Results
FRAU IM MOND. ROMAN ... 6. bis 10. Tausend.
Berlin: August Scherl G.m.b.H., [1928]. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-210 [211-212] [213-216: ads], eight inserted plates with sixteen film stills, original decorated green cloth, front panel stamped in gold, spine panel stamped in brown and gold, rules and publisher's monogram stamped in blind on rear panel, top edge stained yellow, white ribbon marker. First edition, second printing, the first printing with film stills. A heroic, absolutely selfless German scientist/technocrat completes a dangerous enterprise, defeating those who stand in the way of German progress and/or expansion. Harbou's FRAU IM MOND was published serially in BERLIN WOCHE 3 November -- 8 December 1928 and as a book on 28 December 1928 by August Scherl. Fritz Lang's 1929 Gaumont-Ufa film "Die Frau im Mond" (a.k.a. "By Rocket to the Moon;" "The Girl in the Moon;" "The Woman in the Moon") was based on this novel. Fisher, Fantasy and Politics: Visions of the Future in the Weimar Republic, pp. 137-40. Lexikon 2, pp. 136-7. Bloch (2002) 1371. Nagl, p. 256.
[METROPOLIS PHOTOPLAY ARCHIVE]: METROPOLIS. ROMAN ... [first printing of the photoplay edition] with METROPOLIS. ROMAN... [second printing of the photoplay edition] with METROPOLIS. ROMAN ... [third printing of the photoplay edition]. With a German advertising herald for the film and a Fritz Lang signature.
Berlin: August Scherl G.m.b.H., [1926]. Octavo, 3 volumes, each volume containing four inserted plates with eight film stills (all the same), original pictorial wrappers. First, second and third printings of the German photoplay edition. The first three printings of the German photoplay edition. The first printing has the Willy Reimann illustration of Metropolis (depicting a futuristic megalopolis). The second and third printings use the now iconic Werner Graul illustration. The books are accompanied by a card inscribed and signed by director Fritz Lang: "Greetings / from / METROPOLIS / Fritz Lang" and the rare German advertising herald for the film (we have seen only one other copy offered for sale). METROPOLIS is a novelization of the screenplay written by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou of the 1926 UFA film. "Though often described as the first SF epic of the cinema, this famous German film -- of which no complete version now exists -- has just as much in common with the cinema of the Gothic. Though set in a future visually emphasized by towering buildings and vast brooding machines, the city of Metropolis has an underworld dark and medieval in atmosphere ... The story of METROPOLIS is trite and its politics ludicrously simplistic; but these flaws cannot detract from the sheer visual power of the film -- a combination of the high Expressionistic sets (the work of art directors Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut and Karl Vollbrecht) and Lang's direction ... METROPOLIS, which was extremely expensive and not a financial success, almost bankrupted the studio that made it (UFA). The film was cut almost as soon as it was released, and -- still in the 1920s -- shortened yet more radically in the UK and USA. Even recently restored archival versions are half an hour shorter than the original." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 804-5. The dark dystopian vision of the future city continues influence film today in such examples as BLADE RUNNER and DARK CITY. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 3-23; (1981) 2-112; (1987) 2-123 and (1995) 2-132. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1040. Fisher, Fantasy and Politics: Visions of the Future in the Weimar Republic, pp. 126-37; 139-42. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 198. Survey of Science Fiction Literature III, pp. 1383-86. Bloch (2002) 1370. Nagl, p. 256.
METROPOLIS. ROMÁN ...
Praha: Ustredni Delnicke Knihkupectvi a Nakladatelstvi (A. Sveceny), 1927. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-238 [239] [240: blank], sixty-five film stills throughout the text, original blue cloth, front panel stamped in black and gold, spine panel stamped in gold, rear panel stamped in blind, top edge stained blue, decorated endpapers. First printing of this edition. Anti-utopia set in a gigantic city in the year 2000 "where capitalists oppress a mass of proletarian helots." - Fisher, p. 128. A restitution fantasy in which a patriarchal order is ultimately reestablished. The Fritz Lang movie adaptation had a mythic scale that would not be challenged -- "The Shape of Things to Come" aside -- for decades to come. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 3-23; (1981) 2-112; (1987) 2-123; (1995) 2-132; and (2004) II-1197. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1040. Fisher, Fantasy and Politics: Visions of the Future in the Weimar Republic, pp. 126-37; 139-42. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 198. Survey of Science Fiction Literature III, pp. 1383-86. Lexikon 2, pp. 134-6. Bloch (2002) 1370. Nagl, p. 256.
