‘The Vanishing Tower’

The Vanishing Tower

New York:  DAW Books, 1977 (June) mass-sized paperback;
original price:  $1·25;
175 pages;
I.S.B.N.:  0-87997-304-8;
cover artist:  Michael Whelan;
illustrated by James Cawthorn (title page [uncredited]) and John Collier & Walter Romanski (map).

The Vanishing Tower is a retitling, with minor textual amendments, of The Sleeping Sorceress (1971). It slots — in terms of the overall Elric Saga’s internal narrative chronology — between The Weird Of The White Wolf (1977) and The Revenge Of The Rose (1991). It has been collected variously (under each title) in The Elric Saga Part Two (1984), the Stormbringer omnibus (1993, retitled and revised as Elric: The Stealer Of Souls in 1998), Elric: The Sleeping Sorceress (2008), Elric: The Sleeping Sorceress And Other Stories (2013) and The Elric Saga Volume Two: Stormbringer (2022). One of its sections retells, from Elric’s viewpoint, a part of the Corum novel, The King Of The Swords.

First edition

Assorted DAW reprints

3rd printing, 0-87997-406-0 ($1·50).
5th printing, 0-87997-693-4 ($2·25).

Cambridge, MA: Archival Press, 1981 (June) hardcover in a decorated red slip-case;
“Illustrated Collectors Edition” (1,500 copies);
original price:  $25·00;
192 pages;
I.S.B.N.:  0-915822-38-5;
cover artist:  Michael Whelan (also interior & slip-case);
no map.

Slip-case (pasted-on) illustration

First British edition (by this title): St Albans: Granada, 1983 (January 6th) mass-sized paperback;
original price:  £1·25;
190 pages;
I.S.B.N.:  0-583-13435-1;
cover artist:  Melvyn (Grant);
no interior illustrations.

Reprinted 1983 (£1·50 [later overprinted £1·95]), plus (possibly) ’84 (£1·95).
4th printing, 0-87997-553-9 ($1·75).
6th printing, 0-87997-796-5 ($2·50).
“This is a special signed edition of the Illustrated Collectors Edition of The Vanishing Tower. There are 150 numbered copies” signed by Moorcock, Whelan and (publisher) Robert K. Wiener, in a plain brown slip-case;
original price:  $45·00;
I.S.B.N.:  0-915822-39-3;
cover artist:  Whelan (also interior), gold blocking on brown boards.
New York: Berkley, 1983 (November) paperback;
original price:  $2·50;
175 pages;
I.S.B.N.:  0-425-06406-9;
cover artist:  Robert Gould;
no interior illustrations.
(+ later reprints)

London: Granada paperback, 1984 (September 13th);
original price:  £1·95;
190 pages;
I.S.B.N.:  0-583-13435-1;
cover artist:  Michael Whelan;
no interior artwork.

Reprinted 1986 (Grafton, £2·50); 1989, 0-586-20774-0 (£2·99); 1990 (twice + later reprint[s] @ £3·99).
New York: Ace, 1987 (September) paperback;
original price:  $2·95;
175 pages;
I.S.B.N.:  0-441-86039-7;
cover artist:  Robert Gould;
no interior illustrations;
+ later reprints…

... for example:-

Ace p/b, later reprint (@ $4·99).

N.B. The first edition contains the following note: “A version of this novel, re-edited without reference to the author, was published under the title of The Sleeping Sorceress by Lancer Books in 1972. The text of this edition follows that of the English edition, published by New English Library in 1970” (sic).

(Click here for Graphic Adaptations)

(Click here for Foreign Editions)