C.S. LEWIS GOES TO SPACE

Out of the Silent Planet | First American Edition, First State | 1943

Before The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis turned his imagination toward the heavens.

Out of the Silent Planet launches Lewis’s extraordinary Cosmic Trilogy, sending its story beyond Earth while opening an ambitious literary exploration of humanity, morality, and the wider universe.

New York: Macmillan, 1943. First American edition, first state, with Macmillan printed at the bottom of the book’s spine and the single yellow dot, the distinguishing first-state issue point.

Condition: 8vo., 8.25" x 5.5"; 174 pp. Finely woven blue cloth, lettered in yellow to the spine. A Near Fine copy with lightly bumped corners and spine tips. The interior is remarkably fresh: bright, clean, tight, unmarked, and with a touch of toning to the endpapers. A neat Ex Libris label of early Arkham House and Sci-fi collector George A. Richardson, Jr. appears on the front pastedown.

Retaining the original $2.00-priced dust jacket, now Good and honestly worn: the lower spine and lower front panel have tears with loss, with additional edge creasing and chipping, particularly at the upper spine. A faint dampstain appears at the upper left of the rear panel. Upper front flap clipped, as usual, while retaining the printed price.

A handsome first-state copy of Lewis’s first voyage into his remarkable Cosmic Trilogy, still wearing its scarce original jacket.