MORE THAN HUMAN. [New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1953.]. Tall octavo, 143 printed leaves, plus typewritten inserts, plain gray wrappers, Ballantine Books mailing label pasted onto front cover with typewritten publication data, white plastic spiral spine, proofs of publishers' blurbs pasted onto verso of front cover. Advance copy (bound unpaged galley proofs) of the first edition, second state. The second state of the advance copy, incorporating the extensive last-minute changes that Sturgeon made at the publisher's office. The changes occur on leaves 16, 120, 136, 139, and 144-145 (the last two leaves are excised) and consisted mostly of insertions of new copy, ranging from about 150 words in one case to about 1500 in another (at the story's conclusion). The new copy is inserted on typed manuscript pages (ribbon and carbon copy) stapled to the relevant leaves. According to Sturgeon (his handwritten note made in a copy of the earlier state of the galleys), "a few hours before 'More Than Human' went to press, the author felt a profound dissatisfaction with the last section. Working in the corner of a busy office at his publishers, he rewrote the final portion." Sturgeon rewrote four other sections as well, albeit less extensively. MORE THAN HUMAN is one of Sturgeon's best and probably his best-known novel. It won the 1954 International Fantasy Award. The story expresses a recurrent theme in the author's work: the passage of a character (or, in this case, six of them) from freak to superman, a passage of self-discovery and self-realization, if not apotheosis. In this story, the six outcasts come together to form a more-than-human collective psyche. It is told with the author's characteristic depth of emotional resonance. The book was jointly published by Ballantine Books and Farrar, Straus and Young. Pringle, Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels 14. Survey of Science Fiction Literature III, pp. 1453-58. Mild tanning to wrapper edges, internally fine. This copy is signed on the front wrapper by Sturgeon. One copy of the proof with first state text is known; this is the third known copy of the proof with second state text; rare. (#152974).
Price: $3,500.00
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