MANKIND IN THE MAKING, 1903, WARMLY INSCRIBED BY WELLS TO CLOSE FRIEND AND SCIENTIFIC CONSULTANT SIR RICHARD GREGORY
WELLS, H.G. Mankind in the Making. London: Chapman & Hall, 1903. Octavo, original blue cloth gilt, top edge gilt, uncut.
Second edition, published the same year as the first, of these futurological essays on pressing social and economic issues, presentation-association copy warmly inscribed by Wells in the year of publication to his lifelong friend and scientific consultant, “To R.A. Gregory with affection from H.G. Wells. Oct. 1903.”
These attempts to view "social and political questions in a new way and from a new starting-point" (page vi) are early products of Wells' turn from his "scientific romances" to "the probable development of future history and the reforms necessary to create a better world" (Clute & Nicholls, 1314). "The chapters on birth control and the place of the home in modern socialism brought comment from many, and are important in the development of [Wells'] thought… Wells utilized many observations of his own children in this book, along with others of the offspring of his friends… Mankind in the Making offered a curriculum for the world he foresaw" (Smith, 98-99, 245). Stated second edition. Contents first published in The Fortnightly Review and Cosmopolitan, 1902-1903; revised for the first book edition, published July 1903. See Hammond E4; Wells Society 22. This copy inscribed by Wells 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. Gregory was a professor of astronomy, also possessing 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. Wells 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).
Occasional light foxing. Cloth fresh and clean with only lightest rubbing to spine ends, all gilt bright. A lovely presentation-association copy inscribed by Wells, in about-fine condition.