Ramsey Campbell's Box

So, sometimes what is collectable and what isn't can be a bit murky. A case in point wd be Ramsey Campbell's box.

This is a somewhat battered cardboard box*, on one side of which British horror writer Ramsey Campbell** has written his return address (the top flaps have the recipient's address).

How I got this is fairly straightforward. My friend Doug Anderson was in town, on a book tour promoting his new book THE ANNOTATED HOBBIT, second revised edition.*** While he was in the neighborhood we (Janice, Doug, myself) went over to Bremerton to see Jessica Amanda Salmonson.**** Being bookish people, during our visit we looked over books she had for sale. I don't remember any specific book I bought, only that it must have been enough of a pile that she gave me a little box to put them in rather than a bag.  I don't think I noticed the writing on the side until later, but I may be misremembering there.

So there it is: I have provenance (assuming it's actually his handwriting and not that of a secretary), right down to the 20pence piece that fell out of it while I was measuring the dimensions last night. To put it another way, I think it's authentic but any value it might have wd be only for fans and come only through its associational value.

Still, it makes for a fun conversation piece. Especially considering how many Mythos tales begin with the arrival of some unexpected parcel . . . 

--John R.

--current reading: ALWAYS COMING HOME by U. K. Le Guin

*8 1/2" high, about 12" long, and 8 inches wide 

**best known, to me anyway, for his Severn Valley Mythos tales, which made him the first of a new generation of Cthulhu Mythos writers who had not known Lovecraft himself.

***a v. gd bk, which you shd pick up if you're interested in JRRT.

****and also, at some point during Doug's trip, we got together with John Pelan, who sold me a copy of Leiber stories.