NY, Macmillan, 1948. An early work by this scholar who often delved into the interplay of science and literature or the literary imagination and who here turns her attention to the possibilities for lunar travel and habitation, in fact and fiction. Includes a bibliography on the history of flight from 1493 to 1784. Nicolson earned her PhD at Yale; did postdoctoral work at Johns Hopkins; taught at the University of Minnesota, Goucher College and Smith College, where she also served as dean of the faculty; in 1941, she became the first female full professor at Columbia, later becoming the chair of Columbia's graduate department of English and Comparative Literature and president of the Modern Language Association. This copy is inscribed by Nicolson "For Jane Kaufman/ one of the students to whom this book is dedicated/ Marjorie Hope Nicolson." The book's printed dedication reads "To the Smith College Students in 'Science and Imagination' 1936-1941/ from whose ingenious and amusing term papers their teacher learned more than she taught." The inscription is on an index card, tipped to the front flyleaf. Sunning to the board edges; a very good copy in a supplied dust jacket with shallow edge chipping and rubbing to the folds. [#036451] $350