The Centipede Press Thread, Including CP: Book by Book – An Incomplete Bibliography
The Centipede Press Thread (Including CP: Book by Book – An Incomplete Bibliography)
[Note to mods – I am posting this in Calvin’s Corner because that’s where the other publisher-specific threads are (Cemetery Dance, Suntup Editions, Subterranean Press, etc.) as well as the other popular collecting-related threads (bookcases, etc.). Like Suntup, and to a degree, Cemetery Dance, these presses are popular in part because of the involvement of King, so I don’t think it’s totally crazy. Also, I’m hoping that it will keep me motivated to follow through with regular updates. If you disagree, please move this thread to Dutch Hill or wherever you think it would be most appropriate.]
Hi all!
I love Centipede Press. CP books make up the largest chunk of my collection, as well as more than a few of my most favorite books that I own. What started as an appreciation turned into an obsession, and this thread represents the culmination of my collecting and cataloging efforts from the past 5+ years. My aim is to present one book at a time, with pictures and comments to accompany each, starting from the very beginning of the press and continuing through to the present day. But, while that is my overall goal (and posting it publicly gives me some motivation), I hope that people will use this as a general CP thread and feel free to share comments about past/current/upcoming CP books, as well as your own personal collections.
Also, you will discover as we move ahead (or by reading my signature) that there are some books that I am missing. Please feel free to gift them to me, or, barring that, post pictures of them yourself :)
HERE ARE 1500 WORDS ABOUT CENTIPEDE PRESS, HAVE FUN
Let’s get right into it: Centipede Press is a very important press to me.
The first signed limited edition book I ever purchased was the Centipede Press release of American Psycho, in 2012. Prior to that I had spent a few years scouting and collecting first editions in book shops and thrift stores, but I had no real idea that there was a whole group of publishers out there putting out high quality books, with signatures, at that!
At first I just dipped my toe in the S/L pool – a book here and there from the Centipede Press newsletter, and every once in awhile something from the back catalog. Not only did I love the production values, but the books themselves were great! Some classic genre fiction, to be sure, but a lot of titles that I had never heard of before. My first introduction to Tim Powers was when CP announced that they would be producing The Anubis Gates – I immediately ordered a used paperback copy and have been loving Tim Powers ever since. John Farris, James Herbert, R.A. Lafferty – I like to think I would have come across them sooner or later, but CP really sped things up.
The releases in 2017 reflect well the wide-ranging tastes of the press: they include, among others, The Complete Samurai Cat, The Circus of Dr. Lao, Kafka on the Shore, Julia, the first book in a multi-book series reprinting Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, and, to tie it again back to King, Anthony Shriek, which was first published by Dell’s Abyss imprint, which prided itself on nabbing two firsts from Stephen King:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen King
”Thank you for introducing me to the remarkable line of novels currently being issued under Dell's Abyss imprint. I have given a great many blurbs over the last twelve years or so, but this one marks two firsts: first unsolicited blurb (I called you) and the first time I have blurbed a whole line of books. In terms of quality, production, and plain old story-telling reliability (that's the bottom line, isn't it), Dell's new line is amazingly satisfying...a rare and wonderful bargain for readers. I hope to be looking into the Abyss for a long time to come."
Anyway, after a few years, I found out about a few other small presses. Pretty recently (last year), I realized that the books in my collection that I most enjoyed were my small press books. The books that ultimately pushed me over the edge and changed my collecting habits completely were the Dragon Rebound Editions, but Centipede Press paved the way for about 5 years prior to that, and now makes up the most significant chunk of my collection.
Why do I love Centipede Press books? Let me count the ways :rose:
(1) As I first mentioned, I have a sentimental attachment, I can’t deny that.
(2) Also already mentioned: the choice of books is wide ranging – many styles of horror, weird fiction, classics from multiple genres, and a dash of science fiction and fantasy.
(3) Top-notch production values: good paper, solid bindings, fun endpapers, thoughtful typography.
(4) Good collaborations: some individual books as well as some entire series are designed in collaboration with Jacob McMurray. As CP is mostly a one-man shop, having a sometimes collaborator does wonders in keeping the books new and fresh.
(5) Individual attention: there are general themes that hold for CP productions, which evolve and change over time, but it’s clear that every book chosen for release is treated as a separate entity, and I LOVE this. I mean, I like the look of a Sub Press collection (for example) - all of the numbered editions can be put on a shelf and look good together and are clearly from the same publisher. But I think it’s a hard and underappreciated ability to take a book and re-imagine it as a limited edition that has its own unique qualities, and you can see this when you look at a shelf of CP books. There are some unifying elements overall, but there are different shapes and sizes and cases, etc. There have been two big "eras" of CP - pre-dust jacket, and post-dust jacket.
(6) Good extras: Almost every CP book with a prior release has multiple extras included. Of course, new art and new design are “extras” too, but unless your design is really killer, the fall-back of taking a popular book and adding a new dustjacket is great for business but often only a minimum gain for collectors. Common CP extras include new forwards and/or afterwards, original essays, collections of previous art, collections of previous related works, and others.
