Book Collection: John_Kenton

[Stockerlone]

Well, I'll have to free some shelf space when the new arrivals come trickling in...

The bookwall looks great, but i think 2-3 lines of books in one row is a MUST
Bookshelves = Bending wood

[John_Kenton]

Penthouse, July 1976 & March 1977
"The Ledge"
"Children of the Corn"





Penthouse September 1988, excerpt from Nightmares in the Sky

[John_Kenton]

GQ, July 1984 "My First Car




Mademoiselle, November 1985 "What Ails the U.S. Male: Fire and Ice Cream"

[John_Kenton]

Some anthologies:

Chamber of Horrors (1984), "The Night of the Tiger"




The Garden of Reading (2004), "The Lawnmower Man"




65 Spine Chillers (1982), "Suffer the Little Children"




Tales of Dungeons and Dragons (1986), "The Mangler"




Magicats (1984), "The Cat from Hell"

[Cook]

This is a wall in my living room, stuffed with books from top to bottom... though only a minor portion of it Stephen King ;-)
I'm also collecting classic ghost story anthologies and some paperback and trade paperback series published from the 60s through the 80s in the horror/sf field in Germany.
BTW Stephen King books are third row from top, arranged chronologically from left to right, separated German from English and American editions. It's not something I've spent much energy on, though. Sometime in the nineties, I stopped buying German editions and started to grab English hardbacks, sometimes they were cheaper than the German editions...

John_Kenton, Very nice collection !
Impressive bookcase display as well.
Congratulations

[John_Kenton]

The 17th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, including "The Reaper's Image"




Thrilling, Chilling Tales of Alien Encounters, including "I Am the Doorway"

[John_Kenton]

Antaeus: The Final Issue #75/76, including "Blind Willie"



A Treasury of American Horror Stories, including "Children of the Corn"

[John_Kenton]

New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, including Crouch End"




Dark Love, including "Lunch at the Gotham Café"

[Ari_Racing]

Absolutely astonishing collection!!! Congratulations!

[Merlin1958]

Very nice collection. I especially like the "Uniqueness" of a lot of items!!!


Well done!!!

[John_Kenton]

Okay folks, got stuck at the publishing house (no in-joke there, I'm a journalist ;-)) and had a notebook crash, but it's nice to see the path along the beam is still there... let's see how to continue.

This is the first German edition of 'Salem's Lot, which was published as a hardback by Zsolnay in 1979. This is before Stephen King became widely known in Germany.

[John_Kenton]

I don't know if you're interested in the German publishing history of Stephen King. To put it briefly, after two publishing houses did CARRIE (Schneekluth) and 'SALEM'S LOT (Zsolnay) in hardback, there were a couple of paperbck reprints, but it was only when Bastei-Luebbe (one of the major paperback publishers in German) acquired the rights to the early novels and stories that the Stephen King phenomenon started to shape in Germany. Bastei did CARRIE, THE SHINING, NIGHT SHIFT, THE STAND, FIRESTARTER, CUJO, DIFFERENT SEASONS, CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF and CHRISTINE in oversized trade paperbacks and I believe they had a huge success.

Starting in 1985, the new novels began to appear as hardbacks at Hoffmann & Campe, unfortunately rather dull-looking dust jackets, as you can see. Later Heyne reprinted these books in paperbacks, but started to publish newer works directly in paperbacks, trade paperbacks, and occasionally hardbacks. These are the Hoffmann & Campe hardbacks:
1985 FRIEDHOF DER KUSCHELTIERE (Pet Sematary)
1986 DER TALISMAN (The Talisman)
1988 DAS MONSTRUM (The Tommyknockers)
1990 STARK (The Dark Half)
1991 IN EINER KLEINEN STADT (Needful Things)

[Randall Flagg]

Faszinierend. Danke.

[John_Kenton]

Now here's something I collect as well, sf and weird fiction books. This is one of the two pioneering hardcover ventures in Germany, a series called BIBLIOTHEK DES HAUSES USHER which was published by distinguished literary publishing house Insel Verlag from 1969 to 1975. I am missing two volumes by Le Fanu yet, but these are the other 24. They were mostly printed on green paper and had that slightly unusual page format, but what makes them really stand out is the ingenious cover art. These volumes are sought after on the German market (well at least among the dozen or so collectors who bother ;-) Especially the Lovecraft volumes were the books that really made his name with the German reading public.

[John_Kenton]

Speaking of Lovecraft, this is the first book of his stories to have been published in Germany. It appeared as #12 of a trade paperback/paperback series called HEYNE ANTHOLOGIEN back in 1965 (funny, as it is not technically speaking an anthology at all but a collection). The entire series ran from 1964 to 1979. I have all but four volumes - they published sf, horror, western, and crime anthologies, among them a fair number of classic tomes by the likes of Peter Haining, Kurt Singer, and Harlan Ellison.

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

All very interesting!

[Stockerlone]

It´s nice to see the ´good old ´H & C Stephen King hardcover books.
Your Salem 79 Zsolnay looks great and i LOVE the BIBLIOTHEK DES HAUSES USHER !!!

[Cook]

John Kenton,
Very impressive, I've never seen these before.

Okay folks, got stuck at the publishing house (no in-joke there, I'm a journalist ;-)) and had a notebook crash, but it's nice to see the path along the beam is still there... let's see how to continue.

This is the first German edition of 'Salem's Lot, which was published as a hardback by Zsolnay in 1979. This is before Stephen King became widely known in Germany.

[John_Kenton]

Yes... I have very fond memories of certain books (in certain editions, that is very important) when I think back on how and when I read them first. I guess that's what they call nostalgia for the good old times ;-) The 'SALEM'S LOT in that Zsolnay edition was the first King novel I read (the first book being NIGHT SHIFT) way back in the summer of 1990. It brings back very personal memories on being sixteen (and a few other things ;-) With THE TALISMAN, I remember coming to a point where I got stuck somewhere in the first part of the book and thought, will this be the first King book I won't finish? I'm glad I did finish it. I still love that book and cherish the experience of that first read. Same goes for THE STAND.