The Bright Phoenix

The Bright Phoenix (1955) is a post-apocalyptic dystopian novel set 120 years after atomic warfare has destroyed civilization. The sole surviving human city is a rigid collectivist state built around eugenics, social conditioning, and strict governmental control over private life. John Waterville, a government explorer returning from the uninhabited outer lands, finds himself increasingly alienated from the society he once served. When a pilot colony is sent to reclaim those territories, contact with an independent island community forces a deeper reckoning with the values of the State. The Bright Phoenix was compared on publication to writers such as John Wyndham and Arthur C. Clarke, though now largely overlooked.

Hardcover. First Edition. Octavo, black cloth decorated in white on spine. London: Michael Josepht, 1955. #11354.
Fine in near fine dust jacket with a small nick at top of spine.