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PRESS RELEASE – Long lost Henry Kuttner story coming from Haffner Press!!

K r a z y   K o o k y   K u t t n e r   K o r n e r     

J u l y  18,  2 0 1 9

   We have a LOT of news to share before the end of summer and we’re keeping this issue focused on a single title, but boy-o-boy have we found a way to make it even more special for you! Without further ado: Welcome to this special edition we’re calling Krazy Kooky Kuttner Korner.  


Henry Kuttner & Frederick B. Shroyer circa 1939


   It’s taken more than 8 years to assemble the relevant components and we are very, very pleased to announce . . . 

The long-lost serial by
Henry Kuttner
“MASTER OF THE DAMNED”

(illustration by John V Baltadonis)

   Submitted by Kuttner on January 6, 1937, the 3500-word terror-tale “Master of the Damned” was serialized in three issues ( July 1937, Vol. 1 No. 2, Winter 1937 Vol. 1 No. 3, and November 1938 Vol. 1 No. 4) of John Weir’s hectographed fanzine FANTASMAGORIA. The story involves witches, warlocks and . . . well, here’s Mr. Kuttner’s chilling prose to give you a sample:

   Incubi and succubi leaped and cried beside shrieking hags. Warlocks bestrode yelling mooncalves that cavorted through the throng, and demons and familiars mingled with the coven. A monstrous, bloated head, leering and chuckling, crawled past on spidery legs, and in its wake crept a thing like a monstrous turtle, save that human hands and feet propelled the creature on its way. Curiously deformed toads and serpents squirmed underfoot, and great cats, monstrously altered, capered in the wake of their masters. I saw a headless thing, with a grinning face growing on its belly, rush up to the altar, carrying a tall black candle, and light it from the red flame that sprang, apparently, from the ground itself before the altar.


YIKES! And there are 3,380 more words to the story!! Speaking of which, how can you get a copy of “Master of the Damned”? Well, if you’ve placed a preorder for DESIGNS FOR DREAMING: THE EARLY KUTTNER, VOLUME THREE, then you’re already in line to receive it! You read that correctly: “Master of the Damned” is available as an exclusive chapbook shipping with all preordered copies of DESIGNS FOR DREAMING at no extra charge!
   So, get on board, smash that Preorder link
, and make your Kuttner book kollection something that everyone will krave!



Getting low in stock:

DESIGNS FOR DREAMING:
The Early Kuttner,
Volume Three
Introduction by Dr. Garyn G. Roberts
Cover art by Robert Gibson-Jones
ISBN: 9781893887879
700+ pages
Smythe-sewn binding
Full cloth-covered binding boards
Target Date: April 2020Preorder: $45


CONTENTS
Introduction by Garyn G. Roberts, Ph.D.
The Elixir of Invisibility (nv) Fantastic Adventures Oct ’40
To Boatl and Back (ss) Strange Stories Oct ’40
Reverse Atom (ss) Thrilling Wonder Stories Nov ’40
Threshold (ss) Unknown Dec ’40
Death Is My Daughter (ss) Strange Detective Mysteries Jan ’41
Remember Tomorrow (nv) Thrilling Wonder Stories Jan ’41
Wings of the Bat (ss) Thrilling Mystery Jan ’41
Hunger After Dark (ss) Terror Tales Mar ’41
Men Die Alone (ss) Thrilling Mystery Mar ’41
The Land of Time to Come (na) Thrilling Wonder  Apr ’41
The Touching-Point (ss) Stirring Science Stories Apr ’41
Seven Keys to Doom (ss) Thrilling Mystery May ’41
Tube to Nowhere (ss) Thrilling Wonder Stories Jun ’41
Mind Over Murder (ss) Spicy Mystery Jul ’41
A Skull Has No Ears (nv) Thrilling Mystery Jul ’41
The Devil We Know (nv) Unknown Aug ’41
The Blood Is the Life (ss) Thrilling Mystery Sep ’41
The Tree of Life, (ss) Astonishing Stories Sep ’41
A Gnome There Was (nv) Unknown Oct ’41
Chameleon Man (nv) Weird Tales Nov ’41
Design for Dreaming (nv) Unknown Feb ’42
The Burning Corpse (nv) Thrilling Mystery Mar ’42
Later Than You Think (ss) Fantastic Adventures Mar ’42
Silent Eden (ss) Startling Stories Mar ’42

Posted in Uncategorized on July 18, 2019 @ 12:14 pm | Comments Off

In This Issue: April 18, 2019 
Announcing for 2020
•  Market for Murder: Fredric Brown Mystery Library, Volume Three
•  Designs for Dreaming: The Early Kuttner, Volume Three
•  The Complete Ed & Am Hunter Mysteries

   Hey, everybody. We just returned from exhibiting at the Windy City Pulp & Paper Convention in Lombard, IL where a grand time was had by all. While there, we took the opportunity to share proofs and cover concepts for some titles we have planned for 2020. Tomorrow, look for a two-part newsletter with updates on our 2019 titles (some good news, some bad news, and a some wonderful surprises). So, getting to it, here’s someof the titles we have planned for next year:


Low in stock:

   
MARKET FOR MURDER:
Fredric Brown Mystery Library,
Volume Three
Introduction by Jack Seabrook
ISBN: 9781893887985
744 pages
Smythe-sewn binding
Decorated endpapers
Full cloth-covered binding boards
Over 50 illustrations
Target Date: March 2020

Preorder: $4530+ pulp magazine stories from:
Detective Tales
Dime Mystery
Clues Detective Stories

Thrilling Detective

Thrilling Mystery
Detective Aces
Popular Detective
New Detective Magazine
Mystery Magazine
3-43
Detective Short Stories
Strange Detective Mysteries
Mystery Magazine
The Shadow
Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine

Full Contents HERE

STILL AVAILABLE (fer now!)

Vol. One MURDER DRAWS A CROWD
Vol. Two DEATH IN THE DARK




in stock:

DESIGNS FOR DREAMING:
The Early Kuttner,
Volume Three
Introduction by Dr. Garyn G. Roberts
ISBN: 9781893887879
712 pages
Smythe-sewn binding
Decorated endpapers
Full cloth-covered binding boards
Target Date: April 2020

Preorder: $4524 pulp magazine stories from
Fantastic Adventures
Strange Stories
Thrilling Wonder Stories
Strange Detective Mysteries
Thrilling Mystery
Terror Tales
Stirring Science Stories
Spicy Mystery
Astonishing Stories
Weird Tales
STILL AVAILABLE (fer now!)
Vol. Two THE WATCHER AT THE DOORSorry, Vol. One TERROR IN THE HOUSE is out of print.




 
placeholder image
THE COMPLETE
ED & AM HUNTER
MYSTERIES

by Fredric Brown
Introduction by Jack Seabrook
ISBN: 9781893887855
Two Volumes, 1000+ pages
Smythe-sewn binding
Full cloth-covered binding boards
Target Date: September 2020

Preorder: $95

7 novels and two short stories of this nephew-and-uncle crime solving duo:
The Fabulous Clipjoint
The Dead Ringer
The Bloody Moonlight
Compliments of a Fiend
Death Has Many Doors
The Late Lamented
“Before She Kills”
Mrs. Murphy’s Underpants
“The Missing Actor


That’s it for now. To ensure that you continue to receive this newsletter, be sure to add haffnerpress@sbcglobal.net and info@haffnerpress.com to your email reader’s “safe list.” And, remember, shipping is FREE in the continental United States. Alaska, Hawaii and International orders should email us at info@haffnerpress.com for shipping rate quotes. You have been warned!

