RARA-AVIS: Recliner Fiction

From: Bill Bowers ( BBowers@one.net)
Date: 02 Feb 2002


A little while back (one of the bennies from being on the Digest option), ED wrote:

>There are dozens of *articles*, but there aren't that many full-length
>studies of Hammett (though there are several more if the biographies are
>included). I can't think of a bad one among 'em (although Diane
>Johnson's Hellman-approved biography came in for considerable stick from
>Bill Nolan for various factual inaccuracies, which he set out and
>corrected in a critical article (possibly in Armchair Detective)).

This gives me an opening for a marginally OT query:

Does anyone know of a reasonably-priced* source of back issues of the Armchair Detective?

I have scattered issues, and when I finally managed to afford a subscription 5 or 6 years ago, the sucka *folded* one issue into my sub. (And they wonder why I identify with h-b fiction?)

I did manage to pick up the first hardcover Garland facsimile reprint of the first two Volumes of AD (did they ever manage the remaining, promised, volumes) at the Mystery Store in Seattle a couple of years ago. But even if I were suddenly re-healthed enough to travel back to the NW, I couldn't afford such an indulgence any more!

*The reason for the disclaimer is (and, yes, I'm aware none us here gathered is "rich") that my only income is S.S. Disability, and while I'm grateful for that, it doesn't leave much "disposable" for essentials such as books, more books, DVDs, more books.... So I just have to make choices...

[I think I've said it before, but This List is *not* helping: based on the enthusiasms evident here, I've just ordered the DVD of Get Carter. The
*original* Caine version, natch.]

Seriously, I wouldn't be able to -- even if available -- pick up vast runs of AD all at one. But, over the course of time, a few at a time....

After all, I still have my Insurance Policy: a first edition of DUNE, for which I have a standing offer of $1500.00. Tempting, but, damnit, it was the _first_ hardcover book I ever bought -- for $6.95 -- and in addition, to the obvious Sentimental Value (*"priceless"*), it is a beautifully
"made" book (issued by a text-book publisher), not the Usual Suspects of Doubleday, et al.

Enough!

Bill Bowers | < BBowers@one.net>
         "Right now the Hard-Boiled Hero looks like a candidate for a Spousal Abuse Seminar." --Fred Zackel, Rara-Avis

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