R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) - A Play in Three Acts and an Epilogue
First British edition, 1923
R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) (1920) is the play by Karel ?apek that introduced the word "robot" to the world. The term was coined by ?apek's brother Josef, derived from the Czech robota, meaning forced labor or drudgery, and has since passed into virtually every modern language. The play depicts a factory that manufactures artificial human workers, the Robots, who eventually revolt against their creators and destroy humanity. First performed in Prague in 1921, it was staged internationally within a year and remains one of the most influential works in the history of science fiction.
This first British edition, translated from the Czech by P. Selver and adapted for the English stage by Nigel Playfair, differs in several respects from the 1923 Doubleday, Page American edition published the same year. Published by Humphrey Milford for Oxford University Press in the original wrappers.
Softcover. First British edition. Small octavo, original printed black wrappers. London: Humphrey Milford / Oxford University Press, 1923. Cited in Lewis, Utopian Literature (pp. 38-9); Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years (358); Negley, Utopian Literature (182); and all five editions of Anatomy of Wonder. #11431.
Shallow chips at head and tail of spine panel restored by a professional paper conservator. Fine, bright copy, enclosed in a custom red cloth clamshell box with black leather spine label.
This first British edition, translated from the Czech by P. Selver and adapted for the English stage by Nigel Playfair, differs in several respects from the 1923 Doubleday, Page American edition published the same year. Published by Humphrey Milford for Oxford University Press in the original wrappers.
Softcover. First British edition. Small octavo, original printed black wrappers. London: Humphrey Milford / Oxford University Press, 1923. Cited in Lewis, Utopian Literature (pp. 38-9); Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years (358); Negley, Utopian Literature (182); and all five editions of Anatomy of Wonder. #11431.
Shallow chips at head and tail of spine panel restored by a professional paper conservator. Fine, bright copy, enclosed in a custom red cloth clamshell box with black leather spine label.