Selected New Arrivals January 2015
This selection of new arrivals for January represents about of half of the titles added, all in very nice shape with many award winners and signed books.
DESTINATION MOON ...
Boston: Gregg Press, 1979. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Includes Heinlein's novelette, "Destination Moon," his essay on the making of the George Pal film, reproduction of a 24-page illustrated promotional booklet, Facts About Destination Moon, and 13 full-page stills.
DOUBLE STAR.
Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1956. Octavo, boards. First edition. Winner of the 1956 Hugo award for best novel. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-508. Survey of Science Fiction Literature II, pp. 587-90.
FRIDAY.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, [1982]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Number 189 of 500 numbered copies signed by Heinlein. 1982 Nebula and 1983 Hugo nominee. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-509. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, pp. 411-2.
ORPHANS OF THE SKY.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, [1964]. Octavo, cloth. First U.S. edition. Part of Heinlein's "future history" series, first published as a two-part serial in Astounding Science Fiction in 1941 as "Universe" and "Common Sense." Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-513. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, Additions. See Survey of Science Fiction Literature IV, pp. 1653-64.
THE PUPPET MASTERS.
Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1951. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Parasitic slug "masters" from outer space "attach themselves to human hosts and control their every thought and action ... Speaking through a host, a master offers mankind a life of contentment, peace, and security of surrender, and the offer appears genuine ... [The novel] allegorizes modern anxiety about the preservation of freedom ... Heinlein anticipates that moment when a man must make the fateful choice between security and freedom." - Berger, Science Fiction and the New Dark Age, p. 106. "Fast-moving tale of paranoid (anti-Communist?) fears run wild. Well handled, a classic of it type." - Pringle, The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction, second edition (1995), p. 291. Filmed in 1994 with Donald Sutherland. Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 3-205. Pringle: Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels #4.
REVOLT IN 2100...
Chicago: Shasta Publishers, [1953]. Octavo, illustrated by Hubert Rogers, cloth backed boards. First edition. One of the signed subscriber copies on inserted blank leaf. Part of Heinlein's "future history" series. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-514. See Survey of Science Fiction Literature IV, pp. 1645-54.
ROCKET SHIP GALILEO.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, [1947]. Octavo, illustrated by Thomas Voter, cloth. First edition. The importance of this book cannot be overstated, as it is the first published novel (in book form), by one of the major, if not the most, important science fiction writer of post-war America. Heinlein established himself in the field of science fiction during the golden age of Astounding Science Fiction (starting in 1939), he would later introduce a generation of baby boomer children to this literary genre. After World War II, Heinlein's career expanded the reach of the genre by being published in the 'slick' magazines of the period (Saturday Evening Post and others) and he also began a series of juvenile novels to be published by the mainstream firm of Charles Scribner's Sons. Their reach was wide, especially into the library marketplace were many young children would encounter them. This title is "...the first US juvenile sf novel to reflect the new levels of characterization, style and scientific plausibility now expected in the field", "...it was the first in a series that represents the most important contribution any single writer has made to children's SF..." - Clute and Nicholls: The Science Fiction Encyclopedia (1994), p. 554-557. "A pioneering novel that began American mainstream science fiction for children and combined young protagonists, gadgetry, current science, and adventure in such a way that even today the book retains interest." - Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 5-62. George Pal's 1950 film Destination Moon is loosely based on ROCKET SHIP GALILEO. Heinlein co-authored the screenplay and served as a technical advisor to the production, along with German rocket expert Hermann Oberth. Destination Moon, the first of Pal's many sf films, "has great historical importance: its commercial success initiated the sf film boom of the 1950s, after a decade that had contained almost no sf cinema at all. It has interest in hindsight, too, in the partial accuracy with which it anticipated the actual Moon landing of 1969. To this day, Destination Moon stands as a film obvious made by people who knew about science..." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Science Fiction Encyclopedia (1994), p. 324.
SPACE CADET.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Heinlein's second young adult SF novel. Influenced by the author's experience at the U.S. Naval Academy.
