STRANGE CONQUEST. [London]: Lincoln Williams, Publishers, Ltd., 1934. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-255 [256: blank], original orange cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First edition. Eccentric science fiction thriller set in the late twentieth century. Fear of the unknown and unexplained brings religious awakening and unites nations of the world imperiled by "The Professor," an immortal superman who has harnessed an unknown energy source and constructed a death ray with which he crushes all efforts, including the deployment of an army of robots (they are annihilated), to defeat his plan to establish a new world order. Ultimately, the dictator who is "mad" but benevolent, uses his energy beam to pull the moon closer to earth so it can be colonized. Embedded in this framework are accounts of the subterranean city of Tur, inhabited by an advanced industrialized society, where "The Professor" was imprisoned for twenty years after losing a power struggle with the nation's "Director of Policy," and an account of Parva, an island colony founded by biologists who have scientifically created humans (both superior and inferior men bred for placement in the four ranks of Parvan society) whose young citizens are suddenly dying by the thousands because they have developed no "inner life" and cannot cope with the "great depression" which has enveloped the nation as "religion, which is the world's finest preservative, has been abolished." Basically a reform novel addressing concerns arising from the mechanization of modern society and the misery of the Great Depression. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 65. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 107. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, Additions. Bleiler (1978), p. 95. Reginald 06884. Binding slightly leaned, faint damp stain on rear panel, edges of text block a bit darkened, remnants of some sort of label affixed to rear end panel, still a very good, clean copy with pleasing external appearance. Bookplate of Kenneth J. Krueger, a figure of early science fiction fandom, affixed to front free endpaper. A scarce book. (#75407).
Price: $225.00
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