We are over the moon to offer a catalogue of inventory related to outer space ranging from the first published scientific work based on observations of the moon and stars made through a telescope, to fiction inspired by interstellar travel! Highlights include the original sketchbook for William M. Timlin's The Ship that Sailed to Mars; an autograph letter from astronomer Maria Mitchell; a group photograph signed by the first four Russian cosmonauts; and an interesting piece of commemorative space memorabilia from the first international partnership in space: the Apollo-Soyuz docking, which took place in July 1975.
Price: $500
London: John Murray, 1878. Life on Ascension Island with her husband Scottish Astronomer David Gill to measure the solar parallax-the distance between the Earth and the Sun-by observing Mars, which was then the closest to Earth than it had been for a century. Read More Item Details for Six Months in Ascension. A Unscientific Account of a Scientific Expedition Add to Wish List
Item #317555
Price: $250
London & New York: Pergamon Press, 1955. First edition. Inscribed to Dannie Heineman. Edited by Beers, the 2 volumes were published on the occasion of the retirement of F.J.M. Stratton from the chair of Astrophysics in the University of Cambridge. Each volume is inscribed to Dannie Heineman from Arthur Beer. Read More Item Details for Vistas in Astronomy. In Two Volumes. (Special Supplement No.3 & No. 4 to the Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics) Add to Wish List
Item #26657
![Item #1620 The Uses of Astronomy, a Discourse [forming a part of] The Inauguration of the Dudley...](https://jamescumminsbookseller.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/1620.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1382734096)
Price: $250
Albany: Charles van Benthuysens Print, 1856. First Edition. NO COPY LOCATED IN NUC. In addition to the "Discourse" by Everett, this book, issued in honor of the dedication of the Dudley Observatory at Albany contains various speeches and a long poem dedicated to the American Association for the Advancement of..... Read More Item Details for The Uses of Astronomy, a Discourse [forming a part of] The Inauguration of the Dudley Observatory at Albany, August 28, l856 Add to Wish List
Item #1620
Price: $300
New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, [1955]. First edition. The first published book, and third in the chronological sequence, of Blish’s Okie or Cities in Flight cycle, assembled from stories published in Astounding and elsewhere: "Okie", "Bindlestiff", "Sargasso of Lost Cities", and "Earthman, Come Home". The book is dedicated to influential..... Read More Item Details for Earthman, Come Home Add to Wish List
Item #312126
Price: $1,100
Tarzana, California: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc, [1936]. First edition. The eighth book of the Mars series. Read More Item Details for Swords of Mars Add to Wish List
Item #312180
Price: $5,700
V.p.[Colorado Springs, London, New York, Millburn, N.J.]: 1943-1957. CAMPBELL & HEINLEIN and the father of the Transistor, JOHN R. PIERCE. Small and interesting archive of science fiction correspondence of physicist John R. Pierce (1910-2002), inventor of the word "transistor", director of research at AT&T's Bell Laboratories, and science fiction author..... Read More Item Details for Science-fiction correspondence of John R. PIERCE with Robert A. HEINLEIN, Arthur C. CLARKE, and John W. CAMPBELL, Jr Add to Wish List
Item #236763
Price: $400
New York: L. Harper & Brothers, Publishers, nd [1951]. First American edition, from British sheets, of the Author's First Book with signatures "A" on the title page and "A*" on the half-title. AUTHOR'S FIRST BOOK. Read More Item Details for Interplanetary Flight. An Introduction to Astronautics Add to Wish List
Item #236337
Price: $600
Colombo, Ceylon: 24 Sept 1959. "All education and experience is important to a writer ... " Written in response to Hartley's TLS asking: "How important ... was [your] high school education, and is college experience necessary for creative writing?" Hartley had cited the biographical sketch in MODERN SF, and Clarke..... Read More Item Details for Typed Letter Signed ("Arthur C. Clarke") to Westley S. Hartley, in response to the latter's question regarding the value of his education to him as a writer Add to Wish List
Item #23555
Price: $750
Paris: 1860. Troisième édition. INSCRIBED TO BECQUEREL. Inscribed on half-title "à M. Becquerel de l'[auteur], témoignage de respectueuse affection Ch. Delaunay." The recipient is likely Antoine César Becquerel (1788-1878), a pioneer in the study of electricity and first in a line of distinguished scientists (his grandson, Henri Bequerel, won the..... Read More Item Details for Cours elementaire d'Astronomie. Concordant avec les articles du Programme official pour l' enseignement de la Cosmographie dans les Lycees Add to Wish List
Item #266901
Price: $1,500
Amherst, MA: 2 October 1992. Samuel Delany on science fiction criticism, with overdue apologies. An interesting and digressive letter: “Dear Tom, “At long last I’m getting a manuscript back to you — with a long and unhappy tale. “In 1990, Johns Hopkins University Press sent me the enclosed manuscript of..... Read More Item Details for Typed Letter, Signed (“Samuel R. Delany”), to science fiction author Tom Disch, discussing science fiction criticism and offering excuses and abject apologies for his delay in returning the typescript of a book of collected criticism (“The Village Alien”, not present) sent to him by Johns Hopkins U.P. for evaluation, which Delany had neglected for almost two years Add to Wish List
Item #228464
Price: $3,000
Modena: Antonio Capponi and the heirs of Pontiroli, 1695. First editions. Gaetano Fontana was an Italian priest and astronomer who corresponded with Cassini: in fact, Cassini said that Fontana's obervations were the most exact of all that were sent to him. This is his most famous work. [Bound with:] WARD..... Read More Item Details for Institutio Physico-Astronomica Adiecta in Fine Appendice Geographica Add to Wish List
Item #304745
Price: $750
