37 “Yes, Everybody’s Happy Now” 40 HUXLEY, Aldous. Brave New World. London, 1932. Octavo, original blue cloth, dust jacket, custom clamshell box. $13,500 First trade edition of Huxley’s haunting dystopian classic, in original dust jacket. “A nightmarish prognostication of a future in which humanity has been destroyed by science… easily Huxley’s most popular (and many good judges continue to think his best) novel” (DNB). “After the success of his first three novels, Huxley abandoned the fictional milieu of literary London and directed his satire toward an imagined future. He admitted that the original idea of Brave New World was to challenge H.G. Wells’ Utopian vision… The novel also marks Huxley’s increasing disenchantment with the world, which was to result in his leaving England for California in 1937 in search of a more spiritual life. The book was immediately successful” (Parker & Kermode, 161-62). Itremains the “seminal dystopia… As argument and as satire, Brave New World is a compendium of usable points and quotable jibes… and has provided material for much subsequent fiction,” not only within speculative fiction but also beyond it (Clute & Nicholls, 606). Preceded by the signed limited edition of 324 copies. Cloth spine very gently sunned, gilt bright; book clean and very nearly fine. Scarce unrestored original dust jacket with only shallow chipping to head of slightly toned spine, panels and flaps clean and bright, exceptionally good. A lovely copy. “He’ll Be Famous–A Legend… There Will Be Books Written About Harry–Every Child In Our World Will Know His Name!” 41 ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York, 1998. Octavo, original half red cloth, dust jacket. $12,500 First American edition of the first volume in Rowling’s phenomenally popular Harry Potter series, boldly signed by the author on the title page. “Rowling first thought of Harry while riding a train in 1990. ‘Harry just strolled into my head fully formed.’ Several publishers turned down the finished manuscript before one took interest,” publishing it in 1997 in a very small first printing of only about 300 copies (Scholastic). It first appeared in America- -the “philosopher’s stone” of the original title changed to “sorcerer’s stone”--the following year, also in a small first printing. By the time the fifth book in the series was published, “Harry Potter [had] shown empire-building skills that would put Queen Victoria to shame… Worldwide sales [had] topped 190 million in more than two hundred countries… It’s a Harry Potter world, and we just live in it” (Weinberg, 43). “A marriage of good writing, inventiveness and sheer child appeal that has not been seen since Roald Dahl, perhaps even since Tolkien, Lewis and Ransome” (The Times). First printing, in first-printing dust jacket, without “Year 1” box on spine and with Guardian quote on rear panel. Dust jacket with minor creasing to spine ends. A nearly fine copy.
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