ARC FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN CAPER

One of the more desirable Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) of Clive’s books is
the one for the upcoming 40th anniversary edition of The Mediterranean Caper.
Due this July as a Putnam hardcover, I can tell you that the ARC for this
edition is already out. For several reasons, I consider this ARC a “must
have” for any serious collector of Clive Cussler. One reason is that The
Mediterranean Caper was Clive’s first published book and I don’t believe
that an ARC was done for the Pyramid paperback version forty years ago. As a
result, having an ARC of Clive’s debut book in a collection can be a new
cornerstone. Plus, unlike other ARCs produced for Clive’s newly-released
books, there were only around 50 or so made for The Mediterranean Caper—an
exceedingly small print run for this type of edition. The ARC for the 40th
anniversary edition does include a “Foreword” penned by Clive, although a
preliminary cover of the book that I’ve seen indicates it as a
“Preface.” I understand that the Foreword will eventually be renamed to be
a “Preface.” Recently, I’ve noticed ARCs for both Zero Hour (due out in
June) and The Mayan Secrets (scheduled for a September release) are available
on the usual Internet auction sites, but I’ve yet to see one for The
Mediterranean Caper. This is probably due to the limited number produced. My
advice: If you see one, grab it.

NEW BOX SET

Last month I came across something quite interesting at a local Barnes Noble. Occasionally when I visit I’ll scan the shelves of Cussler books in the fiction section. Rarely do I find anything of interest and mainly do so to make certain I haven’t missed any new paperback releases. On this particular visit I noticed a “box set” of Cussler paperbacks. It contained The Mediterranean Caper, Iceberg and Raise the Titanic!, Clive’s first three published novels. They were the newer released Pocket Books editions which can currently be found (individually) nearly anywhere. But the fact that they were part of a box set was exciting—at least to me. I love Cussler sets like these and wish more were available. From what I can determine, the UK does an admirable job of producing box sets, mixing old and new titles while incorporating several of the different series. Of those I have a few of them. After discovering this one at Barnes Noble I went home and researched it online. Evidently, it came out a month earlier on October 23. The bookstore’s retail price was $29.95 (the actual combined cost of the three paperbacks). Amazon listed it at a discounted price. Although I’d have to pay for shipping, the one at Amazon would still be a few dollars less than Barnes Noble. Still, I decided to go back and purchase that one at the store. It was in perfect condition with the shrinkwrap completely intact. I didn’t want to take a chance that the box would get banged up or crushed during shipping. In addition, it was the only one at that Barnes Noble. I did visit another store and found a set at that one as well. It was not with Clive’s books but rather with box sets of other popular authors and was the only one at that store. From what I can tell, it seems to be a bit rare and is, I believe, worth having in a collection.

WHY NO U.S. ARC OF VIXEN 03?

During the 25 years I’ve been collecting Clive’s works, I’ve often wondered why I never came across a U.S. ARC (Advance Reading Copy) of his 1978 book, Vixen 03. I always thought that a bit strange. I pretty much have (or know of) every ARC for every other Clive book. The obvious exceptions are The Mediterranean Caper (Pyramid Books) and Iceberg (Dodd Mead & Co). For years now I’ve come to the conclusion that none were produced for either book. To be honest, I thought the same for the U.S. edition of Vixen 03. There is an ARC for the U.K. edition (published by London: Hodder and Stoughton), but I never saw or heard of one for the U.S. edition. I now think I know why. Recently, I obtained a U.S. first edition of Vixen 03 with an accompanying press release and publisher’s letter. The two-page news release discusses the book’s plot and lists its upcoming release date (October 23, 1978). The release also includes the schedule (and cities) for Clive’s book tour for the book. With this was also a letter from the Associate Director of Publicity (Viking Penguin) indicating the possibility of setting up an interview with Clive. I tend to think the three items (book, press release and letter) have been together since 1978. So with the evidence at hand, I believe that the hardcover book was the ARC, sent to reviewers and editors alike, along with the press release and letter. I know that in lieu of printing a separate ARC, some publishers did sent out copies of the first hardcover to reviews and editors. Although an isolated case—at least for Clive’s work—I’m convinced that’s what happened with the U.S. ARC of Vixen 03. For now, that’s the theory I’m sticking with—unless I discover something else.