Posted in Newsletter,Uncategorized on April 19, 2019 @ 12:26 pm | Comments Off

Haffner Press Newsletter – March 28, 2018 – HALO FOR HIRE Ships This Week!

In This Issue: March 28, 2018 
HALO FOR HIRE
THE COMPLETE PAUL PINE MYSTERIES
starts shipping April 1st (no foolin’!)

   We are (mostly) recovered from exhibiting at the March 18th Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Collectors Show in Glendale, CA. We were able to get a few cartons of HALO FOR HIRE: THE COMPLETE PAUL PINE MYSTERIES from the bindery to the show and the gentle folks below were kind enough to autograph copies purchased at the Haffner Press exhibit:

Laurel Blechman (cover artist), Stephen Haffner (editor), Richard A. Lupoff (introduction), Melissa Flagstad (afterword & Howard Browne’s daughter), Trond Flagstad (the face of the face of Paul Pine) 

   We are still acquiring and staging the balance of the inventory of HALO FOR HIRE — it’s a 1000-copy run and over 900 pages! — so we are holding the $50 pre-publication price until April 15th. Meanwhile, visit our Flickr page for more pics from the show.

HALO FOR HIRE:
THE COMPLETE PAUL PINE MYSTERIES
Howard Browne
Introduction by Richard A. Lupoff
Afterword by Melissa Flagstad
Cover
by Laurel Blechman
$60 928-page Smythe-sewn Hardcover

PRE-APRIL 15thORDER PRICE:
$50Contents:
Halo in Blood
Halo for Satan
Halo in Brass
“So Dark for April”
The Taste of Ashes
“The Paper Gun”


Paul Pine and the Shelter Cats

   No, it’s not the name of a cover-band — it’s how yer humble Poobah spends a bit of time chillaxin’ at the Catfé Lounge tinkering on your future wares. The Catfé Lounge is part of the Ferndale Cat Shelter and all these beauties are adoptable! With hardly any coaxing at all (ahem!), we had a few of our favorite kittehs pose with the new HALO FOR HIRE book:

(l to r) Ascot, Jinxy, Shepard, Stormy, Artemis


What’s Inside Your HALO?

   As seen in a photo above, we have striven to pay homage to the design aesthetics of the first editions of the Paul Pine novels. The foil-stamp for the front board of the 1946 hardcover of HALO IN BLOOD is echoed in the omnibus HALO FOR HIRE and the title page for each novel is stolen takes inspiration from the Bobbs-Merrill first editions.

Are You Looking for a New Friend?
   While most of you who receive this e-newsletter aren’t local to the Ferndale Cat Shelter, we encourage you to take a “mew-ment” to visit your local pet-adoption center and make a new friend. Meanwhile, we want to thank the special felines who modeled for this newsletter:

Ascot – Waiting to meet you!

Jinxy – ADOPTED!
Shepard – PENDING!
Stormy –
ADOPTED!
Artemis –
“I’m a new kitty and I’ll be available soon!”
That’s it for now. To ensure that you continue to receive this newsletter, be sure to add haffnerpress@sbcglobal.net and info@haffnerpress.com to your email reader’s “safe list.” And, remember, shipping is FREE in the continental United States. Alaska, Hawaii and International orders should email us at info@haffnerpress.com for shipping rate quotes. You have been warned!
You’re receiving this message because you requested to be notified of events at Haffner Press, or have done business with Haffner Press in the past. If you do not wish to receive these messages in the future click unsubscribe and request to have your name removed.
.

Copyright © 2018 HAFFNER PRESS
Posted in Events,News,Newsletter,Uncategorized on March 28, 2018 @ 4:05 pm | Comments Off

Haffner Press Newsletter – January 19, 2016

 In This Issue: January 19, 2016
    Update on MURDER DRAWS A CROWD by Fredric Brown
    • Update on DEATH IN THE DARK by Fredric Brown
    • Cast your vote for the cover art to THE BOOK OF STARK by Leigh Brackett

Update on MURDER DRAWS A CROWD by Fredric Brown 

It is with much frustration we announce that MURDER DRAWS A CROWD: THE FREDRIC BROWN MYSTERY LIBRARY, VOLUME ONE hit another stumbling block. This was a big one. We supplied materials to the printer in August 2015 and, after several challenges (see our previous e-newsletter), we were informed in early December that the books were finally finished.

  However, the review copies sent by the printer for our final approval did not meet the standards of Haffner Press. The binding method they used to get the cloth-covered cases to fit the page-blocks matches no book we’ve ever seen, let alone published. This binding method also forces the spine of the dustjacket to wrap onto the back of the book. When we were informed that the balance of the inventory matched these review copies, we rejected the entire lot.
  As of this writing, we are scheduling a proper run of the book, updated for 2016, bringing you the edition of MURDER DRAWS A CROWD to which you’re entitled. This means an additional delay of several months. We wish there was better news. As the first book of the multi-volume series collecting the mystery fiction of Fredric Brown, we want this book to be a point of pride in your collection. Fredric Brownand you deserve it.
MURDER DRAWS A CROWD
The Fredric Brown Mystery Library, Volume One
Introduction by Jack Seabrook
ISBN: 9781893887787
744 pages
Over 100 illustrations
39 pulp magazine stories:
Detective  • Mystery  Horror  Western
100-pg appendix with the “V.O.N. Munchdriller” &
“William Z. Williams” comedies
Decorated endpapers
Smythe-sewn binding

Full cloth-covered binding boards
Preorder: $40
On publication: $45

Update on DEATH IN THE DARK by Fredric Brown

  While the news on the first volume of THE FREDRIC BROWN MYSTERY LIBRARY is not the greatest, we are pleased to report that work on the second volume, DEATH IN THE DARK, is in the home stretch.
  Fredric Brown scholar Jack Seabrook is on hand again with an erudite introduction and we have been successful in securing many more of the original illustrations; not only those from the detective pulps, but also those for the rarities from the trade magazines INDEPENDENT SALESMAN, THE INVENTOR, FEEDSTUFFS, etc.
DEATH IN THE DARK
The Fredric Brown Mystery Library, Volume Two

Introduction by Jack Seabrook
ISBN: 9781893887800
744 pages
Over 90 illustrations
32 pulp magazine stories:
    Detective  • Mystery  Horror
80-pg appendix with the “Colonel Cluck/Kluck,”
  “Barnyard Bill Says—” & “
Willie Skid” bits
Decorated endpapers
Smythe-sewn binding
Full cloth-covered binding boards
 
Preorder: $40
On publication: $45



Cast your vote for the cover art for
THE BOOK OF STARK by Leigh Brackett

We recently received the comps from artist Raymond Swanland for Leigh Brackett’s THE BOOK OF STARK and we’re cutting you in on the design of the cover!  Send an email to info@haffnerpress.com telling us which cover comp (Nos. 1-13) you would like to see turned into the finished artwork to THE BOOK OF STARK. For everyone one responds, we’ll enter you in a drawing for a FREE copy of the finished book!

