ACROSS THE ZODIAC: THE STORY OF A WRECKED RECORD .. by Greg, Percy - 1880

London: Trübner & Co., 1880. Octavo, two volumes: pp. [1-6] [1] 2-296; [1-6] [1] 2-288, original brown cloth, front and rear panels ruled in blind, spine panels stamped in gold. First edition. "The romance of a flight, in a huge spacecraft powered by a force called apergy, to Mars, populated by scientifically advanced people." - Locke, Voyages in Space 91. "Serious throughout and more substantial than anything that preceded it, Percy Greg's ACROSS THE ZODIAC (1880), in two crowded volumes, brings together much of the best in interplanetary voyages up to this time ... the most fruitful single romance of interplanetary travel written before Wells." - Bailey, Pilgrims Through Space and Time, p. 67-9. "Historically important ... clearly influenced Wells." - Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, p. 22. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 2-83; (1981) 1-82; (1987) 1-40; (1995) 1-40; and (2004) II-463. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 925. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 361. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 525. Ley, Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel (1951), pp. 42-3. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 96. Negley, Utopian Literature: A Bibliography 462. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 67. Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, p. 21. Survey of Science Fiction Literature I, pp. 11-15. Bleiler (1978), p. 87. Reginald 06341. Previous owner's bookplate affixed to front paste down of each volume. Mild touchup to cloth at spine ends and corner tips, inner rear hinge of volume two professionally mended, a very good copy. Enclosed in a custom cloth clamshell box with leather spine label. (#158735)