Description

“BUT HE WOULD THINK OF SOMETHING”: FIRST EDITION OF 2001, SIGNED BY CLARKE

CLARKE, Arthur C. 2001: A Space Odyssey. (New York): New American Library, (1968). Octavo, original blue and black paper-covered boards, photographic endpapers, original dust jacket. Housed in custom slipcase.

First edition, boldly signed in red ink by the author on the title page.

“Stanley Kubrick wrote to me in the spring of 1964, asking if I had any ideas that would enable him to make the ‘proverbial good science fiction movie? I had already given Stanley a list of my shorter pieces, and we had decided that one—‘The Sentinel—contained a basic idea on which we could build? Stanley suggested that before we embarked on the drudgery of the script, we let our imaginations soar freely by writing a complete novel, from which we could devise the script. This is more or less the way it worked out, though toward the end, novel and screenplay were being written simultaneously, with feedback in both directions. Thus, I rewrote some sections after seeing the movie rushes—a rather expensive method of literary creation, which few other authors have enjoyed” (Clarke). With the success of both film and book, Clarke “became perhaps the best-known science fiction writer in the world” (Clute & Nicholls, 231). His novel—the first in an eventual tetraology—is “about the two things Clarke seems to think we mortals would most like to know in a universe in which we can only hope that the odds are in favor of the race’s survival: that we are not alone and that we have not lived in vain.” (John Hollow). Barron, Anatomy of Wonder II-254. Currey, 92. Book with light toning to edges, as often. A fine signed copy. Signed first editions of this title are increasingly scarce.