<click to enlarge>
THE BOOK OF STARK
By Leigh Brackett
Artwork by Raymond Swanland
Edited
by Stephen Haffner

ISBN: 9781893887862
720+ page Smythe-sewn Hardcover
Preorder: $45
THIS IS IT! The BIG one! All the tales of Eric John Stark in a single volume. The stories, the novels, and for the first time, Brackett’s working notes for the abandoned FOURTH “Stark” novel from 1977.Need we say more? Contents
“Queen of the Martian Catacombs”
“Enchantress of Venus”
“Black Amazon of Mars”
“Stark and the Star Kings”
The Ginger Star
The Hounds of Skaith
The Reavers of Skaith
“1977: Notes for Stark #4″


That’s it for now. To ensure that you continue to receive this newsletter, be sure to add haffnerpress@sbcglobal.net and info@haffnerpress.com to your email reader’s “safe list.” And, remember, shipping is FREE in the continental United States. Alaska, Hawaii and International orders should email us at info@haffnerpress.com for shipping rate quotes. You have been warned!

Posted in Uncategorized on January 19, 2016 @ 2:39 pm | Comments Off

Haffner Press Leigh Brackett 100th Birthday Newsletter – December 7, 2015

 In This Leigh Brackett Issue: December 7, 2015
LEIGH BRACKETTS 100th BIRTHDAY
THE BOOK OF STARK
LEIGH BRACKETT CENTENNIAL

December 7, 2015 – Leigh Brackett’s 100th Birthday

Today, we celebrate the 100th birthday of one of our favorite writers, Leigh Brackett. Rather than craft a bio of our own, we’d like to share with you the lady’s own words from 1954:     “I was born, of course—December 7, 1915, in Los Angeles, California; educated there and in New Orleans and Boston, where I lived for a few years. My father died before I was three, but whatever knack for writing I may have I inherited from him. Not long ago I found a bundle of his poems, plot-sketches, and half-completed stories among the family papers—an experience made more eerie by the fact that one of his stories bore a title almost identical with one I was working on myself at the time. It’s a pity that he did not live long enough to establish himself as what he always wanted to be—a writer…
“At thirteen I began writing seriously, and very serious it was, too. I wrote two heavy problem novels, quite a number of shorter stories, and several poems, All in longhand on ruled paper. Ive often wondered if editors really bothered to read them, and I have even more often prayed that they did not. This early, or Eolithic, Brackettiana was dealt with later in a private burning of the books.
“Most of my childhood—certainly the happiest years of it—was spent in my grandfather’s house on a rather isolated California Beach. There I swam, fished, soaked up sun, and acquired a taste for beach-combing that has never left me. There I discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs and Mars. There I read Doyle’s “The Maracot Deep” in the Saturday Evening Post, another milestone. There I learned Kipling’s “Jungle Books” by heart, and made my first inroads on Rider Haggard. I also got good marks in English. These two things later betrayed me, the one into fantasy and sf, t’other into believing that writing would be an easy profession. I found out.
I sold my first story (in late 1939, to Astounding) largely because of two things. First, because this same grandfather had a sure and quiet faith in me, and showed it by financing me in my chance to write when I was quite old enough to make my own living. Second, because one Henry Kuttner, of whom you may have heard, chose to think my wobbling and misshapen efforts had some promise, and went out of his way to help me develop it.
“I have been writing for a living ever since, mostly in science fiction, sometimes in detective stories, for three years and a bit in the Hollywood studios (Columbia, Republic and Warner’s), and a very brief excursion into radio. I like to write. There are times, I’ll admit, when I wish I had chosen the profession of ditch-digging instead. (In all honesty, I’ll have to qualify that last. Since moving to the country I have actually dug a ditch, and I believe that writing is easier.) But it’s a satisfying job and one that constantly expands and changes because you can never possibly learn everything about it. You ask what my philosophy of writing is—I don’t know that I have any. To tell a good story, to tell it as well and effectively as possible, and to try to grow a little wiser and a little deeper all the time—I suppose, put into words, that’s what I aim at. Whether or not I hit it is another matter entirely.”
Thankfully, she hit what she aimed at very well: her contributions to genre fiction—in print and on the screen—have influenced three generations of storytellers. It is arguable that without the work of Leigh Brackett, tens of millions of movie-goers would not be in cinemas next week watching STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS.

So it is with great pride that we celebrate the day of Leigh Brackett’s Centennial with the announcement of a new hardcover collection of her most famous creation:
(placeholder art)

Preorder: $45
THE BOOK OF STARK
By Leigh Brackett
Artwork by Raymond Swanland
Edited
by Stephen Haffner

ISBN: 9781893887862
720+ pages
Smythe-sewn Hardcover
THIS IS IT! The BIG one! All the tales of Eric John Stark in a single volume. The stories, the novels, and for the first time, Brackett’s working notes for the abandoned FOURTH “Stark” novel from 1977. Need we say more? Contents
“Queen of the Martian Catacombs”
“Enchantress of Venus”
“Black Amazon of Mars”
“Stark and the Star Kings”
The Ginger Star
The Hounds of Skaith
The Reavers of Skaith
“1977: Notes for Stark #4″

LEIGH BRACKETT CENTENNIAL
Edited by Stephen Haffner
Foreword by Bruce Douglass
ISBN: 9781893887848
500+ pages
Trade Paperback
Over 50 interior images

Discovered by editor Stephen Haffner, Brackett’s unpublished story “They” leads off this tribute volume collecting the majority of Brackett’s nonfiction writings, supplemented with vintage interviews and commentaries/remembrances from such luminaries as Ray Bradbury, Michael Moorcock, Richard A. Lupoff, and more.
LEIGH BRACKETT CENTENNIAL covers numerous facets and events of Brackett‘s life including:
  • Bringing Philip Marlowe into the 1970s for Robert Altman’s THE LONG GOODBYE . . .
  • SF author and NASA employee hosted Brackett at the launch of Apollo XII . . .
  • Bookseller Ray Walsh documents the day he escorted Brackett to view a new groundbreaking space-fantasy film in the summer of 1977 . . .
CONTENTS LIST
All contributions are by Leigh Brackett unless noted

Introduction by editor Stephen Haffner
Foreword by Bruce Douglass

A BRAND NEW NOVELETTE   
“They”

NONFICTION & INTERVIEWS
Barton, Interplanetary Reporter
Meet the Authors
P.S.’s Feature Flash
Hero, Heroine, Heavy
Give ’Em Hell, Leigh!
The Story Behind the Story
The Science-Fiction Field
Meet the Author
Who’s Who in Science Fiction conducted by Robert Briney
Range by L. Sprague de Camp
And As to the Admixture of Cultures on Imaginary Worlds
Barsoom and Myself
Foreword to The Coming of the Terrans
Answers to The Double:Bill Symposium
Letting My Imagination Go
Avant-propos (Introduction to Le Livre de Mars)
The Hawksian Woman by Naomi Wise
Eulogy for John W. Campbell
A Comment Upon “The Hawksian Woman”
From The Big Sleep to The Long Goodbye
    
and More or Less How We Got There
The Hounds of Skaith Interview
Beyond Our Narrow Skies
Leigh Brackett Interview by Tony Macklin
Science Fiction Writing: Experiences as a Writer
     by Juanita Roderick and Hugh G. Earnhart
Leigh Brackett: An Interview by Paul Walker
Grab What You Can Get:
     The Screenwriter asJourneyman Plumber by Steve Swires
Letter from Leigh Brackett
Letter from Judy-Lynn Del Rey
Fifty Years of Wonder
Introduction to Sword Woman
Afterword to The Best of Leigh Brackett
Addendum

MARKING HER PASSING
Leigh Brackett Dies by Charles N. Brown
See You Later, Leigh by Andrew Offutt
In Memoriam by Robert E. Briney
Leigh Brackett 1916-78 by Michael Goodwin and Naomi Wise

