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Who Goes There
by Campbell, John W
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine/Very Good
- Seller
-
Manasquan, New Jersey, United States
Item Price
£633.30£506.64
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Chicago: Shasta, 1948. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Very Good. 8vo., 230pp. Beautiful States First Edition bound in light blue cloth with titles in gilt on spine. Square, tight and clean throughout with no toning or spotting. Mild wear to spine ends. with very light toning to bottom edge. Bookplate of Robert C. Donawell on front paste-down. Very attractive Hannes Bok illustrated unclipped dust-jacket, ($3.00), has some chipping to spine ends and tips. Mild rubbing to folds. Spine slightly toned. Basis for multiple film adaptations including John carpenter's "The Thing". A very pretty collectable copy at a great price.
Synopsis
A remote scientific research expedition at the North Pole is invaded by a monstrous alien, reawakened after lying frozen for centuries after a crash-landing. The alien is intelligent, cunning and a shape-changer who can assume the form and personality of anything it destroys and soon it is among the men of the expedition, killing and replacing them, using its shape-changing ability to lull the scientists one by one into inattention and destruction. The transformed alien can seemingly pass every effort at detection and the expedition seems doomed until at last the secret vulnerability of the alien is discovered and it is destroyed.Who Goes There? according to the science fiction historian Sam Moskowitz (1920-1997) had an autobiographical impetus: Campbell's mother and aunt were identical twins and enjoyed the "game" of substituting for one another in his care as an infant and young child, confusing him again and again with false identity. It was this uncertainty, this susceptibility to masquerade and his terror at the game which, Moskowitz said, Campbell funneled into this last and greatest of his magazine pieces. (A short novel, The Moon Is Hell, was published only in book form in the early l950's.) Carefully and rigorously extrapolated in its portrait of the menaced expedition, the novelette is regarded as perhaps the greatest horror story to emerge form the field of science fiction. It was the basis for one of the great early science fiction films and its excellent remake decades later.The copyright of the novelette was, typically of the time, owned by Street & Smith Publications to whose magazine Campbell had sold all of the rights. Hawks paid Street & Smith $900 for all film rights, $500 of that was paid over "voluntarily" by Street & Smith to Campbell. "Don't you feel cheated?" Isaac Asimov said he asked Campbell at the time of the film's successful release. "No," Campbell said, "If it's a good film and it will get more people to read science fiction and take it seriously, then it's all a very good thing."
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Details
- Bookseller
- Brenner's Collectable Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 015056
- Title
- Who Goes There
- Author
- Campbell, John W
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st Edition
- Publisher
- Shasta
- Place of Publication
- Chicago
- Date Published
- 1948
- Bookseller catalogs
- Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror;
Terms of Sale
Brenner's Collectable Books
All orders ship within one business day. Standard mail is USPS Media Mail.
All items are guaranteed to be as described or they may be returned within 30 days of receipt for a full refund.
About the Seller
Brenner's Collectable Books
Biblio member since 2006
Manasquan, New Jersey
About Brenner's Collectable Books
35 Plus years buying and selling collectable books. Member ABAA, ILAB, IOBA.
An eclectic mix of good books specializing in Sci-Fi, Mystery, General Antiquarian, Books About Books, Signed First Editions, Vintage Paperbacks, Modern Fiction and many, many others. Prompt, professional customer service, always!.
Please excuse any glare or reflections in the pictures. Books I know; photography not so much. I will answer any questions regarding condition if photos are unclear or provide additional photos if needed.
All books are stored in a temperature controlled library in a smoke free home. All books are professionally packed and shipped and all jacketed books will come with an archival Brodart jacket protector.
An eclectic mix of good books specializing in Sci-Fi, Mystery, General Antiquarian, Books About Books, Signed First Editions, Vintage Paperbacks, Modern Fiction and many, many others. Prompt, professional customer service, always!.
Please excuse any glare or reflections in the pictures. Books I know; photography not so much. I will answer any questions regarding condition if photos are unclear or provide additional photos if needed.
All books are stored in a temperature controlled library in a smoke free home. All books are professionally packed and shipped and all jacketed books will come with an archival Brodart jacket protector.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Paste-down
- The paste-down is the portion of the endpaper that is glued to the inner boards of a hardback book. The paste-down forms an...
- Chipping
- A defect in which small pieces are missing from the edges; fraying or small pieces of paper missing the edge of a paperback, or...
- Bookplate
- Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
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