SUGAR IN THE AIR - A Romance (First edition - first printing in prewar dustwrapper)

First printing of the true first edition - first of the two connected Charles Pry tales. **Very good in light-green woven cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. The boards are clean and unmarked, having been protected by the dustwrapper. No rubbing or tears to the cloth. Head and tail of spine slightly creased. Top edge of page block slightly darkened and all edges slightly foxed. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Internally near fine with no inscriptions, and only very light foxing to the endpapers and first and last couple of pages. No creases or tears. ***In a very good, colour illustrated dustwrapper, which is not price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of 7s.6d. net. Whilst the dustwrapper is largely complete, there is an area of loss at the top edge of the spine. There is some rubbing and creasing to the head and tail of the spine, and the extremities are also slightly creased and rubbed with very slight loss at the bottom of the spine and corner tips. No serious creases or tears. Back panel of dustwrapper discolored and foxed (being a white background). Some stains and foxing also on the inner flaps. The front panel with illustration is clean and bright (please see scans). ***447 pages. 198mm x 130mm. ***'A strange, but quite possible, invention made by a young engineer; a great and complex company and its promoters; the plots and counter-plots of marketing "Sunsap"; the rich comedy of good intentions and evil intentions -- all of this makes up a novel of quite exceptional vitality and force.' (Quote taken from the front flap) ***'Ernest Charles Large OBE (24 June 1902 - 25 August 1976) was an English engineer, novelist, mycologist, and phytopathologist, known as a pioneer of phytopathometry. He began to publish poetry and fiction in the late 1920s. "Sugar in the Air: A Romance" (1937), his first novel, was the first of the two connected Charles Pry tales, and is a notable and original Scientific Romance, bitterly but wryly describing the conflicts which arise between scientific and commercial interests during experiments with artificial photosynthesis. Eventually, Charles Pry develops a process to manufacture sugar from the air (or SUNSAP) in industrial quantities, but his inept bosses are outsmarted by another firm. The prequel, "Asleep in the Afternoon" (1938), is a satire whose frame narrative about the tribulations of an author is interwoven with a frivolous sf story about a device for inducing sleep. (SFE) ***'In 1936 Large turned to writing and his wife supported the family by continuing as a teacher. Jonathan Cape published Large's first novel "Sugar in the Air" in 1937 and his second novel "Asleep in the Afternoon" in 1938. "Sugar in the Air" is considered one of the most noteworthy science fiction novels published in the 1930s. The New Yorker praised "Asleep in the Afternoon" in a brief mention. His third (and final) novel "Dawn in Andromeda" was published in 1956. The three novels received favorable reviews. E. C. Large became a minor literary celebrity and once had tea with Eric Blair (George Orwell) and Blair's first wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy.' (Wiki) ***A first printing of the true first edition of this interesting prewar science fiction novel, in very good condition, and hard to find now in the original dustwrapper. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.…