was no competition out there, all of the best authors and works had to come to him--and did. Circulation grew until it went over the 1000 mark, but at three for a buck Chalker found that a big circulation simply meant a bigger cash outlay for each issue than he could readily afford.

    In retrospect, the magazine's contents easily shows Chalker's editorial acumen (as well as, we might cynically add, the advantages of having a monopoly): aside from publishing major names then and now, it also published the first material by Ramsey Campbell, Tim Powers, Edward W. Bryant, and others, as well as the last known new stories by Seabury Quinn and David H. Keller. While the bulk of the contents were fantasy/weird/horror related, there was much on SF there as well, showing Chalker's sense that all was a single genre, and the fanzine, which self-importantly proclaimed itself "The Amateur Magazine of Fantasy," was described by a contemporary critic as "The Arkham Sampler as edited by John W. Campbell," a quote Chalker loved.

    The idea of doing "chapbooks," a popular term with Derleth and showing his influence, came from a need to raise money for the magazine. The first was actually instigated by Derleth, who helped and urged it on. Because the fanzine was devoted to fantasy, David H. Keller approached Chalker about doing a chapbook of what proved to be his last major work, underwriting the costs as he had with the N3F project, Prime Press, and others. The first real Mirage book, as such, was the Clark Ashton Smith memorial, but because of lack of funds, little thought was given to making the operation larger and more in line with specialty publishing. Robert A. Madle essentially bankrolled the Smith; after, Mark Owings came in for a while, helping finance and physically produce Mirage on Lovecraft, The Schwartz Index, and, of course, Index to the Science-Fantasy Publishers. When Owings left to spend a period of years in New York City, he left the notes for the next project, The Necronomicon: A Study, which Chalker then wrote and produced on his own but under Owings' sole byline. Still, money was very tight; Chalker notes that in this period he started teaching at the grand sum of $5200 a year and then got a pay cut when he went on a year's Air Force active duty. Money was still the limiting factor.

    That changed in 1967, when Bill Osten came aboard, furnishing not only seed money but also typesetting. Although specialty publishing was at a low ebb and seemed fated to die out (except perhaps for Arkham House--even we had predicted specialty publishing's death the previous year), Chalker knew from the "chapbooks" that a market did exist and, in a pattern seen elsewhere here, he had the fanzine mailing list of about 1000 names. Feeling that the market and the times was best suited to a non-fiction based publishing organization patterned after Advent, Chalker decided to go that route, publishing as well some novelties and, perhaps, occasional pet fiction projects as time and money and market warranted, although that was against his own advice to others.

    In addition to those already mentioned, partners or associates over the years have included Don Studebaker on the first, as well as Bill Evans, Lynn Hickman, Bob Pavlat, and James K. "Kim" Weston on other individual items. From 1967-75 Osten was the sole partner and did all the typesetting for the books of that period; Chalker edited, co-designed the books, and handled promotion and distribution, with the occasional aid of friends, relations, and rare paid contractors like Ted Pauls and Chalker's retired father, Lloyd A. Chalker. In the late 1960s, Osten, with other Baltimore SF fans drawn from the Baltimore Science Fiction Society co-founded by Chalker, started one of the first "service bureau" type computer typesetting companies and this made Press typesetting easy. The typesetting company, however, failed after a few years, not from lack of business but from the need to keep a repairman on premises at all times because the early paper tape fed computer typsetters were "down" as often as they worked.

    Although they had no financial interest, August Derleth (Arkham House) and Martin L. Greenberg (Gnome Press) both provided a great deal of early support and advice to Chalker's operation, Derleth in particular being a guiding spirit behind the scenes, as well as Ed Wood and George Price of Advent, and this provided a great deal of continuity from the old to the new.

THE NEW H.P. LOVECRAFT BIBLIOGRAPHY, compiled and edited by Jack L. Chalker, 1961, pp.40, wrpps., 110 numbered copies printed of which 100 were for sale, $1.00. Sold out prior to publication. Cover by Joe Mayhew.

Updated versions: in The Dark Brotherhood and Other Pieces (Arkham House). Totally revised in new book, as The Revised H.P. Lovecraft Bibliography (see below). An updating of the 1954 Wetzel SSR bibliography instigated and authorized by August Derleth/Arkham House but not by Wetzel, who was bitter about it, but, because SSR never filed for copyright, had no legal recourse.

A FIGMENT OF A DREAM, by David H. Keller, M.D., 1962, pp.x/38, wrpps., $2.00. 178 numbered copies, all signed by Keller, printed. With an Introduction by Jack L. Chalker and 6 full page interior illustrations and cover by David Prosser.

Keller's spiritual biography, as it were, in which an atheist goes to Hades and refuses to believe in it. One of Keller's best works and his last new work; this is the only printing anywhere to date. As with many (not all) Keller specialty press items, Keller partially subsidized this printing, done with production assistance from Lynn Hickman and George H. Scithers.

