‘The Lives And Times Of Jerry Cornelius’

The Lives And Times Of Jerry Cornelius

London:  Allison & Busby, 1976 (January) hardcover;
original price:  £3·50;
176 pages;
I.S.B.N.:  0-85031-141-1;
cover artist:  Richard Glyn Jones;
illustrated by Mal Dean, Jones & Harry Douthwaite.

Jerry Cornelius — the ambiguous, amoral, androgynous English Assassin —

The Lives And Times Of Jerry Cornelius is a collection of linked short fiction (published between 1968 & 1974; see below), supplementary to the Cornelius tetralogy. “The stories are published in order of writing, and should be read as a continuous narrative.” It was collected in The Cornelius Chronicles Vol. II (1986, sans illustrations) with The Entropy Tango, and in 1987 was expanded to include an introduction plus an additional story, ‘Epilogue: The Dodgem Decision’ (originally published in 1969, outside of the otherwise chronological running order). In 2003, a variant edition was published as The Lives And Times Of Jerry Cornelius: Stories Of The Comic Apocalypse, which excluded some of the original’s contents but added others. Then in 2014, Jerry Cornelius: His Lives And His Times expanded the original’s content yet further, to include stories published up to and including 2011.

First edition

First paperback edition:
London: Futura (Quartet) mass-sized paperback, 1976 (June 25th);
“Quartet” only, on back cover and title & copyright pages;
original price:  60p;
176 pages;
I.S.B.N.:  0-704-31264-6;
cover artist:  Chris Achilléos;
illustrated by Mal Dean, Richard Glyn Jones & Harry Douthwaite.

First expanded edition: London: Harrap, 1987 (February 26th) hardcover an simultaneous mass-sized paperback;
original prices:  £7·95 (h/c), £2·50 (p/b);
185 pages;
I.S.B.N.s:  0-245-54374-0 (h/c), 0-52626356-0 (p/b);
cover artist:  Tim White;
illustrated by Mal Dean, Richard Glyn Jones & Harry Douthwaite;
no (expanded) American edition.

Mass paperback confirmed as published 26th February, 1987; hardcover confirmed only as February 1987; therefore presumed to be (to all intents and purposes) simultaneous.

First American edition:  New York: Dale mass-sized-paperback, 1979;
(purportedly) with unauthorised cuts and/or changes (despite “Special American edition approved by the author” on copyright page);
original price:  $1·95;
187 pages;
I.S.B.N.:  0-89559-158-8;
cover artist:  Jim Starlin;
no illustrations.

This (sans illustrations) text believed to have been used in the 1986 omnibus, The Cornelius Chronicles Vol. II).
Mass paperback (simultaneous 1st ed., not to scale), reprinted 1987.

Contents (first edition):-
p. 9: ‘The Peking Junction’;
p. 20: ‘The Delhi Division’;
p. 30: ‘The Tank Trapeze’;
p. 46: ‘The Nature Of The Catastrophe’
p. 55: ‘The Swastika Set-Up’;
p. 85: ‘The Sunset Perspective: A Moral Tale’ (as ‘The Sunset Perspective’ only, on contents page);
p. 105: ‘Sea Wolves’;
p. 123: ‘Voortekker: A Tale Of Empire’ (as ‘Voortrekker’ only, on contents page);
p. 144: ‘Dead Singers’;
p. 149: ‘The Longford Cup’;
p. 161: ‘The Entropy Circuit’.

Contents (expanded editions):-
p. 5: ‘Introduction’;
p. 9: ‘The Peking Junction’;
p. 20: ‘The Delhi Division’;
p. 30: ‘The Tank Trapeze’;
p. 46: ‘The Nature Of The Catastrophe’
p. 55: ‘The Swastika Set-Up’;
p. 85: ‘The Sunset Perspective: A Moral Tale’ (as ‘The Sunset Perspective’ only, on contents page);
p. 105: ‘Sea Wolves’;
p. 123: ‘Voortekker: A Tale Of Empire’ (as ‘Voortrekker’ only, on contents page);
p. 144: ‘Dead Singers’;
p. 149: ‘The Longford Cup’;
p. 161: ‘The Entropy Circuit’;
p. 177: ‘Epilogue: The Dodgem Decision’ (as ‘Epilogue’ only, on contents page).