Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$35.00 + shipping
Condition: Poor
Description: 389 pages. 1 plate missing. Boards worn, damaged on spine, marked. Tanning, foxing, ownership inscriptions, deckle edges, marked. In poor condition, tightly bound and intact. 1st UK edition. MK. Our orders are shipped using tracked courier delivery services.
Seller: Chapter 1, Johannesburg, GAU, South Africa
Price: US$45.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Blue cloth boards with pictorial front board embellishment. Spine faded, minor shelf wear. Pages/boards clean, binding sturdy.
Seller: Books From California, Simi Valley, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$45.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Head/foot of spine are cracked with piece missing at head of spine, corners lightly rubbed, 3 different bookplates on inside front cover and some penciled prices/"1st edition" penciled on inside cover by previous bookstores. Before the list of illustrations, "the publishers are much indebted to the proprietors of the 'Pall Mall Magazine' for their kind permission to us Mr. Michael's drawings." B0BR5SRHZL
Seller: Books Galore Missouri, Desoto, MO, U.S.A.
Price: US$50.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: Octavo. Second issue with front cover lettered in blind and with a colour pictorial label. Original blue cloth, pictorial pastedown to front boards. vii, 389 pp, [2], 15 of 16 plates. Fading to spine. Lacking frontispiece. Rubbing, scattered foxing. Serialized and published in 1908 in The Pall Mall Magazine, War in the Air is like many of Wells's works notable for its prophetic ideas, images, and concepts. In this book, Wells depicts the use of the aircraft for the purpose of warfare and the coming of World War I. Curry B
Seller: Sequitur Books, Boonsboro, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$50.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: xx, 523. [1], 24, [6] pages. Frontis illustrations. Footnotes. Some pages uncut. Some page discoloration noted. Cover has some wear and soiling. Some hinge weakness noted. Includes Preface, as well as The Life of Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson, Written by Herself; Mrs. Hutchinson to her children, concerning their father; The Life of John Hutchinson, Petitions to Parliament; Conference with Lord Newark; The King Besieges Hull, Origin of Roundheads; Characters of Thornhagh, Pigott, Etc.; Defence of Nottingham; Siege of Gloucester; Nottingham in Distress; Escape of Hotham; Takes Charge of Nottingham Castle; Preparation for a Siege; Death of Sir Thomas Hutchinson; Preparations for Assaulting the Port; Appointed Governor by Parliament; Proposals to Give up the Castle; Endears himself to the Town; Rewards the Soldiers; Goes to the Leaguer, at Newark; Relieves His Chief Cannoniers; Battle of Marston Moor; Remedelling the Parliamentary Army; Misconduct of Capt. White; Factions against him; Salisbury's Misconduct; Evil Intentions of the Committee; Hearing before the Committee, Continues factions of the Committee. John Hutchinson played a pivotal role in the English Revolution--he signed the death warrant for King Charles I. And, for his pains he paid with his life, dying an ignominious death in prison four years after the Restoration. His wife, determined to restore his reputation, wrote this memoir as a defense against allegations that he was not a "gentleman".and in order "to moderate her woe." An unequaled social document, a startling political analysis, and a tribute to a lost husband. This volume contains the valuable notes and additions of the Rev. Julius Hutchinson, the original editor. A few obsolete words and minor defects of phraseology have been sparingly altered for those of modern usage, and to render the work more complete and useful to the reader. Colonel John Hutchinson (1615-1664) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England from 1648 to 1653 and in 1660. He was one of the Puritan leaders, and fought in the parliamentary army in the English Civil War. As a member of the high court of justice in 1649 he was 13th of 59 Commissioners to sign the death-warrant of King Charles I. Although he avoided the fate of some of the other regicides executed after the Restoration, he was exempted from the general pardon, only to the extent that he could not hold a public office. In 1663, he was accused of involvement in the Farnley Wood Plot, was incarcerated and died in prison. He invested very successfully in buying paintings from the art collection of Charles I after his execution, spending very large amounts relative to his wealth. After a few years he resold them for substantial profits. In the opinion of the historian C. H. Firth that Hutchinson's defence of Nottingham was a service of great value to the parliamentary cause. His fame rests on his wife (Lucy Hutchinson's) detailed biography of his life and commemoration of his character. This is one of Bohn's Standard Library. It is a Reprint Edition, Presumed First printing thus.
