HIS LEVEL BEST AND OTHER STORIES

Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, Late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co.. First edition. Small owernship label affixed to upper front paste down, slight darkening to spine with a touch of rubbing to spine ends, a nearly fine or better copy. Uncommon in such nice condition. (25321). pp. [1-8] [1] 2-293 [294-296: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], flyleaves at front and rear, original decorated green cloth, front and rear panels stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold and ruled in blind, brown coated endpapers. Contains the first book publication of "The Brick Moon," an early, perhaps the first, story to describe the construction and launching of an artificial satellite. "The Brick Moon" was first published as a serial in THE ATLANTIC, October -- December 1869 and a sequel, "Life in the Brick Moon," appeared in the February 1870 issue. The text presented here is an edited, combined version of the two stories. Among the other stories collected here are "A Tale of a Salamander," a supernatural story, and "The Queen of California," a medieval lost race story of the discovery of the Island of California, translated from the Spanish by Hale. Anatomy of Wonder (1981) 1-91; (1987) 1-48; (1995) 1-48; and (2004) II-483. Bailey, Pilgrims Through Space and Time, pp. 48-9. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 984. Clareson, The Emergence of American Science Fiction: 1880-1915, p. 43. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 102. Locke, Voyages in Space 97. Bleiler (1978), p. 91. Reginald 06635. Wright (II) 1052. Baird and Greenwood, An Annotated Bibliography of California Fiction 1664-1970 1004.