ELAVALILL. DER HIMMELSFAHRER. EIN ROMAN. Berlin: Pyramiden-Verlag, 1923. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-367 [368] [1-2: tipped in leaf with musical score on recto], original pictorial boards with blue cloth shelf back, spine panel stamped in gray and gold, top edge stained dark gray. First edition. A novel of super science in which a German astronomer and an old Norwegian scientist who has invented "Elavalill" travel in a space ship to Venus. Meanwhile, a misanthropic inventor with an earthquake machine attacks European cities. After the destruction of Paris, Germany is attacked by the French and Poles -- who suspect the Germans are responsible for the artificially created earthquakes. Germany is in chaos. After a few years the astronauts return from Venus and the earthquake machine breaks down. According to Sapra, despite the considerable scope, the novel remains an unfinished thing. It raises many questions, but gives few answers. "Jan Gramatzki" was probably physicist Hugh Ivan Gramatzki (1882-1957). He wrote radio plays and fantastic stories in addition to ELAVALILL (1923), his ambitious, but turgid and only slightly successful science fiction novel. Gramatzki also wrote DER KRISTALL (1917), an occult novel about the search for the philosopher's stone, and DIE ZUKUNFT DES FLUGWESENS (1913), a nonfiction book about the future of aviation. Brandt, Der deutsche Zukunftsroman 1918-1945, p. 358. Lexikon 2, p. 124. Bloch (2002) 1252. Boards warped, a very good copy. (#152278).
Price: $850.00
No statement of printing.