ODD JOHN: A STORY BETWEEN JEST AND EARNEST by Stapledon, William Olaf - [1936]

New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., [1936]. First U. S. edition. Tanning to end papers, foxing to page edges, several tiny tears to cloth at the head of spine, corner tips a bit soft, a very good copy in a poor dust jacket with the front panel separated, loss to lower third of spine with wear and loss to head of spine, front flap missing. (28098). Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v [vi] 1-282, original light brown cloth, front and spine stamped in black. One of a number of later bindings. Stapledon's third novel. "... the most radically thoughtful of the many fictional extrapolations of ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES and one of the least comfortable in its conclusion. Above all it exposes the flimsiness of thinking that 'Superman' will always be on the side of the police, that evolution has stopped, or that from now on evolution will only take place nicely." - Survey of Science Fiction Literature IV, pp. 1583-87. "Although the narrative voices Stapledon's biases, it remains perhaps the finest early novel in which mankind is unable to accept and live with advanced mutations (supermen)." - Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 720. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 3-58; (1981) 2-99; (1987) 2-110; (1995) 2-120; and (2004) II-1070. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 1152. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 205. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, Additions. Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, pp. 206-09. In 333. Bleiler (1978), p. 185. Reginald 13558. Satty and Smith A6.1.1.1.