The Great Gnome Press Science Fiction Odyssey

George O. Smith
1956

I’m reading this one at the moment. This copy is in VG condition and sports great Ed Emsh cover art that’s still quite bright. I like the artwork on this, although the theme is quite dark and a bit of a mystery unless you are aware of the story.  What are those strange things?  Why a stone(?) fist?  I (most people?) like a cover that allows us at least a little insight into the story.  For example, Starman’s Quest – two spacemen, we get the idea.  Iceworld – kids and an alien, got it.  This is one of the reasons I really dislike the later cover art as I mentioned in the Close Up for Two Sought Adventure.  This here sets up more mystery than insight, but some like that I guess.  Let’s have a look.

Quite nice overall with no glaring issues except looking generally old.  No issues sans dust jacket but some slight bumping to the head and tail of the spine.

Looking at the edges at the top and bottom of the book we can see the aged look highlighted.


Some slight curving to the edges of the boards with a couple of small dings. The block is typically GP darkened as well with the pages well on the way to becoming brittle.

A close look at the head and tail reveals some wear on the jacket.

Negligible wear on the tail of the dust jacket.  The edges all-round are in excellent condition in fact aside from the top of the spine.
A book plate affixed to the front pastedown tells us that one William Robards Wetmore once had this copy in his library. I wonder if it lived next to any other GP titles?

William seems to have looked after it, at least.  Cheers.
A bit of age darkening makes the rear of the book look old, just like the rest of it.  Still, nice and clean with no rubbing.

Year: 1956
Paid: $41
Art: Ed Emshwiller
Copies: 4000 (Eshbach, wikipedia)
Binding: Tan cloth with dark green lettering on the spine
GP Edition Notes: 1st edition so stated
Chalker & Owings: HIGHWAYS IN HIDING, by George 0. Smith, 1956, pp.223, $3.00. 4000 copies printed. Jacket by Ed Emshwiller.
Currey: HIGHWAYS IN HIDING. New York: Gnome Press, Inc. Publishers, [1956]. Three bindings, probable priority as listed: (A) Tan cloth, spine lettered in dark green; (B) Gray boards, spine lettered in red; (C) Black boards, spine lettered in red.  First edition so stated on copyright page.
Comments: A reasonably nice copy of this title.  I wish it didn’t just look… old. It doesn’t deserve to look that way as it’s actually quite nice, yet it does. $41 not too bad a price either I think.
Expand Upon: wikipedia.com, Internet Speculative Fiction Database

This entry was posted on June 6, 2011 at 4:29 am and is filed under 1956, Close Up with tags George O. Smith, Highways in Hiding. 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.