LOWELL, Percival (1855-1916). Mars and its Canals, New York, 1906, 8vo, photogravure frontispiece and 15 plates, modern full green morocco gilt. FIRST EDITION.

LOWELL, Percival (1855-1916).  Mars and its Canals. New York: The Macmillan Company, December 1906. 8vo (225 x 155mm). Half title, photogravure frontispiece and 15 plates including 4 printed in colours, 12 "Martian Maps", some printed two to a page, and one double-page map at the end, illustrations, diagrams, tables and maps in the text, a one-page publisher's advertisement at the end (frontispiece frayed, stained and neatly repaired at the margins not affecting the image, the plate of "The Hermitage" detached, a few marginal stains to the text). Modern full green morocco gilt by L. J. Cullen in imitation of the original cloth binding, top edges gilt, new endpapers. Provenance: "New South Wales. Library of Parliament" (stamp on title). FIRST EDITION. Despite being remembered almost exclusively for his speculations on the existence of canals on Mars, and therefore of the presence of intelligent life, the author was a scientist and astronomer of some distinction, having studied mathematics at Harvard, founded the Lowell Observatory in Arizona and been made a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also played a small but significant part in the discovery of Pluto, a fact that, perhaps apocryphally, was recognised by his initials forming the first two letters of the new planet's name. But there is an irony in the fact that perhaps Lowell's most lasting legacy was in his unwitting contribution to the newly popular genre of science fiction - in particular, to H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" (1898) whose premise that advanced beings from another planet might invade earth was influenced by Lowell's earlier Martian speculations.