STORIES BY AMERICAN AUTHORS. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1884-1885. Small octavo, ten volumes, original yellow cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First editions, first printings of all volumes with title pages of the first eight volumes dated 1884 and the last two dated 1885. Collects fifty-seven stories, all but one ("Venetian Glass" by Brander Matthews appears here for the first time in print) first published in ATLANTIC MONTHLY, SCRIBNER'S MONTHLY, LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE, APPLETON'S JOURNAL, CENTURY MAGAZINE, PUTNAM'S MAGAZINE, HARPER'S MAGAZINE, OVERLAND MONTHLY, THE GALAXY, and other magazines and newspapers between 1863 and 1884 (with the exception of "The Spider's Eye" by Lucretia P. Hale published in PUTNAM'S MAGAZINE in July 1856). Most of the stories appear here for the first time in a book and some have not been collected elsewhere. Most of the fiction is social or sentimental in orientation, but a few sensational and fantastic tales are included. Among the latter are "The Transferred Ghost" by Frank R. Stockton, "A Martyr to Science" by Mary Putnam Jacobi, "The Spider's Eye" by Lucretia P. Hale (here mistakenly attributed to Fitz-James O’Brien), "The End of New York" by Park Benjamin, an early American future war story first published in FICTION 31 October 1881, "The Tachypomp" and "The Ablest Man in the World," both by Edward Page Mitchell, "The Life-Magnet" by Alvey A. Adee, and "Manmat'ha" by Charles De Kay, a lost race tale of a semitransparent people. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 2112. Wright (III) 5267-5276 (lists contents). Some wear to cloth, mostly upper spine ends, some spotting and considerable dust soiling to cloth, stain to spine of volume 3, a sound, good set. Signature of an early owner dated 1890 in all but one volume. First printing sets are now seldom found. (#154688).
Price: $250.00
No statement of printing.