IN MEMORIAM: CLARK ASHTON SMITH, edited by Jack L. Chalker, 1963, pp.xiv/98, 377 numbered copies paperbound and side-stapled, $3.00; 10 copies bound in full cloth with gold lettering, no jacket, of which 7 were for sale, $7.50. Contents: Introduction, by Ray Bradbury/ Clark Ashton Smith (1890-1961), a poem, by Theodore Sturgeon/ The Sorcerer Departs, by Donald S. Fryer/ Autobiography, The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan, The Dead Will Cuckold You, by Clark Ashton Smith/ As I remember Klarkash-ton, by George F. Haas/ Poet of Eternity, by Litterio Farsaci [Larry Farsace]/ Reminiscences, by Ethel Heiple/ The Prose Tales of Clark Ashton Smith, by L. Sprague deCamp/ Clark Ashton Smith: An Appreciation, by Fritz Leiber/ plus these Smith poems, all in illustrated format: The Old Water-Wheel/ Cycles/ The Voice in the Pines/ Dominium in Excelsis/ September/ Ineffability/ Neighboring Slaughter House (Haiku)/ The Barrier. Illustrated by David Prosser and Harry Warren Douthwaite; cover design by David Prosser.

A much celebrated if somewhat unbalanced memorial anthology which remained for many years the only book about Smith that was not a bibliography. Much of the material has never been reprinted, and many of the poems and "The Dead Will Cuckold You" were original to this volume. Chalker corresponded with Smith in the latter's last years.

THE SCHWARTZ INDEX, compiled by Kim Weston (James K. Weston), 1965, pp.30, paper only, $1.50. 200 copies printed. Appendices. Cover by Gil Kane.

Bibliography of the comic books edited or begun by long-time SF and comics fan, editor, agent, etc., Julius Schwartz including Batman and Superman.

MIRAGE ON LOVECRAFT, edited by Jack L. Chalker, 1965, pp.vi/46, paper only, $2.50. 200 copies printed. Contents: Foreword/ Introductory Note, by Jack L. Chalker/ Autobiography: Some Notes on a Nonentity, by H.P. Lovecraft, annotated by August Derleth/ Notes on the Writing of Weird Fiction, by H.P. Lovecraft/ Some Notes on Interplanetary Fiction, by H.P. Lovecraft/ The Argument: quotations from H.L. Gold, Harry Harrison & Brian Aldiss, Isaac Asimov, Damon Knight, Avram Davidson, and August Derleth on Lovecraft/ Introductory Note with a quotation from Theodore Sturgeon/ Notes on Lovecraft, by David H. Keller, M.D./ A Rebuttal to Lovecraft Criticism, by August Derleth/ ...And a Conclusion That Isn't, by Jack L. Chalker. Cover by David Prosser. Reprint: Mirage, 100 copies, not so marked, printing is poor compared to first; adds, however, "The Books of H.P. Lovecraft: A Checklist," by Jack L. Chalker (uncredited) not in first printing. Most copies have rubber stamp saying "second printing" in them but not all.

Critical and impassioned examination of Lovecrafts and "Hatecrafts," all but the Chalker text reprinted from Mirage Magazine.

THE INDEX TO THE SCIENCE-FANTASY PUBLISHERS, by Mark Owings and Jack L. Chalker, 1966, pp.ix/75, paper only, $5.00. First printing was mostly spoiled and only 88 copies exist, all with white cover. Cover design by Mark Owings. Reprint: Mirage, 1966. Because plates were spoiled, Chalker completely redid the work from scratch, reformatting and updating it, 313 numbered copies, paper only, $5.00.

The first and second editions of this work. Riddled with errors and badly dated now by this work and others; none the less, the first time anyone had done this sort of thing. Covers only 35 publishers; we wax nostalgic for a work that small.

THE NECRONOMICON: A STUDY, by Mark Owings, 1967, pp.30, wrpps., $1.95. 598 numbered copies printed. Contents: Preface to the Necronomicon (poem), by Gerald W. Page/ History and Chronology of the Necronomicon, by H.P. Lovecraft/ Excerpts from Cthulhu in the Necronomicon, by Professor Laban Shrewsbury [pseud. August Derleth]/ The Existing Copies: A Bibliobiography, by Jack L. Chalker [uncredited]/ Appendix/ Quotations from the Necronomicon/ Footnotes. Illustrated by Harry Warren Douthwaite; cover by Frank D. McSherry, Jr. repeated as negative of same on the back cover.  Note: Cover has no titling or other writing on it, front or back.

Book was conceived by Owings who had to leave the project; Chalker then actually solicited the work and did the book using Owings' notes. A creatively designed and executed book; modesty prevents us from going further. Uncommon. First Mirage Press book to be commercially printed.

H.P. LOVECRAFT: A PORTRAIT, by W. Paul Cook, 1968, pp.iv/66, trade pb only (sewn binding), $2.50. 523 numbered copies printed. Introduction on Cook by Jack L. Chalker; cover by Frank D. McSherry, Jr. Prior edition: Driftwind Press, 1941, 94 copies, wrpps. Reprint: Necronomicon Press, 1991 as In Memoriam: Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

Cook's (Recluse Press) memoir of Lovecraft, reprinted from Beyond the Wall of Sleep(Arkham House, which see) for the first time. Mirage's first typeset book and the first printed by Malloy.

