1902 Jules Verne - The Moon Voyage From the Earth to the Moon and Round the Moon
Author: Jules Verne. Illustrated by Henry Austin.
Title: The Moon Voyage. Containing “From the Earth to the Moon” and “Round the Moon.”
Publisher: London: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, Warwick House, Salisbury Square, E.C. (circa 1902).
Language: Text in English.
Size: 7.5" x 5.25".
Pages: vii-132,147 pages + publisher's catalog
Binding: Attractive and very good original publisher’s green pictorial cloth binding, artfully decorated on the upper cover and spine with an illustration of two men gazing through a porthole, signed by the artist in the block, and a volcanic cannon launch motif on the spine (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing or staining - as shown, name of a previous 1902 owner on the first blank page - as shown).
Illustrations: Frontispiece illustrations by Henry Austin, including dramatic depictions of the Columbiad cannon’s fiery launch and the interior of the projectile en route to the Moon. (Complete).
Estimate: (USD 175–250).
The book: A very nice Edwardian pictorial edition of Jules Verne’s The Moon Voyage, uniting two of his most visionary scientific romances — From the Earth to the Moon and Round the Moon — in one attractively illustrated volume. Combining satire, scientific imagination, and mathematical rigor, Verne’s lunar saga anticipated modern space travel with uncanny accuracy: the design of the projectile, its launch from Florida, and the astronauts’ near-orbital trajectory all foreshadowed the Apollo missions of the 20th century.
This Ward, Lock & Co. issue — featuring Henry Austin’s dramatic illustrations and a bold Art Nouveau–influenced cover design — remains one of the most visually compelling English printings of the early 1900s. The copy’s dark green binding and moon vignette evoke the era’s fascination with celestial exploration and technological optimism.
The author: Jules Verne (1828–1905), the celebrated French novelist and pioneer of scientific romance, is best remembered for his Voyages Extraordinaires series, including Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and Around the World in Eighty Days. His work bridged adventure and speculative science, inspiring generations of readers, inventors, and explorers. Verne’s meticulous research and visionary concepts positioned him as the father of modern science fiction.
The illustrator: Henry Austin, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was among the British illustrators commissioned by Ward, Lock & Co. to reinterpret Verne’s classic adventure tales. His engravings are vivid and atmospheric, capturing the dynamism and mechanical wonder central to Verne’s fiction — from the thunderous firing of the Columbiad to the silent drift of the capsule through lunar space.