MORE THAN HUMAN. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, [1953]. cloth-backed boards. First edition. MORE THAN HUMAN is one of Sturgeon's best and probably his best-known novel. 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. "Growing out of the acclaimed novella, 'Baby is Three," this excellent work describes the rise, against all meanness and bigotries of the surrounding world, of Homo Gestalt, an individual composed of the blended intelligences of numerous people, each of whom retains personal identity while contributing a particular strength or talent to the whole. An emergence-of-the-superhuman story, made more of a struggle than it was for the superchildren in Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END (1953), but shorn also of the inevitable tragedy forecast for the superhumans in Stapledon's ODD JOHN (1935)." - Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-1100. Winner of the 1954 International Fantasy Award for best novel. Pringle, Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels 14. Survey of Science Fiction Literature III, pp. 1453-58. A fine copy in bright, nearly fine dust jacket with some foxing to the inner surface and clipped price. A very nice copy. (#157845).
Price: $450.00
"First printing, 1953" on copyright page.