ULTRA-RARE CUSSLER COLLECTIBLE

Recently I received an ARC (Advance Reading Copy) of THE TOMBS, the latest book in the Fargo series written by new co-writer, Thomas Perry. Unlike the standard ARCs of Clive’s books with a full-color cover that will eventually grace the hardcover edition, this one had a plain white cover. In addition, its size is not quite the same as the standard one. Unsure exactly what it was, I soon learned that this plain cover ARC was done in a very limited run for the trade publications only. Evidently, the regular ones were held up for some cover art tweaking. And get this, only eight of these plain white cover ones were made. So with only eight in existence, that pretty much makes it about the rarest edition in my collection. While I have a few things in which only a handful may exist now, none of them began with such a low number. At this stage of the game I didn’t think there would be that much rare stuff coming out. It’s nice to see that those kinds of things are still around.

THE SHIPKILLER

Recently I obtained an ARC of the re-release (thirty-fifth anniversary) of The Shipkiller, Justin Scott’s classic story of revenge and love set on the oceans of the world, from the South Atlantic to the oil-slicked reaches of the Persian Gulf. I remember reading the paperback on a trip to Florida I took in 1980. Since then I’ve always known of the book and was pleasantly surprised (back in 2008) when I found out that Justin would be Clive’s co-writer on the Isaac Bell series. When I received the ARC for this new book, I was delighted to see that a Preface has been added to this new edition penned by Clive himself. If you’re like me, you’ll collect (or at least want to know about) books that Clive contributed to via a Foreword, Introduction or Preface like this one. While I’m also interested in books written by Clive’s co-writers, this one is particularly appealing because it’s by one and includes Clive’s Preface—it’s got it all! The new book will be released this coming Father’s Day in hardcover by Pegasus Crime (W.W.Norton & Co.). Pick it up and enjoy!

A LITTLE OUT OF THE NORM

For those of you with a desire to collect a variation of Cussler, here’s something you might be interested in. I first heard of it several years ago and only recently got a copy. It’s a hardcover anthology entitled, 100 Must Read Thrillers, edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner. The brainchild of the International Thriller Writers, the book examines 100 seminal works of suspense through essays contributed by modern writers who (I presume to be) are members of the ITW. Odds are you’ll find some of the essays penned by one or two of your favorite writers. Among them are David Baldacci, Steve Berry, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, James Rollins and Douglas Preston. What makes the book especially attractive to me is that thriller # 70 is Raise the Titanic. Equally appealing is that the essay for that book was written by Grant Blackwood. Also, thriller # 76 is The Shipkiller (Justin Scott) which was written by Lawrence Light—although I’ve never heard of him. I got my copy off Amazon for under ten bucks. I went that route because I thought the prices on ebay were too high. Anyway, the book was described to be in excellent condition. Upon opening the package, I was pleasantly surprised to find it in near mint condition (as well was the dust jacket) and that the book was a first edition. If you’ve hit a dry spell where nothing new (or old) regarding Cussler can be located, check it out.

CATALOGING A COLLECTION

In September, a friend of mine who collects Ian Fleming/James Bond memorabilia stopped by to view my collection in Denver. So you know, he is a major Fleming/Bond collector as I am with Cussler. The difference is that with what he has in his collection it could easily fill a small airport whereas mine could only occupy an average-sized house. My collection may be worth in the six figures but his is in the millions. The point is to demonstrate the caliber of his collection. Anyway, upon seeing my collection he was impressed with how it was displayed and asked if I had everything inventoried. To his surprise, I answered, “no.” But then he confessed to me that neither had he. That, and an incident that occurred earlier this year got me thinking about cataloguing my collection. One of the more prominent Cussler collectors passed away earlier this year in Arizona. The family contacted Bruce Kenfield and myself and asked if we would assist in liquidating the collection on their behalf. We agreed to do this. To our knowledge, the collector hadn’t inventoried anything. However, the family hired someone to inventory nearly 650 books. Believe me, that inventory list helped us tremendously. Obviously there are many reasons to inventory a collection and estate matters are one concern. Other reasons include: estimating a collections value, for insurance, weeding out duplicates, planning to sell it, etc. If you’re going to start an inventory, I suggest your get going on it now as it’s never too late to begin. My Cussler bibliography is a good resource to what exists but you really don’t need it to get started. Right now, what you have is more important than what you don’t. There are many basic Cussler bibliographies on the Internet. For now an inventory list doesn’t need to be fancy—just the book’s title, format, publisher and year are enough to get started. Later you can fine-tune it according to condition, edition, dust jacket, ISBN and even include photographs of the book. One thing though, I think the collection should be grouped by book title. And you start anywhere: the titles you have the fewest of or the most—it doesn’t matter. The most important thing is to get something down on paper or in a computer file (or book collecting program). As a result of my encounter with the Fleming/Bond collector, I started (a fairly lame effort I might add) to inventory my collection. To me, it seems like a daunting task that may take years. But for all of you, at least start a notebook of what you’ve got; the earlier the better. Don’t wait like I did.