4 ENCOUNTERS

First edition, first printing. Hardcover issue. Original grey cloth with gilt titles to the upper board, in dustwrapper. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth clean. The contents are clean and bright throughout and without stamps or inscriptions. Complete with the lightly rubbed and creased original dustwrapper that is slightly faded to the spine and with a few light marks to the rear panel.

A posthumously published unfinished collection of 4 philosophical essay-stories in which an unnamed narrator meets a representative of 4 different schools of thought - 'A Christian', 'A Scientist', 'A Mystic' and 'A Revolutionary' who each lay out and argue their particular views on the universe, existence, spirituality and society in pensive debate with the narrator. While not a work of science fiction like Stapledon's best known novels, 'The Star Maker' and 'Last and First Men', these short stories carry his characteristic speculative and wide-reaching approach to philosophy and science.