Moore, Patrick ~ Captives of the Moon

First UK Printing : Burke Publishing Co. Ltd., London: 1960

8vo., black boards lettered in blue to spine; originally unclipped publisher’s dust wrapper designed by ‘Cullen’ (8s 6d net); THE BOOK near-fine, light bumping to spine ends and offsetting to endpapers; THE DUST WRAPPER with minor shelf wear and marking; rubbed along spine and flap folds with a little chipping at ends; else a clean, bright copy in the unrestored jacket. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First edition. Continuing on from Moore’s previous novel, Wheel in Space, Captives of the Moon was written at the height of the Cold War - a fact which is evident in its subject matter in which a nuclear explosion close to the American lunar base is blamed on the Russians. Setting out on a rescue mission, the two protagonists arrive on the moon to discover that it was the Americans, and their nuclear testing, which caused the bomb to explode - and the Russians are quick to reciprocate. Patrick Moore was particularly revered for his expertise in Moon observation. Indeed, his first work on the subject Guide to the Moon (later retitled Patrick Moore on the Moon), was written in 1952, and his first work of Fiction, The Master of the Moon, appeared shortly after. The Moon remained his specialist subject throughout his life.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Very Good