THE MOON POOL. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1919. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v-viii [ix-x] 1-433 [434: blank] [435-438: ads] [439-440: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], inserted frontispiece with illustration by Joseph Clement Coll, original maroon cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold. First edition. The first of two printings with title pages dated 1919; this one with "Putnam" set in upper and lower case letters at base of spine panel and no advertisement printed on page [434]. Merritt's first book. Fix-up novel fusing classic novelette, "The Moon Pool" (All-Story Weekly, 22 July 1918) and its inferior sequel "The Conquest of the Moon Pool" (All-Story Weekly, 15 February-22 March 1919). "Fine imagination, fast motion, ridiculous characterizations, pretentious style, but still one of the historically important works of early American pulp science-fiction and fantasy." - Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1156. Anatomy of Wonder (1981) 2-69; (1987) 2-77; (1995) 2-87; and (2004) II-762. Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 3-245. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1481. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 557. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 155. Schlobin, The Literature of Fantasy 745. Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature III, pp. 1060-64. Survey of Science Fiction Literature, III, pp. 1449-52. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 138. Reginald 10066. Spine panel just a trifle sunned, mild tanning to endpaper and edges of the text block, a very good copy. A tight, square, attractive copy. (#170073).
Price: $250.00
No statement of printing.