Westlake Score: Slayground by Richard Stark (Random House, 1971); Signed Copy

No, I haven't duplicated a post accidentally. I really do have two different editions of the same book to showcase as part of Westlake Week, which, depending on your point of view, is either incredibly cool, incredibly sad or incredibly idiotic. I lean towards option a) myself, but hey: whatever floats your boat. Still, it does bear out the old saying: you wait ages for a Slayground and then two come along at once. Let's have a look, shall we?

This is the very first edition of Richard Stark's Slayground, published in hardback by Random House in 1971, dustjacket design by the sexily named Peter Raunch. I saw it online for a remarkably low price and snapped it up – not just because it's a first edition (and first printing) and in great condition (with only patches of lifting on the dustjacket laminate, which is common with this edition), nor merely because I now have the final three Parker novels from the initial run of the series in US first editions:

but because of this:

It's another signed edition, this time dedicated to "Mike", whoever he may be. So, it makes a nice pair with that US first of The Blackbird, which, as I mentioned, Slayground shares its opening chapter with. One thing I hadn't considered though is that The Blackbird predates Slayground by two years, published, as it was, in 1969; the copyright page of Slayground states: "Chapter One reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company. From The Blackbird by Richard Stark." Any Stark fans reading Slayground when it first came out must've experienced a sense of deja vu if they'd read The Blackbird a year or so before... I imagine it's unlikely Westlake wrote The Blackbird that far in advance, so Slayground must have just taken a while to see publication. And when you compare the first chapters of Slayground and The Blackbird, there are marked differences between the two: though both written in the third person, Slayground is very much told from Parker's perspective, whereas The Blackbird is from his cohort's, Alan Grofield, the star of that novel. Here's the first paragraph of Slayground:

Parker jumped out of the Ford with a gun in one hand and the packet of explosive in the other. Grofield was out and running too, and Laufman stayed hunched over the wheel, his foot tapping the accelerator.

And the first paragraph from The Blackbird:

Grofield jumped out of the Ford with a gun in one hand and the empty satchel in the other. Parker was out and running too, and Laufman stayed hunched over the wheel, his foot tapping the accelerator.

Only subtle differences there, but here's the third paragraph of Slayground:

Parker ran to the rear door of the armored car, slapped the packet of explosive against the metal near the lock so that the suction cups grabbed, then pulled the cord and stepped back out of sight. The armored car's right rear tire turned slowly beside his head.

And The Blackbird:

Grofield ran to the front of the armored car, running around the big old-fashioned grill, sideways now at chest level. Through the bulletproof windshield he could see the uniformed driver in there, turned every which way but conscious and moving around, getting a phone receiver out from under the dashboard.

Thereafter the two books diverge and re-entwine again throughout their respective opening chapters, and then take completely different paths from Chapter 2 onwards. It's an interesting experiment on Westlake's part though, like his slightly later weaving in of the fictional – as in it doesn't exist in our real world – Parker novel Child Heist into the John Dortmunder novel Jimmy the Kid. It's part of what makes Westlake's work so fascinating, the interconnectedness of it all.

Anyway, having two copies of Slayground to post about – three actually, including the Allison & Busby edition I already had – has given me an idea for the next post in Westlake Week...

Westlake Score: Slayground by Richard Stark (Avon Edition)

Next up in Westlake Week we have this:

A US paperback of Richard Stark's Slayground, published by Avon in 1984 (first printing). Bit of an odd one for me to procure, seeing as I already have an Allison & Busby hardback of this, the fourteenth Parker novel, originally published in 1971. But I saw it going fairly cheap on eBay UK, and just thought, sod it: I don't have any of the Parker books in these Avon editions, and I like the photo cover (no idea who created these covers for Avon), so why the hell not?

There are only five other Richard Stark/Parker novels listed on page two of this edition as having been published by Avon – the first five, in fact – and I know from Trent's list at Violent World of Parker that Avon did publish other books in the series. Which means that, once again, like Allison & Busby and doubtless others besides, a publisher issued the Parker novels out of sequence. Publishers sure didn't make it easy for Parker fans to read the books in the correct order over the years. Thank the lord for the internet.

Slayground famously shares a first chapter with the afore-blogged-about The Blackbird, which is why I mentioned in that post I'd be coming back to The Blackbird. Except I won't. Not in this particular post. I'll save that for the next post, for reasons to be revealed...