THE CONAN READER, by L. Sprague deCamp, 1968, pp.147, $4.00. 1519 copies printed, all numbered. Contents: Conan's Ghost/ Memories of R.E.H./ The Trail of Tranicos/ Hyborean Technology/ Pirettes/ Conan and Matho/ Conan and Pizarro/ Conan's Great-Grandfather/ Conan's Imitators/ Pratt's Parallel Worlds/ Knights and Knaves in Neustria/ El-Ron and the City of Brass/ An Exegesis of Howard's Hyborean Tales. Profusely illustrated by Roy G. Krenkel; jacket by Berni Wrightson.

Articles on swordplay and sorcery fiction, almost all from George Scithers' Amra magazine. The first book known about this subject, and also Wrightson's first professional art sale. It should also be noted that, while Krenkel was paid and credited, he didn't specifically illustrate the book; instead, he sent a ton of artwork and Chalker and George Scithers selected the ones to go in.

DRAGONS AND NIGHTMARES, by Robert Bloch, 1969, pp.185, $4.00. 1029 copies printed, the first 1000 numbered. Contents: A Good Knight's Work/ The Eager Dragon/ Nursemaid to Nightmares/ Black Barter/ Backword. Jacket and interior illustrations by David Prosser. Reprint: Mass market pb, Pyramid, NY: 1970.

Previously uncollected Runyonesque fantasies (although Bloch says they're like Thorne Smith) which were personal favorites of editor Chalker, who initiated and created the book.

THE CONAN SWORDBOOK, edited by L. Sprague deCamp & George H. Scithers, 1969, pp.xiii/259, $5.95. 1519 copies printed. Contents: Introduction; Swords and Sorcery, by Richard H. Eney /Letter to Harold Preece, Letter to August Derleth, by Robert E. Howard /The Art of Robert Ervin Howard, by Poul Anderson /A Gent from Cross Plains, by Glenn Lord /Who Were the Aesir, by Poul Anderson /Who Was Crom?, by Albert E. Gechter /Lord of the Black Throne, by P. Schuyler Miller /Conan of the Khyber Rifles, by Chuck Hansen & Norman Metcalf /Howard's Detective Stories, by Glenn Lord /Conan on Crusade, by Allan Howard /Howard's Cthuloid Tales, by Ben Solon /Editing Conan, by L. Sprague deCamp /The Novels of Eric Rudker Eddison, by John Boardman /John Carter: Sword of Theosophy, by Fritz Leiber /Hyboreans, Be Seated, by Ray Capella /Titivated Romance, by Fritz Leiber /Controlled Anachronism, by Fritz Leiber / ...And Strange Sounding Names, by Marion Zimmer Bradley /Weapons of Choice, by W.H. Griffey /Weapons of Choice, by Albert E. Gechter /Weapons of Choice and/or Necessity, by Jerry E. Pournelle / Son of Weapons of Choice and/or Necessity, by Jerry E. Pournelle /Range, by L. Sprague deCamp /Sublimated Bloodthirstiness, by Poul Anderson /And As For the Admixture of Cultures on Imaginary Worlds, by Leigh Brackett /Response, by E. Hoffman Price /Ranging Afterthoughts, by L. Sprague deCamp /Ocean Trade in the Hyborean Age, by John Boardman /An Informal Biography of Conan the Cimmerian, by P. Schuyler Miller, John D. Clark, and L. Sprague deCamp /Appendix. Illustrated by Adkins, Barr; Brown, Cawthorne, Douthwaite, Frazetta, Capella, Ivie, Krenkel, Morrow, Pelz, Stahoski, Sams, and Sheridan. Jacket by George Barr.

Anthology of the best sword and sorcery articles from Amra magazine. Considered by critics the best of the three Conanesque anthologies.

IS THE DEVIL A GENTLEMAN?, by Seabury Quinn, 1970, pp.vii/257, $5.95. 969 copies, all numbered, printed. Contents: Introduction, by William H. Evans /Uncanonized /The Globe of Memories /Glamour /The Gentle Werewolf /The Cloth of Madness /The Merrow /Is The Devil A Gentleman? /Masked Ball /Bon Voyage, Michelle /Bibliography, by Mark Owings. Illustrated with color plates and a jacket by David Prosser, back jacket portrait of Quinn by Joe Wehrle, Jr.

Collection designed by the author to show his best work in his own opinion, including illustrations, all in full color, designed to look like Weird Tales covers. Quinn died just two weeks before it was to go to the printer and never saw it. Pagination in the book is a little off due to the quick addition of memorial material after the book was already in production, and the printer misbound the illustration for "Glamour" as frontispiece, leaving a blank page in the book, and left off the last page of the bibliography as well (not apparent, but Owings says it was the hardest part to do). Good reading in spite of the glitches. Quinn is a forgotten master.

