Earth Abides by George R. Stewart

Published by Houghton Mifflin Company

Hardcover, Dust Jacket, Protective Mylar Sleeve

1976

Very Good Vintage Condition Hardcover. The book and dust jacket are clean, covers attached, secure binding, crisp inner pages, unmarked, no writing, no highlighting,  no fading, no ripped pages, no edge chipping, no corner folds, no creased pages, no remainder marks, not ex-library. Some light visibe dust jacket and general wear from age, use, storage and handling. Light surface and edge wear. Please review pictures for greater details.

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Earth Abides  is a 1949 American  post-apocalyptic  science fiction  novel by  George R. Stewart. The novel tells the story of the fall of civilization from deadly disease and the emergence of a new culture with simpler tools. Set in the 1940s in  Berkeley, California, the story is told by Isherwood Williams, who emerges from isolation in the mountains to find almost everyone dead. Earth Abides  won the inaugural  International Fantasy Award  in 1951. It was included in  Locus  Magazine's  list of best All Time Science Fiction in 1987 and 1998  and was a nominee to be entered into the  Prometheus Hall of Fame  some time before 2002.

Earth Abides  belongs to the  subgenre  of apocalyptic science fiction featuring a universal plague that nearly wipes out humanity. Other examples include  Mary Shelley's  The Last Man  (1826),  Jack London's  The Scarlet Plague  (1912),  Michael Crichton's  The Andromeda Strain  (1969) and  Stephen King's  The Stand  (1978). Earth Abides  also fits into the "post-apocalyptic" subgenre. It was published in 1949, four years after the end of World War II and in the earliest stages of the  Cold War. While  post-apocalyptic fiction  is now quite common,  Earth Abides  distinctly predates many similar well-known novels including  Alas, Babylon  (1959),  A Canticle for Leibowitz  (1960), and  The Last Ship (1988). It is predated, however by  The Machine Stops  (1909), and  René Barjavel's  Ashes, Ashes  (Ravage, 1943), among others. A common theme of post-apocalyptic works is, "What if the world we know no longer exists," and each of these books paints a different picture of the future.  Earth Abides  explores such issues as family structure, education, the meaning and purpose of civilization, and the basic nature of humankind — especially in regard to religion, superstition, and custom. As it was written in the beginning years of the Cold War, it lacks some common post-apocalyptic conventions found in later novels: There are no warlords or biker gangs (as in  Mad Max), no fear of atomic weapons or radiation, and no mutants or warring tribes  (as in  A Canticle for Leibowitz). When the main character in  Earth Abides  travels through the country, he notices little sign of there having been violence or civil unrest during the plague period. Many areas seem to have been evacuated, and only in or near hospitals are there large numbers of corpses.

In November 1950, the book was adapted for the  CBS  radio program  Escape  as a two-part drama starring  John Dehner.  In early 2024 it was announced that a television adaptation was underway at Amazon MGM Studios.

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George Rippey Stewart Jr.  (May 31, 1895 – August 22, 1980) was an American historian,  toponymist, novelist, and a professor of English at the  University of California, Berkeley. His 1959 book,  Pickett's Charge, a detailed history of the final attack at the  Battle of Gettysburg, was termed "essential for an understanding of the  Battle of Gettysburg". His 1949  post-apocalyptic novel  Earth Abides  won the first  International Fantasy Award  in 1951.