Author:Tanith Lee

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The Silver Metal Lover

At present there's considerable confusion surrounding the DAW Books publications of The Silver Metal Lover as DAW published trade paperback, paperback, and hardcover editions with some printings in Canada.

To add to the confusion, DAW started to use a new ISBN and number series with this title, used the same ISBN for both the trade paperback and hardcover, and then never used this numbering system again. Thus the tp and hc editions do not fit in with the rest of DAW's numbering.

I believe the known printings are:

1. November-1981 - SFBC hardcover. The copyright page (title verso page) states "Published by arrangement with DAW Books." Rob Sauber cover.
2. April-1982 - DAW Paperback. UE2721 0-87997-721-3 at $2.75. Don Maitz cover. (states first printing with 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)
3. April-1982 - DAW Paperback. UE2721 0-87997-721-3 at $2.95. Don Maitz cover. See Amazon B0018ZD6M0 for a picture of the cover which also states "Science Fiction Book Club Selection". I assume this is printed in Canada.
4. September-1985 - DAW Trade Paperback. V5000 0-8099-5000-6 at $6.95. Joe Chiodo cover (states First DAW Trade Printing, September 1985 / 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9).
5. September-1985 - DAW Trade Paperback. V5000 0-8099-5000-6 at $7.95. Joe Chiodo cover (states First DAW Trade Printing, September 1985 / 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9).
6. December-1999 - DAW hardcover. V5000 0-8099-5000-6. The same Rob Sauber cover as on the SFBC edition.

After this title DAW never used the 0-8099-5xxx-x ISBN series again though ISBN 0-8099-0001-7, 0-8099-0002-5, and 0-8099-0003-3 were used.

The Birthgrave

The first printing of Tanith Lee's first book was supposed to contain "A special introduction by Marion Zimmer Bradley", advertised on the cover. This is missing from the first US and first Canadian printing, but was included in later DAW printings. In a letter to Dave Truesdale (ed. of Tangent fanzine), Wollheim writes:

"As for the MZB introduction, this is a real foul-up--somewhere between my desk and the printer, the manuscript became disconnected from the novel and vanished--because when the book appeared, it was not to be seen. Believe me, it was a shock to me...and still a sore point as to how it happened. And why it wasn't detected as missing in the proofs...."

Source Tangent blog.