Seller: Ground Zero Books, Ltd., Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$50.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v [vi] vii [viii] [1] 2-389 [390: printer's imprint] [391-392: ads], sixteen inserted plates with illustrations by A. C. Michael, original blue cloth, front panel stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold and blind, color pictorial paper inlay on front panel. First edition, later binding. THE WAR IN THE AIR "is a remarkable rarity in being a future war novel which uses the viewpoint of ordinary people and deals primarily with the effects of aerial warfare on those ordinary people . the shape of Wells's argument brings him to a conclusion very different from that characteristic of the future war novels written before 1914: civilization is virtually obliterated, and the Scientific Age is brought to an end." - Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, p. 72. Kingsley Amis (New Maps of Hell) terms this novel the "most forceful" of Wells's scientific romances. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 2-170; (1981) 1-178; (1987) 1-104; (1995) 104; and (2004) II-1233. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 2339. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 801. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 36. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War 1763-1984, p. 236. Gerber, Utopian Fantasy (1973), p. 145. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, pp. 227-28. Negley, Utopian Literature: A Bibliography 1179. Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2407-10. Bleiler (1978), p. 205. Reginald 15106. Currey (2002), p. 425 (binding C). Hammond B11. Wells 35. Wells Society 36. Cloth quite worn, inner front hinge cracked, binding a bit shaken, all plates present, but two are loose, a reading copy. (#170924)
Seller: Currey, L.W. Inc. ABAA/ILAB, Elizabethtown, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$63.12 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: First edition. Hardback. Cloth somewhat marked and mottled, slight fading to spine, lacks front endpaper, one plate loose but complete, good copy. No dust jacket.
Seller: ROBIN SUMMERS BOOKS LTD, Aldeburgh, United Kingdom
WELLS H G. The War in the Air. George Bell and Sons, London, 1908.
Price: US$87.60 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: Red cover with mounted illustration.The spine is faded with a fair amount of wear to the extremities, corners a little bumped, a little chaffing to the illustration; internally quite decent subject to a little looseness to the binding, slight browning of the end papers and an owners stamp on the fep. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Seller: LONGLAND BOOKS, Totteridge, LDN, United Kingdom
Price: US$93.92 + shipping
Description: Good to very good copy in the original gilt-blocked cloth. Spine bands and panel edges somewhat bumped and rubbed as with age. Remains quite well-preserved overall. Physical description: vii, 389, [1] pages : frontispiece, plates ; 20 cm. Subjects: Air warfare ; Fiction. Aeronautics, Military - Fiction. 1 Kg.
Seller: MW Books Ltd., Galway, Ireland
Wells, H.G.. THE WAR IN THE AIR. George Bell and Sons, London, 1908.
Price: US$96.62 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Bound in red cloth with coloured paste-down illustration of destroyer and airships to front board,with clear black titles to front board and bright gilt titles to spine, this dated 1908 First Edition, Second State is VG. (First state had blue cloth binding and no paste-down illustration). V11/389pp+2pp Publishers' Adverts. With 11 Chapters and 16 full-page B/W illustrations by A.C. Michael. Clean endpapers but slight edge damage to pages 349, 350, 351 and 352. The two leaves were uncut , and when roughly separated, some of the paper from one leaf stuck to the other. Affecting only a maximum of half an inch on fore-edge of either leaf, with no text loss. (These two leaves were clearly uncut and roughly opened) One or two scattered foxing spots throughout, otherwise sound, tight binding: a good looking volume and VG
Seller: Camilla's Bookshop, Eastbourne, SX, United Kingdom
Price: US$100.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v [vi] vii [viii] [1] 2-389 [390: printer's imprint] [391-392: ads], sixteen inserted plates with illustrations by A. C. Michael, original blue cloth, front panel stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold and blind, color pictorial paper inlay on front panel, fore and bottom edges untrimmed. First edition, later binding. THE WAR IN THE AIR "is a remarkable rarity in being a future war novel which uses the viewpoint of ordinary people and deals primarily with the effects of aerial warfare on those ordinary people . the shape of Wells's argument brings him to a conclusion very different from that characteristic of the future war novels written before 1914: civilization is virtually obliterated, and the Scientific Age is brought to an end." - Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, p. 72. Kingsley Amis (New Maps of Hell) terms this novel the "most forceful" of Wells's scientific romances. