James Blish's 'A Life for the Stars' paperback book cover, published by Avon. The cover features a dark black background with a prominent red-orange 3D box graphic and yellow text.
The back cover of a vintage book showing printed copyright and publisher information on warm tan paper.
A vintage book or magazine page printed on aged tan paper, featuring an excerpt from James Blish's science fiction work 'The Prophetic Vision' with handwritten text at the top reading 'R.I.
The back cover of a sci-fi book titled 'A City Launches Itself Into the Galaxy!' featuring a brown background with red and black text and a small triangular logo in the top right corner.
Roll over image to zoom in Click on image to zoom
James Blish's 'A Life for the Stars' paperback book cover, published by Avon. The cover features a dark black background with a prominent red-orange 3D box graphic and yellow text.The back cover of a vintage book showing printed copyright and publisher information on warm tan paper.A vintage book or magazine page printed on aged tan paper, featuring an excerpt from James Blish's science fiction work 'The Prophetic Vision' with handwritten text at the top reading 'R.I.The back cover of a sci-fi book titled 'A City Launches Itself Into the Galaxy!' featuring a brown background with red and black text and a small triangular logo in the top right corner.

A Life for the Stars

Debs Book Paradise
>
Price:
$18.00

Description

Author: James Blish
Publisher: Avon Books (G1280)
Year: 1968 (Originally published 1962)
Edition: Fifth Avon Printing: February, 1968
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Cover Photographer: Lida Moser
Condition: Good to Very Good (Flawed by Previous Owner Markings)

An essential chapter of the foundational Cities in Flight future history by a Hugo Award-winning master.
Before hard science fiction explored the grand scale of galactic empires, James Blish envisioned a staggering, brilliant concept: entire terrestrial cities lifting off a dying Earth, propelled into the cosmos by anti-gravity "spindizzy" fields to roam the stars as migratory worker colonies. In A Life for the Stars, the second chronological installment of his legendary Cities in Flight omnibus, Blish follows a young Scranton, Pennsylvania native swept up into the grand migration when the historic city of New York breaks atmosphere to forge a new destiny among unknown planets.
This historic 1968 Fifth Avon Printing features a highly distinct, abstract geometric cover styled by pioneering mid-century documentary and architectural photographer Lida Moser. Dedicated to fellow genre titan L. Sprague de Camp, this particular copy carries the unique charm and visual signature of an authentic 1960s reading artifact, making it an incredibly evocative addition to any design-forward vintage library.
Condition Notes
  • Overall Profile: Good to Very Good (G/VG). A highly solid, structurally reliable vintage volume showing natural signs of a dedicated literary life.
  • Cover: Bright front graphics with some noticeable edge wear, light chipping around the margins, and minor surface rubbing typical of 1960s Avon stock.
  • Spine: Structurally tight and remarkably solid for its age. It has been read but completely avoids the heavy vertical creases or cracked bindings common to paperbacks of this era.

  • Interior: Pages are remarkably tight, clean, and crisp. The paper shows natural, uniform golden age-toning. The interior front leaf bears a heavy, handwritten previous owner signature ("R.T. Divelbiss") in ink, adding a distinct layer of personal history and provenance to the piece.