Paris: Michel Brunet, 1698. Fourth edition. A defence of the heliocentric model of the solar system, one of the major early works of the Enlightenment. Read More Item Details for Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes Add to Wish List
Item #266792
![Item #345387 Institutio astronomica [...] Galilei Galilei Nuntius sidereus, et Johannis Kepleri...](https://jamescumminsbookseller.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/345387.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1678311343)
Price: $18,000
London: Jacobi Flesher, 1653. Secunda editio priori correctior. The Starry Messenger. First published in 1647, Gassendi's important astronomical text book which outlines the various competing Ptolemaic, Copernican, Tychonic models, also includes printings of Galileo's Siderus Nuncius (the third overall edition) and Kepler's important work on optics Dioptrice. Wing does not..... Read More Item Details for Institutio astronomica [...] Galilei Galilei Nuntius sidereus, et Johannis Kepleri Dioptrice Add to Wish List
Item #345387
Price: $75
N. P: n.d. Scottish astronomer. Especially noted for his use of photography in astronomy. He was the Astronomer Royal at Cape of Good Hope for many years. From the autograph collection of Harry P. Kuhn Jr. Read More Item Details for Card signed "David Gill" Add to Wish List
Item #33259
Price: $4,200
Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Instiution, March 16, 1936. First edition. An important marker in the development of rocketry and space flight, the pamphlet sums up Goddard's pioneering work in rocketry over the previous two decades. On March 16, 1926 Goddard launched the world's first liquid propellant rocket, from a site near..... Read More Item Details for Liquid-Propellant Rocket Development Add to Wish List
Item #314549
Price: $11,500
Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution, 1919. First edition. Foundations of Rocketry and Space Flight. One of the earliest publications on rocketry and space flight, and "the most influential and important of Goddard’s scientific papers ... The short treatise offered detailed mathematical proof that solid propellant rockets were capable of boosting modest..... Read More Item Details for A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes Add to Wish List
Item #314548
Price: $285
New York: Young Scott Books, 1970. First edition. Inscribed “For Bob / Edward Gorey”. Read More Item Details for Why we have Day and Night Add to Wish List
Item #264928
Price: $1,100
Collingwood [House, Hawkhurst]: April 12, 1867. Reading in part: "This will be handed to you by my son Lieut. John Herschel R[oyal] B[engal] E[ngineers] ... who is very desirous of an introduction to you...." Herschel also regrets that he will not be able to attend a soiree, for "my state..... Read More Item Details for Autograph Letter Signed ("JFW Herschel"), to General P–, introducing his son Add to Wish List
Item #308821
Price: $750
London: Printed for Bernard Lintot, at the Cross-Keys, 1739. The Third Edition Corrected. Read More Item Details for Introduction to the True Astronomy or Astronomical Lectures, Read in the Astronomical School of the University of Oxford Add to Wish List
Item #266791
Price: $2,700
Paris: Imprimerie du Cercle-Social, L’An IV de la République Française [1796]. First edition, with half-titles, without errata as usual. “Among the most influential scientists in all history” — DSB. “Book I begins with what any attentive observer may see if he will open his eyes to the spectacle of the..... Read More Item Details for Exposition du Systême du Monde Add to Wish List
Item #231280
Price: $300
London: Royal Astronomical Society, Burlington House, 1893. Reprinted from the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. LI. INSCRIBED. Inscribed on the front cover: Dr. Ångström/ with regards from/ J.E. Keeler." Most probably Prof. Knut Angstrom (1857-1910), son of Anders Jonas Ångström. Read More Item Details for Physical Observations of Mars made at the Allegheny Observatory in 1892 Add to Wish List
Item #322426
Price: $400
New York: Random House, [1982]. First edition, no. 80 of 500 specially bound, numbered copies, signed by the author. Deluxe SIGNED edition. Read More Item Details for Space Add to Wish List
Item #351748
Price: $350
Palm Beach, Florida: September 22 and November 13, 1975. A pair of letters from Apollo 14 astronaut Ed Mitchell (1930-2016) to William Targ, editor at Putnam's, in which Mitchell expresses his annoyance at the publisher's failure to send royalty statements for his book Psychic Exploration (1974), and expressing frustration at..... Read More Item Details for A pair of typed letters signed ("Edgar D Mitchell" and "Ed M"), to Putnam's editor William Targ, relating to his 1974 book Psychic Exploration Add to Wish List
Item #311865
![Item #353878 Autograph letter signed, "Maria", to Mrs. Gay[?], on social matters, seeing Ida,...](https://jamescumminsbookseller.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/353878.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1683907535)
Price: $1,200
Nantucket: "Tuesday" [September 1854]. "The most prominent woman professor ... and the first real 'scientist' since Jane Colden in the 1750s, in that she published at least seven scientific articles, was the astronomer Maria Mitchell, certainly the most important woman scientist in America in the nineteenth century. Her election to..... Read More Item Details for Autograph letter signed, "Maria", to Mrs. Gay[?], on social matters, seeing Ida, meeting with Mrs. Shaw, the marriage of her sister Phebe, etc Add to Wish List
Item #353878
Price: $1,000
New York: Bunnell and Price, 1852. First edition. The 1835 Great Moon Hoax was prompted by a series of six articles published in the New York newspaper The Sun, about the supposed discovery of life and even civilization on the Moon. Read More Item Details for The Celebrated "Moon Story," its Origin and incidents; with a Memoir of the Author, and an Appendix, containing, I. An Authentic Description of the Moon; II. A New Theory of the Lunar Surface in relation to that of the Earth Add to Wish List
Item #346657