Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$450.00 + shipping
Condition: As New
Description: PC from the signed limited fortieth anniversary edition of 1,500 copies; signed by Asimov at the limitation page. 223 pages. Grey cloth with orange spine titles, fine. Spine square. Binding sound. Dust jacket near fine with light toning, light sunning to spine. Pages bright, unmarked. In brown cloth slipcase with slight edgewear.
Seller: The Book Bin, Salem, OR, U.S.A.
Asimov, Isaac. PEBBLE IN THE SKY. Doubleday, 1950.
Price: US$1310.80 + shipping
Description: PEBBLE IN THE SKY, Doubleday, 1950, first edition, fine in vg+/near fine dust-wrapper save for some rear tape stain bleed through at the dust-wrapper spine extremities which wraps around somewhat to the corresponding sections of the front and rear dust-wrapper panels. The authors first commercial book (an earlier book, THE KINETICS OF THE REACTION INACTIVATION OF TYROSINASE DURING ITS CATALYSIS OF THE AEROBIC OXIDATION OF CATECHOL, the author's Ph.D Dissertation, was first published in 1948) in a long and marvelous career which unfortunately came to a premature halt just about 500 books later. Laid in is a typed postcard SIGNED by Asimov, about 60 words, thanking the recipient for the photos (actually misspelled or a typo), hoping that he, the recipient, will like (his novel) NEMESIS, mentioning that the next FOUNDATION novel will be FORWARD THE FOUNDATION, a sequel to PRELUDE, and finally stating that his increasing age keeps him from making any long travel possible. A cornerstone book for the serious SF collector.
Seller: THE FINE BOOKS COMPANY / A.B.A.A / 1979, ROCHESTER, MI, U.S.A.
Asimov, Isaac. PEBBLE IN THE SKY. Doubleday, 1950.
Price: US$1363.75 + shipping
Description: PEBBLE IN THE SKY, Doubleday, 1950, first edition, some light tanning to the upper and lower margins of the covers, very faint tape ghosts to same, some faint off-setting to the end-papers, else a solid very good copy in just about fine dust-wrapper with has been trimmed 1/2 centimeter. The authors first book (save for THE KINETICS OF THE REACTION INACTIVATION OF TYROSINASE DURING ITS CATALYSIS OF THE AEROBIC OXIDATION OF CATECHOL, the author's Ph.D Dissertation first published in 1948) in a long and marvelous career which unfortunately came to a premature halt just about 500 books later. INSCRIBED by the author to a well known member of First Fandom and equally well known Burroughs Bibliophile. Along with PEBBLE IN THE SKY, Bantam, 1957, first soft-cover edition, a near vg copy in full color pictorial wraps.
Seller: THE FINE BOOKS COMPANY / A.B.A.A / 1979, ROCHESTER, MI, U.S.A.
Asimov, Isaac. Pebble in the Sky. Doubleday & Company, Inc., New York, 1950.
Price: US$3500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First Edition, First Printing SIGNED by Isaac Asimov on the title page. A wonderful copy that is just SIGNED, NOT inscribed to anyone. This ORIGINAL dustjacket is rich in color with minor wear to the edges. The book is bound in the publisher's original cloth and is in great shape. The binding is tight with NO cocking or leaning and the boards are crisp with a hint of wear to the boards. The pages are clean with NO marks or bookplates in the book. A lovely copy SIGNED by the author.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.
Asimov, Isaac. PEBBLE IN THE SKY. Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, NY, 1950.
Price: US$4500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Inscribed by Asimov on the front free endpaper, "For Dirce Archer, With best wishes, Isaac Asimov." Dirce Archer was a well known science fiction fan of the 1950's and 60's. Asimov's first novel. "A sentimental favorite among Asimov's fans, but significant also as a transitional step between the relatively miserly world of Golden Age pulps and the relatively lucrative world of mainstream book publication." Quoted from Barron; Anatomy of Wonder 4, 3-15. Bound in gray cloth with lettering on the spine in red. The merest hint of toning to the edges of the text block, else fine in fine and bright dust jacket illustrated by Richard Powers, Doubleday's $2.50 price present, and with just the merest hint of rubbing at the spine panel ends. An exceptional associational copy.
Seller: Robert Gavora, Fine & Rare Books, ABAA, Talent, OR, U.S.A.
Price: US$5895.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Doubleday, New York, 1950, 1951, and 1952 The Empire series is a set of three books written by Asimov, although not published in order. “Pebble in the Sky” is young Isaac Asimov’s first novel, full of wonders and ideas, and is the book that launched the novels of the Galactic Empire, which culminated in the Foundation series – however it is chronologically the last book of the Empire series even though it was published first. Asimov also noted that the books “were not written in the order in which (perhaps) they should be read”. This trilogy, their respective publication dates and the dates of the actual storylines are shown below: The Stars, Like Dust (1951) – first novel, set in the 49th century (4850), thousands of years in the future before the founding of a Galactic Empire The Currents of Space (1952) – second novel, set in the 112th century (11129), set thousands of years in the future during Trantor’s unification of the galaxy into a Galactic Empire Pebble in the Sky (1950) – third novel but published first, set in the 125th century (12411), primarily set thousands of years in the future on Earth, when the galaxy is unified into a Galactic Empire This is Golden Age SciFi at its finest, with the third and final book in the Galactic Empire series (Pebble In The Sky) considered the spectacular precursor to the classic Foundation series. One moment Joseph Schwartz is a happily retired tailor in Chicago, 1949. The next he’s a helpless stranger on Earth during the heyday of the first Galactic Empire. Earth, as he soon learns, is a backwater, just a pebble in the sky, despised by all the other 200 million planets of the Empire because its people dare to claim it’s the original home of man. And Earth is poor, with great areas of radioactivity ruining much of its soil–so poor that everyone is sentenced to death at the age of sixty. Joseph Schwartz is sixty-two. Described below by order to read the trilogy and not by publication date: CONDITION STATED FIRST EDITION, First Printings: FINE/Near Fine, clean crisp books all in near fine vibrant dust jackets for the complete first edition set of the Galactic Empire Trilogy, with the copy of Pebble in the Sky signed by Isaac Asimov on a laid in signature “Isaac Asimov / 2 Sep 83”. ADDITIONAL IMAGES AND A FULL DESCRIPTION AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST. Please see our ABE store for other landmark SciFi listings.
Seller: Meier And Sons Rare Books, New Canaan, CT, U.S.A.