May 15, 2012 - Sale 2279

Sale 2279 - Lot 237

Price Realized: $ 1,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
[LOCKE, RICHARD ADAMS.] Great Astronomical Discoveries lately made by Sir John Herschel, LL. D.F.R.S. &c. at the Cape of Good Hope [caption title]. 28 pages. 8vo, self-wrappers, side-stitched; somewhat soiled and foxed, with scattered stains; uncut. [Np, 1835]
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Additional Details

"This fabulous account of flora and fauna on the surface of the moon originally appeared as a 'news story' in the New York Sun in August and September in 1835 under the title 'Discoveries in the Moon lately made at the Cape of Good Hope by Sir John Herschel.' Purportedly based on a news release by the Royal Society, the story achieved short-lived credibility by describing the construction and working of a powerful telescope"--Lilly Library, Science Fiction and Fantasy, page 12.