London, Lockwood & Co., 1864. First edition, first impression. Hardback. A very good copy. First edition of this uncommon work of interplanetary fiction featuring an early antigravity device which propels the protagonists to a lunar utopia. The book follows the story of Stephen Howard and Carl Geister, who find an ore called "repellante" in the Colorado Mountains. "They fly to the Moon in a repellante-powered spaceship, where they crash-land. Here they discover a utopian lunar society of four-feet-tall humanoids called Notol. Afrer a year living amongst these people and exploring the Moon, they inscribe their adventures on metal tablets and fire these back to Earth by dropping them into an exploding lunar volcano" (Roberts, p. 156). The result is a "fascinating philosophical romance, intermediate between satirical lunar voyages and scientific romances" (Barron, p. 415). The book was part of the surge of creative works inspired by the Moon in the late 19th century. It predates Jules Verne's novels From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and Around the Moon (1870), Offenbach's operetta Le voyage dans la lune (1875), loosely based on Verne, H. G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon (1901), the Trip to the Moon attraction at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, and the iconic 1902 short film Le voyage dans la lune by Georges M?li?s. Although the publication is British, the point of embarkation for the journey to the Moon is from the United States, requiring the crossing of the Rocky Mountains from Santa Fe to reach it. Gift inscription to the front endpaper, a few spots, a few splits to the front hinge. Some toning and a little shaking to the binding. [11438, Hyraxia Books].

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