The Limits of the Earth (signed)
NY: Little Brown, 1953. First edition. Hardcover. Inscribed in the year of publication on the blank following the title page: "For George K. Kimble, with great appreciation, Fairfield Osborn, September 1953." Uncommon signed. Laid in is a "compliments of the publishers" card which lists the publication date as October 8, 1953, making this an advanced copy. Interestingly, a George H.T. Kimble is listed in the acknowledgments, but it seems to be another George Kimble. A worthy follow up to Osborn's important Our Plundered Planet, this book "takes issue not only with the visionaries of plenty, whose belief in the capabilities of science and technology seems to have outrun the realm of practical possibilities, but also with those who have taken to prophesying mankind's doom by starvation." In this way it anticipates the debates of Barry Commoner and Paul Ehrlich decades later. The son of early conservationist Henry Fairfield Osborn, Fairfield Osborn was an equally important environmental figure as an author, the president of the New York Zoological Society, and the co-founder of the Conservation Foundation. A very good plus book with toning to pages and light rubbing to spine ends; in a very good jacket with sunning and a crease to spine, some short tears to edges, fraying to spine ends, and general rubbing. Very good / Very good. Item #1440
Price: $750.00 save 5% $712.50