Mr. Adam.

FRANK, Pat.

$2,500.00

Item Number: 122192

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1946.

First edition of the author’s classic first novel, which has went on to sell over two million copies. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: “For Cynthia – With best regards, Pat Frank, Tarrytown, ’47”. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Uncommon signed and inscribed.

Originally published at the dawn of the Atomic Age, Mr. Adam is a riveting, chilling novel from the author of the post-apocalyptic classic Alas Babylon, revealing the dangers of nuclear power—and the far greater danger of government bureaucracy. A young newspaperman accidentally turns up the biggest story of his career: On a certain date in the not-too-distant future, there are no reservations in the maternity wards of any hospitals in New York. When the journalist’s AP office checks other cities, he discovers that this alarming state of affairs is not just in the United States, but in the entire world. A few months earlier, an accidental explosion in an atomic plant in Mississippi released an unknown form of radiation that turned the Earth’s men sterile—with one notable exception. One of literature’s first responses to the atomic bomb, Mr. Adam is an artifact of classic science fiction—an equally biting satire and ominous warning to society. Eleanor Roosevelt wrote about the novel in her My Day column in September 1946, noting that the work is "pure imagination, but there is just enough possibility that it might come true to make one read it with interest." The New York Times found the book "part fantasy, part lampoon, and is still written with clarity, skill and wit. It makes you chuckle--yes, but it also provides food for thought which a lot of readers should and probably will find quite digestible."