A PLUNGE INTO SPACE ... Second Edition, with a Preface by Jules Verne. London and New York: Frederick Warne and Co., 1891. Octavo, pp. [1-2: half title leaf] [1-7] 8-240, frontispiece and illustrated title on integral leaf inserted between half title leaf and contents leaf, original brown cloth, front panel stamped in dark blue, black, silver, gold and cream, spine panel stamped in blue, black and gold, white endpapers with publisher's monogram design printed in light orange. Second edition. The front panel of this binding shows a golden woman with arms outstretched floating through space with stars and comet in background (this illustration closely resembles the chromolithograph illustration used on the card cover of the first edition). Copies of the "second edition" occur with and without some or all of the preliminary and terminal leaves printing the publisher's advertisements excised, and have title pages dated 1891 or have the date erased from the title pages (the former presumed to be earlier than the latter). This copy has the advertising matter excised; the 1891 date on the title page has not been erased. The settings of signatures [A] and Q (first and last signatures) of this edition differ from those of the 1890 edition. Added material comprises a conjugate pair of leaves with frontispiece and illustrated title leaf tipped in on leaf [A]4 , a dedication leaf "To Jules Verne" [(A)5] which is integral with contents leaf [(A)4], and "To My English Readers" [(A)6] which is integral with half title leaf [(A)3]. Journey to Mars via steel globe, "motivated by insulating it from Earth's gravity." (Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 61) Martian civilization is utopian but in decline. A historically important interplanetary novel bridging Verne and Wells. "Much sentimentality, but historically interesting, halfway position between Verne ... and Wells." - Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, p. 41. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 2-53; (1981) 1-50; and (2004) II-288. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 505. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 214. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 49. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 61. Locke, Voyages in Space, 56. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 84. Bleiler (1978), p. 53. Reginald 03637. Early owner's penciled signature dated Christmas 1891 on the recto of the frontispiece. Mild rubbing to cloth at spine ends and corner tips, frontispiece tissue guard tanned and torn, a nearly fine, bright copy. A stunning copy of a scarce book. (#172152).
Price: $2,500.00
"SECOND EDITION" on title page.