Westlake Score: The Blackbird by Richard Stark (Macmillan Edition)

It's Westlake Week, Day Two. Which, if you've just joined us, might be slightly confusing, seeing as it's Thursday now, which means Westlake Week must've started yesterday, Wednesday. That's just how we roll here at Existential Ennui: Wednesday is the new Monday. Or possibly Sunday, depending on your own view on when the week begins.

And if you have just joined us, Westlake Week essentially consists of me showing off all the Donald E. Westlake/Richard Stark books I've managed to acquire recently. Yesterday we had a signed UK first edition of the Dortmunder novel Bad News, a UK Allison & Busby hardback of The Rare Coin Score, and an Allison & Busby Parker novel round-up. All jolly exciting, I'm sure you'll agree. Today, we'll have to see how we get on for time, but to kick off, we have this:

A US hardback first edition/first printing of The Blackbird by Richard Stark, published by The Macmillan Company as part of their Cock Robin Mystery series in 1969, with a jacket design by Jack Wolf. This book, if you don't know, is the third of Westlake/Stark's companion novels to his Parker series, featuring instead Parker's occasional larcenous cohort (and part-time actor) Alan Grofield. I've got a UK first edition of the first one, The Damsel, and a US first of the fourth and last one, Lemons Never Lie, so only one to go to complete the set. I've only read The Damsel thus far, but going on that evidence the Grofield novels are closer in tone to Westlake's non-Parker work: a bit more humour in them, although still with violent overtones (and apparently Lemons Never Lie is much closer in tone to a Parker novel than the other Grofield books).

This particular copy of The Blackbird is a bit special, however, because as well as being in wonderful, near-fine condition, there's this:

Yup, like my copy of Bad News, it's signed, and dedicated too, to Elliott, whoever he may be. Unusually, Westlake's signed it as "Richard", with an added "Through DW", which leads me to think it may have been signed close to publication, before Westlake was outed as Stark in the New York Times. It's a possibility anyway.

And I'll be coming back to The Blackbird in subsequent posts, for reasons to be revealed...

Parker Progress Report: The Richard Stark Allison & Busby Editions (Slight Return)

So, with the addition of The Rare Coin Score, I'm pretty much able to draw a line under my collection of the UK Allison & Busby editions of Donald 'Richard Stark' Westlake's Parker novels. As I mentioned in that previous post, I've got all eight of the original A&B editions (which were published out of sequence) from the mid-'80s:

and all I'm missing from the later waves of A&B editions are a couple of hardbacks where all I currently have are paperbacks. I'm not about to go out of my way to get those though; if I see 'em cheap at any point I'll pick them up, but otherwise the paperbacks I have will suffice. This, then (drum roll, please), is my Richard Stark Allison & Busby Parker Collection, in Parker series order (not A&B publication order, which was all over the shop, although I have included A&B pub dates in brackets):

Point Blank (Hardcover, 1984), The Man with the Getaway Face (Hardcover, 1984), The Outfit (Hardcover, 1988)

The Mourner (Hardcover, 1987), The Score (Hardcover, 1985), The Jugger (Paperback, 1986)

The Split (Hardcover, 1985), The Handle (Hardcover, 1985), The Rare Coin Score (Hardcover, 1984)

The Green Eagle Score (Hardcover, 1986), The Black Ice Score (Paperback, 1986), The Sour Lemon Score (Hardcover, 1986)

Deadly Edge (Paperback Only, 1990), Slayground (Hardcover, 1984)

And that's it as far as Allison & Busby went; far as I can work out, they never published the other two Parker novels in the original run – Plunder Squad and Butcher's Moon – and only issued Deadly Edge in a paperback, not a hardcover. Incidentally, I was chatting with the proprietor of one of the bookshops I visited during my tour of London bookshops, and when I mentioned I'd found an Allison & Busby edition of The Rare Coin Score earlier that day, he made a remark to the effect that he considered A&B a bit of a cowboy outfit, with awful paper stock and production values. That's certainly born out by some of the copies I own, where browning paper is evident – not to mention the dreadful proofing on the A&B Parkers (they're littered with errors that aren't in other editions). A little second hand bookseller gossip there. Still, nice to have hardbacks of most of the Parkers.

Westlake Score: The Rare Coin Score by Richard Stark (Allison & Busby Edition)

And so we reach the final book from my recent tour of London's bookshops (although by no means our final Westlake Score...), and for me this was the real prize, a book I've been hunting an affordable copy of for months:













A UK hardback first edition of Richard Stark's The Rare Coin Score, published by Allison & Busby in 1984. This is the ninth in Westlake/Stark's series of novels featuring serial heister Parker (first published in the US in 1967), but it was the second book in the series that Allison & Busby published (and its debut in hardback), following Slayground and just before Point Blank. And it's the only one of the first eight A&B Parkers with the Mick Keates typographically inclined dustjackets that I was still missing (full rundown of those covers here). No longer, however.

