Two Viskupic-Jacketed Sci-Fi BCE's
Miller, Walter M., Jr. A Canticle for Leibowitz. J. B. Lippincott Company, 1978 (Book Club Ed.). Hardbound. Jacket design by John Lisco. $60.
Van Vogt, A. E. Slan. Nelson Doubleday 1978 (Book Club Ed.). Hardbound. Jacket design by John Lisco. $18.
Two book club editions with jackets by the great Gary Viskupic, whose eerie sensibility and methodical cross-hatching has been compared to Edward Gorey. Walker Percy described A Canticle for Leibowitz, which was inspired by Miller's experience as a member of the bomber crew who helped destroy a sixth-century, St. Benedict–founded Italian monastery during World War II, as a 'cipher, a coded message, a book in a strange language'. And the neologism 'slan', referring to a persecuted race of super-intelligent humans, became an in-group identity for sci-fi fans soon after the book's publishing in 1946, and was compounded to form the term 'slan shacks', homes cohabited by groups of the genre's devotees.
Both books have tight square spines and clean, unmarked interiors. There is light to moderate shelf-wear to both books and their jackets, including areas of light rubbing, edge-wear, and a few small, closed tears. Featured Rare & Collectible/Fiction.
