The Last Man by Mary Shelley (update: sold out)

In our #pandemicbooks series, we have made short runs of several bootleg, open-copyright, and public domain works, and have donated a large share of the proceeds from sale to organizations doing frontline work. This latest book, a two-volume version of Mary Shelley’s novel The Last Man is a special edition for the Vancouver Art Book Fair, and will be for sale only during the fair. For each copy sold, we will make a $10 donation to one of our favourite organizations, Battered Womens’ Support Services.

The Last Man was first published in 1826, and is set in a then-future, where the British Empire has become a turbulent republic embroiled in a war against the Ottoman Empire, while a lethal pandemic emerges to decimate humanity. The central character, the Earl of Windsor, is fairly obviously based upon Percy Bysse Shelley, who died in 1822.

This edition is based upon an American two-volume edition from 1833, which was likely a bootleg in its day (the United States was a notorious haven for copyright piracy throughout the 19th century), and in which the author’s name is misspelled on the title page. In the scanned copy we are using for this reproduction, the mistake has been hand-corrected by one of the book’s owners.

Two softcover volumes with belly band, 5.375×8.375″, 430 pages total.

Sold out