New Maps of Hell.** [NEL - No. 2385.]: A Survey of Science Fiction.

UK,slim 12mo p/back,1st edn thus.[Originally and first published USA, 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn by Harcourt Brace & Co,1960,then the first UK 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn by, Gollancz,1961,and also a Science Fiction Book Club HB+ dw/dj,1st edn thus,in 1962 - see my book ID rja870920 for that example.These all preceded the first UK,p/back issue by FOUR SQUARE (London) in 1963.That edn,was then re-issued in this NEL edition in March,1969 - so p/b 1st edn, thus.] VG++.No owner inscrptn and no price removal to cover.Bright,crisp,clean,generally sharp-cornered,glossy, colour pictorial illustrated front cover with b/w lettering, yellow spine with black+green(?) lettering,black number to foot and partial reading creases to spine too,rear cover with author's b/w portrait photograph and review/ preamble.UK,slim 12mo p/back,1st edn thus,7-141pp [paginated] includes author's foreword,a poem with blank reverse,6 sections/chapters+essays,and index of names+ titles (sci-fi authors+their works); plus [unpaginated] critics' reviews to half-title,title page,contents list/table with a dedication to its reverse and to the rear publisher's 2pp best-sellers advert. Though Kingsley is best known for social comedies as his first 'Lucky Jim' (1954), which won him the sobriquet of Angry Young Man in the catch-phrase of the time,he has also been closely connected with SF throughout his professional life.
He delivered a series of lectures on SF in 1959 at Princeton University,probably to their surprise since SF was presumably not the context in which he was invited to speak.Revised,these were published as a book,'New Maps of Hell'(1960),which was certainly the most influential critical work on SF up to that time,although not the most scholarly.It strongly emphasized the dystopian elements of SF.
Kingsley,himself a satirist and debunker of note,saw SF as an ideal medium for satirical sociological extrapolation. Hitherto most writing on SF had regarded it as first and foremost a literature of technology.
As a survey the book is one-sided and by no means thorough,but it is witty,perceptive and quietly revolutionary.
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