Bilder Aus Der Zukunst [Zukunft] [Images of the Future]. Zwei Erzahlungen Aus Dem Vierundzwanzigsten Und Neununddreiszigsten Jahrhundert. Band 1:Bis Zum Nullpunkt Des Seins, Erzablung Aus Dem Jahre 2371; Band II Gegen Das Weltgeletz

Breslau: S. Schottlaender, 1878. First Edition 1st Printing. 1/4 Leather. Very Good. 88 Pp; 170 Pp. Watered Endpapers. Very Scarce Early Book By German Science Fiction/Utopian Literature Pioneer Kurd Lasswitz (1848-1910). "As The First Major Sf Writer In German, He Holds The Same Place In Germany As Do H. G. Wells In England And Jules Verne In France. He Taught Philosophy For Many Years At The Gymnasium Ernestinium In Gotha, And It Is Symptomatic Of 19Th-Century Gerrman Intellectual Culture That He Irradiated His Fiction With Theoretical Speculation; There Is Not Kl Fiction Without A Lesson.... William N. Fischer Claims On Kl's Behalf That Many Of His Ideas Directly Prefigure Later Critics' Use Of Terms Like 'Extrrapolation' And 'Analogue'...The Seriousness Of His Didactic Impulse Can Be Seen In The Strong Emphasis He Places In His Fiction On Establishing A Plausible Imaginary World Whose Hypothetical Nature Will Be Governed, And Given Verisimilitude, By Resemblance To Scientific Method Evident In Its Realization. Unsurprisingly, The Stories That Embody These Overriding Concerns Tend To Be More Effective As Broad Technological And Scientific Canvases Than As Studies In Character; The Tales Collected In Bilder Aus Der Zukunft Read Consequently Almost Like Illustrated Tours Of Various 'Superior Terrestrial Cultures Located In The Future." ([John Clute, In The Science Fiction Encyclopedia]. "Many Inferences About The Future Can Be Drawn From The Historical Course Of Civilization And The Present State Of Science; And Analogy Offers Itself To Fantasy As An Ally". [William B. Fischer In Science Fiction Studies, 1978.] A Well-Worn Copy, Spine Leather Entirely Perished, Recently Re-Backed To Style Preserving Original Marbled Endpapers, Publisher's Internal Cloth Hinges Still Holding. Very Scarce, With Only A Few Examples Shown In Institutional Holdings Indexed In Worldcat. From The Collection Of Sf Collector/Dealer/Publisher Forrest Ackerman.