ALIEN FLESH

First edition, first printing. Presentation copy from the publisher, Oswald Train. Original brown cloth with gilt lettering to the spine, in the dustwrapper designed by Stephen Fabian, who also provides illustrations within. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean and bright. In the bright, clean dustwrapper, which has a couple of small tape repairs to the verso: a previous owner has tried to disguise a couple of scuffs to the spine and front panel with red ink (now faded); the tape seems to have been applied to avoid any staining to the cloth. Not price-clipped ($10.00 to the upper edge of the front flap). A lovely copy, with an intriguing association.

There is an extended inscription from the publisher, Oswald Train, written in green ink to the front endpaper: "Again, for Margaret with love. This one is my latest, and it has a long and interesting history behind it. And I wager it is unlike anything you have ever read before. Sincerely, Ossie". Oswald Train (1915-1988) "was involved in the nascent Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, attending the first (highly informal) Convention in 1936. A significant Small-Press publisher, he was the main figure behind Prime Press. In 1968 he founded his eponymous publishing company, which specialized in detective fiction, although it also released work by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, A. Merritt, P. Schuyler Miller and Olaf Stapledon" (adapted from The (Online) Encyclopedia of Science Fiction). Seabury Quinn (1889-1969) was an American lawyer who published a large number of 'weird' stories. He was the most prolific contributor to the journal 'Weird Tales' during its 31-year life-span (the introduction to 'Alien Flesh' is provided by fellow contributor, E. Hoffman Price). 'Alien Flesh' was his only novel and was published posthumously. The author was (according to the Encyclopedia) the unnamed writer figuring in an anecdote related by Kingsley Amis in his 'New Maps of Hell' (1960), of "a science-fiction writer, [who,] happening to visit a New Orleans bordello, found his works so popular with the staff that he was asked to consider himself their guest for the evening" (Amis, pp. 59-60). 'Alien Flesh' is described on the jacket as "the odyssey of a man trapped in woman's flesh by Oriental necromancy".