METROPOLIS. ROMAN.
Berlin: August Scherl G.m.b.H., [1926]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-273 [274] [275: blank] [276-280: ads], original four-color pictorial wrappers, all edges untrimmed. First edition, first printing. Anti-utopia set in a gigantic city in the year 2000 "where capitalists oppress a mass of proletarian helots." - Fisher, p. 128. The book release is a novelization of the screenplay by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou of Lang's 1926 UFA film which was about three hours long in it's original seventeen-reel version. "Though often described as the first SF epic of the cinema, this famous German film -- of which no complete version now exists -- has just as much in common with the cinema of the Gothic. Though set in a future visually emphasized by towering buildings and vast brooding machines, the city of Metropolis has an underworld dark and medieval in atmosphere ... The story of METROPOLIS is trite and its politics ludicrously simplistic; but these flaws cannot detract from the sheer visual power of the film -- a combination of the high Expressionistic sets (the work of art directors Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut and Karl Vollbrecht) and Lang's direction ... METROPOLIS, which was extremely expensive and not a financial success, almost bankrupted the studio that made it (UFA). The film was cut almost as soon as it was released, and -- still in the 1920s -- shortened yet more radically in the UK and USA. Even recently restored archival versions are half an hour shorter than the original." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 804-5. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 3-23; (1981) 2-112; (1987) 2-123; (1995) 2-132; and (2004) II-1197. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1040. Fisher, Fantasy and Politics: Visions of the Future in the Weimar Republic, pp. 126-37; 139-42. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 198. Survey of Science Fiction Literature III, pp. 1383-86. Lexikon 2, pp. 134-6. Bloch (2002) 1370. Nagl, p. 256.
METROPOLIS. ROMAN.
Berlin: August Scherl G.m.b.H., [1926]. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-273 [274] [275: blank] [276-280: ads], three-quarter brick red leather and patterned boards, gilt decorated spine with gilt lettered and ruled tan leather spine label. First edition. Rare publishers deluxe binding. Anti-utopia set in a gigantic city in the year 2000 "where capitalists oppress a mass of proletarian helots." - Fisher, p. 128. A restitution fantasy in which a patriarchal order is ultimately reestablished. The Fritz Lang movie adaptation had a mythic scale that would not be challenged -- "The Shape of Things to Come" aside -- for decades to come. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 3-23; (1981) 2-112; (1987) 2-123; (1995) 2-132; and (2004) II-1197. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1040. Fisher, Fantasy and Politics: Visions of the Future in the Weimar Republic, pp. 126-37; 139-42. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 198. Survey of Science Fiction Literature III, pp. 1383-86. Lexikon 2, pp. 134-6. Bloch (2002) 1370. Nagl, p. 256.
THE ROCKET TO THE MOON.
Boston: Gregg Press, 1980. Octavo, cloth. Reprint. (First printing of the Gregg Press edition). Photo offset of the U.S. edition first published by World Wide of THE ROCKET TO THE MOON. FROM THE NOVEL "THE GIRL IN THE MOON" ... Translated by Baroness von Hutten ...[1930]. Novelization of Fritz Lang's 1929 Gaumont-Ufa film "Die Frau im Mond" (a.k.a. "By Rocket to the Moon;" "The Girl in the Moon;" "The Woman in the Moon"). New introduction by Ivor and Deborah Rogers. Anatomy of Wonder (1981) 2-112; 2-123; and (1995) 2-132. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 59. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 104. Bleiler (1978), p. 93. Reginald 14732A. See Bloch (2002) 1370.
SPIONE. ROMAN ...
Berlin: August Scherl G.m.b.H., [1928]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] 5-206 [207] [208-212: ads], eight inserted plates with sixteen movie stills, original decorated green cloth, front panel stamped in gold, spine panel stamped in brown and gold, top edge stained yellow, white ribbon marker. First edition. Signed on the half title page by Gerda Maurus, the film's leading actress and a lover of filmmaker Fritz Lang. Von Harbou co-wrote the screenplay for the film with her husband Fritz Lang. This novel was published in conjunction with the film release. An espionage thriller.