A First Edition
Recently Sold on eBay
... and the
description which accompanied it.
Wells, H[erbert]. G[eorge]. The Time Machine: An Invention; London;
1895; William Heinemann; sextodecimo;
152 pages, collated: [i – ix] [being: i: blank; ii: blank; iii: half-title;
iv: advertisement; v: title; vi: copyright;] [vii: dedication; viii:
blank; ix: contents; x: blank] [1 – 151] [152 (unnumbered)] [i – ii];
First British Edition, preceded by the American Edition [New York;
1895; Henry Holt], which is said to have been placed on sale shortly
after having been received by Publishers Weekly as a sample copy of
new books in print by Holt, on May 18th, 1895, after having been received
by, and entered into cataloguing by the Library Of Congress on May
7th, 1895, and, hence, possibly preceding by as much as 11 days, the
issuance of the Heinemann edition], but which differed substantially
in text (note Everett F. Bleiler‘s comment regarding this issue below,
in references). Publisher’s close woven oatmeal cloth-covered boards,
titled and credited in brown-purple on the backstrip [The | Time |
Machine | —— | Wells | Heinemann], decoratively stamped with the figure
of a sphinx on the front board, and stamped further with the publisher’s
stylised logo [an interlocked cursive “w“ and “h“ in a circle, with
a sphere over the leading edge of the “w“] in the lower left corner
of the back board.
The confusion which surrounds the issuance of “The Time Machine“ is,
even
among the ‘noted experts,’ a thing of legend. Inclusive of the single
trial copy, no less than seven states of the Heinemann first edition
have been recorded. It is known that, between May and August of 1995,
the book was printed and bound; 6000 copies in wrappers, and 1500 copies
in boards.
One well-known bibliographer suggests that the first state of the
book includes a 16 page catalogue of advertising
to the rear of the volume, and that a later state includes a 32 page
set of advertisements. A second source discounts this, insisting that
the original issue was bound without any catalogue whatsoever, pointing
to the following facts: the single trial copy known (being indisputably
the first state of the first edition), in the publisher’s oatmeal
tan cloth, stamped in purple-brown, had no catalogue bound in [note:
that copy is currently for sale, through a bookseller who is an icon
among bibliophiles, at $35,000.00]. “The Time
Machine” was the first book to include a publisher’s
catalogue of advertisements, while later Heinemann titles included
catalogues as a matter of course. Scholarly conjecture is that the
book first appeared without a catalogue (circa May 29th, 1895), and
that later examples were bound together with a catalogue included,
when it was realised that public reaction to a book whose thickness
was a scant three-eighths of an inch, made sales slow at best. His
logic – that the catalogue was added as an afterthought, and as an
aid for ‘padding’ the book, coupled with the fact that the catalogue’s
size was increased in later printings, and that the idea replicated
itself with Heinemann’s later titles – seems quite sound, and rather
less like guesswork. Being now more than 100 years removed from the
time of printing, it is doubtful whether bibliophiles will ever agree
wholly upon the priorities of the various labyrinthine states.
“The Time Machine is H. G. Wells‘ first – and, many of his readers would add, his greatest – “scientific romance.” Certainly it is
his most ambitious, at least in its temporal scope.
Certainly also, it exemplifies the principles underlying
his science fiction more clearly, and expounds them more
fully, than does any other work he afterwards attempted in
that genre.” - “Survey Of Science Fiction Literature” (Edgewood Cliffs;
1979; Salem Press) [Frank Northern Magill, editor]: pages
2287 to 2291.
“The concept of a ‘time machine‘ has been brilliantly conceived by Wells,
a concept never before used, and now an entire category within science
fiction.” - “History Of Science Fiction” (London; 1976; Hamlyn Publishing
Group, Limited) [David Kyle, editor]: pages 32 – 34.
“… The Time Machine is remarkable not only for its literary merits, but
for its complex bibliographical history, which must be
unparalleled among works of modern fiction.” - Bernard
Bergonzi, in “SF: The Other Side Of Realism“ (Bowling
Green; 1971; Bowling Green University Popular Press)
[Thomas D. Clareson, editor]: pages 204 to 215.
