SIGNED BY J.G. BALLARD

BALLARD, J.G. Low-Flying Aircraft. London: Jonathan Cape, (1976). Octavo, original green boards, original dust jacket. $900.

First edition of this anthology of Ballard’s cautionary science fiction tales, boldly signed by the author on the title page.

In addition to the title story (in which a doctor undertakes aerial rescue missions to salvage valuable art from a chillingly underpopulated future), "The Dead Astronaut" (a recurring image in Ballard's fiction, symbolic of the author's ambivalence toward American ambition) and "The Beach Murders" (an experimental murder mystery in which the narrator presents all the clues in alphabetical order, leaving solutions to the readers), this anthology contains "an excellent original novella, 'The Ultimate City,' which projects Ballard's urban obsessions of the 1970s into the future" (Encyclopedia of Science Fiction). The stories here demonstrate how Ballard's themes "of a contemporary society in insidious thrall to technology, the media and relentless progress both expanded and defied the genre of science fiction" (New York Times). Currey, 18. Price-clipped dust jacket with two publisher price stickers to front flap.

A bright and fine signed copy.