Against the Fall of Night

A Science Fiction Novel by Arthur C. Clarke

Published by Gnome Press, 1953 First Edition

Hardcover with Original Dust Jacket in Protective Mylar Sleeve

Very Good Vintage Condition. The book and dust jacket are clean, covers attached, secure binding, crisp inner pages, unmarked, no writing, no highlighting, no stains, no ripped pages, no edge chipping, no corner folds, no creased pages, no remainder marks, not ex-library. Some light dust jacket and general wear from age, use, storage and handling. Light scuffing to the dust jacket front inner flap.

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Against the Fall of Night  is a  science fiction  novel by British writer  Arthur  C. Clarke. Originally appearing as a novella in the November 1948 issue of the magazine  Startling Stories, it was revised and expanded in 1951 and published in book form in 1953 by  Gnome Press. It was later expanded and revised again and published in 1956 as  The City and the Stars. A later edition includes another of Clarke's early works and is titled  The Lion of Comarre and Against the Fall of Night. In 1990, with Clarke's approval,  Gregory Benford  wrote a sequel titled  Beyond the Fall of Night, which continues the story arc of the 1953 novel. It is generally printed with the original novel as a single volume. The title is from the poem "Smooth Between Sea And Land" by  A. E. Housman, published in  More Poems. Clarke explains: "I was also to discover the lines of A. E. Housman that not only described the locale perfectly, but also gave me the title of my first novel: 'Here on the level sand, between the sea and land, what shall I build or write against the fall of night?'". Groff Conklin  described the original edition of the novel as "a light, simple, fast-moving and often richly imaginative fantasy." Boucher  and  McComas  praised "this brief but intense book" as "beautiful", describing it as "poetry and awe and wonder" and characterizing Clarke as "the visionary poet of a future so far distant that its most prosaic science passes our technical understanding." P. Schuyler Miller  reported that because the narrative "is so well told, the story becomes convincing, and its magic spreads over the reader as well as the people of the plot." In 1969,  Alexei Panshin  wrote that "the story is largely undeveloped -- too much is asserted, too little is examined.”

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Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 1917– 19 March 2008) was an English science fiction writer, science writer,  futurist,  inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film  2001: A Space Odyssey, widely regarded as one of the most influential films of all time. Clarke was a science fiction writer, an avid populariser of space travel, and a futurist of a distinguished ability. He wrote many books and many essays for popular magazines. In 1961, he received the Kalinga Prize, a  UNESCO  award for popularizing science. Clarke's science and science fiction writings earned him the      moniker "Prophet of the Space Age". His science fiction writings in particular earned him a number of Hugo and  Nebula      awards, which along with a large readership, made him one of the towering figures of the genre. For many years Clarke Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction. Clarke was a lifelong proponent of space travel. In 1934, while still a teenager, he joined the BIS, British Interplanetary Society. In 1945, he proposed a satellite communication system using    geostationary orbits. He was the chairman of the British Interplanetary Society from 1946 to 1947 and again in 1951–1953. Clarke immigrated to Ceylon  (now Sri Lanka) in 1956, to pursue his interest in scuba diving. That year, he discovered the underwater ruins of the ancient original  Koneswaram Temple in  Trincomalee. Clarke augmented his popularity in the 1980s, as the host of television shows such as  Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World. He lived in Sri Lanka until his death. Clarke was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1989 "for services to British cultural interests in Sri Lanka".  He was knighted  in 1998 and was awarded Sri Lanka's highest civil honour,  Sri Lankabhimanya, in 2005.