Cincinnati: John Uri Lloyd,, 1895. A fantastical literary phenomena First edition, limited issue, signed by the author at the end of the facsimile letter, as issued, this copy also inscribed by the author to stenographer Ella Burbige on the first blank, "Miss Ella Burbidge [sic], compliments of John Uri Lloyd", and notably uncommon thus. This novel was "one of the most splendid of a number of opulent fantasy extravaganzas issued in America in the late 19th century" (Locke). Burbige (b. 1857) is mentioned in the footnote on page 221, regarding the existence of an element that is neither solid, gas, nor liquid, and is listed in the subscribers list. This extraordinary metaphysical work by the eminent American pharmacologist John Uri Lloyd (1849-1936) is "a long eccentric romance with interspersed sections that describe scientific experiments in chemistry and physics" (Bleiler). Its hero meets a bearded stranger called 'I-Am-The-Man' who explains that he has been taken to the centre of the earth by "an eyeless, sexless, nude humanoid" (ibid.). Their adventures include the sampling of "liquid from a mushroom fruit [that induces] astonishing dreams of Dante-like hells, with misshapen organisms and gigantic hands emergent from the ground" (ibid.). Etidorhpa (Aphrodite spelled backwards) was hugely popular, went through many editions, and was translated into seven languages; there were Etidorhpa literary clubs in the United States and some parents even named their daughters Etidorhpa. Howgego describes the work as "highly regarded by devotees of metaphysical fiction and the hollow-earth genre" and, perhaps unsurprisingly therefore, early editions have "long been a collector's item" (Bleiler). The entirety of the first edition was designated the "Author's Edition", and issued with a facsimile letter signed by Lloyd and a loosely inserted note to subscribers printed on pink paper, often missing, but retained in this copy. Large octavo. Portrait frontispiece of "I-Am-The-Man", two page facsimile letter from Lloyd, and numerous monochrome illustrations throughout by J. Augustus Knapp, a reproduction of "A Vision of Etidorpha", June 1898 by Swedish artist Olle Hjortzberg loosely inserted at page 257. Original brown cloth over bevelled boards, gilt lettered spine, front cover decorated in silver, top edge gilt, brown coated endpapers. Nicks and wear to spine ends and corners, a couple of marks to cloth, gilt bright, inner hinges tender, notably heavy book block a little shaken; a very good copy. Bleiler 1028; Howgego, Invented and Apocryphal Narratives of Travel, L43; Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, I, p. 141.
