THE GREAT PIRATE SYNDICATE. London: F.V. White & Co., 1899. Octavo, pp. [1-8] [1] 2-302 [1] 2-10 [publisher's ads], inserted frontispiece, original maroon cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, publisher's colophon stamped in blind on rear cover, lower edge untrimmed. First edition. Two states (printings?), priority if any unknown, this being one of the copies with ten pages of publisher's ads printed on U8 and X1-4. "British industrialists and financiers gain control of the world by means of new scientific weapons." - Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 25. Oceana Limited, an Anglo-Saxon federation, forces total disarmament of the nations of the world and takes control of the "whole trade of the Earth under a system of license" (p. 296), actions expected to result in an "era of profound peace as well as unexampled prosperity" (p. 297). Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 937. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War: Future Wars 1763-3749, p. 230. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 97. Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, pp. 76-7. Bleiler (1978), p. 87. Reginald 06372. Wrinkle to cloth with associated 7 mm closed tear at upper spine end, pulpy endpapers tanned (as is usually the case), a very good copy with inner hinges intact. A better than average copy of this book. (#170158).
Price: $350.00
No statement of printing.