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. Formerly, H. P. Lovecraft's copy with his signature and date, "May 1928," on the front free endpaper. Samuel Loveman gave this book to Lovecraft. "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. S. T. Joshi, Lovecraft's Library: A Catalogue, Revised & Enlarged (2002) 198. 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. Lettering on spine panel a bit dull (less that usual), faint stain to endpapers and lower margins of text block, a very good copy. (26437). Item #26437
Price: $2,500.00