Book Sale: The Ship That Sailed To Mars (1923)

As 2007 comes to a close, it’s worth recalling that The Ship That Sailed To Mars (1923), a children's fantasy book by William M. Timlin, was one of the ten most expensive science fiction & fantasy books sold on AbeBooks.com in 2006.

According to the recap from AbeBooks: “First edition of this 1923 novel about a group of dwarves and elves who join together to build a ship and go to Mars. Includes forty-eight mounted color plates and forty-eight mounted pages of calligraphy-like printed text, both by Timlin, on gray background paper. Sold for $3,995.”

A fascinating collector’s tale about The Ship That Sailed To Mars is at Steven Honaker’s website. It includes an online illustrated version of the book and email correspondence from Timlin’s granddaughter. More information about the history and publication of the book is at the website of Stella & Rose’s Books.

Note that a “unique sketchbook” from 1917 which “shows the evolution of Timlin’s most famous book in over 50 drawings, sketches, and notes” is selling on AbeBooks.com for $26,000. A separate item, an “original unpublished pen, ink, and watercolor drawing for The Ship That Sailed To Mars,” signed by Timlin, is selling on AbeBooks.com for $65,000!

More affordable is Bruce Ditchfield’s The Ship That Sailed to Mars: A Fantasy (1993), a facsimile of Timlin’s original 1923 book. Copies can be had for less than $100.