MEDA: A TALE OF THE FUTURE. As Related by Kenneth Follingsby. Printed for Private Circulation. [Glasgow: Aird & Coghill Printers], 1891.]. Octavo, pp. [1-7] 8-325 [326: printer's monogram] [327-328: blank], publisher's dark green bevel-edged cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, a.e.g., floral patterned endpapers. First edition, first printing. This privately published edition printed by Aird & Coghill in Glasgow in 1891 preceded the trade edition (printed from the same plates) published in London by H. F. Mitchell in 1892. Utopian novel, written in 1888, set in the far future. By 5575 A.D. man has evolved mentally and physically into a highly advanced race which is nourished by electrical currents in the air and controls electricity and magnetism by power of will. Antigravity machines are used for flight and criminals sentenced to death are imprisoned in vehicles which are set adrift in space. Although the events recounted turn out to have been a dream, Folingsby's story "remains of interest for the imaginative scope of the AD 5575 depicted, in which large-headed brainy 'Scotonians' are fed by ambient electricity, possess antigravity, and represent the end of a long (and detailed) world-history, including a comet holocaust."- Clute and Nicholls, eds., The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 436 (also see SFE online for an updated entry). Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 798. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 16. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 85 and A Spectrum of Fantasy Volume II, p. 138. Locke, Voyages in Space (2011) V280. Negley, Utopian Literature: A Bibliography 362. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 90. Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, p. 44. Bleiler (1978), p. 75. Reginald 05500. Bookplate of pioneer fantastic fiction collector William Harry Hopkins affixed to the front paste-down. Earlier owner's name, address and date on the title page. Lacks the half title leaf and front free endpaper, cloth rubbed at spine ends, corner tips, and along outer joints, overall still a very good copy. A very scarce book. (#179079).
Price: $650.00
No statement of printing.