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 2-170; (1981) 1-178; (1987) 1-104; (1995) 104; and (2004) II-1233. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 2339. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 801. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 36. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War 1763-1984, p. 236. Gerber, Utopian Fantasy (1973), p. 145. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, pp. 227-28. Negley, Utopian Literature: A Bibliography 1179. Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2407-10. Bleiler (1978), p. 205. Reginald 15106. Currey (2002), p. 425 (binding C). Hammond B11. Wells 35. Wells Society 36. Cloth rubbed at spine ends, corner tips and along outer joints, hairline crack along inner rear hinge which is a bit tender, a very good copy. Overall, a clean, attractive copy. (#80429)
Seller: Currey, L.W. Inc. ABAA/ILAB, Elizabethtown, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$103.06 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: spine bumped chipped and sunned with repairs to extremities, hinges and corners rubbed, illustrated by A C Michael, advertisement leaf, good. first edition; 389 pages; keywords: fiction;
Seller: Tiger books, Canterbury, United Kingdom
Price: US$109.50 + shipping
Description: FIRST EDITION. Crown octavo, pps.[viii]; 389. With 16 monochrome illustrations by A. C. Michael. In a robust private binding of grey cloth with morocco label titled in gilt, top edge gilt. Some light spotting else clean, in lightly rubbed binding. Wells' famous 'scientific romance' is a remarkable forecast of aerial warfare.
Seller: Adrian Harrington Ltd, PBFA, ABA, ILAB, Royal Tunbridge Wells, KENT, United Kingdom
Price: US$112.00 + shipping
Description: Good to very good copy in the original gilt-blocked cloth. Spine bands and panel edges somewhat bumped and rubbed as with age. Remains quite well-preserved overall. Physical description: vii, 389, [1] pages : frontispiece, plates ; 20 cm. Subjects: Air warfare ; Fiction. Aeronautics, Military - Fiction. 1 Kg.
Seller: MW Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$112.50 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: 8vo; 389 pages; Blue cloth covers with some rubbing and wear. Gilt lettering still quite bright. Bookplate on inside front cover. Some foxing to endpapers.
Seller: Circle City Books, tucson, AZ, U.S.A.
H G Wells. The War in the Air [First Edition - First State]. London George Bell 1908, 1908.
Price: US$122.38 + shipping
Description: First edition, first state, complete with the frontispiece and 16 plates illustrated by A.C. Michael; 2 pages of advertisements. Publisher's blue cloth blocked and lettered in gilt with gilt publisher's device to spine. Part of a W H Smith's bookplate to front pastedown; foxing to edges of text block. Otherwise a good square copy. pp390; 2pp adverts Please contact Christian White Rare Books Ltd for more information or images of this item
Seller: Christian White Rare Books Ltd, Ilkley, YORKS, United Kingdom
Price: US$125.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, second binding with illustration and blind stamped title to front board, has very slight skew to binding which has a light pull but remains solid, very light bumps to spine ends, very slight shelfwear to board edges and corners, small spot of soiling to spine and rear board, and sunning to spine, otherwise a solid Near VG copy.
Seller: Fahrenheit's Books, Denver, CO, U.S.A.
Price: US$138.11 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: First UK Edition, First Printing. True First Edition. First Print. Octavo, original blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold. First edition, first binding with all lettering and decoration on front and spine panels in gold and "George Bell & Sons" at base of spine panel. One Illustration not present, that facing page 66, the other 15 are although some are foxed. Heavy staining to the end pages and to the edge of plates, some page edges foxed. Pages clean and complete. About acceptable.
Seller: Kelleher Rare Books, Naas, IE, Ireland
Price: US$141.71 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: 1st edn. Illus. with 16 b.w. plates, incl. frontis. 8vo. orig. cl. in cold. pict. laid down on front bd. Spine very creased and faded, bds. very marked and stained, occasional foxing throughout, else generally fair.
Seller: Allsop Antiquarian Booksellers PBFA, Warwick, United Kingdom
Price: US$193.24 + shipping
Description: First edition, third issue. Original red cloth with gilt titles to the spine and black titles and an illustration plate to the upper board. Illustrated throughout with black and white plates by A. C. Michael. A very good copy, the binding firm, the edges rubbed, the spine toned, the illustration plate scuffed with loss. The contents, with a contemporary pencil ownership inscription to the front pastedown and some spotting to the text block edge and prelims, are otherwise clean throughout. A military science fiction novel notable for predicting the use of aircraft in warfare. Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers.