OTHER VOICES
They Call Her for Salty Dialogue by Hedda Hopper
Leigh Brackett by D. Peter Odgen
N’Chaka—“Man-Without-A-Tribe” by Peter F. Roy
Two-Fisted Novel Interested Director Hawks in Miss Brackett
King’s Cross in Orbit: Edmond Hamilton & Leigh Brackettin Sydney
& Inaugural Meeting of the Sydney Science Fiction Foundation
     by Patrick A. M. Terry
Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury by William F. Nolan
Story-Teller of Many Worlds by Edmond Hamilton
Introduction to The Sword of Rhiannon by Elizabeth A. Lynn
The Sword of Rhiannon by Rosemarie Arbur
The Long Tomorrow by Gary K. Wolfe
No “Long Goodbye” Is Good Enough by Rosemarie Arbur
Leigh Brackett:American Screenwriter byAlain Silver and Elizabeth Ward
Future Imperfect: Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow by Donna DeBlasio
The Sword of Rhiannon by Joe Sanders
The Long Tomorrow by Carl B. Yoke
Collecting Leigh Brackett by Robin H. Smiley
B & B: Brackett & Bradbury: 1944 by Ray Bradbury
Queen of the Martian Mysteries by Michael Moorcock
Prelude to Empire by Ray Walsh
Red Mist and Ruins:
    The Symbolist Prose of Leigh Brackett by Thomas F. Bertonneau
Leigh Brackett: Much More Than theQueen of Space Opera! by Bertil Falk
Lorelei of the Red Mist by Richard A. Lupoff
Three Days with Leigh Brackett& Edmond Hamilton by Joseph Green
The Crime Fiction of Leigh Brackett by Christine Photinos
Stark Adventuring: Leigh Brackett’s Eric John Stark by Mike Barrett

SCREEN STORY TREATMENT
“The Vampire’s Ghost”

Copyright © 2015 HAFFNER PRESS

5005 Crooks Road • Suite 35 • Royal Oak, MI 48073-1239
(248) 288-4756 • www.haffnerpress.com
•  Keep Watching the Skies!  •

Posted in Uncategorized on December 7, 2015 @ 2:47 pm | Comments Off

Haffner Press e-Newsletter – November 23, 2015

 In This Fredric Brown Issue: November 23, 2015
  “Where‘s that Fredric Brown book?”
  • Murder Draws a Crowd ships 11/10/15

  Contents List
  Sample Page-Spreads
  FREE Fredric Brown Story Online!
 
A Note on Amazon.com Availability

“Where’s that Fredric Brown book?”

     In our October 27th newsletter, we boldly (and confidently!) stated that we would be shipping MURDER DRAWS A CROWD by Fredric Brown on November 10th. In fact, we expected copies to be ready by November 2nd and that we would be able to put a sizable dent in shipping out preorders. November 10th was the “public date” as by then we would have returned from exhibiting at the 2015 World Fantasy Convention (11/4 to 11/8 in Saratoga Springs, NY) and felt we could ship the balance of the preorders.
     Meanwhile, we had been wrestling with the artwork for the metal die used on stamping the spine and front of the cloth-covered boards. As you can see in the pictures below, the stamping design is an homage to Brown’s 1950s hardcovers published by Dutton’s Guilt Edge Mystery imprint. In similar homage to the Fredric Brown books from Dennis McMillan, we choseto bind MURDER DRAWS A CROWD in
Ecofibers’ Brillianta cloth. Sadly, the same qualities that that make Brillianta a premiumcloth, also play havoc with the thin lines of the Fredric Brown cameo artwork.
     After tweaking the image to generate a “cleaner” die, it was hoped that a new sample case would be sent to our hotel in New York. If approved, final binding could commence and we could possibly still start shipping copies out on the 10th.
As you can see, the new case still had “clogging” issues. Words were expressed. Phone calls were made. Emails were sent. Meetings were held.
The result is that a new case received on November 20ht looks good. The solution was to “blind” stamp the case with a clear foil making an impression that when hit a second time with the black foil, seems to have solved the clogging issue. Of course, this doubles our cost on the stamping process, but we’d only do it or you—the loyal and patient (hey, it has been four years since MURDER DRAWS A CROWD was announced!)
connoisseurs of Fredric Brown.

We’ll send another e-newsletter when we have finished copies. Until then . . .

Keep Watching the Skies!

Dutton spine & front design
Stamp with original die
Revised Stamp with new die
Latest stamping sample with the double-hits (oo la la!)

This time, it’s (finally!) MURDER!
.Four years in the making, and it’s almost ready . . . for you!
.

MURDER DRAWS A CROWD
The Fredric Brown Mystery Library, Volume One
Introduction by Jack Seabrook
ISBN: 9781893887787
744 pages
Over 100 illustrations
39 pulp magazine stories:
Detective  • Mystery  Horror  Western
100-pg appendix with the “V.O.N. Munchdriller” &
“William Z. Williams” comedies
Decorated endpapers
Smythe-sewn binding

Full cloth-covered binding boards
Preorder: $40
On publication: $45


SAMPLE PAGE-SPREADS

The Prehistoric Clue
The King Comes Home
Twenty Gets You Plenty Hex Marks the Spot

.


CONTENTS LIST

The Moon for a Nickel, Detective Story Magazine Mar. 38
The Cheese on Stilts, Thrilling Detective Jan. 39
Blood of the Dragon, Variety Detective Magazine Feb. 39
There Are Bloodstains in the Alley, Detective Yarns Feb. 39
Murder at 10:15, Clues Detective Stories May 39
The Prehistoric Clue, Ten Detective Aces Jul. 40
Trouble in a Teacup, Detective Fiction Weekly Jul-13-1940
Murder Draws a Crowd, Detective Fiction Weekly Jul-27-1940
Footprints on the Ceiling, Ten Detective Aces Sep. 40
The Little Green Men, The Masked Detective Fall 1940
Town Wanted, Detective Fiction Weekly Sep-7-1940
Herbie Rides His Hunch, Detective Fiction Weekly Oct-19-1940
The Stranger from Trouble Valley, Western Short Stories Nov. 40
The Strange Sisters Strange, Detective Fiction Weekly Dec-28-1940
How Tagrid Got There, unpublished until 1986
Fugitive Imposter, Ten Detective Aces Jan. 41
The King Comes Home, Thrilling Detective Jan. 41
Big-Top Doom, Ten Detective Aces Mar 41
The Discontented Cows, G-Men Detective Mar. 41
Life and Fire, Detective Fiction Weekly Mar-22-1941
Big-League Larceny, Ten Detective Aces Apr. 41 {as by Jack Hobart}
Selling Death Short, Ten Detective Aces Apr. 41
Client Unknown, The Phantom Detective Apr. 41
Your Name in Gold, The Phantom Detective Jun. 41
Here Comes the Hearse, 10-Story Detective Jul. 41 {as by Allen Morse}
Six-Gun Song, 10-Story Detective Jul. 41
Star-Spangled Night, Coronet Jul. 41
Wheels Across the Night, G-Men Detective Jul. 41
Little Boy Lost, Detective Fiction Weekly Aug-2-1941
Bullet for Bullet, Western Short Stories Oct. 41
Listen to the Mocking Bird, G-Men Detective Nov. 41
You’ll End Up Burning!, Ten Detective Aces Nov. 41
Number Bug, Exciting Detective Winter 1941
Thirty Corpses Every Thursday, Detective Tales Dec. 41
Trouble Comes Double, Popular Detective Dec. 41
Clue in Blue, Thrilling Mystery Jan. 42
Death is a White Rabbit, Strange Detective Mysteries Jan. 42
Twenty Gets You Plenty, G-Men Detective Jan. 42
Bloody Murder, Detective Fiction Jan-10-1942

Appendix:
The “V.O.N. Munchdriller” stories from The Driller
The “William Z. Williams” stories from Excavating Engineer


FREE FREDRIC BROWN STORY:
“BLOOD OF THE DRAGON”

To whet your appetite for MURDER DRAWS A CROWD, we have posted the text of an early Fredric Brown story, “Blood of the Dragon” from Variety Detective Magazine Feb. 39. Enjoy!