(7) Deluxe editions that are truly deluxe: This is a feature that has changed pretty drastically over time. In the earliest releases there were a good number of editions that had deluxe states – the same book and content, but more elaborately bound and with a traycase. From 2008 until around 2013, there were fewer. After 2013 these became very rare. Some of these deluxe editions went beyond what many would call a lettered edition and took the production to an even higher level – more elaborate bindings, fine leather, silk cloth, fancier traycases, and extras that really went above and beyond (an entire suite of specially printed and personally signed prints was typical). This has been a rare occurrence since 2013, but you can be assured that if CP is doing a deluxe edition, it will be very fine indeed.
As I have made abundantly clear, I love Centipede Press. And this adoration has sparked a desire that I will likely never satisfy: a complete collection of Centipede Press books! And by complete, I mean every state of every book produced. This is not actually a crazy task for books that have been released since 2013. The vast majority of new books have one state: a signed limited edition. This state has two designations, (1) a version numbered in black, for public sale, and (2) a version numbered in black roman numerals, for contributors (the Centipede Press version of “PC”). They are generally identical in all respects except for the designation.
For books released prior to 2013, this becomes a lot harder. While the typography was generally settled for each edition, Jerad (the proprietor of the press) liked to experiment with endpapers, stamping, structure, binding materials, and even book size. As a result, some of the earlier books have multiple states that include one or more differences in each of these characteristics. I don’t think anyone (even Jerad) has a complete list of all of these differences, and although I’m trying my best, I’m certain that I won’t achieve 100% any time soon (if ever). I think there are a bare handful of folks out there who have more complete collections than I, in that they may have every single book, and/or also deluxe editions, but I don’t know if anyone has compiled a collection that includes as many different states of each book. If you have, or know of someone who has, please PM me so that we can become best friends/competitors.
A second-to-last note: Centipede Press does limitations a little differently than usual. Most publishers (in fact, all other publishers I’m familiar with) have printed limitation pages that are identical to each other, with a blank space for the limitation that the publisher writes in. CP prints the limitations for both general sale and PC copies right on the page during the printing process. If you have #10, the number is printed on the limitation page when the book is produced. It’s not possible to take a blank copy and replace it – the entire limitation page must be removed and re-tipped into a new copy. Crazy!! (The exception to this practice is the best known CP book on these boards: Salem’s Lot had hand-printed limitations.) On one hand, this definitely ups the ante in terms of damaged books. On the other hand, every limitation is known for every book (with very few exceptions!) – the limitation page states the total public limitation, as well as the number of copies that are printed for contributors (PC copies). A typical limitation page says something like: “There are 220 copies of this book – of these, copies 1-200 are for sale and copies I-XX are reserved for private distribution.” I know of two books that break this trend and have a copy of each. Perhaps there are more! But if so, they are certainly rare.
And the last note before I get underway: The earliest imprint of CP was actually called Cocytus Press, followed later by Centipede Press, then a small imprint called Millipede Press for some books, then back to Centipede Press. I include all these books under the umbrella of Centipede Press. Earlier stuff published by Jerad Walters is listed on the CP site - PM me if you have any of it :)
All that said, let’s get this show on the road!
A NOTE ON ORDERING/BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DESIGNATIONS
I have created some ordering rules based on other bibliographies, they are as such:
1. Overall order of publication for a title. Each publication has one primary Arabic numeral.
a. Edition (generally: ultra-deluxe, deluxe, standard, paperback). Each edition has one letter.
i. State of the edition (e.g., unique combination of endpapers/stamping/materials/structure/size/signature sheet). An edition can have multiple states. Note: I choose to define a “state” by its physical characteristics, and consider all books with the same physical characteristics to be the same state, regardless of the color of ink used or designation. I will however note cases in which there are different colors of ink or different designations.
(1). Order of the set. For books sold as sets, numbers in parenthesis indicate the order of the books in the set.
Example
A book was released in the following formats: leather-bound deluxe edition in traycase (signed, designated with Roman numeral), cloth-bound edition in slipcase (signed, designated with Arabic numeral), cloth-bound edition in different color with no slipcase (signed, designated with Arabic numeral), and paperback (unsigned, no designation).
They would be denoted as follows:
1.a Leather-bound deluxe edition in traycase, signed, designated with Roman numeral
1.b.i Cloth-bound edition in slipcase, signed, designated with Arabic numeral
1.b.ii Cloth-bound edition in different color and no slipcase, signed, designated with Arabic numeral
1.c Paperback, unsigned, undesignated
I can’t promise these won’t change over time.
NOTE: IF YOU HAVE A VERSION OF A BOOK THAT I DIDN'T POST PICTURES OF OR THAT I'M NOT AWARE OF, PLEASE POST IT HERE AND/OR PM ME SO THAT I CAN UPDATE THE BIBLIOGRAPHY. I WON'T MENTION YOUR NAME OR PUBLICLY POST YOUR PICTURES (WHICH ARE ALWAYS APPRECIATED) WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION. THANK YOU!!
