Wells, H.G. De Strijd der Werelden

Amsterdam: Cohen Zonen, (1899). First edition in Dutch, and first book-form edition with original commissioned illustrations. 8vo. 287 pp. Illustrated with 10 plates by Jacobus Hendrik Speenhoff. Publisher's cream cloth, decorated in green, lettered in gilt, unevenly toned and lightly worn; contemporary bookseller's ticket at bottom of front paste-down; text leaves lightly toned; scattered minor spotting.

Very rare illustrated edition of H.G. Wells's classic science fiction novel, The War of the Worlds. Wells's story first appeared in nine issues of Pearson's Magazine in 1897-98, and featured illustrations by Warwick Goble. These same illustrations were reprinted in the first American edition, published in 1898. The first and second English editions, published in London in 1898 and 1899, were not illustrated. This Dutch translation, published in 1899, is thus the first book-form edition to feature original commissioned illustrations, and were created by poet, cabaret singer, and artist J.H. Speenhoff (1869-1845). Inspired by the works of Edward Tennyson Reed, Degas, and Caran D'Ache, Speenhoff's fantastical and proto-psychedelic illustrations here evoke a world unlike any seen for the work of Wells.

This lot is located in Philadelphia.

Provenance

From the collection of Justin G. Schiller

Wells, H.G. De Strijd der Werelden

Wells, H.G. De Strijd der Werelden