     CHIEF OF POLICE Walworth smacked the top of his desk with his hand so hard that the impact sounded like a revolver shot. “I tell you, ‘Deadpan,’ we’ve got to get those counterfeiters soon, damn soon, or the commissioner will have me out on the sidewalk. And the newspapers are howling like banshees!”
     His ace detective and closest friend, seated across the desk from him, replied calmly, placatingly: “We’ve been doing everything we can, Phil. After all—”
     “We know the stuff’s being made right in or near this very town. Whenever a green-goods dealer or pusher gets picked up anywhere in the state
  [MORE]

A NOTE ON AMAZON.COM AVAILABILITY

After much deliberation, it has been decided that MURDER DRAWS A CROWD will not be available directly from Amazon.com. Once we have all the advance orders shipped, we will be listing copies for sale in the Amazon Marketplace at $45 plus $3.99 shipping. So, for this title at least, support your humble Poobah and/or support your favorite specialty bookseller.


That’s it for now. To ensure that you continue to receive this newsletter, be sure to add haffnerpress@sbcglobal.net and info@haffnerpress.com to your email reader’s “safe list.” And, remember, shipping is FREE in the continental United States. Alaska, Hawaii and International orders should email us at info@haffnerpress.com for shipping rate quotes. You have been warned!

You’re receiving this message because you requested to be notified of events at Haffner Press, or have done business with Haffner Press in the past. If you do not wish to receive these messages in the future click unsubscribe and request to have your name removed.

.
Copyright © 2015 HAFFNER PRESS
5005 Crooks Road • Suite 35 • Royal Oak, MI 48073-1239
(248) 288-4756 • www.haffnerpress.com
•  Keep Watching the Skies!  •

Posted in Uncategorized on November 24, 2015 @ 2:10 pm | Comments Off

Haffner Press’s Fredric Brown Newsletter – October 27, 2015 This time, it’s MURDER!

 In This Fredric Brown Issue: October 27, 2015
  Murder Draws a Crowd ships 11/10/15
  Contents List
  A Brief Fredric Brown Biography
  Sample Page-Spreads
  FREE Fredric Brown Story Online!
 
A Note on Amazon.com Availability

This time, it’s (finally!) MURDER!
.Four years in the making, and now it’s finally ready . . . for you!
.

MURDER DRAWS A CROWD
The Fredric Brown Mystery Library, Volume One
Introduction by Jack Seabrook
ISBN: 9781893887787
744 pages
Over 100 illustrations
39 pulp magazine stories:
Detective  • Mystery  Horror  Western
100-pg appendix with the “V.O.N. Munchdriller” &
“William Z. Williams” comedies
Decorated endpapers
Smythe-sewn binding

Full cloth-covered binding boards
Shipping November 10, 2015

Preorder: $40
On publication: $45

SAMPLE PAGE-SPREADS

The Prehistoric Clue
The King Comes Home
Twenty Gets You Plenty Hex Marks the Spot

.


CONTENTS LIST

The Moon for a Nickel, Detective Story Magazine Mar. 38
The Cheese on Stilts, Thrilling Detective Jan. 39
Blood of the Dragon, Variety Detective Magazine Feb. 39
There Are Bloodstains in the Alley, Detective Yarns Feb. 39
Murder at 10:15, Clues Detective Stories May 39
The Prehistoric Clue, Ten Detective Aces Jul. 40
Trouble in a Teacup, Detective Fiction Weekly Jul-13-1940
Murder Draws a Crowd, Detective Fiction Weekly Jul-27-1940
Footprints on the Ceiling, Ten Detective Aces Sep. 40
The Little Green Men, The Masked Detective Fall 1940
Town Wanted, Detective Fiction Weekly Sep-7-1940
Herbie Rides His Hunch, Detective Fiction Weekly Oct-19-1940
The Stranger from Trouble Valley, Western Short Stories Nov. 40
The Strange Sisters Strange, Detective Fiction Weekly Dec-28-1940
How Tagrid Got There, unpublished until 1986
Fugitive Imposter, Ten Detective Aces Jan. 41
The King Comes Home, Thrilling Detective Jan. 41
Big-Top Doom, Ten Detective Aces Mar 41
The Discontented Cows, G-Men Detective Mar. 41
Life and Fire, Detective Fiction Weekly Mar-22-1941
Big-League Larceny, Ten Detective Aces Apr. 41 {as by Jack Hobart}
Selling Death Short, Ten Detective Aces Apr. 41
Client Unknown, The Phantom Detective Apr. 41
Your Name in Gold, The Phantom Detective Jun. 41
Here Comes the Hearse, 10-Story Detective Jul. 41 {as by Allen Morse}
Six-Gun Song, 10-Story Detective Jul. 41
Star-Spangled Night, Coronet Jul. 41
Wheels Across the Night, G-Men Detective Jul. 41
Little Boy Lost, Detective Fiction Weekly Aug-2-1941
Bullet for Bullet, Western Short Stories Oct. 41
Listen to the Mocking Bird, G-Men Detective Nov. 41
You’ll End Up Burning!, Ten Detective Aces Nov. 41
Number Bug, Exciting Detective Winter 1941
Thirty Corpses Every Thursday, Detective Tales Dec. 41
Trouble Comes Double, Popular Detective Dec. 41
Clue in Blue, Thrilling Mystery Jan. 42
Death is a White Rabbit, Strange Detective Mysteries Jan. 42
Twenty Gets You Plenty, G-Men Detective Jan. 42
Bloody Murder, Detective Fiction Jan-10-1942

Appendix:
The “V.O.N. Munchdriller” stories from The Driller
The “William Z. Williams” stories from Excavating Engineer


FREE FREDRIC BROWN STORY:
“BLOOD OF THE DRAGON”

To whet your appetite for MURDER DRAWS A CROWD, we have posted the text of an early Fredric Brown story, “Blood of the Dragon” from Variety Detective Magazine Feb. 39. Enjoy!


