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The Attempted Rescue: Available Copies

Autobiography. One of 500 copies. Fine in jacket.

Published in a limited edition of 500 copies, this is a reprint of the autobiography of Robert Aickman, the celebrated author of ghost stories. Very good in maroon cloth with salmon coloured wrappers that are sunned to the spine and wit a silk bookmark.

First Edition. Hardback. Dust Jacket. 8vo. pp 188. Frontis illustration. Autobiography by the man who created the Inland Waterways Assocation and wrote highly collectable fantasies. Neat name and inscription on front endpaper otherwise VG in slightly used near vg dust jacket with repaired closed tears.

8vo. 223pp. Beautiful First Edition Thus of Aickman's autobiography; originally published by Gollancz in 1966. Limited to 500 unnumbered copies. Bound in maroon cloth with titles in black on spine and front board. New preface by Jeremy Dyson. Square, tight and clean throughout with little or no wear. Equally attractive unclipped dust-jacket, (£27.50.), is fresh and bright with no creases, chipping or tears. A gorgeous collectable copy of an uncommon item in the market.

NEW UK HARDBACK. LIMITED Ed. of 500. DJ in Clear, ARCHIVAL MYLAR WRAP. NO remainder mark. | SHIPS AIRMAIL INTERNATIONALLY! Robert Aickman has received due recognition for his hauntingly poetic and psychologically charged ¿strange¿ tales, but what sort of early life fuelled their creation? The Attempted Rescue chronicles Aickman¿s childhood and youth, over which looms the figure of his eccentric father, a man almost entirely resistant to ¿normal¿ family life, and a man who Aickman describes as dying ¿from loss of luxuries¿. So much of Aickman¿s childhood appears bizarre and unyielding of explanation that it is little wonder that his short stories are so odd. Aickman invests the book with his startling, often politically incorrect opinions on politics, the modern industrial world and his rather bleak view of sexual relationships. But there is also much achingly heart-felt nostalgia in the atmospheric descriptions of pre-World War Two London, the theatre and the large country house of his singular Great Uncle and Aunt. Aickman displays more than a passing acquaintance with psycho-analysis in this fascinating autobiog-raphy, and we can infer that the disturbing images with which he invests his fiction are there by design. Then again, when such a master of the weird tale tells the story of his own life, how far can we be sure that he is not manipulating our expectations as subtly as he does in his fiction?

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Tartarus Press. Coverley House, Carlton, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, DL8 4AY, United Kingdom, 2001. Hardcover. Sewn Binding. pp 223+viii. UK FIRST EDITION. AS NEW and an UNREAD copy. LIMITED EDITION of 500 copies. Full Print Run Limited to 500 copies. OUT OF PRINT. Introduction by Jeremy Dyson. Printed lithographically in burgundy wibalin cloth stamped in black, with burgundy silk ribbon marker, head and tailbands, and d/w. Illustrated. Fine book in Fine dust jacket. Please see the photographs attached to my listing to verify the condition of this book. Attempted Rescue (The) Synopsis: CONTENTS: Foreword by Jeremy Dyson/ Proem/ The Misty Giants/ I Loom/ I am Born and Immediately Fall Ill/ My Fathers History and Disposition/ My Fathers Life as a Displaced Person/ I Begin to Read the Classics/ I First Realize Myself/ I Assume a Mask/ Mixed Friends/ Relatives are All Alike/ Relatives as Divinities. I. Their Domain/ Relatives as Divinities. II. Their Mores/ Splendours and Miseries of Childhood/ My Struggles at Schools. I. The Dames and the Prep/ My First Projects for a Better World/ My Struggles at Schools. II. The Big House/ The Illnesses and the Flights (I)/ My Second Projects for a Better World/ The Illnesses and the Flights (II)/ I Suffer from Loneliness/ The Great Flower of Light/ The Poet and the King/ Deaths of the Divine Relatives/ A Distant Star/ I Love and Lose/ Tableau. Point: The Attempted Rescue was first published by Gollancz, 1966. SYNOPSIS: Robert Aickman has received due recognition for his hauntingly poetic and psychologically charged strange tales, but what sort of early life fuelled their creation? The Attempted Rescue chronicles Aickmans childhood and youth, over which looms the figure of his eccentric father, a man almost entirely resistant to normal family life, and a man who Aickman describes as dying from loss of luxuries. So much of Aickmans childhood appears bizarre and unyielding of explanation that it is little wonder that his short stories are so odd. Aickman invests the book with his startling, often politically incorrect opinions on politics, the modern industrial world and his rather bleak view of sexual relationships. But there is also much achingly heart-felt nostalgia in the atmospheric descriptions of pre-World War Two London, the theatre and the large country house of his singular Great Uncle and Aunt. Aickman displays more than a passing acquaintance with psychoanalysis in this fascinating autobiography, and we can infer that the disturbing images with which he invests his fiction are there by design. Then again, when such a master of the weird tale tells the story of his own life, how far can we be sure that he is not manipulating our expectations as subtly as he does in his fiction? REVIEWS: "Robert Aickman will be remembered primarily for his fiction, I know, but I wonder how many who are fortunate enough to read this powerful memoir will remember, instead, that boy who cringed in fear of the shouting below. For those, The Attempted Rescue will remain Aickmans most profound legacy." Lisa DuMond, Black Gate Magazine "Read The Attempted Rescue, if you are an admirer of the artist; read it also for a glimpse of a time long gone, of a past which, as Jeremy Dyson points out in his shrewd and sympathetic introduction to this volume, is indeed a foreign country." Steve Duffy, All Hallows "Aickman shows a solid comprehension of Freudian theory and he frequently refers to the sexual frustration resulting from single sex schooling and his shy nature. He demonstrates a perceptive awareness of symbols and their effect on the subconscious and comments on experiencing inexplicable fear induced by objects which in retrospect he sees as sexual symbols. This in itself certainly encourages a close re-reading of The Collected Strange Stories." - Matt Leyshon, Enigma. Language: eng

Octavo, boards. Aickman's scarce third book, an autobiography of his early years preceded by We Are For the Dark, a short story collection in collaboration with Elizabeth Jane Howard, and The Late Breakfasters, his first novel. Spine ends a little bruised, a fine copy in a just about fine dust jacket with a touch of wear at the spine ends, a small 15 mm closed tear to the upper rear panel, and some scattered stains to rear panel. (30695)

The Attempted Rescue by Robert Aickman (First Edition) File Copy A firm square copy. Bright binding, gilt, and pages. "File Copy" stamped, and "F.108" penned, to front endpapers. A very near fine dust jacket with minor rubbing to upper edge. Not price-clipped. "File Copy" stamped, and "66" penned, to back cover. Brodart cover. Publisher's File Copy. An Autobiography. Fantasy author. Nonfiction.