THE STAR BEAST.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, [1954]. Octavo, illustrated by Clifford Geary, cloth. First edition. A young adult science-fiction novel about a high school senior and an extraterrestrial pet.
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND.
New York: An Ace/Putnam Book Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, [1991]. Octavo, boards. First edition. Winner of the 1962 Hugo award for best novel. This edition restores the full text of the novel. "Of all Heinlein's works this is the best known. It reached large audiences farther away from his science fiction roots than anything else he wrote... Stranger's cultural impact on an entire generation is, nonetheless, undeniable." - Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 3-91. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-518. Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2195-2200.
TIME FOR THE STARS
NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, [1956]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. "Although written and marketed as a young adult novel, this book is a mature treatment of the relativistic time-dilation effect in interstellar travel." Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-520.
TUNNEL IN THE SKY.
NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, [1955]. Octavo, illustrations by P.A. Hutchison (jacket and title page), cloth. First edition. "A provocative book, especially in its portrait of adults who fail to discern the maturity of young people." Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 5-65.
THE UNPLEASANT PROFESSION OF JONATHAN HOAG.
Hicksville, NY: The Gnome Press, Inc., [1959]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Collects the title story (a short novel) and five shorter tales, including "All You Zombies, " "They, " and "And He Built a Crooked House." "Robert Heinlein's 'They' is, I believe, the most comprehensive of all mind-invasion stories...[it] is the consummate story of invasion and isolation."-Berger, Science Fiction and the New Dark Age, pp. 110-11. "They" is "perhaps the ultimate solipsist fantasy (a man is convinced the world is a puppet show)."-Clute and Grant (eds), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997), p. 460. Barron (ed): Horror Literature 3-84. Bleiler: The Guide to Supernatural Fiction #793. Pringle, Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels #21, (listed for the title novella).
THE PEOPLE: NO DIFFERENT FLESH.
Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1967. Octavo, cloth. First U.S. edition. Author's third book. Sequel to Pilgrimage: The Book of the People (1961). Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 3-93. Survey of Science Fiction Literature IV, pp. 1682-86.
GOD EMPEROR OF DUNE.
NY: G. P. Putnam's Sons, [1981]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. One of 750 numbered copies signed by Herbert. Fourth in the Dune saga. See Anatomy of Wonder 4-207.
FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON.
New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., [1966]. Octavo, cloth. First edition. The novel won the 1966 Nebula award; the earlier short story won the 1960 Hugo award. Filmed twice, the first as "Charly" in 1968 starring Cliff Robertson who won an Oscar for the title role, and again in 2000 as "Flowers for Algernon" in a made for TV film. Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 3-98. Survey of Science Fiction Literature II, pp. 802-06.
DYING OF THE LIGHT.
[New York]: Simon & Schuster, 1977. Octavo, boards. First edition. The author's first novel. 1978 Hugo nominee. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-711.
BORN OF MAN AND WOMAN: TALES OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY...
Philadelphia: The Chamberlain Press, Inc., 1954. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Signed by Matheson on the title page. The author's first book, a collection of seventeen stories with introduction by Robert Bloch. "...the best of this author's early work..." - Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 3-119. Approximately 650 copies of this book were distributed prior to a flood that destroyed most of the unsold bound copies and later warehouse fire that destroyed the remaining unbound sheets. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-719. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1125.
DRAGONSONG.
New York: Atheneum, 1976. Octavo, cloth. First edition. The first volume in the Harper Hall trilogy. Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 5-109.
THE ROAD.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Octavo, boards. First edition. Novel of a dystopian future. Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Made into a feature film (2009).
BRASYL.
London: Victor Gollancz, 2007. Octavo, boards. First British edition. Winner of the British Science Fiction Association Award, Novel, 2008. 2008 Hugo Award nominee. "Brazil in three times, past, present, and future. All three are dystopian. Northern Ireland author." - Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1986-2009.
PREFERRED RISK.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955. Octavo, cloth backed boards. First edition. Signed by Del Rey and Pohl on the front free endpaper: "Lester Del Rey / and / + Fred Pohl / = Edson McCann". Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 3-275A.