Book Sale: Out of the Silent Planet, a 1938 novel written by C. S. Lewis

Below is the description of a copy of C. S. Lewis'
Out of the Silent Planet (1938), which is selling on AbeBooks for $7,950.

According to Destination: Mars in Art, Myth, and Science (1997), a wonderful reference for Martian science fiction written by Martin Caidin and Jay Barbree, Lewis' novel is “a sophisticated Christian rebuttal against the use of science for material gain. Lewis set the action on Mars, attacking H. G. Wells in particular, whom he portrayed as a vulgar journalist.”

Out of the Silent Planet, by C. S. Lewis (1938)

Publisher: John Lane / the Bodley Head, UK
Publication Date: 1938
Book Condition: NF
Dust Jacket Condition: NF
Edition: First Edition
Book Type: Hardback

Description: The rarest of the rare. CSL's first book in the Harold Jones dust jacket. The edges have been professionally cleaned (of fox spotting and the word's Garlicks Library). Page 1 and 99 have the "sacred and profane" words GARLICKS LIBRARY stamped at the base of the page..plus 4 dog ears: number 60341 stamped on both the front paste down/back flap of the DJ and 25 November 1938 (this date only) stamped on the end paste down. For all those flaws, a very desirable copy of arguably one of the scarcest of the pre-war dust jackets.

Price: $7,950

For a biographical sketch of illustrator Harold Jones, see the description of the Harold Jones Papers at the McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi.