F I N E B O O K S & M A N U S C R I P T S
Wells’s First Foray Into Science Fiction
12. The Time Machine
An Invention WELLS, H.G.
Heinemann, 1895. First UK edition, first issue in oatmeal grey cloth lettered in purple and top and foredges uncut (i.e. Curry’s A state). Sixteen undated pages of adverts at the rear headed The Manxman. A near fine copy, with a little toning to the spine but the cloth and lettering to the upper cover notably clean and bright. [42657] £7,500 In 1888 Wells had written a series of articles concerning time travel entitled “The Chronic Argo- nauts” for The Science Schools Journal, a magazine that he had founded whilst a student. Some six years later he revised them for the National Observer, and then rewrote them as the serial “The Time Traveler’s Story” for the The New Review. The editor of both journals, W.E. Henley, then persuaded Heinemann to publish the whole story as a book. So it was that Wells came to write The Time Machine, not only his first novel but also a pioneering highlight of the science fiction genre. PROVENANCE: Michael Sadleir (noted collector of Victorian fiction). An early acquisition with his pencil inscription “M.T.H.Sadler”, dated 1914 (before he changed the spelling of his name); Pierre Berge (book collector and auctioneer, bookplate to front pastedown).
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