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Why Do You Call Me Ishmael When You Know My Name Is Bernie? (Edgeworks Abbey, 2018 1st Edition; Glossy Cover Variant)

$25.00

When the initial print run of WHY DO YOU CALL ME ISHMAEL WHEN YOU KNOW MY NAME IS BERNIE? arrived from the printer, a small percentage of the copies featured covers printed on glossy stock rather than the intended matte finish. These books are internally identical to the standard edition in every respect, but the covers are shiny. Strangely, the same thing happened with the 1998 Mariner edition of SLIPPAGE. Harlan and Susan didn’t find out about that variant until they bought the overstock from Houghton Mifflin, and no one has ever satisfactorily explained what happened.

Cover photograph by Rod Searcey.

From a tour of Harlan’s favorite films of the ’40s to an account of the best comics of the ’90s, WHY DO YOU CALL ME ISHMAEL WHEN YOU KNOW MY NAME IS BERNIE? gathers an omnifarious array of Ellisonian essays that use popular culture as a window on sociology and politics, art as an insight into the human soul, and Dashiel Hammett for an English lesson.

Most of these essays began life as introductions to one book or another, some made one-off appearances in magazines, and at least one did both! They may have been written for a myriad of reasons, but–at the end of the day–they all offer a look inside the mind of the man who crafted them…a man not named Ishmael…or Bernie…though he has been known to sign books he doesn’t care for as “Herman Melville.”

Out of stock

Description

Contents:
Introduction to BUT I DIGRESS by Peter David
The Year of the Scorpion: Reveries on 1978
Words Before You Begin (aka Preface to the WIZARD 1996 COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE)
An Oz Essay
On the Face of Mount Rushmore: R. A. Lafferty and Four Other Guys
Aaarghh! Help! The Giant Ant Ate My Maidenform Bra
Untitled liner notes for Ennio Morrixone’s Tre Donne/Uccidete Il Vitello Grasso É Arrostitelo
Introduction to ASTRO CITY: Family Album by Kurt Busiek
A Few Words anent Woolrich
Cain: Ever So Able
A Gunsel Is Not a Pistolero
Introduction to THE ROCKETEER by Dave Stevens
Introduction to BEYOND ZERO HOUR (aka Introduction to WIZARD: The DC Library Book)
Vidiot’s Delight
Things Unseen
A Special Dreamer
Mortal Dreads (standalone version)
Trimalchio in West Egg
Shmoo Goes There???
The Films of the ’40s
Exorcising Texas
Embrace the Departing Shadow
Dreams of Joy Recaptured

Essays in bold print were added to the table of contents after the book was placed on pre-order in September 2018.

180 pages.

Additional information

Weight .6875 lbs
Dimensions 6 × 9 × .5 in