What with the vast quantity of words spilled on Hooded Utilitarian’s fertile soil this week, I thought I’d go with an image post.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about John Vassos’ Phobia. This post shows some of the highlights from his previous book Ultimo, a 1930 collaboration with his wife, writer Ruth Vassos. The story is a fairly typical Wells-inspired science fiction narrative about life in an underground city, after humans have been run off the surface of the planet by an encroaching ice age.
(Click on any image other than the front cover for a larger view. In captions, italics indicates a direct quote from the text.)
Front Cover (First Edition without jacket)
Frontispiece and Title
First Plate, with text
The images, with a couple of exceptions including the one shown below, don’t illustrate the facing text. They frequently don’t illustrate specific text at all but are atmospheric or supplemental.
Into the frozen earth bored the huge electric drills.
Cities like gigantic mushrooms
Inhabitants
In the underground city
In the Caves
Possibilities of future happiness
The person flying upward with the possibility of future happiness appears to be some sort of cloven-hooved devil-spawn.
Or possibly Nightcrawler….
You say this is from 1930, but the visual design reminds me of the B sci-fi flicks from the 1950s (like “This Island Earth”). That’s not actually a criticism of the book, the art is lovely.
Hey Richard and Noah —
I thought the same thing about the ’50s scifi for that mushroom city one: it’s not impossible, Richard, that my affinity for the ’50s affected which ones I picked. It wasn’t conscious though but it’s definitely there. I don’t know how widely known these books were to artists in the ’50s but there are definitely affinities.
We’re surfing here looking for a “superhero” that dates to before that last panel, Noah. Maybe it’s the missing link between the ubermensch and the superman! LOL.
Hi Caro,
The Rienzi Library, the house museum at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, owns a copy of “Ultimo” and will include the work in a gallery talk about 20th century books that comprise unusual or unique designs.
Unfortunately, we have not photographed the pages from the book yet and would like to know if we can use one of your images in an e-newsletter annoucing the gallery talk.
Did you photograph “Possibilities of Future Happiness”?
If you email me, I can send you a proof to review and will make sure to include your photographic credit line on the publication.
Sincere thanks,
Flora Brooks
Rights and Reproductions Administrator
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
fbrooks@mfah.org