Description
“The whole world was at war and it could not get back to peace,
it might never recover peace.”
First edition first printing in first binding of one of Wells’ masterpieces.
Wells. The War in the Air and Particularly How Mr. Bert Smallways Fared While it Lasted.
London, G. Bells and Sons, 1908.
8vo of VII, 389, [1], [2 ad] pp. 16 full page illustrations by A.C. Michael.
Blue cloth with letters and publisher’s imprint stamped in gilt.
190 x 126 mm.
First edition, first printing in first binding according to Currey (binding « A » with lettering in gilt on both the front cover and the spine, and with no mounted color plate).
Wells Soc. 36; Hammond B11; Currey p. 526.
“The War of the Worlds wasn’t the only masterpiece that H.G. Wells wrote with the words “The War” in the title. The War in the Air is surely a lesser-known title by this great author, but most certainly, in my humble opinion, a masterpiece nonetheless. In this prophetic book, Wells not only predicts World War I — which wouldn’t start for another six years — but also prophesies how the advent of navigable balloons and heavier-than-air flying craft would make that war inevitable” (S. Ferber).
The world war led to a great collapse of the financial and scientific civilization of the twentieth century.
A very good copy preserved in first binding.
