Out of the Shadow Library and Back into the Archive

The Best of Jules Verne, edited by Alan K. Russell (Castle Books, 1978) Includes Around the World in Eighty Days, The Clipper of the Clouds, Journey to the Center of the Earth. With 151 Illustrations, and a reprinted biographical article by Marie A. Belloc.

Selected Works of H. G. Wells, including The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon, The Food of the Gods, In the Days of the Comet, and The War of the Worlds, Complete and Unabridged (Heinemann/Octopus 1977)

There was a resurgence of interest in what may be considered the proto-Steampunk works of Jules Verne and especially of H. G. Wells in the 1970’s, no doubt related to growing unease with the age of atomic power, human genetics, and space travel, areas of science that were proving bleaker and more complicated than hoped. There was an impulse to restore a sense of adventure and romance, to examine these areas by contrast with earlier dreams and aspirations, perhaps to reveal the dangers always inherent in the quest for knowledge and to look at modern problems through the lens of the past. Or maybe to just make a few quick bucks out of some old tales that had fallen out of copyright.

These volumes were produced at that time; John bought them some years later, at, I think, Yesterday’s Warehouse. Classic science fiction, especially Ray Bradbury, is (or was) one of his things, and he may have got these books ‘on spec,’ as it were, on enthusiasm caught at least partly from Bradbury’s appreciation of his predecessors, though I know John was particularly into Wells from the start. Anyway, in time he passed them on to me, and in time I passed them on to Kameron. I never read them that I remember; I think I was more enamored with the idea of having these collections of classics at hand.   

Well, as I said before, Susan is going through boxes and boxes of Kameron’s old things that have been stored away, including tons of books. I noticed these in the pile headed for a garage sale, and they gladly turned them back over to me. I simply cannot resist, though I am unlikely to read them even know. But they are at hand if I ever want to try.

The Jules Verne volume, beside having 151 old illustrations, includes a biographical essay by Marie A. Belloc, sister of Hilaire Belloc, a fact that would have meant nothing to me before a few years ago. For me, it is a small added value to the tome.

Now, where am I going to put them?

Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes

(1868–1947)

British novelist, sister of Hilaire Belloc. She had a literary reputation for combining exciting incident with psychological interest. Her most famous novel, The Lodger (1913), based on the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888, has been adapted for the screen five different times. Pen names: Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, Marie Belloc Lowndes