INSCRIBED BY WELLS TO HIS FRIEND AND SCIENTIFIC CONSULTANT SIR RICHARD GREGORY

WELLS, H.G. The Open Conspiracy. Blue Prints for a World Revolution. London: Victor Gollancz, 1928. Small octavo, original black cloth. $2000.

First edition of "Wells' matured theory of world revolution through functional elites," inscribed by Wells on the half title, "R.A.G.S. as ever from H.G." Presented to and from the collection of Wells’ close friend and frequent scientific adviser, Sir Richard Arman Gregory.

"Revised several times and also reconceived as What Are We to Do with Our Lives?, [The Open Conspiracy] calls for educated people of goodwill to create a better world rather than accept the bias of the institutions in which they work. This call to arms was somewhat vague in application. Wells' enemies have denounced it ever since as a call for world domination by an anti-democratic elite; his supporters have interpreted it as a boost for a civil society realized today by bodies such as Greenpeace and Amnesty International" (Sherborne, 286). "Wells' matured theory of world revolution through functional elites" (H.G. Wells Society). Without scarce original dust jacket. Hammond E27. Wells Society Bibliography 102. Inscribed to noted British scientist and Wells' lifelong friend Sir Richard Arman Gregory. In Wells' first work of fiction, he dedicated the work to Gregory as his "dearest friend." The two met while students at the Normal School of Science in South Kensington. They jointly authored a textbook, Honours Physiography, in 1891. Reportedly, Gregory was the one person with whom Wells never quarreled. A professor of astronomy, Gregory also possessed expertise in physics, chemistry and other disciplines; he wrote several textbooks and eventually assumed the editorship of the journal Nature, to which Wells frequently contributed. The author often turned to Gregory, and to the experts Gregory contacted on Wells' behalf, for insight and encouragement when writing his famous "scientific romances." After Wells' death, Gregory worked to establish the H.G. Wells Memorial to preserve public attention to his friend's body of work. Throughout his life Gregory was a passionate advocate for science—"It is necessary to believe in the holiness of scientific work," he once declared—and "an optimist about man's future" (Horrabin, in New Scientist, April 11, 1957).

Cloth a bit sunned, near-fine, with an excellent association.