A GUIDE TO MIDDLE-EARTH, by Robert Foster, 1971, pp.xiii/291, $5.95 in cloth, $4.00 in identical trade paper. Cloth, 1202 copies, trade paper, 743 copies. Jacket by Tim Kirk. Points: The first printing can be told if an illustration is on 145 instead of the "J" entry. The reprints can not be distinguished from each other with the jackets removed. Reprint: Clothbound, Mirage, 1973, 1112 copies; again Mirage, 1974, 804 copies, the latter all at $6.95. Mass market pb., Del Rey, 1978 and after; updated and reworked under editor Chalker for Del Rey as The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, which includes Silmarillion published after last Mirage printing, hardcover and paperback, 1978 and after. British edition from Unwin, 1978 and after, uniform with and keyed to their Tolkien set.

Complete concordance to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings keyed to the U.S. paperbacks.

THE CONAN GRIMOIRE: Essays on Swordplay and Sorcery, edited by L. Sprague deCamp & George H. Scithers, 1972, pp.263, $6.95. 1528 copies printed. Contents: Introduction: Swordsmen & Sorcerers at Play, by Lin Carter /Letters to Clark Ashton Smith, by Robert E. Howard /Balthus of Cross Plains, by George H. Scithers /Something About Eve, by Robert E. Howard /Howard's Style, by Fritz Leiber /Untitled Fragment, by Robert E. Howard /John Carper and His Electric Barsoom, by Thomas Stratton /The Agent, by Bjorn Nyberg /When Set Fled, by Fritz Leiber /The Testament of Snefru, by John Boardman /The Lion's Bridge, by Ray Capella /Eddison's Zimiamvian Trilogy, by Robert E. Briney /Of Worms and Unicorns, by David Hulan /The Dying Earth, by Robert E. Briney /Fafhrd and Me, by Fritz Leiber /A Man Named John, by John Pocsik /Transposition, by L. Sprague deCamp /The Gray Mouser, I & II, by Fritz Leiber /I Remember Conan, by Grace A. Warren /Stamford Bridge, by Poul Anderson /The Free-Speaking Verses, by Poul Anderson /The Loss of a Son, by Poul Anderson /Woe is Me, by Avram Davidson /Carter's Little Whiskey Stills, by John Boardman /The Thong of Thor, by John Boardman /Ghost Ships, by L. Sprague deCamp /Tiger in the Rain, by L. Sprague deCamp /What Really Happened, by C.C. Hebron /One Man's BEM, by R. Bretnor /Kush, by L. Sprague deCamp /A Furthest Note on the Red Planet, by E. Hoffman Price /Arming the Incomplete Enchanter, by Jerry E. Pournelle /Richard the Lion-Hearted Is Alive and Well in California, by Poul Anderson /Mundy's Vendhya, by L. Sprague deCamp /Young Man Mulligan, with key, by various people /Drinking Song from "Silverlock", by John Myers Myers. Illustrated by Adkins, K. Anderson, Barr, Briney, Carr, Cawthorne, Chambers, Coulson, Gilbert, Hawkins, Kirk, Krenkel, and Trimble. Jacket by Berni Wrightson. Reprint: Mirage, 526 copies, 1974. Second printing has blue jacket instead of gray and one signature is slightly off when viewed from the top.

More articles on swordplay and sorcery from Amra magazine. Jacket was actually done for The Conan Reader but was wrongly sized; Chalker liked it so much he bought it anyway and finally used it here, wrong format or not, designing a jacket to compensate.

PHANTOMS AND FANCIES, by L. Sprague deCamp, 1972, pp.iii/107, $5.00. 1012 copies printed, the first 1000 numbered. Retail prepublication orders were signed on flyleaf by author and artist (no counts were kept for this, which was done at the 1972 World SF Convention in Los Angeles; approx. 150 done this way). Contents: Foreword/ Beholder/ Tikal/ Tintagel /Meroe /Nahr al-Kalb /Patna /New Year's Eve in Bagdad /Ruins /The Jungle Vine /Sirrush /Carnae /The Little Lion of Font-de-Gaume /Teotihuacan /Disillusion /Delray Beach, Florida /The Home of the Gods /Bourzi /Tehuantepec /Jewels /African Night /The Irish /The Iron Pillar of Delhi /The Olmec /The Tusk /The Dragon Kings /A Brook in Vermont /The Indian Rhinoceros /Tiger in the Rain /The Hippopotamus /The Lizards of Tula /The Mantis /The Elephant /The Newt /A Skald's Lament /Heldendammerung /Transposition /Old Heroes /To R.E.H. /Heroes /Ou Sont les Planetes d'Antan? /The Ghost /Jorian's Jingles: On Battle /On a Shrew /On Executioners /On Polygamy /On Piracy /On His Homeland /On Himself /On Magic /On Death /Envy /A Tale of Two John Carters /Mother and Son /Thoth-Amon's Complaint /A Glass of Goblanti /Xeroxing the Necronomicon /Time/To My Library /Night /Warriors /Acrophobia /Faunas /The Sorcerers /Preferences /Bear on a Bicycle /The Old-Fashioned Lover /The Trap /The Reaper [A Night in Cairo /Art /Nabonidus /The Gods /Ghost Ships /A Farewell to Adam /Glamour /Ghosts /Creation /Ziggurat /The Great Pyramid / Progress in Baghdad /Reward of Virtue /The Saviors /Leaves /The Other Baghdad. Dust-jacket and illustrations by Tim Kirk.

