A DREAM OF CONQUEST. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, [1890]. Octavo, pp. [1-2] 3-80, original terra cotta wrappers printed in dark brown. First book edition. A short future war novel, a humorous treatment of the Yellow Peril theme popular during this period of wide-scale Chinese immigration. Wang-Chi-Poo, a midlevel mandarin angry at America, receives permission to buy some warships and attack the U.S. His first battle is with a one-man garrison in Key West, where he abducts an American woman and falls in love with her. He proceeds to New York City and, not receiving the ransom he had demanded, bombards the city. Was it all a dream? Clareson calls it "a parody of the future war motif." (Clareson, Science-Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s, p. 31). Bleiler calls it "weak, enormously overdeveloped, unsuccessful as humor. The orientalia is on the level of The Mikado." (Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 288). The story was published in LIPPINCOTT'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE, June 1889, and published separately in book form from the plates used for its magazine appearance. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 288. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 100. Clareson, Some Kind of Paradise, p. 69. Bleiler (1978), p. 33. Not in Reginald (1979; 1992). Not in Clarke, Voices Prophesying War. Wright (III) 747. Small (14 mm) chip from lower spine end, a bit of soiling to front wrapper, a very good copy. Actually, a remarkably nice copy. This book edition is rare. (#157221).
Price: $350.00
No statement of printing.