"CHILLING MASTERPIECES OF TECHNO-IMPOTENCE": ULTIMO, 1930, INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY BOTH JOHN AND RUTH VASSOS
VASSOS, John and VASSOS, Ruth. Ultimo: An Imaginative Narration of Life Under the Earth. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1930. Small quarto, original brown cloth with Art Deco design, original dust jacket with matching design.
First trade edition of this futuristic vision of the end of the earth, with 22 Art Deco-inspired plates by John Vassos and with text by Ruth Vassos, inscribed and signed by both on the half title: "To Edith, with much affection, from John Vassos." "In which I heartily join—Ruth Vassos. May 21, '39."
"In Ultimo Vassos anticipated in the form of science fiction the current [1976] energy crisis and recent technological advances. The book deals with a fading sun, an ice age; people taking refuge underground, then swinging to the other extreme and seeking a new world, less cramped and closer to the sun; men in interstellar space, arriving on distant planets through magnetized tunnels in rockets, clothed in insulated garments and electrically oxygenated masks" (P.K. Thomajan). Vassos' illustrations provided "chilling masterpieces of techno-impotence as massive Art Deco ocean liners were made useless by larger masses of frozen water and humanity drilled deep into the earth for the last remnants of heat" (Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr). Text written by his wife, Ruth Vassos, "whom he met at a Greenwich Village soirée in 1924. She was a fashion adviser to Saks-Fifth Avenue and had the gift of words. Together, they made a visual/verbal team," producing the volumes Contempo (1929) and Humanities (1935) in addition to Ultimo (Thomajan). In addition to these futuristic books, industrial designer John Vassos helped define the modernist art movement via his work as a designer for RCA, where he was instrumental in producing designs for the earliest televisions, microphones, radios, consoles, etc. Issued simultaneously in a signed limited edition of only 115 copies.
Book fine, scarce original dust jacket with shallow chip to head of toned spine, extremely good. A desirable inscribed copy.