The Great Gnome Press Science Fiction Odyssey

F.L. Wallace
1955

I got this in a package purchase along with Renaissance, SF’58 and Space Lawyer, and overall probably in the poorest condition of the four.  Edd Emsh usually provides fantastic cover art, but on this occasion it’s a little on the ordinary side.  However, it does highlight a couple of things about the story which I’ll mention in the Review.  Overall the book is in pretty sound physical condition, but those bugbears of foxing and Gnome’s cheap paper are apparent.  Anyway, let’s check it out.
As I said, physically (tears, chips, wear) it is pretty good, but you can see it’s looking a little mottled, especially down the leading edge.  Some sunning on the spine too.  It’s starting to look better with the jacket off though.  The boards are pretty clean.
Though there is what looks like a slight oil stain along the bottom front edge.
The top and bottom views reveal no issues except that thing I mentioned earlier.
You can see the darkening on the block.  We’ll have a closer look at that later.

The spine extremities are ok, and the edges of the jacket are pretty good.  from the top you can see the discoloration and slight sunning to the spine.  Also on the spine is a graze – right over poor old F.L. Wallace’s name too.  Darn.
You can see the mottling/discoloration too quite well also.
There is staining and/or foxing on the flaps, the rear being the worst.
I’m never quite sure how to tell the difference between what is true foxing and what is a stain from some other source.  I suppose it doesn’t really make much difference as the result is pretty much the same.
The poor quality paper has resulted in the typical browning of the block.
But of more interest to me here (as I am so fond of pointing out) are the cool designs at the beginning of each chapter.  Nice.
The back of the jacket is ok.  General discoloration is apparent, but no real damage.

Year: 1955
Paid: $15
Art: Ed Emshwiller
Quantity: 4000 copies, 1263 copies remaindered.
Binding: Olive/tan boards with black lettering on the spine.
GP Edition Notes: 1st edition so stated.
Comments: A reasonable copy. Basically poor aging drags the condition of this down a notch or two. Pity.
Expand Upon: wikipedia.com, Internet Speculative Fiction Database

This entry was posted on November 21, 2009 at 2:05 am and is filed under 1955, Close Up with tags Address: Centauri, Ed Emshwiller, F.L. Wallace. 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.