Seller: LUCIUS BOOKS (ABA, ILAB, PBFA), York, United Kingdom
Wells, H. G.. The War in the Air. George Bell and Sons, London, 1908.
Price: US$200.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition in the second issue binding, with the frontispiece illustration (in color) tipped in to the front board. Title on front cover blind stamped, in gilt on spine. Fore and bottom edges untrimmed. Foxing to fore edge, small drops of stain to the top edge, contents very fresh and clean. Bottom front corner bumped, spine slightly faded.
Seller: James Graham, Bookseller, ABAA, Palm Desert, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$220.98 + shipping
Description: Erster Druck der ersten Ausgabe. - Einband etw. berieben, bestoßen u. fleckig. Vorsätze stärker gebräunt. Vortitel m. Eckknick. Schnitt u. tlw. Blattränder stockfleckig. Leicht gebräunt. Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 1000 8°. Mit Tafeln nach Illustrationen von A. C. Michael. VII, 389 (1) S., 1 Bl., Blauer OLwd.-Bd. m. goldgepr. Deckel- u. Rückentitel.
Seller: Versandantiquariat Wolfgang Friebes, Graz, Austria
Price: US$236.72 + shipping
Description: Frontispiece and plates by A.C. Michael Cloth a little marked and rubbed at edges, some foxing at fore-edge and free end-papers browned, binding a little loose, but a very good copy. Scarce H.G. Wells Society Bibliography 36; Currey A
Seller: Bertram Rota Ltd, Kintbury, United Kingdom
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: London: George Bell and Sons, 1908. 390 pp. (with six of the advertisement pages in the rear missing) Approximately 5 x 7 3/4". 1st edition. Red-cloth variant binding (much more scarce than the common blue one), title in black on cover with illustrated paste-down, title and publisher on spine in gilt, considerable foxing on page edges and some throughout, otherwise, very good plus condition. (Curry 1979, p. 526)Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) is often called the "father of science fiction" along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. The War in the Air is a military science fiction novel, originally published in The Pall Mall Magazine, about the futuristic idea of using aircraft in warfare
Seller: The Book Lair, ABAA, Pleasanton, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, vii, 389, [2] pages. In Good plus condition. Full binding of blue cloth with gilt lettering. Moderate shelfwear. Rubbing and fraying to cloth on spine and edges. Light staining to front cover. Textblock becoming detached from binding, with webbing exposed at front and rear gutters. Foxing and age-toning to textblock. Writing of previous owner on front free endpaper. Features illustrations throughout by Michael. With 2 pages of advertisements in rear. Shelved in Case 8. First issue binding, with gilt but no illustration to the front cover. 1371315. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$251.21 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition. 8vo. Original cloth with inset colour image (third state). Front and rear endpapers replaced otherwise a decent VG copy with bright boards and clean contents. A.C. Michael. Wells' military sci fi novel written in four months in 1907 and serialised and published in 1908 in Pall Mall Magazine and like many of Wells's works notable for its prophetic ideas, images, and conceptsÔ"in this case, the use of the aircraft for the purpose of warfare and the coming of WW1. The novel's hero is Bert Smallways, a "forward-thinking young man". The red binding does seems to be the scarcest of the three variants.
Seller: Lycanthia Rare Books, Newark, NOTTS, United Kingdom
Price: US$257.65 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 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. Some light foxing; a couple of small creases to cloth at spine, overall a very good copy.
Seller: Lycanthia Rare Books, Newark, NOTTS, United Kingdom
Price: US$265.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: Dark blue cloth covers with pictorial plate laid onto front cover.Cloth is rubbed,and marked,not torn or damaged.Pages are uncut and rough edged,block is clean and tidy,internal hinges are weal but not broken. THE WAR IN THE AIR "is a remarkable rarity in being a future war novel which uses the viewpoint of ordinary people and deals primarily with the effects of aerial warfare on those ordinary people . the shape of Wells's argument brings him to a conclusion very different from that characteristic of the future war novels written before 1914: civilization is virtually obliterated, and the Scientific Age is brought to an end."
