The Great Gnome Press Science Fiction Odyssey

Martin Greenberg, editor
1950

Fantastic cover. This is one of my favorites. It’s a shame it’s not in better condition, but nevertheless, it’s a pleasure to have a copy. There are numerous little issues with the book, which we will examine presently. The book does have significance as it is the first of the very successful ‘Adventures in Science Fiction Series’ which was the brainchild of Gnome Press co-founder and series editor Martin Greenberg, but I’ll talk a bit more about that in the Review. This volume was issued in two printings according to Eshbach.  5000 in the first run and 3000 in the second.  I have reason to suspect that there are two states to this jacket.  Though the fact that there were two printings is a strong indication anyway.  I’m trying to get that confirmed, but I’m sure that the jacket on this is a first state.  You will see why later.  Right now, let’s take a closer look.

Beautiful.  This was the sixth book from Gnome Press and definitely the best cover up to that time.  The title of the compilation and the art combine so well.  Actually, I would venture to suggest that artist Edd Cartier has elevated this up among the very best covers produced by Gnome Press, along with maybe Ric Binkley’s ‘Robots Have No Tails’, ‘The Survivors’ by Wally Wood and ‘I, Robot’ also by Cartier.

Fawning aside, we can see some issues very plainly.  Numerous chips off the cover and cracking along all edges.  There is a little rubbing to the cover too.  We’ll have a closer look at the chipping soon.  Once we remove the garments we can see that this book hasn’t been cared for in the past.  Soiling of the cloth shelf back is evident with some wear staining which is clearly visible at the tail of the spine.

The boards are nice and clean though.  There are a couple of nice details that deserve a closer look.Nice impression of a couple of stars there, and at the bottom of the spine…

..you can see an impression of the men going up against them.  Lovely.  Unfortunately, the wear and soiling is also quite visible here.  It looks more like dirt than anything, I wonder if this could be cleaned.  Anyone have any ideas??
There is some dust-spotting on the edges of the block as you can see below.

Actually, I’m not sure whether it’s dust or foxing.  In any event, it’s only evident on the edges of the paper, internally the pages are quite nice.  No age browning at all.  The spine sits nice and square despite being a bit on the loose side.

The head and tail of the spine show wear consistent with the overall impression of the dust jacket – general edge wear and a bit of splitting.

Which leads us to have a closer look at the worst instances of the chipping and splitting.

You can see a significant chip off the rear edge of the spine and what looks like flaking of the cover rather than wear.  This is evident on all four edges of the dust jacket.

It seems to be a rather unusual type of wear.  I wonder if it is brought about by a special set of circumstances.  Anyway, the top front corner has a loose piece there.Looks like a bit of moisture has gotten in at some point too.  You can see the front paste-down is a bit mottled and darkened.  This is true on the rear paste-down too, and both exhibit a bit of foxing.A price is written on the front free end-paper.  I wonder when… It’s the same price that the book originally cost.  I mentioned earlier about this being a first state jacket.  I’m pretty sure this is true as the GP books promoted for sale on the rear of the jacket all precede this one.  The two that are advertised as ‘forthcoming’ are the two immediately after this.As you can see, the back is quite clean though there is a bit of rubbing apparent in the area at the top right.

Year: 1950
Paid: $30
Art: Edd Cartier
Quantity: Two printings according to Eshbach – initially 5000, second printing 3000 copies.
Binding: Slate grey boards and purple cloth shelf back. Silver lettering to spine. Nice spaceship and stars imprinting on the cloth.
GP Edition Notes: 1st edition
Comments: I just love the cover.  A significant book and well worth the $30 price for mine.  Pity about the poor condition of the cloth spine though.
Expand Upon: wikipedia.com, Internet Speculative Fiction Database

This entry was posted on May 10, 2009 at 7:26 am and is filed under 1950, Adventures in Science Fiction Series, Close Up with tags Edd Cartier, Martin Greenberg, Men Against the Stars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.