Astronauci: Powiesc fantastyczno-naukowa [The Astronauts] by LEM, Stanislaw - 1951

Krakow: Spoldzielnia Wydawniczo-Oswiatowa 'Czytelnik", 1951. Book. Good. Soft cover. 1st Edition. Octavo (210 x 155mm). First edition, first impression, Lem's first science fiction novel. Original pictorial white-blue cloth, black titling to spine and front cover. Cover designed by Jan S. Miklaszewski. Wear with small tears along edges, bent corners, rubbed edges, small tears between p. 169-175 on the bottom (text intact), cover soiled (mostly rear panel), pages toned, occasionally spotting inside. Else good copy, with no inscriptions or stamps. Contains map and a drawings by author. Astronauts is one of Lem's most famous novels, published for the first time in 1951 - out of necessity partly respecting the political canons of the era, and therefore for many years sentenced by the author to oblivion. However, Lem owes her incredible success to his exceptional talent, which even in such dark and difficult times for artists was able to create a work of art original and far beyond the horizons of contemporary decision-makers. In this first Lem novel about interplanetary travel there is a load of extraordinary imagination and faith that wisdom will finally prevail over political madness. The image of Venus, preparing for an attack on Earth, but previously destroyed by fratricidal war, is still a moving vision of the effects to which primitive practicalism and the desire for power leads..