J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
P R E S E N T A T I O N C O P I E S & M A N U S C R I P T S
WELLS TO HENRY HICK 82. WELLS, H. G. TALES OF SPACE AND TIME Harpers, 1900.
WELLS TO W.W. JACOBS 81. WELLS, H. G. THE INVISIBLE MAN Pearson, 1897.
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author with one of his characteristic “picshuas”, a caricature portrait on the first blank: “H. Hick from H. G. Wells”, with a small sketch of a medicine bottle with label reading “To be taken as required” below. Dr Henry Hick came to know Wells through his old school friend George Gissing. When Wells became ill on a cycling holiday in 1898, he recuperated at Hicks’s house in New Romney, where he was visited by Edmund Gosse and Henry James. The following year, when Henry James received a copy of Tales of Space and Time he wrote to Wells “you fill me with wonder and admiration... your spirit is huge, your fascination irresistible, your resources infinite”. Though dated 1900, the book was actually published in November 1899. [36254] £7,500 A collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories.
First edition. Original red cloth with gilt lettering to the spine and vignette in black on the front cover. Author’s presentation copy, to fellow author, W.W. Jacobs. Inscribed on the half title, “W.W. Jacobs. from H.G. Wells”. A very good copy, with the spine faded and a little wear to the corners. The covers are bright and the hinges sound, with some browning to the page edges. Loosely inserted in the book is Jacobs’s woven silk bookmark bearing his monogram. [26704] £12,500 Probably the most famous of Wells’s ‘scientific romances’, in which a scientist finds a way of turn - ing himself invisible without the means to make himself visible again. Wells explores the morality of being able to go unseen as it causes the protagonist to become mentally unstable. Inscribed first editions of this work are rare and this one has the added bonus of being a gift to another 19th century detective fiction writer. William Wymark Jacobs (1863-1943), author of novels and short stories, wrote in a number of genres, but is best known for his supernatural thrillers such as The Monkey’s Paw.
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