Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid.Overall, an extremely good, bright and attractive set of this desirable trilogy. Second Foundation extremely good with spotting to boards and verso only of bright, price-clipped dust jacket. Foundation and Empire near-fine with a bit of shelf-wear to lower edge, bright dust jacket with minor soiling to rear panel only, tape repair to verso at spine head, and a few rubs. Owner ink stamp to front pastedown of Foundation.įoundation near-fine in a clean dust jacket with just a touch of minor color restoration to front panel and spine ends. First edition of Second Foundation, binding in State A (blue boards lettered in brown).

First edition, first issue, of Foundation and Empire, with sheets bulking 1.8 cm across, binding A (red boards lettered in black, publisher's spine imprint measuring 2.2 cm), with dust jacket variant A (printed in four colors, with 26 titles on rear panel). First state dust jacket, with rear panel advertising three books and 1952 fantasy calendar.

First edition of Foundation, binding variant A (cloth), with correct page dimensions.

Disch praised these novels for powerfully evoking the 'gasp of wonder was the Asimovian grail.' The trilogy, based on stories originally published in Astounding Science Fiction between 1942-50, not only set the standard for all 'future histories' to follow but also helped secure Asimov's status as a genre giant: 'for five decades his was the voice to which science fiction came down in the end' (Clute & Nicholls, 58). Critic and fellow science fiction writer Thomas M. Winner of a special 1966 Hugo Award for 'Best All-Time Series'-an award even Asimov believed had been created solely to honor Tolkien's Lord of the Rings-this epic saga transposes Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire into a futuristic key. Octavo, original dark blue cloth, red cloth, and light blue boards, original dust jackets.įirst editions, first issues, preceding the first collected edition by over a decade, of 'one of the most influential works of modern science fiction' (Chronology of American Literature). 'THAT GASP OF WONDER THAT WAS THE ASIMOVIAN GRAIL': FIRST EDITIONS OF ASIMOV'S ORIGINAL FOUNDATION TRILOGYĪSIMOV, Isaac.

Foundation and empire by isaac asimov