H.G. Wells - The War of the Worlds - Heinemann, 1898, First Edition.

London, Heinemann, 1898. First Edition. First Impression. Hardback. A very good copy. A cornerstone of modern speculative fiction collecting, and literature in general. First issue (Currey's priority A [Currey p426]), sixteen pages of ads dated Autumn 1897. Some rubbing to the board edges, bumping to the spine tips, and a slight lean. Top edge dusty, ads carelessly opened to the rear. A little toning to the prelims. Front hinge pulled, but neat enough. Mark to one leaf at the beginning of the ads. Number 39 on the NPR greatest SF list. In the Locus list for best SF of all time there are only four novels listed prior to WWII, including Star Maker, The Time Machine, Frankenstein and War of the Worlds, which whilst it's easy to think of others that should be included it's hard to argue that those four shouldn't. A classic. [6494, Hyraxia Books].