Quo Vadis? Visions of the Future
The impulse to foretell the future, with hope or with fear, is as ancient as our foundational religious texts and mythologies, telling of rapture and Ragnarok. This catalogue takes a broad look at literature’s manifold hypothetical answers to the question: where are we going?
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FORSTER, E. M. The Eternal Moment and Other Stories.London : 1928
First edition, in exceptional condition. This collection includes the first book appearance of Forster's renowned short story "The Machine Stops" (1909), which sees the "first full-scale emergence of the 20th-century anti-utopia" (Hillegas, p. 82).
The story prefigures an environmentally blighted world in which the human race lives within a... Learn More -
WELLS, H. G. The Time Machine. An Invention.London : 1905
First popular edition, inscribed by Wells to his wife with one of his playful "picshuas" in pen and ink. Wells's sketch shows Father Time holding hands with figures carrying a scythe and an hourglass and stating, "Me hurt you! Why I only make things better for you every year!". Wells has inscribed below, "Drawn 1908 For C. B. Jane i.e. Mrs H. G.... Learn More -
GERNSBACK, Hugo. Ralph 124C 41+. A Romance of the Year 2660.Boston, Massachusetts : 1925
First edition, signed by the author on the front free endpaper, below the salutation "Sincerely Yours" in a secretarial hand. Gernsback's landmark first book has been described as "the one essential text for all studies of science fiction, a work which anticipates and contains the entire genre" (Westfahl, p. 93).
Hugo Gernsback (1884-1967)... Learn More -
MERCIER, Louis-Sébastien. Memoirs of the Year Two Thousand Five Hundred.London : 1772
First edition in English, rare in commerce, of Mercier's utopian vision of a secular, liberal, pacifist future France. It was banned in France and Spain and put on the Inquisition's list of banned books. Hugely popular at the time, it has only recently been reappraised as a landmark work of proto-science fiction. Learn More -
BUTLER, Octavia E. Xenogenesis.New York : 1989
First collected edition, inscribed by her on the title page, "To Bear, keep reading! Octavia Butler".
The Xenogenesis Trilogy, also known as Lilith's Brood, is comprised of Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago. It begins with the death of humanity, brought about by increasing environmental abuse, international hostility, and eventual nuclear... Learn More -
ASIMOV, Isaac. Foundation; Foundation and Empire; Second Foundation.New York : 1951-52-53
First editions, with all first issue points, rare in such stunning condition. A monumental work of science fiction, the Foundation Trilogy won the special Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series in 1966, beating Heinlein's Future History series and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
The trilogy appeared as a series of short stories and novellas in... Learn More -
SIEVEKING, Lancelot. The Ultimate Island. A Strange Adventure.London : 1925
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to his wife, "June 29th 1925. For my own best beloved, the first arrival of this nice book - to April, with all my love, Lance. Villa Lampe, Cros-de-Cagnes, Alpes Maritimes, France".
Sieveking was an English poet and presenter. Set in the near future, The... Learn More -
GIBSON, William. The Sprawl Trilogy:New York : 1984-88
First edition of Neuromancer, with the first paperback edition of Count Zero, and an advanced reading copy of Mona Lisa Overdrive, all signed by the author on the title pages. Neuromancer is a landmark piece of science fiction, perhaps the most famous cyberpunk novel of all time. It was the first book to win the "triple crown" of the Nebula, Hugo,... Learn More -
LE GUIN, Ursula K. The Left Hand of Darkness.New York : 1969
First hardback edition, inscribed by the author on the title page, "To Jim, with all good wishes, Ursula K. Leguin". A pioneering text in feminist science fiction and Le Guin's first major success, the novel won both the Hugo and Nebula awards in 1970, and in 1987 was ranked by Locus magazine as the second most important science fiction novel... Learn More -
PROPHECIES. Oracula metrica Iovis, Apollinis, Hecates, Serapidis,Paris : 1607
A collection of verse prophecies by the most important oracles of ancient Greece and Rome. Included are the oracles of Apollo in Delphi and Mylos, of Jupiter in Dodona and Ammon, Hecate and Serapis, and other gods such as Aesculapius and Trophonius.
