Bytown Books

Bytown Books Online collectible & antiquarian bookseller based in Ottawa, Canada.

Weird Tales is a magazine that looms over horror, dark fantasy & science fiction—spawning the contemporary genre of "wei...
07/19/2023

Weird Tales is a magazine that looms over horror, dark fantasy & science fiction—spawning the contemporary genre of "weird fiction" represented by authors like China Miéville & Jeff VanderMeer. Weird Tales' initial run—from 1923 until 1954—created a renaissance in pulp fiction launching the careers of H.P. Lovecraft, Seabury Quinn, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury—even Tennessee Williams sold his first story to the magazine.

Weird Tales is also justly famous for printing the work of master pulp illustrators such as Margaret Brundage, Virgil Finlay & Hannes Bok.

Perhaps the biggest impact of Weird Tales began in 1928 with the publication of "The Call of Cthulhu" by H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft & his friends went on to create a shared universe of cosmic horror. The "Cthulhu mythos" thrives to this day in books, comics, movies, board games, video games & art.

We have a selection of Weird Tales magazines from the years 1953 & 1954. "Things of Darkness" is a UK edition. All 5 for $200 + shipping.

The House That Stood Still is a science fiction novel by author A. E. van Vogt, and was first published in 1950 by Green...
07/12/2023

The House That Stood Still is a science fiction novel by author A. E. van Vogt, and was first published in 1950 by Greenberg (although it would get revised, renamed, and republished a few times over the following decades).

The story revolves around a cult of immortals operating secretly from a centuries old mansion that has mystical qualities (and a spaceship), and the lawyer who stumbles upon their secret and must help it remain hidden while also averting atomic war….fun!

Today we have the Greenberg 1950 first edition first printing in very good condition in a mylar protected unclipped jacket with a bit of wear and chipping at the spine ends, else fine. $50 + shipping. DM to buy.

Nightmare Garden is a fantastic collection of dark short horror stories, careful curated by Vic Ghidalia and featuring t...
07/10/2023

Nightmare Garden is a fantastic collection of dark short horror stories, careful curated by Vic Ghidalia and featuring the likes of Ray Bradbury, Frank Herbert,and Seabury Quinn (a personal favourite). The cover art by Ken Barr also gives a simple yet creepy air to the book.

This is a Manor Books first printing (and only version of this book to my knowledge) in good condition with some creasing and wear to the covers. $20 + shipping. DM to buy.

The Citadel of the Autarch is the fourth and final book in Gene Wolfe’s excellent Book of the New Sun series, often cite...
07/09/2023

The Citadel of the Autarch is the fourth and final book in Gene Wolfe’s excellent Book of the New Sun series, often cited as one of the best fantasy series of the last 50yrs.

Today we have near fine first edition in a near fine jacket, published by Timescape.
$30 + shipping. DM to buy.

We had an excellent time yesterday , thank you all for coming out & showing your support!It was amazing to meet fellow b...
07/09/2023

We had an excellent time yesterday , thank you all for coming out & showing your support!

It was amazing to meet fellow book lovers in person& we had some great book chats📚

❤️

Tomorrow’s the big day! will be at booth from 10am to 4pm, Saturday July 8th outside Aberdeen Pavillon at Landsdowne—c...
07/07/2023

Tomorrow’s the big day! will be at booth from 10am to 4pm, Saturday July 8th outside Aberdeen Pavillon at Landsdowne—come by & talk books with us 📚.
❤️

The Hard-Boiled Omnibus is a fantastic collection of early crime stories that were published in Black Mask magazine in t...
07/06/2023

The Hard-Boiled Omnibus is a fantastic collection of early crime stories that were published in Black Mask magazine in the 1930’s. Edited by Joseph Shaw and with a list of authors that includes the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, this book has you covered for golden age hard-boiled crime stories.

This is the 1953 second printing by Pocket Books, and is in good condition with some edgewear and creasing, particularly along the spine. Internally clean and firm.

$25 + shipping. DM to buy.

This coming Saturday, July 8th at 10am will be set up in a booth outside of Aberdeen Pavilion at Landsdowne in beautifu...
07/06/2023

This coming Saturday, July 8th at 10am will be set up in a booth outside of Aberdeen Pavilion at Landsdowne in beautiful downtown Ottawa for —we’ll have wonderful vintage books & ephemera for sale. Come by & say hello & talk books with us 📚

❤️

Eric Ravilious was a British painter, book illustrator, and wood-engraver who, most notably in the book world, provided ...
07/06/2023

Eric Ravilious was a British painter, book illustrator, and wood-engraver who, most notably in the book world, provided engravings for some of the finest private presses of the first half of the 20th C., including the Golden Cockerel Press (a personal favourite of ours).

Helen Binyon’s memoir of Ravilious does full justice to the breadth and depth of his artistic genius and body of work. Filled with numerous colour and b/w illustrations, this near fine first edition copy in a like near fine jacket is a gem.

$35 + shipping. DM to buy.

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"In July of 1930, "The Shadow" was created as a myster...
07/05/2023

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"

In July of 1930, "The Shadow" was created as a mysterious narrator for the radio program Detective Story Hour. The character was immediately successful & writer & stage magician Walter B. Gibson was hired to flesh out The Shadow in a series of pulp novels under the pen-name Maxwell Grant. Gibson went on to write more than 300 Shadow novels & was followed by Theodore Tinsley, who wrote 27 Shadow stories between 1936 & 1943, Lester Dent, who wrote one story, "The Golden Vulture", in 1938, Bruce Elliott, who wrote 15 Shadow stories between 1946 and 1948 & Dennis Lynds, who wrote nine Shadow pbks between 1964 & 1967.

The Shadow was the prototype for later superheros, in particular Batman, a tall, thin man, dressed in black with a cloak, wide-brimmed hat, & red scarf covering his face who lurks in the shadows & fights crime under a secret identity. Over the years, The Shadow has also featured in radio plays, comics, films & video games.

We have 6 vintage Shadow pbks for sale. All 6 for $50 + shipping. DM to buy.

As a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star in 1917 &—after serving with the Red Cross in WWI—working freelance with the ...
07/04/2023

As a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star in 1917 &—after serving with the Red Cross in WWI—working freelance with the Toronto Star, Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) developed his "iceberg" theory of writing: that the truth of a story lies below the surface.

As one of the key members of the "Lost Generation" of expat writers working in Paris, Hemingway would continue to refine a lean, hard prose style, which would influence countless minimalist writers to follow—both in his own work & as a freelance overseas correspondent for the Toronto Star & other periodicals.

A foundational work in modern minimalism, Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea (1952), his Pulitzer Prize-winning novella, written in Cuba, was the last major work Hemingway published in his lifetime. It tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba. Hemingway called it "the best I can write ever for all of my life."

We have a copy of the September 1, 1952 issue of Life Magazine, featuring Hemingway on the cover & the complete first publication of The Old Man and the Sea. Good condition overall but sadly the first page of the story is loose. $250 + shipping. DM to buy.

Baby Moll is a classic noir tale of an ex mobster pulled back into the life to help old ties solve a murder, and gets ca...
07/03/2023

Baby Moll is a classic noir tale of an ex mobster pulled back into the life to help old ties solve a murder, and gets caught up in a whirlwind of guns, girls, and gangsters in the process.

This is the original 1958 Crest Books paperback printing using John Farris’s pseudonym Steve Brackeen. It would be later reprinted in 2011 under the Hard Case Crime imprint using the author’s real name.

This copy is a first printing in good condition with some light wear to the covers and bumping at the spine ends. $20 + shipping. DM to buy.

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