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Mars
LOWELL, Percival
Mars
London and Bombay: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1896
8vo., original red publisher’s cloth, with central circular device and lettering in gilt to upper board; lettered and double-ruled in gilt to spine; black coated endpapers; upper edge gilt; pp. [v], vi-x, [i], 2-228; containing 28 illustrations, including coloured frontis behind captioned tissue-guard and a double-page map of Mars to the rear of the text; boards with some watermarking and staining; a little pushed at spine tips and bumped at corners; retaining, unusually, much of the original colour to the backstrip with little of the often-found sunning; endpapers a little dusty; some very light spotting, mostly affecting the prelims, and some pencil markings to the ffeps; a very good copy of a scarce work.
First UK edition.
Lowell was born in 1855, and graduated from Harvard in 1876 with distinction in mathematics. With a strong interest in astronomy, his graduation speech concerned the nebular hypothesis (the most widely accepted theory concerning the origins of the universe), still considered to be quite groundbreaking at the time. After travelling extensively in Asia as a diplomat and writing a series of travel books, Lowell returned to America in 1893, determined to study the planet Mars. In particular, his interest stemmed from the writings of the astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who first postulated that there may be canals on the Martian surface. Using his wealth and influence, he founded an observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and began to observe the heavens. For the following 15 years, he made intricate drawings of the lines appearing on the surface of the planet, many of which are reproduced in the present volume. Mars was the first of three books which he published on the subject, and was followed in 1906 by Mars and Its Canals and Mars As the Abode of Life (1908). Lowell is remembered today for popularising the belief that these canals were built by extra-terrestrial life in order to tap into melting polar ice caps. It wasn’t until 1960 that it was proven, by NASA, that the ‘canals’ were in fact an optical illusion.
An important work, scarce in its first appearance.
LOWELL, Percival
Mars
London and Bombay: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1896
8vo., original red publisher’s cloth, with central circular device and lettering in gilt to upper board; lettered and double-ruled in gilt to spine; black coated endpapers; upper edge gilt; pp. [v], vi-x, [i], 2-228; containing 28 illustrations, including coloured frontis behind captioned tissue-guard and a double-page map of Mars to the rear of the text; boards with some watermarking and staining; a little pushed at spine tips and bumped at corners; retaining, unusually, much of the original colour to the backstrip with little of the often-found sunning; endpapers a little dusty; some very light spotting, mostly affecting the prelims, and some pencil markings to the ffeps; a very good copy of a scarce work.
First UK edition.
Lowell was born in 1855, and graduated from Harvard in 1876 with distinction in mathematics. With a strong interest in astronomy, his graduation speech concerned the nebular hypothesis (the most widely accepted theory concerning the origins of the universe), still considered to be quite groundbreaking at the time. After travelling extensively in Asia as a diplomat and writing a series of travel books, Lowell returned to America in 1893, determined to study the planet Mars. In particular, his interest stemmed from the writings of the astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who first postulated that there may be canals on the Martian surface. Using his wealth and influence, he founded an observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and began to observe the heavens. For the following 15 years, he made intricate drawings of the lines appearing on the surface of the planet, many of which are reproduced in the present volume. Mars was the first of three books which he published on the subject, and was followed in 1906 by Mars and Its Canals and Mars As the Abode of Life (1908). Lowell is remembered today for popularising the belief that these canals were built by extra-terrestrial life in order to tap into melting polar ice caps. It wasn’t until 1960 that it was proven, by NASA, that the ‘canals’ were in fact an optical illusion.
An important work, scarce in its first appearance.