The prophecies, drawn from classical authors, are concerned with health, meteorological... Learn More -
MILLER, Henry. Unpublished essay, "Looking Down from the Empire State".Paris : 1930s
A satirical unpublished essay from the perspective of an enthusiastic future tour guide for the Empire State building, with several hand corrections by Miller.
The Empire State Building was finished in spring 1931. Miller was sceptical of the project and viewed it as a grotesque, sterile imitation of European cathedrals. This essay contains... Learn More -
HUXLEY, Aldous. Brave New World.London : 1932
First edition, in a well-preserved example of the dust jacket. Huxley's enduring dystopian novel turned him into the most famous British novelist of the interwar period. Learn More -
HERBERT, Frank. Dune Messiah.New York : 1969
First edition of the second instalment in the Dune saga. The novel follows the ascent of Paul Atreides one decade after the events of the first book, published four years earlier. An abridged version was serialized in Galaxy magazine earlier the same year. Learn More -
DORÉ, Gustave (illus.); JERROLD, Blanchard. London.London : 1872
First edition, in the publisher's deluxe morocco binding. Showcasing Doré and Jerrold's beautiful and influential "Pilgrimage" around the great metropolis of 19th-century London, the ambitious project took four years to complete and was published with 180 engravings depicting various scenes around the city.
Doré's striking chiaroscuro... Learn More -
MILLER, Walter M. A Canticle for Leibowitz. In: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.New York : 1955-57
First appearance in print of the short stories that became A Canticle for Leibowitz, in issues of Fantasy and Science Fiction. "A Canticle for Leibowitz", "A Light Has Risen", and "The Last Canticle" were published in book form in 1959, and won Miller the 1961 Hugo Award.
Miller's novel is set in a post-apocalyptic America, in which nuclear... Learn More -
HAMILTON, Cicely. How the Vote Was Won.London : [c.1909]
First and only edition. This illustrated pamphlet was the basis for Hamilton and Christabel Marshall's play of the same title, first performed in April 1909.
The story is framed as "some short extracts from Prof. Dryadust's 'Political History of the Twentieth Century,' published in the year 2008 AD". It follows a women's work strike carried... Learn More -
LE GUIN, Ursula K. City of Illusions.New York : 1967
First edition, inscribed by the author on the title page, "For Don, from Ursula". The recipient was Don Glover, the publications director of the Norwest Science Fiction Society and a significant figure in the Seattle science fiction scene. Of the many novels in Le Guin's science-fiction Hainish cycle, City of Illusions is the only one set on... Learn More -
LEARY, Timothy, & others. Terra II: A Way Out. The Starseed Transmission.San Francisco : 1974
First edition, limited issue, number 803 of a stated 1,000 copies, though less than 900 were actually printed.
Leary produced this book while imprisoned for marijuana possession. It was a collaborative work with Lynn Wayne Benner and was illustrated by Harold W. Olson, both of whom were fellow inmates. This copy is numbered by hand, though... Learn More -
KNOX, Ronald A., as Lady Porstock Opal. Memories of the Future. Being Memoirs of the Years 1915-1972, Written in the Year of Grace 1988.London : 1923
First edition, rare in commerce. This was Knox's first attempt at fiction, a social satire presented as the reminiscences of a noblewoman from the future.
In Knox's imagined future there are moving street platforms, improved aircraft, dance halls with rotating floors, and many ridiculous schools of art and poetry. Unbridled capitalism... Learn More -
EVANS, Idrisyn O. The World of To-morrow.London : 1933
First edition, rare in collectible condition. This visionary work anticipates electric cars, portable cameras, lie detector tests, nuclear energy, and space travel, among many other things. Its experimental binding is comprised of a printed translucent cellulose acetate or "Rhodoïd".
Evans was a civil servant, translator of Jules Verne,... Learn More
