Kurd Lasswitz - Auf zwei Planeten - 1900

Kurd Lasswitz

On Two Planets
Novel in Two Volumes

Berlin Emil Felber
1900
3rd edition (5th and 6th thousand)

18.5 x 13 cm, burgundy original canvas, gold-embossed title on cover and spine, name inscriptions on flyleaf;
I. Volume: IV, 421 pp., 1 page of publisher's advertisements;
II. Volume: IV, 545 pp., 1 page of publisher's advertisements;
Text blocks slightly warped, flyleaf of Volume 2 pasted in, occasionally minimally foxed, otherwise well preserved

Kurd Lasswitz (1848 - 1910) was a German writer. He also published under the pseudonym L. Velatus and is regarded as the founder of German-language science fiction. This novel in the first edition of 1897 is among the important German science fiction novels and has been translated into numerous languages. It describes the peaceful initial encounter between Martians and Earth inhabitants, which develops into a war between the planets. The novel inspired spaceflight pioneers such as Eugen Sänger and Wernher von Braun. Its visions of the future are bolder than those of his two contemporaries and colleagues, Verne and Wells, because they reach further into the future. Therefore, as he himself states, he repeatedly reaches the boundaries of “what can be explained with today’s concepts” (Source: Wikipedia). Because of their humanistic orientation, Lasswitz’s books were banned by the Nazis. A detailed appreciation of the book, for example in issue 5/2024 of the SPIEGEL History series.