N E W A C Q U I S I T I O N S * J U L Y 2 0 2 4 B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S * * * 34 THE FIRST VISION OF THE ATOMIC BOMB: THE WORLD SET FREE, IN SCARCE ORIGINAL DUST JACKET 34. WELLS, H.G. The World Set Free: A Story of Mankind. London, 1914. Octavo, original green cloth, dust jacket. $2950 First edition of Wells’ uncanny 1914 description of an atomic bomb, in scarce original dust jacket. H.G. Wells, known for his prophetic grasp of scientific advances, eerily predicted, on the eve of the First World War, a future full-scale exchange of atomic bombs in the 1950s. “In The World Set Free: A Story of Mankind… destruction is wrought by atomic bombs whose ‘chain reactions’ cause them to explode repeatedly, and the story embodies Wells’ growing conviction that a new and better world could be built only once the existing social order had been torn down” (Clute and Nicholls, 1314). With ten pages of publisher advertisements. Currey, 426. Hammond B12. Wells 51. Wells Society 53. Book with rear inner paper hinge tender but sound, cloth clean and near-fine with only slight rubbing to extremities, gilt bright. Scarce original dust jacket toned with some shallow chipping to foot of spine and a few other small nicks, very good.
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