London, Collins, 1922. First edition, first impression. Hardback. A near fine copy. A collection of fifteen short stories of the supernatural, science-fiction and mystery comprising, 'The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes'; 'The Moth'; 'The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham'; 'Under the Knife'; 'The Plattner Story'; 'The Crystal Egg'; 'The Man Who Could Work Miracles'; 'A Dream of Armageddon'; 'The New Accelerator'; 'The Door in the Wall'; 'The Apple'; 'The Temptation of Harringay'; 'Skelmersdale in Fairyland'; 'The Inexperienced Ghost'; 'The Stolen Body'. Several variants of this book exist, all of which utilise the same, undated first edition sheets, the only difference between them being publisher's adverts inserted either at the front, the rear or both. The binding is known with and without the publisher's logo in black to the lower board. The present example has four pages of undated publisher's adverts to the rear and no adverts at the front. The dustwrapper, (in this case 5mm taller than the book) as far as we have been able to ascertain is identical on all issues; priced 2/6 net and with the last Wells title on the front flap being 'Washington and the Hope of Peace' published at '6/- net' [1922].Spine tips bumped, with some foxing to the block edges. A few nicks and rubs to the jacket, and a short tear with associated creasing (secured with tape), but largely in excellent shape. H.G. Wells (1866-1946) needs no introduction, without him the world of speculative fiction would have been much different. Prolific across many genres, his early work in what is now science fiction helped establish the notion of postulating what might happen if some element of scientific understand, often one thing, was a little more advanced or altered, be it time travel, evolution, invisibility, atom splitting. What resulted is a series of foundational works of fiction that are still taproots today. Cover art by C. Morse [11467, Hyraxia Books].