FLOATING ISLAND. Or The Pearl of the Pacific

1897. New York: W.L. Allison Company, n.d. [1897]. Original tan cloth pictorially decorated in brown and white.

First American Edition of this remarkable tale of "an enormous ship built by the Yanks, that has a great city on it, and is navigated about the world, playing ducks and drakes with geography and the balance of political power in the South Seas, until finally the savages of the New Hebrides and the forces of Nature rise up and annihilate it" [from a contemporary review cited in T&M]. L'ÎLE À HÉLICE ("Propeller Island") was first published in the original French in 1895; later that year Sampson Low of London announced it would soon be publishing it in English as SCREW ISLAND, but changed its title to THE FLOATING ISLAND when published in October of that year. Curiously, it would not be published in America for two more years, when Allison issued it, as here -- a volume in their "Fireside Series" (though not so identified). Apparently no other American editions came out until 1903. The binding includes a "THE" not on the title page; included are 79 black-and-white plates (as in the UK edition), placed in the volume rather haphazardly by the binder. This is a remarkably fine copy, with essentially no binding wear or soil at all -- amazing for this light-colored cloth. This is a very scarce Verne edition -- as are just about all of Verne's American titles which constitute a publisher's only first American edition. It is many times scarcer than the UK edition: this is only the second copy we have seen in our 40 years in business, and the first since 2005. Taves & Michaluk V043.