I found this in Sotheran's of Sackville Street, off London's Piccadilly, apparently "the longest established antiquarian booksellers in the world". I'd never been there before; we just happened to pass it when we were in town that day after seeing the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. On first impression it's an imposing place: a huge, airy room with almost all of the books in slightly forbidding, locked, glass-fronted bookcases, which isn't exactly conducive to browsing. But I had a look at the spines on the modern first shelves anyway, not expecting to see much of interest, and wary that anything I did see would be extortionate.

And then I came across this copy of The Rare Coin Score, the only Westlake or Stark book on the shelves, sitting there as if it were waiting for me. Even then, I was debating whether or not to get someone to unlock the bookcase, certain that the book would be out of my price range. But then one of the, as it turns out, thoroughly nice and helpful chaps who buzz about the place sauntered over and offered to open the glass doors. So I had a look at the book, and it was exceptionally reasonably priced, positively cheap even, considering there aren't really any copies of this edition for sale online from UK dealers. Even the other nice man who took my money did a slight double-take when he saw the price of it.

So, that's one collecting goal accomplished: all eight of Allison & Busby's original editions of the Parker novels. Which means, time for another Parker Progress Report!

Westlake Score: Bad News by Donald E. Westlake (Robert Hale Edition)

Right then. As I've been promising for a week now, it's time to get cracking on the various Donald Westlake/Richard Stark books I've managed to bag recently. From here on out (for a wee while at least) it's Westlake all the way. I'll be blogging about my various Westlake Scores, interspersed with some equally nerdy galleries and showcases. Most of these posts will probably only be of interest to me, Book Glutton, Olman and maybe Trent, so fair warning to anyone else foolish enough to be reading this blog: it's now officially Westlake Week. Er, except starting on a Wednesday.

And we begin with the first of two scores from the London segment of my recent bookshop splurge:














A UK hardback first edition of Donald E. Westlake's Bad News, published by Robert Hale in 2002 (first published in the US by Mysterious Press in 2001). I bought this in Nigel Williams Rare Books on Cecil Court, which is far and away the most comprehensive shop for modern first editions on that famed street. Like most of the shops on Cecil Court, it's not cheap, but the breadth of their stock, which is housed in the basement (the ground floor is given over to children's books, also a strong selection), has to be seen to be believed. In fact, we can have a look, courtesy of their website:











Look at that. That's all fiction, modern firsts the lot. I love poring over their shelves, but I rarely buy anything there. However, I made an exception for this copy of Bad News, which is the tenth of Westlake's novels featuring John Dortmunder and crew. I only have the first four Dortmunders at the moment, so I was skipping ahead slightly by buying Bad News, but in fact getting a decent copy of this Robert Hale edition isn't as easy as you might suppose, even though it's only eight years old. Most, if not all, of the ones for sale online are ex-library, which this copy isn't, and it wasn't expensive either. Plus, it has an added appeal, which that sticker on the cover has almost certainly given the game away on, but I'll come to that a moment.

The jacket painting is by Derek Colligan, who also painted the jackets for the six Stark/Parker novels Hale published in the 2000s (Comeback, Backflash, Flashfire, Firebreak, Breakout, and Nobody Runs Forever). Hale only published one other Dortmunder novel, the subsequent one, The Road to Ruin, but they did, as I say, publish a run of the later Parker novels, plus whatever else Westlake wrote during that period, including The Axe, all with covers by Colligan I believe. Presumabaly Hale simply signed up Westlake's entire output to publish in the UK market under a five-year deal that came to an end in 2005.

As for that added appeal I mentioned... here it is:












Yup, as the sticker on the cover claimed, it is indeed a signed edition. And don't be surprised if we happen to see that signature again very soon as we work our way through these Westlake Scores... Note that there are only two 'By the same author' titles listed on the half title verso, so this is the third Westlake novel Robert Hale published. Bit mean of Hale not to list some of the other hundred or so books Westlake had written prior to this though...

And while we're on a Dortmunder tip, having now read the second Dortmunder novel, Bank Shot, and liked it a lot more than the first, The Hot Rock (I'll be posting a review at some point), it looks as if I'll be collecting the rest of the books in the series. Which, seeing as I only have first editions of the initial four and now the tenth, and that there are fourteen books in the series altogether, means I've got a fair bit of collecting to do. Here we go again...