Seller: THE BOOK SHOP, HASTINGS, HBN, New Zealand
Price: US$276.22 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: blue cloth, gilt lettering, 389 pp, frontispiece of The Battle of the North Atlantic, illustratons, first edition, cloth stained, some pencil underlining Standard shipping (no tracking) / Priority (with tracking) / Custom quote for large or heavy orders.
Seller: San Francisco Book Company, Paris, France
Price: US$300.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. In first-issue binding without mounted illustration on front cover and with gilt stamping to front and spine. The story of a Cockney cycle-repairer carried off by a drifting balloon and caught up in a surprise German air attack on New York City -- which in turn precipitates the collapse of civilization. 8vo blue cloth; 389 pages plus 2 pages of ads; 15 full-plate Illustrations by A. C. Michael, including frontis. About very good with endpapers darkened (offset from binding), scattered foxing, spine slightly toned, and light rubbing to spine ends and folds.
Seller: Quill & Brush, member ABAA, Middletown, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$300.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Octavo, blue cloth covers with gilt titles on top cover and spine; publisher's emblem and name, George Bell & Sons, at foot of spine. First eition, first binding. 16 black and white illustrations by A. C. Michael. vi [1] 389 pages + [2] (publisher's ads). Prize inscription on front free endpaper, dated Dec. 21st , 1908; also embossed address on ffep. Some browning on endpapers. Scattered foxing. Spine a little dulled. Wells Society 36; Hammond B11.
Seller: Alkahest Books, Deerfield, IL, U.S.A.
Price: US$301.63 + shipping
Description: 1st Edition 2nd State. vii, 389 + 2 pg publishers adspp. Small Octavo (approximately 7.75" high) in original blindstamped blue cloth with tipped on colour illustration on front. Gilt lettering on spine. Worn and rubbed near edges of boards and spine (spine also shows some light fading). Decorative presentation bookplate (1914) affixed to front pastedown. With 16 clean and complete B/W plates (including frontispiece) from Illustrations by A.C. Michael. Some scattered foxing on edges, preliminaries and rear endpapers. Long outer and bottom edges of text block are untrimmed with a few slightly ragged seaming spots (and one closed tear) on the long outer edge. A nice copy. near very good A second state of the Wells Society and G. H. Wells #35- identical to the first state save for the coloured illustration inset on front cover. "A remarkable forecast for aerial warfare".
Seller: Aquila Books(Cameron Treleaven) ABAC, Calgary, AB, Canada
Wells, H. G.. The War in the Air. George Bell and Sons, 1908.
Price: US$350.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: First edition, first state. Blue cloth with gilt titling and decoration, with a few small spots of soil to spine, tanned to spine and edges; with light general edgewear, bumping to spine ends, and tiny points of fraying at fore-edge corners. Gilt sharp and bright. Spine square. Binding sound. Lacking the jacket; protected in clear plastic dust wrapper. Illustrated throughout with full-page black-and-white plates by A. C. Michael. All plates present. Pages lightly tanned and foxed throughout; a few plates have spotting to margins, but the illustrations are bright and unmarked. Photographs available upon request.
Seller: The Book Bin, Salem, OR, U.S.A.
Price: US$350.00 + shipping
Description: 1st Edition. Hardcover. First edition, first issue. 8vo. original Blue cloth with gilt on the cover & spine. 389pp with 2 pages of publisher's ads. One of Wells' famous "Scientific Romances" highly sought after. Illustrated by A. C. Michael with sixteen black & white plates. A solid very good copy, the spine extremities very neatly & archivally mended. The book block clean & blemish free. An extraordinary story of a mechanic carried off in a balloon;", is a remarkable rarity, being a future war novel which uses the viewpoint of ordinary people and deals primarily with the effects of aerial warfare on those ordinary people. the shape of Wells's argument brings him to a conclusion very different from that characteristic of the future war novels written before 1914: civilization is virtually obliterated, and the Scientific Age is brought to an end." - Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, p. 72. Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2407-10. Bleiler (1978), p. 205. Reginald 15106. Currey (2002), p. 425 (binding A). Hammond B11. Wells 35. Wells Society 36.