DeCamp's best poems since Demons & Dinosaurs (Arkham House) as well as some of deCamp's favorites from the AH collection, which had gone OP in a matter of months, as well.

ASIMOV ANALYZED, by Neil Goble, 1972, pp.174, $5.95. 1437 copies printed. Contents: Introduction /Asimov's Traits /Asimov's Interests /The Scope of His Writing /Introduction /Science Fiction /Dissertations: Mock and Real /Medical Textbooks /Science Books /Science History Books /History and Words Books /Science Essays and Articles /Non-Fiction Entertainment /Summary /Introduction /Personalization / Collaboration /Organization /Illustration /Diction /Modulation /Dramatizations /Afterword /Bibliography and Literature Cited /Bibliography of Asimov's Books /Non-Asimov Literature Cited. Charts. Jacket by Joe Wehrle, Jr.

A structural linguist looks at Asimov. Pretty dry and unusual. Chalker says he's still not sure why he did it, or why anybody would buy it, but notes that it sold well.

H.G. WELLS: CRITIC OF PROGRESS, by Jack Williamson, 1973, pp.162, $5.95. 1509 copies printed. Contents: The Future as History /Wells and Modern Science Fiction /Wells Against the World /About this Book /The Prophet and His Honor /Theories of Progress /Patterns of Rebellion /The Discovery of the Future /Defining the Limits /The Time Machine /The War of the Worlds /"The Star" and Other Stories /Man Against Himself /The Island of Dr. Moreau /The Invisible Man /"The Country of the Blind" and Other Stories / The Relativity of Progress /Evaluating the Progress /When the Sleeper Wakes /The First Men in the Moon /The Prophet of Progress, 1901-1946 /Wells and the Two Cultures /The Live Ideas, 1946-- /Bibliography /Notes /Index-- Works of H.G. Wells /General Index. Jacket by Greg Bear. Reprint: Mirage, 528 copies, 1976. Identical to first printing but notes its reprint status.

A major SF writer's doctoral thesis on Wells' SF from a unique perspective. Remember, the young Williamson was writing SF at the same time as the old Wells. Academics and mainstream reviewers said this was the best work on Wells up to its time and it's still highly regarded. The jacket artist is Greg Bear the SF writer, by the way.

PLANETS AND DIMENSIONS: Collected Essays of Clark Ashton Smith, edited by Charles K. Wolfe, 1973, pp.xii/87. 491 copies clothbound and numbered, 761 sewn paperbound, unnumbered; cloth price: $5.00, paper $3.50. Contents: Introduction, by Charles K. Wolfe /George Sterling, An Appreciation /Where Fantasy Meets Science Fiction /Beyond the Singing Flame /On Garbage-Mongering /Fantasy and Human Experience /The Tale of Macrocosmic Horror /Realism and Fantasy /The Validity of Weird Stories /Horror, Fantasy, and Science /On the Forbidden Books /The Weird Works of M.R. James /The Psychology of the Horror Story /The Family Tree of the Gods /Clark Ashton Smith: An Autobiographette /On Fantasy /The Daemonian Face /The Favorite Weird Stories of Clark Ashton Smith /An Autobiography of Clark Ashton Smith /Story-Writing Hints /In Appreciation of William Hope Hodgson /In Memoriam: H.P. Lovecraft /On H.P. Lovecraft I /On H.P. Lovecraft II /Atmosphere in Weird Fiction /The Decline of Civilization: A Note on "The Dark Age" /Planets and Dimensions /George Sterling: Poet and Friend /The Philosophy of the Weird Tale /Review of Marianne Moore's Nevertheless /On Grotesque Carvings /A Cosmic Novel: The Web of Easter Island /On Science Fiction History /Why I Selected The Uncharted Isle / About "The Plutonian Drug" /On Tales About The Cthulhu Mythos /Appendix. Cover portrait by Joe Wehrle, Jr.

Interesting, readable essays from the poet and weird fiction legend previously collected nowhere else.

FANTASTIC ART OF CLARK ASHTON SMITH, by Dennis Rickard, 1973, pp.iv/58, $3.75. 1502 copies printed, wrpps, 8½ X 11 format. Photos by the author except one by Chalker. Cover photo by Wynn Bullock.

An article on Smith's weird sculptures, with photos of more than 80 sculptures and drawings, and a carvings checklist.

THE REVISED H.P. LOVECRAFT BIBLIOGRAPHY, by Mark Owings with Jack L. Chalker, 1973, pp.vii/43, wrpps, 1579 copies printed, 8½ X 11 format. Cover portrait by Joe Wehrle, Jr.

Complete redoing and reformatting (Owings says to make it easy for readers to use but difficult for OP book dealers) of the Chalker bibliographies of 1961 and 1965 by Owings and updating of same.

AN ATLAS OF FANTASY, by J.B. Post, 1973, pp.xi/283, 8½ X 11 format, 1019 copies cloth, $20.00; 1232 copies identical trade paperback, $12.00. Jacket by Tim Kirk. Reprint: Mirage, 1271 paperbound, 726 cloth, 1974. Identical but do note their reprint status. New Edition: Ballantine, 1979. Reduced size and quite different in vastly interior format, with a number of maps added and others eliminated to spotlight Ballantine authors.

