First published by Ace Books in 1956 as a paperback dos-á-dos with Agent of the Unknown by Margaret St. Clair, it was only Dick’s second published novel at the time, this is the first edition of the book in hardback.
All of Dick’s early novels were first published in paperback only by Ace Books. In an interview he explained that Ace Books were the only market for Science fiction novels in the 1950s: “there was one market and one market only, and that was Ace Books. And that books were “Doubles,” two novels for 35[cents]. And that you had no latitude. It had to be 60,000 lines and it had to be an adventure novel. There was no latitude. You were told exactly what to write. And if we didn’t write it for Don Wollheim (science fiction editor at Ace Books), we didn’t sell it.” His first novel to be published in hardcover was Time Out of Joint in 1959 published by Lippincot as “a novel of menace”.
A near fine copy, dust jacket price clipped, and extremities gently rubbed. .
