EXPERIMENT IN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by HG Wells, HC w/ Portrait - eBay (item 310080486434 end time Sep-07-08 19:53:09 PDT)
This copy of Experiment in Autobiography by H.G. Wells is a 1967 Lippincott hardcover with dust jacket. The first edition of this book came out in 1934. The book includes drawings by the author, what he called "picshuas." It comes with a 3 1/2" by 5" print of a stipple portrait of Wells by Joe Wehrle, Jr., known for Mirage Press covers and other things. The artist printed his name below the image.
The dust jacket front flap says,This famous autobiography of H. G. Wells, first published in 1934, has been out of print for many years. Reissued here in the original text, it remains a rich and rewarding work, dealing with a multitude of impressions, individuals, and opinions, a fascinating reflection of a mind at work decades in advance of its time on ideas and principles still daring today. It ranges over his life and thoughts from his earliest youth past his sixty-fifth year, defending and criticizing everything, scientific, social, and personal, with the brilliance that made him celebrated for fifty years.
When Experiment in Autobiography appeared thirty-three years ago, H. L. Mencken wrote of its author, "His mind is really one of the most extraordinary that England has produced in our time. It moves swiftly and daringly and overlooks little that lies along his path." With the current strong revival of interest in Wells, this reissue of his autobiography thrusts him into present times as well.
On the back flap, H.G. Wells says,This work, this jewel in my head for which I take myself seriously enough to be self-scrutinizing and autobiographical, is, it seems to me, a crystallization of ideas.... I have made the broad lines and conditions of the human outlook distinct and unmistakable for myself and for others. I have shown that human life as we know it, is only the dispersed raw material for human life as it might be. There is a hitherto undreamt-of fullness, freedom and happiness within reach of our species.... But if mankind fails to apprehend its opportunity, then division, cruelties, delusions and ultimate frustration lie before our kind. The decision to perish or escape has to be made within a very limited time. For escape, vast changes in the educational, economic and directive structure of human society are necessary.... But they demand courage and integrity. They demand a force and concentration of will and a power of adaptation in habits and usages which may or may not be within the compass of mankind. This is the exciting and moving prospect displayed by the crystal I have brought out of solution.
When Experiment in Autobiography appeared thirty-three years ago, H. L. Mencken wrote of its author, "His mind is really one of the most extraordinary that England has produced in our time. It moves swiftly and daringly and overlooks little that lies along his path." With the current strong revival of interest in Wells, this reissue of his autobiography thrusts him into present times as well.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Stumble It!
