THE DEATH GUARD. London: Hutchinson & Company, n.d. [1939]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5 [6] 7-8 [9-10] 11-431 [432: blank] + 52-page undated publisher's catalogue inserted at rear, original black cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold. First edition. The author's only novel, "virtually forgotten until its 1992 reissue., describes the development of the 'Flesh Guard,' a race of laboratory-created vegetal humanoids, at the time of the emergence of a fascist dictatorship in the UK, and depicts a future war as the Earth's major nations react to the horror of such an army in the hands of an extremist government. The book contains several themes later developed by L. Ron Hubbard and James Blish, and is at times reminiscent of William Hope Hodgson." - Clute and Nicholls, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 204. "The most horrific of all the future war novels published in the run-up to World War II ... " - Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 2-18. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-227. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 74. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 49. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, Additions. Bleiler (1948), p.74; (1978), p. 41. Reginald 02793. The publisher's file copy with their "file copy" stamp on recto of title leaf. Lower front and upper rear corner tips bruised, faint tape ghost on front cover, a very good copy with bright cover stamping. A legendary genre rarity. (#171941).
Price: $4,500.00
No statement of printing.