REVI-LONA: A ROMANCE OF LOVE IN A MARVELOUS LAND. [Greensburg, Pa: Tribune Press Pub. Co.], n.d. [Circa 1879]. Octavo, pp. [1-7] 8-247 [248: printer's imprint], original black cloth, spine panel stamped in gold. First edition. "Lost race adventure novel set in the Antarctic, about a matriarchy amidst super-scientific technology and prehistoric monsters." - Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 59. "Except for the Candidian humor of the escapades with the governing council, Cowan maintains a serious tone, thereby increasing the complexity of his satire. Only individual interpretation can determine whether he intended the work as a satire solely upon the concept of a communistic state or as a satire of all Utopias pictured in the popular literature of the period. In either event, REVI-LONA assumes an historical importance as one of the earliest attacks upon the romantic idealism of the late nineteenth century." - Clareson, The Emergence of American Science Fiction: 1880-1915, pp. 132-33. "Told in a very florid style that suggests that the author was a fan of Herman Melville's; sometimes overwritten to the point of being boring, but also with many interesting strokes of imagination. All in all a substantial work." - Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 488. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 2-49; (1981) 1-48; (1987) 1-27; and (1995) 1-27. Clareson, Science Fiction in America 1870s-1930s 198. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 270. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 47. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 66. Bleiler (1978), p. 51. Reginald 03485. Wright (III) 1224. Spine ends and corner tips a bit worn, lettering on spine panel quite dull, new endpapers, a tight, clean, very good copy. (#97186).
Price: $250.00
No statement of printing.