(#141870) THE CRYSTAL BUTTON OR, ADVENTURES OF PAUL PROGNOSIS IN THE FORTY-NINTH CENTURY ... Edited by George Houghton. Chauncey Thomas.

THE CRYSTAL BUTTON OR, ADVENTURES OF PAUL PROGNOSIS IN THE FORTY-NINTH CENTURY ... Edited by George Houghton. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1891. Octavo, pp. [1-2] [i-v] vi [vii] viii-xi [xii-xiii] xiv [1] 2-302 [303-304: blank] [1]-36 ads [note: first leaf is a blank]; flyleaf at rear, original decorated sea-green cloth, front panel stamped in white, silver and black, spine panel stamped in black. First edition. This utopian novel, set in Boston in the far future, was written in the 1870s and rejected for publication by George Houghton in 1880; it was published in 1891 following the success of Bellamy's LOOKING BACKWARD (1888) which established a strong niche market for this type of story. "Engineer's utopia complete with technological marvels and ingenious pyramid-shaped living complexes housing thousands." - Roemer, The Obsolete Necessity, p. 192. "... science dominates society. There is much praise of the engineering profession as a public service; a technocratic state is preferable because of the efficiency it brings to government." - Anatomy of Wonder (1981) 1-158. "Among the more readable ideal societies." - Bleiler, Science Fiction: The Early Years 2167. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 2-146 and (2004) II-1132. Clareson, The Emergence of American Science Fiction: 1880-1915, pp. 292-93. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 749. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 17. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 188. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 212. Negley, Utopian Literature: A Bibliography 1096. Rooney, Dreams and Visions: A Study of American Utopias, 1865-1917, p. 198. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 92. Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, pp. 47-8. Bleiler (1978), p. 192. Reginald 14058. Wright (III) 5430. Cloth rubbed at spine ends and corner tips, some general dust soiling to cloth, a very good copy. (#141870).

Price: $100.00

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