A Voyage to Arcturus. With a note by E. H. Visiak.
London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1946. 8vo. Second edition. First published in 1920. Original blue cloth, gilt. Spine a little faded. Endpapers and edges rather foxed. Neat ink ownership on the flyleaf, 'William F. Temple 31st August 1946'. Contents clean. The unclipped d/w is heavily tanned on the spine and to a lesser extent along the edges. Tiny loss to the head of the spine and some fading and foxing to the covers. Very good + in good + d/w. Item #8566
The first in a series of Gollancz reprints called 'The Connoisseur's Library of Strange Fiction'. David Lindsay (1876-1945) was a Scottish author and A Voyage to Arcturus is his masterpiece and a huge influence on other writers including C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Michael Moorcock and Clive Barker. It sold poorly during his lifetime but has come to be regarded as one of the greatest works in the genre. This is its second printing and benefits from the Note by his friend E. H. Visiak (1878-1972). The second book in this series was Lindsay's The Haunted Woman and the third was Visiak's Medusa.
William Frederick Temple (1914-89) was a British science fiction author best known for The Four-Sided Triangle. He was a member of the British Interplanetary Society of which Arthur C. Clarke was Chairman from 1950-53 and they shared a flat together in London before the Second World War. A good copy of a scarce book and with an excellent provenance.
Price: £300.00