THE SOVEREIGN GUIDE: A TALE OF EDEN. Los Angeles: Geo. Rice & Sons, 1898. Small octavo, pp. [1-8] [1-7] 8-130 [131-136: blank] [note: first four and last three leaves are banks with first two and last two leaves used as free endpapers and paste-downs], inserted frontispiece (photographic portrait of the author), original black cloth, front panel stamped in gold. First edition. A short utopian lost race novel of a journey by submarine to a subterranean world where a pallid race has attained social and technological perfection. Eden is located here in the hollow earth, a bit neglected, although the Tree of Knowledge still flourishes. Basically a religious fantasy, a curious blend of allegory and science fiction, with many imaginative touches. The author was blind and deaf, according to the autobiographical preface. Note: Binder's title reads "MY SOVEREIGN GUIDE / A TALE OF EDEN. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1495. Costes and Altairac 281. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 157. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 116. Teitler 868. Bleiler (1978), p. 140. Reginald 10147. Wright (III) 3750. Not in Negley or Lewis. Cloth scuffed, some wear at corner tips, endpapers tanned, a good or somewhat better copy. (#165169).
Price: $150.00
No statement of printing.