Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, pp. [1-4] 1-323 [324] + [32]-page publisher's catalogue inserted at rear, original pictorial yellow cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black, publisher's monogram stamped in black on rear panel, top edge untrimmed, other edges rough trimmed. First British edition, first issue, first binding. 1520 copies printed (utilizing the plates of the McClure, Phillips edition) of which this is one of 1000 in the first binding (top edge not trimmed; publisher's catalogue inserted at rear; "W H" bracketing windmill on spine panel). This copy does not have the dedication leaf later inserted in a few copies. The only work in the science fiction genre by either Conrad or Ford. Earth is invaded by the Dimensionists, an advanced humanoid race from earth's future, who co-exist with the present in an alternate universe on a different plane in time. A remarkable book that can be read as a probing social satire or as provocative science fiction. See Elaine L. Kleiner, "Joseph Conrad's Forgotten Role in the Emergence of Science Fiction," Extrapolation, 15 (December 1973), 25-34. Anatomy of Wonder (2004) II-276. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 460. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 186. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 27. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 57. Bleiler (1978), p. 48. Reginald 03318. Cagle A6a(3), binding a. Wise 9. Harvey A9b. Publisher's "presentation copy" embossed stamp on title leaf. Some soiling to cloth, lower corner tips lightly bruised, minor foxing to endpapers, largely along gutter margins, two small, faint tape ghosts on each free endpaper, a tight, very good copy. Externally bright and attractive; the cover soiling is less than is usually encountered on this book. (#80407)
Seller: Currey, L.W. Inc. ABAA/ILAB, Elizabethtown, NY, U.S.A.
Conrad, Joseph and Hueffer, Ford M.. THE INHERITORS. An Extravagant Story. , 1901.
Price: US$1350.00 + shipping
Description: London: William Heinemann, 1901. 32 pp undated ads. Original yellow cloth decorated in black. First English Edition, first issue, first binding state. The UK edition was issued a month after the American one, and consisted of 1,500 copies in two issues and three bindings. This was Conrad's only science fiction title, involving people from The Fourth Dimension -- though the work is largely Hueffer's. This copy is first issue, withOUT the dedication leaf ("To Borys & Christina"): according to Cagle "it would appear that the [dedication] leaf was inserted into only a few copies"; one would presume that these were likely the last copies to be bound up. This copy is in the primary binding (with the pictorial cover panel and with "W H" bracketing the windmill on the spine) -- and it is the first state of that first binding, i.e. with an ad catalogue and with the top edge trimmed, the other edges rough-trimmed. It is a very good-to-near-fine copy (minor soil and wear including a faint pattern on the rear cover, rear endpaper cracked). Supino A6.6.0 (this copy); Cagle A6a.3. At the top of the title page is blind-stamped "PRESENTATION COPY," and tipped in is a slip stating, "Early Copy for Review | With Mr. Heinemann's Compliments | Price 6/- | The Publisher particularly requests that no reference to this work be made before June 26th [price and date handwritten in ink].". Provenance: discreet bookplate of the Conrad bibliographer David J.Supino.
Seller: Sumner & Stillman [ABAA], Yarmouth, ME, U.S.A.