A NARRATIVE OF THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF PAUL AERMONT AMONG THE PLANETS. Boston: Press of Rand, Avery, and Company, 1873. Octavo, pp. [1-5] 6-192, double flyleaves at front and rear, original bevel-edged three-quarter pebbled morocco and marbled boards, front, spine and rear panels tooled in gold, a.e.g., brown coated endpapers. First edition. The author's copy, only the second known of this rare American interplanetary tale, the other being located in the Library of Congress. It is signed in pencil at the top of the half-title page: "This book was written by Benjamin F. Field in 1872." The author has made, in the same hand, half a dozen minor stylistic changes to the text, and indicated four places where he wished to have illustrations placed. Laid loosely into the book are six contemporary photographic prints with trick photography images of hot-air balloons: three images, each in two states, printed on three sheets; each image measures about 4 inches square. Whether Field was making plans for a second, illustrated, edition, or whether he was merely annotating and illustrating his own personal copy is not known. Rand, Avery was a printer in Boston that produced self-published material now and then. In 1887 they printed the author's REMINISCENCES OF A BOSTON MERCHANT, in which he recalls: "Oct. 8th, 1841 -- A son was born to us this day. I commenced writing a book, 'Paul Aermont's Adventures.' Wrote with vigor the first few weeks, then slackened up a little, as other duties demanded my attention" (p. 105). Field was born in Boston in 1806 in what is now part of the North End, and he traveled extensively around the world for business. His son, Benjamin F. Field, Jr., was born in Genoa, Italy and went into business himself, both before and after serving in the Civil War, working for eight years in Bombay, and finding himself in Paris during the siege of the city in the winter of 1870-1871 during the Franco-Prussian war. Travels and adventures (albeit not among the planets) were a recurrent theme in the Fields family and no doubt helped shape PAUL AERMONT. In Field's story, set around 1820, the narrator discovers a lighter-than-air gas, builds a balloon and rises rapidly beyond the earth's gravitational field (though oxygen is still present) and he drifts into a hibernatory state. On awaking, he first visits Jupiter, a utopian society with advanced technology and rationalistic religion. On Venus he finds two races, one of imps that live in giant pumpkins and practice human sacrifice; and another, of matriarchal, polygynous people who somewhat resemble the characters of the Arabian Nights. Visits to Mars and Saturn (where he falls in love and marries Stella) follow. Fifty years later he returns to Earth, not looking a day over 25, his age when he left. (Our thanks to Diann Benti of the American Antiquarian Society for her help with research on this book's author.). Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 13. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 61. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978), Day (1963) or Reginald (1979; 1992). Not in Wright, American Fiction, 1851-1875. Touch of rubbing to spine ends and corners, but a fine copy. (#171978).
Price: $15,000.00
No statement of printing.