Seller: TBCL The Book Collector's Library, Montreal, QC, Canada
Price: US$380.04 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 1908 first edition, first impression. First state binding with gilt title to the front cover as well as the spine, and no paper illustration laid on. Size octavo, 7.75" tall, 389 pages. Navy blue cloth covered boards with gilt titles to the front cover and spine. Condition very good, corners and spine ends rubbed, previous owner's name and offsetting and a little spotting to end-papers, other pages are toned else clean. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Seller: Lazarus Books Limited, Blackpool, LANCS, United Kingdom
Price: US$440.00 + shipping
Description: First Impression. Octavo (19.75cm); Currey's A binding in blue cloth, with titling and decorations stamped in gilt on spine and front cover, and publisher's imprint reading "George Bell & Sons" at base of spine; viii,390 + [2]pp ads; with frontispiece and 14 plates of illustrations by A.C. Michael. Gentle sunning to spine, some softening to spine ends, with faint foxing to text edges, preliminary, and terminal leaves; hinges sound; Very Good or better, with the gilt still bright and unrubbed. "In the early 1900s, a German dirigible fleet attacks New York City. In turn, it is attacked by an Oriental fleet. Guerrilla warfare spreads throughout the world, the "Purple Death" follows, and within 30 years humanity has been reduced to barbarism, forgetting even how to operate machinery. At one level simply another future war story, this is Wells's dramatization of the widening gap between humanity's social intelligence and its inability to manage new inventions" (Barron, Anatomy of Wonder 1-104). The novel was first serialized in Pall Mall Magazine with Michael's illustrations, which were supplied by Eric Pape for the American edition. WELLS 35; BLEILER, p.282; NEGLEY 1179.
Seller: Lorne Bair Rare Books, ABAA, Winchester, VA, U.S.A.
Price: US$490.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First Edition. Illustrations by A.C. Michael. Original blue cloth decorated in gilt. 195x130mm. First Edition of this extraordinary tale of a Cockney cycle mechanic who is carried off by a drifting balloon and is then caught up in a surprise German air attack on New York City, which in turn precipitates the collapse of civilization. Though this book typifies Wells's fantastic "fiction about the future" (and includes a remarkable forecast of aerial warfare), it is perhaps more noteworthy as one of his earliest warnings about "the German menace" -- a topic to which he would devote increased attention over the coming years (with lettering in gilt on both the front cover and the spine, and with no mounted color plate).Two pages of publicity at the end. Wells Soc. 36; Hammond B11; Currey p. 526. With the name of the first owner Xmas 1908 and then an Ex Libris (1945) by a famous Cekoslovachian bibliophile together with a Soviet Stamp celebrating Kim Philby (1990).
Seller: Lascar Publishing Ltd., Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Wells, H.G.. THE WAR IN THE AIR. , 1908.
Price: US$495.00 + shipping
Description: And particularly how Mr. Bert Smallways fared while it lasted. With Illustrations by A.C. Michael. London: George Bell and Sons, 1908. 2 pp undated ads. Original blue cloth decorated in gilt. First Edition of this extraordinary tale of a Cockney cycle mechanic who is carried off by a drifting balloon and is then caught up in a surprise German air attack on New York City -- which in turn precipitates the collapse of civilization. Though this book typifies Wells's fantastic "fiction about the future" (and includes a remarkable forecast of aerial warfare), it is perhaps more noteworthy as one of his earliest warnings about "the German menace" -- a topic to which he would devote increased attention over the coming years. This copy is in Currey's binding "A" (with lettering in gilt on both the front cover and the spine, and with no mounted color plate). This is a very good-plus copy (general minor rubbing at the edges, spine slightly faded); atypically, the original endpapers are intact. Wells Soc. 36; Hammond B11; Currey p. 526.
Seller: Sumner & Stillman [ABAA], Yarmouth, ME, U.S.A.
WELLS, H. G.. War in the Air and Particularly How Mr. Bert Smallways Fared. , 1908.
Price: US$660.00 + shipping
Description: WELLS, H. G. The War in the Air and Particularly How Mr. Bert Smallways Fared While It Lasted. Original cloth, pictorial pastedown on front board. London: George Bell and Sons, 1908. First edition. Currey, p.526. Bleiler, p.205. In a secondary binding not conforming exactly to any of Currey's alternatives: spine title in gilt; spine imprint in blind; front board title in blind; color pastedown in double-ruled box. Bookplate neatly removed from front pastedown, slight toning to endpapers, else a very good, bright copy.