     CHIEF OF POLICE Walworth smacked the top of his desk with his hand so hard that the impact sounded like a revolver shot. “I tell you, ‘Deadpan,’ we’ve got to get those counterfeiters soon, damn soon, or the commissioner will have me out on the sidewalk. And the newspapers are howling like banshees!”
     His ace detective and closest friend, seated across the desk from him, replied calmly, placatingly: “We’ve been doing everything we can, Phil. After all—”
     “We know the stuff’s being made right in or near this very town. Whenever a green-goods dealer or pusher gets picked up anywhere in the state
  [MORE]

A BRIEF FREDRIC BROWN BIOGRAPHY

Fredric Brown (October 29, 1906 – March 11, 1972 was perhaps best known for his use of humor and for his mastery of the “short short” form—stories of 1 to 3 pages, often with ingenious plotting devices and surprise endings. Humor and a somewhat postmodern outlook carried over into his novels as well.
Brown’s first mystery novel, The Fabulous Clipjoint, won the Edgar Award for outstanding first mystery novel. It began a series starring Ed and Ambrose Hunter, and depicts how a young man gradually ripens into a detective under the tutelage of his uncle, an ex–private eye now working as a carnival concessionaire.
Many of his books make use of the threat of the supernatural or occult before the “straight” explanation at the end. For example, Night of the Jabberwock is a bizarre and humorous narrative of an extraordinary day in the life of a small-town newspaper editor.
The Screaming Mimi (which became a 1958 movie starring Anita Ekberg and Gypsy Rose Lee, and directed by Gerd Oswald) and The Far Cry are noir suspense novels reminiscent of the work of Cornell Woolrich. The Lenient Beast experiments multiple first-person viewpoints, among them a gentle, deeply religious serial killer, and examines racial tensions between whites and Latinos in the US state of Arizona. Here Comes a Candle is told in straight narrative sections alternating with a radio script, a screenplay, a sportscast, a teleplay, a stage play, and a newspaper article.
The famous mystery writer Mickey Spillane called Brown “my favorite writer of all time.” Neil Gaiman has also expressed fondness for Brown’s work, having his novel Here Comes A Candle narrated by the character Rose Walker in the collection The Sandman: The Kindly Ones. Also in the Sandman graphic novels, Fredric Brown is a character in the first story of “The Sandman: Dream Country.”
Brown also had the honor of being one of three dedicatees of Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land (the other two being Robert Cornog and Philip Jose Farmer).
In his non-fiction book Danse Macabre (1981), a survey of the horror genre since 1950, writer Stephen King includes an appendix of “roughly one hundred” influential books of the period: Fredric Brown’s short-story collection Nightmares and Geezenstacks is included, and is, moreover, asterisked as being among those select works King regards as “particularly important.”—Adapted from Wikipedia.


A NOTE ON AMAZON.COM AVAILABILITY

After much deliberation, it has been decided that MURDER DRAWS A CROWD will not be available directly from Amazon.com. Once we have all the advance orders shipped, we will be listing copies for sale in the Amazon Marketplace at $45 plus $3.99 shipping. So, for this title at least, support your humble Poobah and/or support your favorite specialty bookseller.


That’s it for now. To ensure that you continue to receive this newsletter, be sure to add haffnerpress@sbcglobal.net and info@haffnerpress.com to your email reader’s “safe list.” And, remember, shipping is FREE in the continental United States. Alaska, Hawaii and International orders should email us at info@haffnerpress.com for shipping rate quotes. You have been warned!

You’re receiving this message because you requested to be notified of events at Haffner Press, or have done business with Haffner Press in the past. If you do not wish to receive these messages in the future click unsubscribe and request to have your name removed.

.
Copyright © 2015 HAFFNER PRESS
5005 Crooks Road • Suite 35 • Royal Oak, MI 48073-1239
(248) 288-4756 • www.haffnerpress.com
•  Keep Watching the Skies!  •

Posted in Uncategorized on October 27, 2015 @ 11:39 am | Comments Off

Haffner Press Newsletter – July 21, 2015

 In This Issue: July 21, 2015
•  IVY FROST goes Deco-style
•  BIG Update on Forthcoming Books
    •  Leigh Brackett Centennial – 2015
    •  DETOUR TO OTHERNESS – OOP


  THE COMPLETE IVY FROST, the omnibus of all 18 stories of Donald Wandrei‘s “scientific-detective” just got even better with the Art Deco treatment for the cover titles courtesy of designer Chris Kalb.

We recently shared this image on Facebook and as of this writing THE COMPLETE IVY FROST has a stat saying “35,520 people reached.” Whatever that means, we hope it translates into people who are anxious to read the adventures of Ivy Frost and Jean Moray!


BIG Update on Forthcoming Books

Below is the list of titles for which we are taking preorders. Some of them are part of “combos” that feature exclusive chapbooks or some manner of “early-bird” discount. Check out www.haffnerpress.com for details. And now, on with the show!
MURDER DRAWS A CROWD
FREDRIC BROWN MYSTERY LIBRARY, VOLUME ONE
• We ordered ARCs to display at Readercon last week, but they (naturally) arrived after the show. But, they are FANTASTIC!
• What else is there to say? All the work on this massive 744-page blockbuster is complete and inventory should be in hand soon.
THE WATCHER AT THE DOOR
THE EARLY KUTTNER, VOLUME TWO

by Henry Kuttner
• The long-awaited follow-up to TERROR IN THE HOUSE: THE EARLY KUTTNER, VOLUME ONE, we plan to launch this title at the 2015 World Fantasy Convention.
• The mss is proofread and the dustjacket art is ready to go.
• Awaiting the introductions/forewords from Robert A. Madle and Dr. Garyn G. Roberts.
HALO FOR HIRE
THE COMPLETE PAUL PINE MYSTERIE
S
by Howard Browne

• This 1000+ page title had many setbacks, but the desire to bring the cases of Chicago private eye Paul Pine to you prevailed.
• The mss is proofread.
• Cover artist Laurel Blechman is carrying the ball handed off by her partner Glen Orbik and is pulling out all the stops on the wraparound dustjacket.
Richard A. Lupoffis working on his introduction.
THE SIX SLEEPERS
THE COLLECTED EDMOND HAMILTON, VOLUME FIVE
• Currently in the last stages of proofreading.
Robert A. Madle‘s knowing (Hey, HE. WAS. THERE!) and erudite introduction is in hand.
• All other design elements are in place and could be ready to ship (along with the combo orders of TIGER GIRL) late this year or early next.
THE COMPLETE IVY FROST
by Donald Wandrei
• The mss is still in the proofreading stage.
• The 18 double-page chapter heads are still in the design-stage.
• Introducer D.H. Olson is a busy man and we’re looking forward to his thoughts on all 18 IVY FROST stories. To read Olson’s comments on the first 8 stories, get the Fedogan & Bremer collection HERE.
THE MICHAEL GRAY MYSTERIES
by Henry Kuttner & Catherine L. Moore
• The manuscript has been proofread.
Ed Gorman‘s introduction is completed and delivered.
• The dustjacket is slated to undergo a re-vamp and re-design, so look for this in late 2015/early 2016.
DEATH IN THE DARK
FREDRIC BROWN MYSTERY LIBRARY, VOLUME TWO
• The mss is in the hands of the proofreader.
Jack Seabrook is on deck to deliver another learned introduction.
• The current cover art is a placeholder, but we might go with it if nothing else is offered our way.
• Look for this in early 2016.
HOLLYWOOD ON THE MOON / MAN ABOUT TIME
by Henry Kuttner & Arthur K. Barnes
• This is a strange duck—of all the titles announced for preorder, this has had the lowest demand.
• That said, those that want this book have been (to put it politely) adamant that their personal libraries are incomplete without it! Rest assured, we will complete this book in early 2016.
• Look for a different cover design/illustration.



LEIGH BRACKETT CENTENNIAL (1915-2015)


December 7, 2015 marks the 100th birthday of one of our favorite authors—Leigh Brackett. Behind the scenes we’ve been preparing for every contingency to celebrate the Centennial of one of America’s unique literary voices.
As of this writing, it’s too soon to share our final plans, but rest assured that we will spare no expense or care in designing a finished product that honors the First Lady of Space Opera as well as a hallowed addition to your personal library.

