SUB SOLE OR UNDER THE SUN MISSIONARY ADVENTURES IN THE GREAT SAHARA. London: James Nisbet and Co. ... Worcester: Ebenr. Baylis and Son ... , n.d. [1890]. Octavo, pp. [1-2] [i-v] vi-x [11] 12-256 [257: printer's imprint] [258-259: ads] [260: blank], fly leaves at front and rear, three inserted plates, original pictorial red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black and gold, white endpapers with floral pattern printed in orange. First edition, second issue with leaf headed "prefatory note to the second issue of 'Sub Sole'" dated "June 1898" following contents leaf. The first issue of this book has four inserted plates. Only a handful of copies of the "second" or "third" issues have the fourth plate (captioned "Fighting with the Storm"); this copy does not have the fourth plate. "A missionary, the Right Rev. Artegall Smith, narrates the account of the discovery of a superscientific civilization, the Ammiel, in a huge illuminated cavern under the Sahara, and how they were converted. The book carries the byline of Smith, Norton being the 'editor.'" - Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 167. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, pp. 86-7. Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, pp. 41-2. Teitler and Locke, By the World Forgot (2013) 1129. Reginald 13301. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978). Templars gift inscription on blind side of frontispiece, photographic portrait of Rev. Norton affixed to the verso of the front flyleaf. Cloth faded along fore-edges, shallow piece clipped from the top edge of the title leaf, a very good copy. (#167368).
Price: $250.00
No statement of printing.