ALDISS, Brian W.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Hothouse. First complete edition, presentation copy from the author to the dust-jacket illustrator, inscribed on the front free endpaper in green ink, "For Oscar - Cover artist, undercover artist: from Brian Doghouse Aldiss 28.iv.62". The text is in its most complete form here, the US edition of the same year having been abridged without Aldiss's permission.Oscar Mellor (1921-2005) was an artist associated with the Birmingham Surrealists and a publisher who founded the Fantasy Press, which published many poets early in their careers who would later become involved in the Movement literary group, including Elizabeth Jennings and Philip Larkin.Hothouse originated as five connected short stories first printed in 1961 in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction: "Hothouse", "Nomansland", "Undergrowth", "Timberline", and "Evergreen". They collectively won the prestigious Hugo Prize for best short fiction of the year. The first novelization was a US paperback titled The Long Afternoon of Earth, which "badly butchered the manuscript to fit available space" (Anatomy of Wonder). The first UK edition is the first full-length novelization and the first hardback edition.Speculating on the ways in which climate change could cause societal collapse, Aldiss imagines an Earth locked in tidal orbit with a Sun that fills the sky and forever shines upon the same side of the planet. The resulting elevation in temperatures leads to a rampant overgrowth of rapidly evolving plant life, which domin

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