LAST AND FIRST MEN: A STORY OF THE NEAR AND FAR FUTURE. New York: Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith, [1931]. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v [vi] vii-ix [x] xi [xii] xiii-xvi 1-371 [372: blank], original purple cloth, all panels ruled in blind, spine panel stamped in gold, top edge stained black, fore and bottom edges rough trimmed. First U.S. edition, first binding. "The author's first work of fiction, inaugurating those anatomies of the future that blend romance and philosophy, spectacle and prophecy, cosmological in scope, teleological in tone, for which the term 'novel' is wholly misleading. With its telescopic focus, the Stapledonian romance eschews characters and dialogue, replacing them with Man and Evolution. The half-century to come, as predicted by the author in his foreword, would indeed be critical, coinciding with the high watermark of those social engineering schemes that seemed so congruent with the kind of utopian visions emblazoned here." - Robert Eldridge. "... one of the most remarkable imaginative works in the field of futuristic fiction: an account of human development during the next hundreds of millions of years." - Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 58. "On his own terms, Stapledon is unequaled, and he certainly has been one of the major influences on contemporary science fiction." - Survey of Science Fiction Literature III, pp. 1140-43. "LAST AND FIRST MEN and STAR MAKER soar far beyond the accepted limits of science fiction... Stapledon is the great classical example, the cold pitch of perfection as he turns scientific concepts into vast ontological epic prose poems, the ultimate SF writer." - Aldiss, Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction, p. 198. Stapledon's "influence, both direct and indirect, on the development of many concepts which now permeate genre SF is probably second only to that of H. G. Wells." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), pp. 1151-53. Aldiss, Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction, p. 198. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 3-56; (1981) 2-98; (1987) 2-109; (1995) 2-119; and (2004) II-1069. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 2086. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 718. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 58. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), pp. 1151-52. Gerber, Utopian Fantasy (1973), p. 151. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, pp. 204-05. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 190. Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, pp. 200-03. Survey of Science Fiction Literature III, pp. 1140-43. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 185. Reginald 13553. Satty and Smith A3.2.1. Private owner's bookplate affixed to front paste-down. A fine copy in fine pictorial dust jacket (designed by Arthur Hawkins). A stunning copy of a very handsome book. (#114650).
Price: $1,000.00
'FIRST PUBLISHED IN AMERICA, 1931" on copyright page.