Unlike fine press productions, science fiction---especially early science fiction--is rarely found in very good shape. Unless one is collecting science fiction, my experience also has been that little thought is given to completeness, either by author, publishing imprint or any other organizing principle.
There are several reasons why I believe this to be so:
- SciFi has long been the poor stepchild of literary genres, beloved by its legions of fans but almost universally dissed by "the critics." You admit that you collect science fiction at your critical peril!
- Because it's the poor stepchild, scifi traditionally has not been given much respect from publishers. Though this has begun to change as the collectibility of the genre has slowly begun to be recognized, for decades first-edition science fiction was published either in serial form (such as the recent classic Dune, which first saw life in the magazine Analog) or as a paperback.
- These paperbacks usually were printed on very acidic paper which disintegrated very rapidly unless the paperback was carefully read (being especially careful not to break the spine) and well protected afterwards (in a moderate environment so as not to hasten disintegration of the paper).
- Under these last conditions, one might be able to savor the gorgeous cover art of such paperbacks for a very long time....
And it's precisely for the reasons outlined above that scholars would be much more interested in a well-preserved, fairly complete collection of scifi paperbacks than they would be in a collection of random fine press titles. The survivability of scifi paperbacks in organized, near-pristine condition is not something that scholars of the book ever routinely encounter....
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