THE DOOMSDAY MEN: An Adventure. Hardcover first edition - 1938

New York & London:: Harper & Brothers,, 1938.. Hardcover first edition -. Near fine in black cloth with gilt lettering on spine and front cover - inconspicuous previous owner's name, some rubbing to the spine lettering, but still legible, no dust jacket. . First US printing. Described at the time of publication as "a thriller of the atomic age", this was Priestley's only novel set primarily in California. On the dedication page, he refers to it as a "fairy tale in Western rig." A review on "Reading California Fiction" commented "A British architect plays tennis with a beautiful but mysterious Californian in France; an American physicist searches for a missing colleague in England; a global adventurer arrives in Los Angeles to investigate the murder of his brother. The three come together in Barstow, the largest town in the Mojave Desert. There they find a common interest in the activities of a small group of religious fundamentalists. It turns out the group is not merely looking forward to the end of the world but planning to bring it about. This book has a thriller-like story - someone is scheming to blow up the world - but . . . the plot unfolds at a leisurely pace. Although not action packed, the book is notable for its main plot point and many vivid descriptions of the California desert. Readers, incidentially, may be surprised that Priestley had so much information (not all of it accurate) on the explosive possibilities of splitting the atom in 1938, years before the bomb was actually created." 287 pp.