  We gave you the heads-up a while back and the time has come. Following Readercon 26 last week in Burlington, MA, DETOUR TO OTHERNESS is officially out of print.

We have a few of the 1/75 autographed Slipcased Edition signed by Robert Silverberg (introduction) and Frederik Pohl (afterword) on hand. This edition ships with OTHERNESSES—a 94-page chapbook with an introduction by Barry N. Malzberg and contains three stories: “The Old Army Game” (the “lost” Hogben tale!), “Piggy Bank,” and “Prisoner in the Skull.”

 


Posted in Uncategorized on July 21, 2015 @ 2:21 pm | Comments Off

Haffner Press Newsletter – June 12, 2015

Haffner Press Cat Chair logo

 In This Issue: June 12, 2015
   •  Big HALO FOR HIRE update
    – Artist Glen Orbik (1963-1915)
- Artist Laurel Blechman on board
    – Richard A. Lupoff to pen intro
    •  Early Kuttner Combo price increase
    •  TERROR IN THE HOUSE-LTD ED
    •  Thunder in the Void – almost OOP
    •  Like us on FACEBOOK – we haz prizes!

 Big update for
HALO FOR HIRE: THE COMPLETE PAUL PINE MYSTERIES
by Howard Browne


   It is with a sad heart that we share that GLEN ORBIK, the artist hired for the dustjacket of Howard Browne’s HALO FOR HIRE, passed away last month after a long battle with cancer. He was 51. We began working with Glen in 2012 while he handled other clients as well as his aggressive therapies. In dealing with Glen we also worked with his long-time partner, artist LAUREL BLECHMAN.
   Last year Laurel wrote: “I just finished reading the HALO books so we could start getting compositional ideas (we always work those out together) & i wanted to say how much fun they were to read!  Glen & I are both fans of Film Noir. I’m looking forward to seeing them in print with Glen’s cover—these HALO stories are such a kick. Thanks for turning us on to Paul Pine, Private Eye.”
   Having admired Laurel’s work (some of it for the same clients as Glen) since 1997, we recently asked Laurel if she wanted to take on the HALO FOR HIRE commission. She replied:
   “I would really like to be able to paint the HALO cover. The books were so much funI read part of them aloud to Glen & we had been playing with thumbnail ideas . . . If you have a little time, I would love to do the cover. And I want to do a top notch job. I feel like I would be doing this for both Glen & me.”
   So, today, we are pleased to announce that LAUREL BLECHMAN will be taking on the cover duties for HALO FOR HIRE.

Additionally, we are pleased to announce that RICHARD A. LUPOFF will be providing the introduction for HALO FOR HIRE. Dick writes: “What, me do an intro for Howard Browne’s HALO FOR HIRE? I would not only be willing, I would be thrilled and honored to do it. He was not only a talented writer and editor, he was a dedicated teacher and one of the least ego-driven and generous-spirited persons I’ve ever met. BTW, the last time I saw Howard, I had visited him in Carlsbad along with my producer and studio partner, to record an interview for a local radio station. He gave a fascinating interview and told us some fascinating anecdotes, including one about his encounter with Raymond Chandler… Anyway, by all means, count me in for HALO FOR HIRE. I believe I’ve read all of Howard’s books—the HALO novels, his late SMP novels, the two Tharn books … I look forward to refreshing my memories of his work. And my recollections of the man, who was a real larger-than-life character!”


THE WATCHER AT THE DOOR:
THE EARLY KUTTNER, VOLUME TWO

 
Coming later this year is the long-awaited follow-up to TERROR IN THE HOUSE: THE EARLY KUTTNER, VOLUME ONE is the second volume of early Kuttner: THE WATCHER AT THE DOOR.
Legendary fan Robert A. Madle handles the foreword to this 700-page collection of 30 (count ’em!) Kuttner Koncoctions from the pages of WEIRD TALES, THRILLING MYSTERY, STRANGE STORIES, FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, SCIENCE FICTION, STARTLING STORIES, and more.
We are taking preorders now for this title. Even better for those of you that missed on getting a copy of Volume One: for a limited time (and inventory on TERROR is v-e-r-y low!), we are offering the out-of-print TERROR IN THE HOUSE as a combo with preorders of THE WATCHER AT THE DOOR. It won’t be cheap (and we recently raised the combo price!), but it will be easy. See the homepage for the combo offer at www.haffnerpress.com.

SLIPCASED EDITION OF
TERROR IN THE HOUSE: THE EARLY KUTTNER, VOLUME ONE

 
The 100-copy slipcased edition of TERROR IN THE HOUSE (signed by introducer Garyn G. & Roberts, PhD & editor Stephen Haffner) is closer to completion and features an exclusive chapbook THE GRAB BAG that we hope will spur you to consider adding this item to your shelf.

The contents of THE GRAB BAG:
• Two collaborations between Henry Kuttner & ROBERT BLOCH:
-”The Black Kiss” from Weird Tales, June 1937
-”The Grab Bag” from Weird Tales, Spr 1991
The extant letters of H.P. LOVECRAFT  to Kuttner—newly edited by S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz.
• The nine known poems by Henry Kuttner
• A gallery of the interior artwork from the original pulps for the 40+ stories that appear in TERROR IN THE HOUSE.



THUNDER IN THE VOID — ALMOST OUT-OF-PRINT

We were recently caught flat-footed on orders of THUNDER IN THE VOID by HENRY KUTTNER when we unexpectedly depleted inventory here at the Secret Moon Base.
Not to fear (in the short-term), we will have inventory on hand early next week to fill all open back-orders.

BUT! This is a sure sign that THUNDER IN THE VOID is in the same boat as DETOUR TO OTHERNESS and both titles may go out of print without further notice.


We’ve been on Facebook since 2010 and currently have more than 650 LIKEs.
Nearly 200 of these have been added since the first of the year, so it appears that our increased use of Facebook for press-releases, announcements, and sharing of trivia and ephemera is working. Surely it may have *something* to do with the $40 Gift Card that we draw at random for every 50 new LIKErs who join our little corner of cyberspace.
So please join us there and keep informed and entertained on some of your favorite authors.

And consider visiting the Facebook page for COLLECTED EDMOND HAMILTON. This FB page also us a more narrow focus on Edmond Hamilton and all his works—including those we won’t be reprinting such as his work on Batman, Superman, the Legion of Super Heroes, etc. for DC Comics.


That’s it for now. To ensure that you continue to receive this newsletter, be sure to add haffnerpress@sbcglobal.net and info@haffnerpress.com to your email reader’s “safe list.” And, remember, shipping is FREE in the continental United States. Alaska, Hawaii and International orders should email us at info@haffnerpress.com for shipping rate quotes. You have been warned!
You’re receiving this message because you requested to be notified of events at Haffner Press, or have done business with Haffner Press in the past. If you do not wish to receive these messages in the future click unsubscribe and request to have your name removed.
.

