Sci-Fi & Fantasy
The Interpretation
[London], J. Burns, [1889].
Sole issue. 8vo. Original pictorial wrappers.
An attractive and scarce little work relating to Rider Haggard's masterpiece of fantastical fiction.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Dobson, 1963.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original dark brown boards. Dust-jacket.
Originally published in magazines between 1956 and 1958, with the exception of the closing poem, 'Rejection Slips', which was original to the collection.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Jonathan Cape, 1981.
First edition. 8vo. Original pale brown boards. Dust-jacket, priced £6.50.
An attractive first edition of this ecological disaster/post-apocalyptic novel from Ballard.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Jonathan Cape, 1970.
First UK edition (following the cancelled the US edition of the same year). 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced £1.05.
Ballard's experimental novel, comprising a series of interlinked stories or chapters. The book was going to be published first in the USA, but publishers Doubleday & Company had the print-run destroyed due to fear of legal action from some of the celebrities depicted therein.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Martin Secker, 1964.
First English edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 18s.
First English edition of the book that became the basis for 'The Planet of the Apes' films and the numerous spin-offs.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Whistable, Oyster Press, 1994.
First edition. One of 500 numbered copies. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket.
A fine copy of this limited edition autobiographical fantasy by renowned actor Peter Cushing, published shortly before he passed away.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1930.
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth-backed marbled boards. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
The first edition of this science fiction author's reflections on the ways in which the world might in fact end.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Rapp & Whiting, 1970.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced £1.40.
A very good first UK edition of this novel set in a future 1992 where psychics are common and utilised in corporate espionage while intricate technologies allow recently deceased people to be maintained in a lengthy state of hibernation.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Constable, 1939.
First edition. 8vo. Original black cloth lettered in gilt to spine. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
Hamilton's famous satirical novel that offers a critical view of contemporary British society through the lens of a fantastical and dystopian world. Hamilton, known for his plays and novels that often explored the darker aspects of urban life and the psyche, uses this work to skewer the class system, commercialism and the dehumanising aspects of industrialisation.
The novel's significance in 20th century literature lies in its blend of social critique and fantasy, a combination that was somewhat unconventional at the time. Hamilton's use of a parallel world to mirror and exaggerate the issues of his own society makes Impromptu in Moribundia a precursor to the later works of dystopian fiction that would become more prominent in British literature. It stands as a unique and imaginative critique of the socio-political climate of the era, reflecting the anxieties and criticisms of the interwar period.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Lincoln Williams, 1934.
First edition. 8vo. Original orange cloth lettered in black.
A scarce science fiction title, published under a distinctly uncommon imprint. The title is referenced in the checklists of Bleiler and Reginald.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Merritt (A.) Dwellers in the Mirage and The Face in the Abyss
New York, Liveright, 1953.
First combined edition. 8vo. Original pale green cloth lettered in red. Dust-jacket, neatly price-clipped.
Two classic fantasy adventure titles by US author Merritt, both featuring an adventurer stumbling upon a lost civilisation, in Alaska and the Andes respectively.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Los Angeles & Toronto, Borden, [1949].
'Memorial Edition'. 8vo. Original brick red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $3.50.
A very nice example of this memorial edition reprinting one of Merritt's most famous works, an Arabian Nights type fable, from the serialised text for the story's original appearance in Argosy (1924), as opposed to the first book edition published by Putnam in 1926.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
or, the Pommeray Case.
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1927].
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
Striking jacket artwork of on this uncommon "death ray" title.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1959.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 21s.
The third and final volume in Peake's fantasy masterpiece, The Gormenghast Trilogy.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Ragged (Hyder, pseud. Henry Chartres Biron) King Solomon’s Wives;
or, The Phantom Mines
London, Vizetelly, 1887.
First edition. 8vo. Original printed stiff card wrappers, priced one shilling.
A scarce little parody of H. Rider Haggard's fantastical works, particularly uncommon thus in the original wrappers.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Griffith & Farran, 1872.
First English edition in book form. 8vo. Original dark green cloth blocked in black & gilt.
A very good example of this rare first edition in English of Verne's sci-fi classic.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Translated by Geo. M. Towle
London, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1875.
Fifth UK edition. 8vo. Original near-red cloth stamped in black and gilt.
