The History of a Voyage to the Moon, with an Account of the Adventurers' Subsequent Discoveries. An Exhumed Narrative, supposed to have been ejected from a Lunar Volcano.

COWEN, H.

Published by London: Lockwood & Co., 1864

About this Item

First edition of this uncommon work of interplanetary fiction featuring an early antigravity device which propels the protagonists to a lunar utopia. The book follows the story of Stephen Howard and Carl Geister, who find an ore called "repellante" in the Colorado Mountains. "They fly to the Moon in a repellante-powered spaceship, where they crash-land. Here they discover a utopian lunar society of four-feet-tall humanoids called Notol. Afrer a year living amongst these people and exploring the Moon, they inscribe their adventures on metal tablets and fire these back to Earth by dropping them into an exploding lunar volcano" (Roberts, p. 156). The result is a "fascinating philosophical romance, intermediate between satirical lunar voyages and scientific romances" (Barron, p. 415). The book was part of the surge of creative works inspired by the Moon in the late 19th century. It predates Jules Verne's novels From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and Around the Moon (1870), Offenbach's operetta Le voyage dans la lune (1875), loosely based on Verne, H. G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon (1901), the Trip to the Moon attraction at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, and the iconic 1902 short film Le voyage dans la lune by Georges Méliès. Although the publication is British, the point of embarkation for the journey to the Moon is from the United States, requiring the crossing of the Rocky Mountains from Santa Fe to reach it. Barron, The Anatomy of Wonder, 2004, II-1141; Bleiler, Checklist, p. 6; George Locke, Voyages in Space 11. Adam Roberts, The History of Science Fiction, 2016. Octavo. Lithograph frontispiece printed in blue depicting the spacecraft ascending above the Santa Fe Mountains, 2 diagrams in text. Original green bead-grain cloth, spine lettered in gilt, sides blocked in blind with outer frame enclosing central floral device, pale yellow coated endpapers. Contemporary gift inscription to one George Young from "one who wishes him success in life" on front free endpaper. Occasional spots of wear to cloth, front inner hinge cracked but holding, contents mildly toned, occasional spot of foxing, else clean. A very good copy. Seller Inventory # 165150

Bibliographic Details

Title: The History of a Voyage to the Moon, with an...

Publisher: London: Lockwood & Co., 1864

Edition: 1st Edition