THE MAN WHO ROCKED THE EARTH.
Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1915. Octavo, pp. [1-4] [1-2] 3-228, inserted frontispiece with color illustration by Walter L. Green, original pictorial dark blue cloth, front panel stamped in lavender, black and gold, spine panel stamped in gold, pictorial endpapers. First edition. The author's first science fiction novel. Originally published as a serial in the Saturday Evening Post in 1914, a mad scientist tries to bring the end to all war. "A madman calling himself, 'PAX' attempts to impose an end to a cataclysmic world war by nearly wrecking the earth with a ray which breaks down uranium, releasing its immense power." " ...he floods the Sahara, tilts the Earth's axis, alters its orbit, and causes world wide earthquakes." (he also travels in a airship powered by uranium rockets) Brians: Nuclear Holocausts, p. 326. "The narrative describes radiation sickness, apparently for the first time in popular fiction." Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 1-91. "Arthur Train's quick skill as a popular novelist allowed him to fill out the speculations generated by his collaborator, a competent scientist,...[it] avoid[s] most of the absurdities that dogged the sf of the time." Clute and Nicholls (eds): The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 1236. Bleiler: Science Fiction The Early Years #2199. A near fine copy, mild rubbing to corners and spine ends in a very good dust jacket, spine panel is age darkened, some mild edge wear and rubbing, front panel illustration bright. Scarce in the dust jacket. (11257). Item #11257
Price: $750.00