THE DEVIL'S CHRISTMAS BOX. London: Heath Cranton, Limited ... South Africa: T. Maskew Miller, Cape Town, n.d. [1921]. Octavo, pp. [1-9] 10-339 [340: printer's imprint], original medium blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First edition. Bleak scientific romance by a South African writer. The planet Telluria, a duplicate Earth in a parallel universe is destroyed by a chain reaction resulting from the employment of a super weapon invented by an idealist in a misguided attempt to destroy a world dictatorship maintained by the "Council of Six." Mason's preface dated "Capetown, October, 1920" refers to THE WORLD SET FREE by H. G. Wells, a novel he had not read prior to writing his own, which used the same idea. The title page carries the intriguing epigraph: "Modern Science, like Ancient Magic, may be either White or Black." Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy Volume II, p. 79. Bleiler (1978), p. 135. Reginald 09781. Mild foxing to preliminary leaves and page edges, a nearly fine copy. (#170888).
Price: $650.00
No statement of printing.