THE MOON IS HELL!

First Edition; 256 pages, original purple cloth with gilt titling on the spine, light foxing on the page edges and toning on the endpapers, a very good copy in slightly rubbed dust jacket designed by Hannes Bok, price $3 (Currey variant A.).

Colophon page reads: Number 161. This edition is limited to 4000 copies, of which 500 are numbered and autographed.

'The Moon Is Hell! is a collection of two stories, one science fiction, the other sword and sorcery, by American writer John W. Campbell Jr. It was published in 1951 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 4,206 copies. The title story, published for the first time in this collection, deals with a team of scientists stranded on the Moon when their spacecraft crashes, and how they use their combined skills and knowledge to survive until rescue, including building shelter from meteor showers, and creating their own oxygen from Lunar rock. The second story, "The Elder Gods", Campbell rewrote, on a short deadline, from a story by Arthur J. Burks purchased for Unknown but later deemed unsatisfactory. It originally appeared in the October 1939 issue of Unknown under the pseudonym Don A. Stuart.' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_Hell%21?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

Currey (L.W.) Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors: A Bibliography of Their First Printings of Their Fiction and Selected Nonfiction – Revised Edition, page 78: ‘THE MOON IS HELL! Reading, Pennsylvania: Fantasy Press, 1951. Five bindings, first two probably simultaneous, last three later: (A) Purple cloth, spine lettered in gold (all numbered and signed copies are so bound); (B) Blue cloth, spine lettered in gold; (C) Tan cloth, spine lettered in black; (D) Pale lavender cloth, spine lettered in black; (E) Wrappers (reported but not seen). Two issues, no priority: (A) 500 copies with numbered leaf signed by the author inserted. Limited issue.; (B) Trade Issue. First edition so stated on copyright page.’