SOFTBACK ?OVER FIFTY YEARS OLD,? SHIPPED FROM THE UK.* Edition: 1st. US.* Impression: 1st.* Date of Publication: 1961* Publisher: Ballantine Books.* Binding and cover condition: Colour-illustrated soft card covers in clear plastic attached cover. No bumps, slight rubs. Slight shelf wear to edges & corners. Small amount of label damage to front cover. No creases to spine or hinge. Lower rear corner creased. Seems lightly used. GD+* Contents condition: Ex Private SF Library with label to fep. Book exchange stamps to front and rear. Clean, crisp & tight. No annotations, inscriptions or marks to text. Light tanning throughout. Very slight colouration to page edges. GD* Illustrations: None.* Pages: 144 pp. text.* Product Description:- A Sentient Robot, The Colonists Who Left a Perfect World, A Maddening Hunt For a Martian, A Man-Made Animal, A Galactic Swindler. These are some of the ingredients Poul Anderson chooses to mix and blend into this first-class collection of stories: and his ability is as wide as the range of his subjects.* This is a NEAR GD+ copy of the 1st./1st. with minor faults, tanning and some wear.*

Reviews

On Jan 11 2019, a reader said:

The Lost Thing is an illustrated book for young readers by award-winning Australian illustrator and author, Shaun Tan. The story is being told, according to the post card from Suburbia on the back cover, to the reader by Shaun. In it, a younger Shaun, idling around by the beach, spots The Lost Thing. At least, it seems lost to him. It's quite big, but when he interacts with it, it seems friendly, and he tries to find out to whom it might belong. Unsuccessful, he eventually takes it with him. His friend Pete gives some sage counsel, and Shaun takes this large, red, part-metal, part-creature, home.

When his parents notice it, Shaun's mother reacts like most do: "Its feet are filthy!" she shrieks. His father is equally negative: it has to go. The Lost Thing is hidden in the shed, but Shaun knows that's not a permanent solution, so he tries his best to do the right thing. He encounters bureaucratic indifference in the city (Downtown, 6328th Street, Tall Grey Building #357b) but also helpful advice, and hopes he has ultimately helped The Lost Thing to a good destination.

Tan's exquisitely composed colour illustrations are presented on a background of what appears to be heavily foxed pages of technical notes and drawings from a textbook. In keeping with this, the back cover has a (rather self-deprecating) sticker that includes "INSPECTOR'S COMMENTS: No perceptible threat to the order of day to day existence. Inconsequential. Safe for public consumption". Damned by faint praise… The departmental stamps with their logos and Latin mottos are smart and funny.

There is so much detail in the illustration that each page, even the endpapers and the front and back cover, bears minute examination. Young eyes will be fine, but older readers supervising (or reading for themselves: Tan's books should not be reserved for young readers!) may appreciate a little magnification. It's really worth doing this because the text tells you that the young man has a bottle-top collection, but just how serious he is about that is only revealed when you read the title of the fat red book he is carrying around. Clever and insightful, but also heart-warming: Shaun Tan is so talented!!

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Details

Bookseller: Cocksparrow Books (GB)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 5201
Title: Strangers From Earth
Author: Anderson, Poul
Format/Binding: Paperback
Book Condition: Used - GD/GD+/ND
Quantity Available: 1
Edition: First Edition, USA.
Publisher: Ballantine
Place of Publication: N.Y. USA 0
Date Published: 1961-01-01

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Cocksparrow Books

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Salisbury, Wiltshire

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About Cocksparrow Books

Cocksparrow Books have been selling high quality books for over thirty years, now solely on-line. We concentrate on non-fiction items and early edition fiction (including some soft-backs). Our book condition descriptions are fully detailed to give our customers the best information possible and we are always pleased to provide further information upon request.

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Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Shelf Wear: Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...
Hinge: The portion of the book closest to the spine that allows the book to be opened and closed.
Crisp: A term often used to indicate a book's new-like condition. Indicates that the hinges are not loosened. A book described as crisp...
Tight: Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
Bumps: Indicates that the affected part of the book has been impacted in such a way so as to cause a flattening, indention, or light...
Spine: The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
Edges: The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...