I hope that this edition will be of interest to SF scholars and fans, those dipping their toes into the genre, anyone who wants to get a taste for Jules Verne’s work, and educators in both high school and college classrooms.
I am delighted to announce the publication of Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, Annotated for Our Spacefaring Age (MIT Press). Following on from Frankenstein, Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds (2018), this volume launches the Imagination, Annotated series, which aims to present science fiction classics for new readers and contemporary concerns.
Jules Verne has a history of poor translations into English (due to his popularity and the historical absence of international copyright law), and few editions of his work in this language offer complete and accurate texts. Moreover, the popular perception of Jules Verne is that he was interested in gadgets and new technologies, but thought little about the social and political aspects of technological innovation.
This edition challenges both of these realities. It offers a reliable translation, the illustrations that accompanied the novel’s first book publication in French, Verne’s footnotes, an introduction that provides historical and cultural context, and annotations and essays by a variety of scholars, writers, and thinkers that use this prescient novel as a launching pad to consider the past, present, and future of spaceflight from scientific, humanistic, social, legal, and ethical angles.
I’ve included the table of contents below. The book is available from MIT Press and most major booksellers – do check it out and don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Anastasia Klimchynskaya
Visiting Assistant Professor of English
Illinois Wesleyan University
Table of Contents
Introduction Anastasia Klimchynskaya
Jules Verne and His Contexts Anastasia Klimchynskaya
From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, translated by Walter Miller and annotated for our spacefaring age
Essays
Elitist Populism, Rationalism without Reasons, and Other Contradictions
Malka Older
Les Fusillades Extraordinaires: Verne’s Big Guns
Adam Roberts
The Many Jules Vernes of Soviet Cosmic Culture
Asif Siddiqi
From San Antonio to the Seine: American Space Medicine in Paris, 1962
Jordan Bimm
Why Go to the Moon? The Costs and Benefits of Space Exploration
Erika Nesvold
From the Earth to the Moon: Money, Law, and Power in the Race to Exploit Resources
Adam Obeyanji
Whose Moon Is It Anyway?
Samit Basu