An attractive example of this early British edition of Verne's classic tale.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Translated by Geo. M. Towle
Boston, James R. Osgood and Company, 1873.
First illustrated US edition, first state, with the title page dated '1873'. 8vo. Original brown pictorial cloth blocked in black and stamped in gilt.
A beautiful, fully illustrated edition of one of Verne's most recognisable and acclaimed works. This edition is bound from the sheets from the British edition (Gilbert & Rivington, printers), with Osgood's American title-page.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
or, a Captain at Fifteen
New York, A.L. Burt, n.d..
8vo. Original pale green cloth. Dust-jacket.
An attractive early Burt edition of this Verne tale revolving around African slavery.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Sampson, Low, Marston, 1897.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original red cloth illustrated in gilt, white and black.
A patriotic novel by Jules Verne, part of his Voyages extraordinaires series.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
A Tale of Mystery and Marvel
London, Sampson Low, Marston, [1914].
First UK edition. 8vo. Original green pictorial cloth.
The fifth book in Verne's Voyages extraordinaires series, a dark and foreboding tale.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Ward, Lock, n.d..
8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/-.
This edition number 47 in Ward, Lock's 'The Prize Library' series, at the time of printing.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Cassell, 1923.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth decorated and lettered in black. Dust-jacket.
Further reflections on utopian models, by the author of War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
and particularly how Mr. Bert Smallways fared while it lasted
London, George Bell & Sons, 1908.
First edition. 8vo. Variant of second state binding in red cloth, lettered in gilt to spine, with inset colour illustration to upper cover.
An attractive first edition of Wells' remarkable anticipation of aerial warfare, here in the considerably scarcer red cloth variant binding of the second state.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Faber, 1963.
First edition. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original orange cloth lettered in gilt. Dust-jacket, priced 18s.
Science fiction short stories by a leading British light of the genre, inscribed to his 'Aunt Bodger'.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1953.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original black boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10s 6d.
The first of Asimov's influential science fiction series, a cornerstone of modern speculative fiction. The UK edition came out two years after the US.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
New York, Gnome Press, 1952.
First edition, first printing, first state. 8vo. Original red boards lettered in black. Dust-jacket, correctly listing 26 titles on lower panel and priced $2.75.
The first edition of the second volume in Asimov's epic Foundation trilogy, one of the original monumental works of science fiction. Here in the correct first issue dust-jacket, in pleasing condition.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Boardman, 1955.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original black boards stamped in silver. Dust-jacket, priced 9s6d.
An uncommon edition of this title, the second chronologically in his 'Galactic Empire' series.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
and Other Stories
London, Jonathan Cape, 1976.
First edition. 8vo. Original green boards. Dust-jacket, priced £3.50.
An attractive, albeit ex-library, copy of this important collection of Ballard stories, in the distinctive wrap-around Bill Botten jacket.
Modern Literature
Stories of Several Worlds. First edition, Heinemann, 1938.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Anglo-Eastern Publishing Company, Ltd., 1921.
First edition. 8vo. Original teal cloth. Dust-jacket, second issue priced 2/-.
Interesting and rare work of speculative fiction, playing upon the burgeoning interest in eugenics of the time - German scientists set out to eradicate the "best that is inherent in humanity" and to intensify "latent cruelty, violence and selfishness" through artificial breeding. Scarce in the jacket.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Stanley Paul, [1923]. First edition. 8vo. Original red boards. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6. An important Future War novel in which the UK is attacked by chemical weapons, scarce in the original dust-jacket.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Faber & Faber, 1959.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, priced 15s.
The first UK edition of US author Blish's Hugo Prize winning Sci-Fi classic, notable for being one of the first in this genre to try and involve religious theory.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Martin Secker, 1964.
First English edition. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 18s.
First English edition of the basis for 'The Planet of the Apes' franchise.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1959.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue boards. Dust-jacket, priced 16s.
A collection of science fiction and fantasy tales by Martian chronicler Bradbury, in attractive jacket by his long-time collaborator Mugnaini.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1924.
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A great first edition of this collection of tales by Max Carrados and Kai Lung creator Bramah; includes his sci-fi story 'The War Hawks', a brief sequel to his only sci-fi novel, What Might Have Been: The Story of a Social War (1907). Rare thus.