An atlas of fantasy maps from early cartographic experiments to Winnie the Pooh's forest, Middle-earth, and Mongo, by the map librarian at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Unique.

AN INFORMAL BIOGRAPHY OF $CROOGE McDUCK, by Jack L. Chalker, 1974, wrpps., pp.xiv/57, $3.50. 5012 copies printed. Contents: Introduction /Ancestry /Making It /Keeping It /Scrooge Bibliography, by James K. Weston [accidentally uncredited]. Cover by Ron Miller.

A "biography" that treats the Disney character as if he is a real person, done over the opposition of Disney but with the help of McDuck creator Carl Barks. Cover artist is the same Ron Miller who did the massive astronomical murals in the National Air and Space Museum! Extremely uncommon in spite of the big print run.

THE LANGUAGES OF MIDDLE-EARTH, by Ruth Noel, 1974, wrpps., pp.xxxix/97, $4.00, 546 copies printed. Charts. Cover & interior ill. by the author. Note: Although other editions were advertised, this one, labeled "Special World Science Fiction Convention Edition" is the only one. Revised & expanded: Harper & Row, NY: 1980.

An examination of the various languages created by Tolkien along with a glossary of the identified words and terms.

A CATALOG OF LOVECRAFTIANA: The Grill-Binkin Collection, Cataloged & Annotated by Mark Owings and Irving Binkin, 1975, pp.x/71. 496 clothbound, no jacket, $7.00; 1322 sewn paper, $4.00. Cover photographs of collection items. Introduction by L. Sprague deCamp. Illustrated with 22 pages of photos of rare collection items.

Catalog in detail of the largest collection of Lovecraft and Lovecraft-related material known to be in private hands. Old-time Brooklyn book dealer Binkin swore he originally thought he was buying a collection of "love craft" books....

THE COMPLEAT FEGHOOT, by Grendel Briarton (pseud. Reginald Bretnor), 1975, pp.vii/107, wrpps., $4.00. 966 copies printed. Introduction by Poul Anderson, cover and interior illustrations by Tim Kirk. Reprint: Mirage, 1976, also $4.00, 1019 copies, identical with above except first has blank back cover, second has ad on back cover. Hardcover announced but not done. New Editions: See below.

A collection of SF vignettes (86 of them) all ending in awful puns. Most but not all are from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Sample end line: "Those wedding gangs are breaking up that old belle of mine."

BARSOOM: Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Martian Vision, by Richard A. Lupoff, 1976, pp.ii/161, $7.50. 1541 copies printed. Illustrated by Roy Krenkel; jacket by Ron Miller.

Very readable study of the Martian tales of the creator of Tarzan by a life-long ERB expert.

FANCYCLOPEDIA II , by Richard Eney, 1979, pp.ix/232, 8½ X 11" format, 371 copies printed but only 150 or so were ever bound and distributed and the rest of the sheets were later discarded, $8.00. New Introduction by Jack L. Chalker and a new cover by Steve Stiles; all else identical to 1st including numbering page, but all Mirage copies have the same number--188, the number of Chalker's copy, which was photographed. Includes additions, corrections, and supplements issued by Eney after the original. Note: A hardcover was announced and is referred to on the copyright page but was never done.

Facsimile of the 1959 original edition published by Eney; a dictionary and SF fan history in dictionary form from Adam to 1959. Terms, conventions, personalities, etc. Biased, and now dated, but the best so far.

THE (EVEN MORE) COMPLEAT FEGHOOT, by Grendel Briarton [pseud. Reginald Bretnor], 1980, pp.vii/120, $5.00. 1751 copies printed, sewn trade paperback format only. Cover by Tim Kirk is the same as original book above but reflects new title and has new back ad. Updated edition: as The Collected Feghoot, Pulphouse, 1992, in cloth and paper, which see, raising the total to 127.

Contains complete contents of original edition (above) but adds 16 more bringing the total to an even hundred awful puns.

THE HARLAN ELLISON HORNBOOK, by Harlan Ellison, 1990, pp.xxix/418, 40 copies leatherbound and slipcased with The Harlan Ellison Movie (below), none sold separately, of which 26 were lettered A-Z, $225.00 the set, the rest presentation, NFS; 765 copies clothbound, all signed, 750 numbered, $100 the set, the rest presentation and NFS, all slipcased together with the Movie book in uniform binding. Foreword by Robert Crais. Illustrated by various artists and photos; index; published without jacket. Point: Signature sheets for leatherbound have different text than clothbound. Simultaneous edition: Penzler Books, identical but trade cloth binding, jacket, and Penzler title and copyright pages, 1990.

The Mirage and Penzler editions were printed at the same time by Warners and differ only in title page, copyright page, limitations page, and binding. Because Warners had to print before Mirage could bind, Penzler is first state of this title alone by three weeks. However, related companion book (below) is exclusive. The contract for this was signed in September, 1969; Ellison delivered it in August, 1989! Chalker decided to publish the deluxe edition anyway, leaving the trade to Penzler, "as another step in fulfilling our 1971 Fall List."