Seller: G.S. MacManus Co., ABAA, Bryn Mawr, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: The first printing of the Colonial Edition ( ' This edition is issued for circulation in India and the Colonies Only' ) published by George Bell and Sons in 1908 - simultaneously with the first British edition. Illustrate by A. C. Michael. Bound in publishers red cloth with blind stamping to front and rear boards and gold lettering to the spine with George Bell and Sons to the base. . A near fine copy with a trace of extremity wear and offsetting to the endsheets. Prior owner's signature to endpaper. 389 pages, followed by catalog. This copy is from the remarkable Larry McMurtry collection of H. G. Wells - bearing his McMurtry-brand bookplate to the front paste down. An uncommonly attractive copy.
Seller: The Reluctant Bookseller, Albany, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v [vi] vii [viii] [1] 2-389 [390: printer's imprint] [391-392: ads], sixteen inserted plates with illustrations by A. C. Michael, original blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, fore and bottom edges untrimmed. First edition, first binding with all lettering and decoration on front and spine panels in gold and "George Bell & Sons" at base of spine panel. THE WAR IN THE AIR "is a remarkable rarity in being a future war novel which uses the viewpoint of ordinary people and deals primarily with the effects of aerial warfare on those ordinary people . the shape of Wells's argument brings him to a conclusion very different from that characteristic of the future war novels written before 1914: civilization is virtually obliterated, and the Scientific Age is brought to an end." - Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, p. 72. Kingsley Amis (New Maps of Hell) terms this novel the "most forceful" of Wells's scientific romances. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 2-170; (1981) 1-178; (1987) 1-104; (1995) 104; and (2004) II-1233. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 2339. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 801. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 36. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War 1763-1984, p. 236. Gerber, Utopian Fantasy (1973), p. 145. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, pp. 227-28. Negley, Utopian Literature: A Bibliography 1179. Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2407-10. Bleiler (1978), p. 205. Reginald 15106. Currey (2002), p. 425 (binding A). Hammond B11. Wells 35. Wells Society 36. Free endpapers lightly age-darkened, some minor scattered foxing, largely to preliminary leaves, still a fine, bright copy. A lovely copy of this book. (#80376)
Seller: Currey, L.W. Inc. ABAA/ILAB, Elizabethtown, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v [vi] vii [viii] [1] 2-389 [390: printer's imprint] [391-392: ads], sixteen inserted plates with illustrations by A. C. Michael, original blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold. First edition, first binding with all lettering and decoration on front and spine panels in gold and "George Bell & Sons" at base of spine panel. THE WAR IN THE AIR "is a remarkable rarity in being a future war novel which uses the viewpoint of ordinary people and deals primarily with the effects of aerial warfare on those ordinary people . the shape of Wells's argument brings him to a conclusion very different from that characteristic of the future war novels written before 1914: civilization is virtually obliterated, and the Scientific Age is brought to an end." - Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, p. 72. Kingsley Amis (New Maps of Hell) terms this novel the "most forceful" of Wells's scientific romances. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 2-170; (1981) 1-178; (1987) 1-104; (1995) 104; and (2004) II-1233. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 2339. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 801. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 36. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War 1763-1984, p. 236. Gerber, Utopian Fantasy (1973), p. 145. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, pp. 227-28. Negley, Utopian Literature: A Bibliography 1179. Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2407-10. Bleiler (1978), p. 205. Reginald 15106. Currey (2002), p. 425 (binding A). Hammond B11. Wells 35. Wells Society 36. Page edges foxed, else a fine copy with clean and bright binding. (#152643)
Seller: Currey, L.W. Inc. ABAA/ILAB, Elizabethtown, NY, U.S.A.
WELLS, H.G.. The War In The Air. London: George Bell & Sons, 1908, 1908.
Price: US$5000.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition; first binding. Quinn bookplate; minor cloth wear; a very good copy in a good, supplied example of the dust jacket with numerous chips and tears, soiling and some bleeding through where tape was removed from the verso. The chips, numerous as they are, only affect 'The' at the top of the spine; in a custom clamshell box. The front panel prints a color reproduction of the frontispiece which a later binding pasted onto the front cover. In this novel, Wells foresaw the deadly and far-reaching nature of warfare in the 20th century. All books described as first editions are first printings unless otherwise noted.
Seller: Peter L. Stern & Co., Inc, Newton, MA, U.S.A.