The Fountains of Paradise by Clarke, Arthur C - 1978

United States of America: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978. First American edition. Hardcover. Very good/fine. SIGNED: 261pp. Octavo [22cm]; quarter cloth blue boards. Text block broken at front, page entitled "Other Books by Arthur C. Clarke" at the beginning of textblock detatched but present. Author signature at front free endpaper with date "19 Aug 80." $10.00 price listed on front flap of dust-jacket. The story of two protagonists living in the same area but separated by two thousand years. The first protagonist is a king seeking to reach heaven through his pleasure gardens, the other an engineer seeking the same destination but through space travel. This book was written after Clarke had already written 20 books of nonfiction and 24 books of fiction. Mr. Clarke, at the time of writing this book, had long been a resident of Sri Lanka. The area plays a major role in this book.