HARLAN ELLISON'S MOVIE, by Harlan Ellison, 1990, pp.xi/151, 40 copies leatherbound, all signed, of which 26 were lettered A-Z and slipcased with the Hornbook, above, none sold separately, the rest presentation, NFS; 765 copies clothbound, also signed, with 750 numbered, the rest presentation and NFS, all slipcased together with the Hornbook above. None sold separately. Published without jacket. Point: Signature sheets for leatherbound have varying text from those in clothbound. Reprint: One-volume mass market hb with Movie, White Wolf US) Borealis (UK), 1997 as Edgeworks Vol. 3.

First publication of this legendary project originally in the Hornbook and cut by Penzler, leaving the mass-market Hornbook with a one-page mention of it and no other explanation. Brown cloth set is imposing but ordinary-looking; leatherbound is nicer looking in very dark brown natural (not processed--the books smell like new shoes) calfskin in slightly darker (than trade) brown cloth slipcase, but the bindery used ordinary endpapers as deadlines neared with no stock of fancy papers on hand. It should be noted, though, that all copies of both this and Hornbook above are hand-bound and hand sewn. Produced by Pulphouse for Mirage.

THE SCIENCE-FANTASY PUBLISHERS: A Bibliographic History, by Jack L. Chalker and Mark Owings, 1991, pp.744, $75.00. 8½ X 11 format. All copies hardbound but beyond the 100 initial copies they are being bound from 100-250 at a time as demand warrants, so a final copy count will not be possible until the book has a new and revised printing. Illustrated with photos of and from books covered. Published without jacket. Prior editions: See The Index to the Science-Fantasy Publishers, 1966, above. Point: Although fanatics might like to find out about all bindings, the fact is that the initial binding is least correct and the latest binding most correct. That's why we're including all the revisions in the supplements. Completists must buy them all, of course. "Slipstreamed" Policy: Due to the incremental binding process, Mirage, faced with the idea of putting out copies with errors or correcting them, decided to correct typos and mistakes as found when ordering new bindings so long as they added no new imprints or titles and disturbed neither the indexing nor pagination. Which one you have can be told only by a number by itself above the ISBN on the copyright page. First state is blank; second state has a "2" there, any third state would have a "3" etc. Corrections are of errors only and are mostly minor; all save non-distorting typos are covered here as if all states are first state.

THE SCIENCE-FANTASY PUBLISHERS: Supplement One, July 1991-June 1992, by Jack L. Chalker and Mark Owings, 1992, pp.xiii/130, 8½ X 11 inch format, trade paperback format only, $10.00. 40 copies printed. Cover design by Jack L. Chalker (all text).

We actually did this one for the 1992 World SF Convention as intended and produced only enough for that convention; there it was discovered that all had a binding error that repeated an appendix section and left out part of the index. Before this could be corrected and redone for general sale, sufficient information was discovered to force a retypesetting of the book, and Pulphouse, which had been handling production, was having its own problems. It was finally decided not to redo the supplement but to fold it into a larger supplement, this book, for the 1993 worldcon and subsequent distribution, but it must be listed here for completists.

THE SCIENCE-FANTASY PUBLISHERS: Supplement One, July 1991-June 1993, by Jack L. Chalker and Mark Owings, 1993, pp.___, 8½ X 11 inch format, trade paperback only, $10.00. 150 copies printed. Cover design by Jack L. Chalker (all text).

Corrected and updated of above. Thicker, but hard to tell from the first one unless you either check the Index (printed correctly) or note the end date in the title. Contains some history material not in this main work.

THE SCIENCE-FANTASY PUBLISHERS: Supplement Two, July, 1993-June, 1994, by Jack L. Chalker and Mark Owings, 1994, pp.iv/74, 8½ X 11 inch trade paperback format only, $10.00. 150 copies printed. Cover design identical to first supplement(s) but on blue stock rather than gray.

More updates than corrections, brings the big book through the middle of 1994. Nothing not included now in this book.

THE SCIENCE-FANTASY PUBLISHERS: Supplement Three, July, 1994-June, 1995, by Jack L. Chalker and Mark Owings, 1995, pp.vi/76, 8 X 11 inch trade paperback format only, $10.00. 150 copies printed. Cover design a variation of the first two, all type.

More updates than corrections, brings the big book through the middle of 1995. Books covered through this supplement are incorporated into this 3.5 edition of the big book.

THE SCIENCE-FANTASY PUBLISHERS: Supplement Four, July, 1995-June, 1996, by Jack L. Chalker and Mark Owings, 1996, pp.vi/68, 8½ X 11 inch trade paperback format only, $10.00. 150 copies printed. Cover design a variation of the first two, all type.

More updates than corrections, brings the big book through the middle of 1996. Books covered through this supplement are incorporated into this 3.5 edition of the big book.

