CLARKE, ARTHUR CHARLES — Sands of Mars

New York, NY: Gnome Press, 1952. 2nd Edition. Hardcover. Illustrated by Ric Binkley. Cover Art; SIGNED EDITION. This copy has been signed by the author on the front endpaper. This copy has all the points found in Steve Carper's Gnome Press: The Complete History and Bibliography for the Second Gnome Edition of this book. Approximately 1500 copies of the Second Edition were published. The book is in Very Good condition and has a Very Good- dust jacket. The book and its contents are in generally clean, bright condition. The spine ends of the book covers have some beginning bumping and rubbing. The text pages are generally clean but there is noticeable toning, especially to the edges, due to the acid content of the paper. The price clipped dust jacket has several small-ish edge tears, a longer tear to the top rear flap and a few small chips and spots of wrinkling or rubbing to the spine ends and corners. "What of the supposed 1955 second printing? I thought that I’d never seen a copy. Nevertheless, I have a copy of a dust jacket with a 32 title back, identical to the one used on Lost Continents, The Forgotten Planet, and the 1954 Foundation second printing. That makes it almost certain that the printing took place in 1954, as the 32 titles list five of the eight books issued in 1954 and none from 1955. The Gnome address remains at 80 East 11th St. In New York rather than the Hicksville address of the 1957 covers. Why this should be so is yet another Gnome mystery. Deepening the mystery is the book itself. I can argue incontrovertibly that the volume is a weird Gnome edition or that it is a weird SFBC edition. Let me lay out the cases. First the look and feel of the book closely match the SFBC editions. It is much smaller and thinner than the first and third printings: 5.1" w x 8.2" h x 0.6" d versus 5.6" w x 8.2" h x 0.9" d. I have four variants of the SFBC editions, two are slightly taller than the other. The smaller ones are 5.4 ” w x 8.2 ” h x 0.8" d. The larger two are 5.6" w x 8.4" h x 0.6" d. The differences may be small, but an experienced hand would tell a Book Club printing from an original immediately. The second difference would normally be inarguable. Both the printer and the FIRST EDITION line are completely left off the copyright page, making it identical to all four SFBC editions. Until recently I would have said that no Gnome reprint ever omitted stating the book was a first edition. That was until this weekend, when I bought the third printing of Foundation, which does exactly that, but several years later. Even so, those omissions should be definitive. Yet that leaves the mystery of the dust jacket, which is sized for the Gnome Press first and third printings and so wraps awkwardly around the boards. The first letters of the titles on the back panel are completely cut off. The 32 titles cover books to the end of 1954 (although late ones are missing) , increasingly the likelihood that the jacket was created for a 1955 release. (It was also used on two earlier 1954 books, but Greenberg had a habit of listing future titles on back panels. ) Although the book feels like an SFBC edition, the sizing is actually midway between a normal book club edition and a normal Gnome edition. Additionally, the lettering on the spine – Sands of Mars/Arthur C. Clarke/Gnome Press – runs vertically from the top to the bottom, meant to be read by turning the book 90°. The SFBC versions either have all the letters running horizontally in identical to the Gnome versions, and in the same font, or just the title words running vertically. Therefore, this spine belongs to neither. What may be the clincher is the otherwise inexplicable second printing of Asimov’s Foundation. The printing is given as 1954 by CHALKER, which would match the back panel – because the back panel is identical to this Sands. The small size of the book is also identical to this Sands. The cover is therefore too large for the boards, cutting off the first letters of the titles on the back panel – identical to this Sands. The spine lettering runs vertically down the page – identical to this Sands. Few would dispute that these two books were conceived of, created, and printed at the same time." (from the Bibliography on this edition). Excitingly, my copy of this second printing helped Mr. Carper decide that this is indeed a second edition. ; Signed by Author. Very Good in Very Good- dust jacket .