BUCHAN, John (1875-1940). The Gap in the Curtain, London, 1932, 8vo, original green buckram, dust-jacket. A FINE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION of the author's only novel which incorporates supernatural and science fiction elements.

BUCHAN, John (1875-1940).  The Gap in the Curtain. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1932. 8vo (186 x 130mm). Half title, 4-pages of publisher's advertisements at the end. Original green buckram with a central letter "B" stamped in gilt on the upper cover, the spine lettered in gilt, dust-jacket (some light spotting to the jacket, slight creasing and a few tiny nicks at the edges). A FINE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION of the author's only novel to incorporate supernatural and science fiction elements. "The theme of The Gap in the Curtains, where a number of men are induced to see their own death-notices in The Times, led to a long correspondence with the physicist J. W. Dunne (author of An Experiment with Time [first published in 1927, a copy of which was sold in these rooms on 13 July 2023] and has since caused certain French critics to place John Buchan as one of the fathers of science fiction. Using his own particular techniques he did find ways to illustrate the anxieties, the fears and tensions of his time, often without seeming to do anything of the kind" (William Buchan, John Buchan: A Memoir (1982), p.356). Blanchard First Editions of John Buchan: A Collector's Bibliography A94; Bleiler The Guide to Supernatural Fiction p.64; Hanna John Buchan. A Bibliography A81.