Copyright © 2015 HAFFNER PRESS
5005 Crooks Road • Suite 35 • Royal Oak, MI 48073-1239
(248) 288-4756 • www.haffnerpress.com
•  Keep Watching the Skies!  •

Posted in Uncategorized on June 12, 2015 @ 5:21 pm | Comments Off

Henry Kuttner 100th Birthday – TODAY! (aka Haffner Press Newsletter – April 7, 2015)

 In This Issue: April 7, 2015
    •  Henry Kuttner 100th Birthday
    •  New!! Early Kuttner, Vol. Two
    •  LTD ED of Early Kuttner, Vol. One
    •  Status Update on Preorders
    •  1975 Jack Williamson Interview
•  Fredric Brown Update

1915 HENRY KUTTNER CENTENNIAL 2015
 
ONE HUNDRED YEARS ago today (April 7, 1915) Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, the youngest of thee sons of Henry Kuttner, Sr. and Annie Levy. Kuttner was five years old when his father died and he relocated to San Francisco.
A reader of the early fantasy magazines, he had letters published in issues of AIR WONDER STORIES and WEIRD TALES. Prior to completing high school, he returned to Los Angeles
and eventually worked as a reader for the literary agency of his uncle Laurence D’Orsay.
   During his correspondence with H.P.Lovecraft, he sold his first story, “The Graveyard Rats”, to WEIRD TALES in early 1936 (preceded in print by the poem “Ballad of the Gods” in WT, Feb. ’36). Kuttner continued to sell prolifically to the pulp magazines, appearing in THRILLING MYSTERY, WEIRD TALES, MARVEL SCIENCE STORIES, STRANGE STORIES and more under a plethora of pseudonyms. Before moving to New York in 1939, he mentored two future giants: Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury.
Following brief visits—and a lengthy correspondence—with Indianapolis-based Catherine L. Moore, the two were married in New York on June 7, 1940. Singly, and in collaboration with Moore, this marks the beginning of Kuttner’s longest sustained output of high-quality work with: “The Twonky,” “Mimsy Were the Borogoves,” “Nothing But Gingerbread Left,” “Housing Problem,” “Call Him Demon,”; the “Gallagher series,” the “Baldy” series, the “Hogbens” series, and novel-length works such as FURY, EARTH’S LAST CITADEL and THE DARK WORLD,
    When World War II saw Robert A. Heinlein depart for Philadelphia, the Kuttners rented the Heinlein’s Hollywood home. In 1942, Kuttner entered the Army Medical Corp (serving at Fort Monmouth, NJ until 1945) and Catherine lived in nearby Red Bank, NJ. After Kuttner’s discharge, they lived in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY until moving to Laguna Beach, CA in 1948.
Feeling burned-out with their prolific fiction output for the pulps, they branched out into novels starting with THE BRASS RING (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946). In 1950, Kuttner & Moore curtailed their fiction writing to focus on their new academic efforts at the University of Southern California. Kuttner earned his bachelor’s degree in 3½ years and Moore completed hers in 1956 (she earned her master’s in 1963). Kuttner was working on his master’s thesis on the works of H. Rider Haggard at the time of his death
from heart failure on February 4, 1958.
It was while working on their degrees that Kuttner & Moore added teaching at USC to their resumés, as well as their first screenplay work at Warner Bros. on “Rappaccini’s Daughter.” Following Kuttner’ death, Moore took over Kuttner’s teaching duties, as well as handling screenwriting jobs for “Maverick,” “Sugarfoot,” and “77 Sunset Strip.” Some of this under the eye of former AMAZING STORIES editor, Howard Browne.
Haffner Press is very pleased and proud to be able to collect and re-present the work of Henry Kuttner (DETOUR TO OTHERNESS, TERROR IN THE HOUSE, THUNDER IN THE VOID) and we hope to have you with us we continue to publish the work of this excellent writer: THE MICHAEL GRAY MYSTERIES, HOLLYWOOD ON THE MOON/MAN ABOUT TIME and  . . .
THE WATCHER AT THE DOOR:
THE EARLY KUTTNER, VOLUME TWO

 
Coming later this year is the long-awaited follow-up to TERROR IN THE HOUSE: THE EARLY KUTTNER, VOLUME ONE is the second volume of early Kuttner: THE WATCHER AT THE DOOR.
Legendary fan Robert A. Madle handles the foreword to this 700-page collection of 30 (count ’em!) Kuttner Koncoctions from the pages of WEIRD TALES, THRILLING MYSTERY, STRANGE STORIES, FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, SCIENCE FICTION, STARTLING STORIES, and more.
We are taking preorders now for this title. Even better for those of you that missed on getting a copy of Volume One: for a limited time, we are offering the out-of-print TERROR IN THE HOUSE as a combo with preorders of THE WATCHER AT THE DOOR. It won’t be cheap, but it will be easy. See the homepage for the combo offer at www.haffnerpress.com.

SLIPCASED EDITION OF
TERROR IN THE HOUSE: THE EARLY KUTTNER, VOLUME ONE

The 100-copy slipcased edition of TERROR IN THE HOUSE (signed by introducer Garyn G. & Roberts, PhD & editor Stephen Haffner) is closer to completion and features an exclusive chapbook THE GRAB BAG that we hope will spur you to consider adding this item to your shelf.The contents of THE GRAB BAG:
• Two collaborations between Henry Kuttner & Robert Bloch:
“The Black Kiss”from Weird Tales, June 1937
“The Grab Bag” from Weird Tales, Spring 1991
The extant letters of H.P. Lovecraft to Kuttner—newly edited by S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz.
• The nine known poems by Henry Kuttner
• A Gallery of the interior artwork from the original pulps for the 40+ stories that appear in TERROR IN THE HOUSE.



UPDATE ON PREORDER OFFERS

With the addition of preorder offers on THE WATCHER AT THE DOOR, we will soon be retiring some of our preorders. First to get the ax will be the THUNDER IN THE VOID, TALES OF SUPER-SCIENCE FICTION, HOLLYWOOD ON THE MOON combo. We have a v-e-r-y  few copies of the SUPER-SCIENCEbonus book that is exclusive to this combo and hand, so act fast it you want it.The other preorder on the endangered list is the Edmond Hamilton Combo for COLLECTED CAPTAIN FUTURE, VOL. 3, REIGN OF THE ROBOTS (COLLECTED HAMILTON #4), and THE SIX SLEEPERS (COLLECTED HAMILTON #5). THE SIX SLEEPERS is expected to start shipping in November.

JACK WILLIAMSON 1975 SPEECH REPRINTED

Following the publication of his SCIENCE FICTION COMES TO COLLEGE: A PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF COURSE OFFERED in 1971, Dr. Jack Williamson often gave lectures/speeches at various functions (graduation ceremonies, SF conventions, community clubs, etc.) spreading the history and the possible future of Science Fiction.
One of his presentations was delivered on March 21, 1975 at
Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota, as part of a series of lectures sponsored by the S&H Foundation on the topic of “Rx for Facing the Future.”
This speech was transcribed and printed in the fanzine
Proteus: A Personal Journal of Popular Culture, #2, May 1975. This fanzine proved elusive for years until recently. A copy of the text was forwarded to the editor of the Portales News-Tribune in Dr. Williamson’s home town and this excerpt was reprinted, 40 years to the day later, on March 21, 2015

MURDER DRAWS A CROWD
by Fredric Brown

In our last update we declared that this book would be ready to make a debut at the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention on April 17th.  Well, we were wrong. The book is in production but it will NOT be ready for the convention. As of this newsletter, we now expect finished copies to start shipping in mid-May. Keep hanging with us on this one folks—it’s worth the wait.
Meanwhile check out the ordering page for MURDER DRAWS A CROWD for a sneak-peek at some of the interior illustrations and the decorated endpapers.

Please be aware that the price on publication will be $45, so you can save $5 by preordering at $40.


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Posted in Uncategorized on April 7, 2015 @ 2:10 pm | Comments Off



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