THE SCIENCE-FANTASY PUBLISHERS: Supplement Five, July, 1996-June, 1997, by Jack L. Chalker and Mark Owings, 1997, pp.vviii/71, 8½ X 11 inch trade paperback format only, $10.00. 150 copies printed. Cover design a variation of the first two, all type.

More updates than corrections, brings the big book through the middle of 1997. Books through this supplement are in this edition 3.5.

THE SCIENCE-FANTASY PUBLISHERS: 1023-1998, by Jack L. Chalker & Mark Owings, 1998, CD ROM FORMAT, Adobe Acrobat edition updated to mid-1998 and also containing all supplements. $49.95.

 
 

    Alas, although the Mirage symbol is trademarked, the name was registered only in a few states, one of which was not California, where a Hollywood type launched Mirage Enterprises in the early Seventies. This other Mirage is not connected with this Mirage, nor does it do material in the field, but because Mirage Press is older and better established, it receives many orders for the coffee-table Grateful Dead books and the like that the other one put out. An attempt to get the confusion stopped caused the fellow who runs the other Mirage to huff that this Mirage was a nothing and a nobody and should go drink in the toilet. Since that time, Chalker estimates that Mirage Press has destroyed thousands of dollars worth of the other one's orders rather than pass them on, reflecting the same courtesy level as they showed him. A third Mirage, this one also a Mirage Press, an academic imprint in Boston in the mid-Seventies, altered its name to avoid confusion and established a good two-way working relationship for misdirected orders. And, of course, not counting the loudspeakers, jet fighter, car, etc., there's also Mirage Studios, but that one is more concerned with teenage mutant turtles. As the far older imprint, our Mirage Press continues to be listed alone in the large references bookstores and libraries use, but we don't want you to be confused if you come across titles from the others.

    After August Derleth's death in 1971, Chalker, to his amazement, found himself for a short period the center of SF small press publishing, and while he made only small profits, like Arkham House at the end of World War II, he appeared to others to be prospering, and many would-be publishers came to him for advice on setting up their own presses, advice freely given. Thus, Chalker in the early Seventies was the most responsible for making a liar out of himself about the future of specialty publishing. Still, as the boom he rekindled began, Mirage itself ran into trouble.

    Bill Osten's health declined in the mid-Seventies and in 1975 he required extensive hospitalization and convalescence, leaving Chalker alone once more. Osten's family, which had subsidized the operation with loans, now called them and seized the typesetting machines and other production equipment as security. Chalker had Luna Press typeset the manuscript on hand, Barsoom, and did that one himself, as well as he alone doing an updated Feghoot on the lone typesetting machine the Osten family had overlooked, with Lloyd A. Chalker, his father, managing day-to-day operations and handling order fulfillment until mid-1978, when Chalker married and moved out of Baltimore, but clearly once again the money well was too dry to sustain the pace economics required.

    Too, the timing was almost precisely aligned with Chalker's first mass market novel sale. As his writing career grew and blossomed, the amount of time he could devote to the Press declined dramatically, and Mirage Press ceased active operations after he and his wife, Eva Whitley, produced the Fancyclopedia reprint, printing and binding it entirely themselves. The company still sold the backlist direct but only in wholesale quantities, but Chalker refused to fold it, noting that there were still three books (including the Ellison and this one) to go, the other being two Vaughn Bodé illustrated Roger Zelazny children's fantasy books, Here There Be Dragons and Way Up High, which wound up co-produced with Donald M. Grant and marketed by Grant under the Grant imprint (Mirage is on the colophon). Chalker notes that, now that he's done the Hornbook, the Zelazny-Bodé books, and this work, he believes that all announced books were either eventually published by Mirage, by other publishers, or canceled by the authors.

    Chalker is adamant that Mirage will never again be a trade publisher, but says that he might well do an occasional high-end limited edition, at very rare intervals, and might possibly do revised reissues of some older books now in demand (such as An Informal Biography of $crooge McDuck, for which there is great demand, and future versions and supplements of this one). The Hornbook, for example, was bound from sheets supplied by Penzler Books and is essentially the same as their trade edition except for signature page and binding and title page; the Movie was typeset by Pendragon's Jeff Levin and printed by Pulphouse and Alan Bard Newcomer, the duo bound by the latter's binder and warehoused and shipped from Oregon after Chalker faxes the week's orders to them. He notes that, while not perfect, it was the closest he's come to hands-free publishing.

    In the meantime, he has also dipped his hand into WSFA Press, designing, typesetting, and producing their 1990 title, Through Darkest Resnick With Gun and Camera, but he states that it was mostly a re-learning project and insists that he will not be handling that on a regular basis--he was volunteered for the job by the con chairwoman, Eva Whitley, who happens to be his wife--and, indeed, he had only a minor advisory role on one subsequent title.

    Chalker says he still enjoys it but not the trouble involved. Aside from the Supplements and future editions of The Science-Fantasy Publishers, handled through the mid-Nineties by Alan Bard Newcomer's Hypatia Press in Eugene, Oregon (and now by Chalker himself), he doubts many more titles will bear a Mirage imprint, but he's not saying "Never again," and has threatened to do a deluxe hardcover of his novel Midnight at the Well of Souls at some point in the future if nobody else offers first.

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