Verne, Jules

Dr. Ox's Experiment

James R. Osgood, Boston, 1875. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good / No Jacket. Item #106926

Verne, Jules. DR. OX'S EXPERIMENT, and other Stories. With Numerous Illustrations. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1875. Original terra-cotta cloth pictorially decorated in black and gilt, beveled. First American fully-illustrated edition, from the sheets of the first British edition. These four tales include three that are among Jules Verne's earliest: "A Drama in the Air" (appeared in a periodical in 1851, his second story), "Master Zacharius" (1854, his fourth), and "A Winter amid the Ice" (1855, his fifth); "Dr. Ox's Experiment" itself did not appear until 1872. (Also included is "Ascent of Mont Blanc" by his brother Paul Verne.) Osgood had published the first edition in English in mid-1874, in a small unillustrated volume. William F. Gill of Boston published the first American (somewhat-) illustrated edition, dated 1874, under the title FROM THE CLOUDS TO THE MOUNTAINS. Then this copiously-illustrated Osgood edition came out in mid 1875, priced at a hefty $3.00. The front cover shows Master Zacharius raising the trap door in the floor of his workshop, and the spine shows the earthbound "madman" who had fallen from the balloon in "A Drama in the Air." This copy is in terra-cotta cloth (others are in green -- no priority). It is an extremely bright and excellent copy (slight wear at the top of the spine, missing front free endpapert endpaper). Taves & Michaluk V012; Myers 16. FANTASY / SCIENCE FICTION / SUPERNATURAL (CODE:10549). Comes in a custom-made collector's slipcase.

Price: $2,000.00