Books

~DATE RANGE: 1938-1945 ~First editions of all volumes in C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy. Out of the Silent Planet (1938): brown cloth, gilt lettering to spine. Rubbing to boards and spine; wear to board edges. Spine slightly cocked. Board corners slightly pushed in. Hinges sound. Lacking 2 blanks: front free endpaper & blank front endpage, which have been torn out leaving small stubs & slight cracking at gutter. Mild abrasion to remaining blank front endpage at bottom gutter where preceding page was removed. Tiny bookseller's label to inside front board. With half title & 4pp. publisher's advertisements to rear. A very little scattered foxing. Perelandra (1943): blue cloth, gilt lettering to spine. Spine faded. Hinges sound. That Hideous Strength (1945): black cloth, gilt lettering to spine. Spine very slightly faded; gilt to spine dulled. Spine mildly cocked. Mild browning to page edges. All vols have traces from sellotape removed from front and rear free endpapers, some with minor transfer to inside front / rear boards. No dustwrappers. Minor pencil annots to front endpapers. All vols have pencil owner's signature of A. M. Hughes to front free endpaper, dated 1983, 1982, & 1980 respectively. This is likely the A. M. Hughes who had a lengthy career at the Oxford English Dictionary and was also a distinguished philatelist: he evidently carefully assembled this set of first editions in the early 1980s. Lewis' allegorical science fiction trilogy established him as 'a prophetic voice, offering a radical challenge to the accepted social wisdom of his own generation' (McGrath, 2013, C. S. Lewis: A Life, p. 236). All scarce as first edns, especially Out of the Silent Planet. Currey p. 310. ~Robust packaging. Tracking can be added to overseas orders on request. Size: ix, (3), 264, (4) + (1-5), 6-256 + (1-4), 5-476pp.

That Hideous Strength, subtitled 'A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups', is a novel by C. S. Lewis, the final book in the Space Trilogy, also known as the Cosmic Trilogy, consisting of 'Out of the Silent Planet', 'Perelandra', and 'That Hideous Strength'.