“Critics have emphasized the splitting of humanity into Eloi and Morlocks
so much as Wells‘ vision of the outcome of the Marxist class struggle
that its implication, taken from Thomas Huxley, that humanity cannot
control the cosmic evolutionary process, and is, therefore, its victim,
has not been adequately emphasized. One should not overlook the fact
that the book‘s vivid climax is the scene of the dying earth. It must
be read as being extremely pessimistic. The final speech of the traveller
reveals the inner tensions within Wells that may explain why he
turned increasingly to heavy didacticism.” - “Anatomy Of Wonder: A Critical
Guide To Science Fiction” (New York; 1987; R. R. Bowker Company,
Publishers) [Neil Barron, editor]: 1-103; ibid: 1976 edition: 2-161.
“The time traveller tells of his visit to a future epoch in which the human
race has become divided into helpless Eloi and brutish Morlocks. He
then travels on to witness the earth‘s last days. Beautiful and
gripping;
a supreme masterpiece of SF.” - “The Ultimate Guide To Science Fiction:
An A to Z of SF Books” (London; 1990; Grafton) [David Pringle, editor]:
page 322.
“The Holt Edition [American] is shorter and less satisfactory. It
is disputable whether Holt is an abridgement of Heinemann, or an earlier
version, originally intended for periodical publication.” “ ‘The Time
Machine‘ might be considered the first modern
work of SF, and it is still the classic statement of an important
subgenre…” “[being] ...a fictionalization of Wells’ social concerns
and he is at some pains to explain the curious bifurcation in human
evolution, and the resultant degeneration.” “A remarkable work, and
necessary reading.” - “Science Fiction: The Early Years” (Kent; 1990;
Kent State University Press) [Everett F. Bleiler, editor]: page 2325.
“The Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction“ (London; 1993;
Orbit Publications) [John Clute and Peter Nicholls,
editors]: pages 1312 to 1316. “Faces Of The Future –
The Lessons Of Science Fiction” (London; 1975; Elek/Pemberton,
Publishers [Brian Ash, editor]: pages 50 to 53. “The Early
H. G. Wells: A Study Of The Scientific Romances” (Toronto; 1967; University
Of Toronto Press) [Bernard Bergonzi, editor]: pages 46 to 61.
H. G. Wells‘ “The Time Machine: Its Neglected Mythos” (Wayne C. Conelly,
in Riverside Quarterly V) [1972] pages 178 to 191. “Novels And Novelists”
(New York; 1980; Saint Martins Press): page 234c. “Twentieth~Century Literary
Criticism; Volume VI” (Detroit; 1982; Gale Research,
Publishers) [Ford Madox Ford, editor]: pages 532 and 533.
Wells began work on “The Time Machine” nearly eight years before its
publication in the form we have come to know as
one of the most imaginative novels
of the nineteenth century. Originally serialised in three parts in
The Science School Journal, [London; Students‘ Press; Royal College
Of Science] in 1888 as The Chronic Argonauts. having, in that form,
only the faintest notion of time travel, encompassed within a few
lines. After two further drafts, now lost, and presumed later destroyed
by Wells in an effort to dismiss the earlier forms of his work, it
was republished in The Fortnightly Journal [London; 1891] as The Rediscovery
Of The Unique, and, early in 1892, was again set in type for The Fortnightly
Journal but not republished there, under the title The Universe Rigid.
William Ernest Henley, then editor of The National Observer asked
Wells to rewrite the novel, and began serialising it as The Time Travellers
Story [London; March through June, 1894], though the magazine never
published the conclusion, owing to Henley accepting a position as
editor of The New Review wherein, finally, “The Time Machine“ was
eventually published, almost in accordance with the Holt edition,
from January to May of 1895.
The illustrations above and accompanying text were kindly submitted by
the collector who owns this beautiful first edition. Thanks for sharing this beauty with
us!
The
picture at left shows a first English edition, first issue copy of
"The Time Machine," recently auctioned by The
Phantom Bookshop.
"The Time Machine" was issued simultaneously in paper
wrappers along with the cloth edition. There are sixteen pages of ads headed by
the title "The Manxman," which makes this the earliest publisher's
catalog to appear in this edition. A total of 10,000 copies of this book were
printed, 6,000 of which were bound in wrappers. and 1,500 copies were bound in
cloth in May and August of 1895. Many of the unsold copies in wrappers were
later stripped apart and rebound.
[ Editions ]
[ The Book ]
[ The
Time Machine Home Page ]
