A Columbus of Space.

SERVISS, Garrett P.

$1,600.00

Item Number: 146170

New York and London: D. Appleton and Company, 1911.

First edition of this classic interplanetary adventure novel. Octavo, original lime green pictorial cloth, frontispiece of a scene from page 47 “Standing on the steps … was a creature shaped like a man, but more savage than a gorilla.” Signed and dated by the author on the front free endpaper in the year of publication. In near fine condition. A rare example in this condition without any other signed copies in commerce.

Garrett Putnam Serviss was an American astronomer, popularizer of astronomy, and early science fiction writer. Showing a talent for explaining scientific details in a way that made them clear to the ordinary reader, Andrew Carnegie was inclined to invite him to deliver 'The Urania Lectures' in 1894 on astronomy, cosmology, geology, and related matters. With Carnegie's financial backing, these lectures were illustrated with magic lantern slides and other effects to show eclipses, presumed lunar landscapes, and much else. Serviss' scientific knowledge also easily lent itself to science fiction writing, exemplified here in this atomic trip to Venus.