Book-Length Typescript

The Drive In 2 (Not Just One of Them Sequels) [Typescript + Proof + First Hardcover]

Lansdale, Joe R.

Publication: New York: Bantam Books, 1989.

Notes: The corrected typescript plus two editions of the book, the proof of the Bantam Books paperback original (1989) and the UK edition (Kinnell, 1990), which was the first hardcover edition.

The typescript consists of 225 ribbon-copy sheets, with Wite-Out and handwritten corrections on most every page. The typescript pages are numbered to 218, with 20 inserted pages, eight page numbers omitted from the pagination although the text is continuous, and five leaves supplied from photocopies of the uncorrected proof. An attached note, from an illegible source (possibly a bookseller) indicates that most of the missing pages were rewritten and sent to the publisher, which did not return them.

Several slightly different stocks of paper are used in the typescript, which seems to have been corrected a page at a time, rather than completely retyped as Lansdale revised it. If, for example, he made changes to p. 58 that spilled over to another page, he inserted a new page, 58A, with the additional text which then flowed to the original, unchanged p. 59.

A brief comparison of the typescript to the published book suggests that this typescript is very close to the final form of the book, although there were undoubtedly copyediting corrections.

This is the second of two novels set at a movie theater on horror night when the monsters come alive.

This typescript comes from a group of manuscript material Lansdale sold to collectors in the late 1980s. Since 1992, he has periodically donated his papers and books to the Wittliff Collection at Texas State University in San Marcos. The typescript of the first book (The Drive In) in this short series is in the Wittliff Collection. This is likely one of the few opportunities to acquire a substantial manuscript from the dean of Texas weird fiction and horror writers.

Edition + Condition: The typescript is near fine and signed on the first page by Lansdale. The leaves are protected in plastic sleeves. The typescript is mostly complete but for leaves 45, 167, and 209–211, which are supplied in photocopy. The proof is fine and inscribed by Lansdale; the hardcover is fine/fine, and also inscribed. All three items are housed in a custom clamshell box commissioned by Tom Garner.

Item No: #364099

Price: $3,000