Description
Scarce first edition of Nerves by Lester del Rey, in the publisher’s first state dust jacket.
Twelvemo, [6], 153pp, [1]. Light green cloth, title stamped in blue on spine. No additional printings mentioned on copyright page. Leaves evenly toned due to quality of paper stock, free of any marks or notations. Solid text block. Lower corners bumped. In the publisher’s first state dust jacket, $2.00 on front flap along with H-151 production code, short closed tear along bottom edge of front panel, light soiling to spine and rear panel, a very good example. (Pringle, page 216) (Currey, page 143 A) An exceptionally scarce copy, with only two appearing at public auction since its publication.
This story first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction magazine in 1942, being one of the first to depict the impact of a nuclear power plant disaster. Del Rey turned his short story into a full novel in 1956, with a much more common paperback edition being published the same year as this copy. The wife of Lester del Rey, an editor at Ballantine Books, would go on to establish Del Rey Books, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Ballantine.
