The City And The Stars Against the Fall of Night

From the Lost Library

This isn't the entry for it, but I should probably do one about the library(ies) I no longer have.

Really, a library is just a collection of books. It's a gathering of expression into one place. Does it have to be different than a young child's Little Golden Books and Britanica Juniors? Well, one hopes it isn't an accidental collection of the things parents have provided. So maybe I won't call that first treasure trove a library. But the second one? that collection of books I mostly sought out purposely and selected for keeping rather than passing on or selling? That was indeed a library. Oh, sure, I was still young and my tastes were not particularly advanced. I don't think I should misrepresent it as aspiring. Truth be told: it was entirely Science Fiction and Fantasy. I make no apology. I loved it then, and would love it still—except that it was stolen from me.

Yes, out there somewhere in the wide world—probably in ash piles, yard sales, attics, and used book stores—are the remains of my old library. It was a humble collection, to be sure. Still, there are many times that I mourn one or another book that I know was in it.

It's a long and rather predictable story about trust, moving and assumptions that led to my losing that first library. I'm trying not to be bitter.  I also try, every so often, to find and re-aquire the more cherished pieces. And I have found some few. These twins separated at birth are among those I've managed to get back.

Against The Fall Of Night was published by Arthur C. Clarke in 1948 as a novella. It was then rewritten and published again in 1953. But apparently he wasn't done with it then, either, because it was rewritten and published again as The City And The Stars in 1956.

I luckily read ATFON first, so I was able to enjoy it for what it was. There's nothing wrong with the rewrite. I enjoyed it, too. Both versions of the book tell the same story of a young man named Alvin who explores the wilds beyond an organized, modern life and manages to reunite two parts of humanity that had lost each other.

The versions are different, though: in style of prose, the description of the setting and even arrangement (if I recall correctly). He was a more mature author by the time he got to the rewrite. But I'm going to admit that as a reader I wasn't entirely able to appreciate that maturity. Maybe that's because at the time when I read it I was already fairly immersed in paperback SF and Fantasy. The bar might have been a little lower than it is now. These days, I might not be able to read these books back to back. And that's okay, readability is not the reason they're in my collection.

What's more interesting to me is the situation itself. A writer re-wrote and re-published his novel, "fixing" it, but not replacing it. Against the Fall of Night has remained in print, available to the public right alongside its replacement. That says something about the original, and maybe the power behind the author, as well. This is Clarke, after all, one of the giants of SF in the late "Golden Age."


Both my books are paperback, and neither of them are the first run of those. My first copies of them were also paperbacks. I think that the cover for Against The Fall of Night is the same as my original. These are both used. They show the wear of reading. Also that their pages are darker than they should be. That speaks to the quality of paper used, and presence of acids. I suppose they don't have as long a life as other books. Conservation is something I take seriously, but there's a list of books in trouble in my collection, and despite my emotional connection to them, these two are not at the top of the rescue list.