Babel-17 — Delany, Ace 04595 (1980 Printing)

📚 Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany — the Nebula Award-winning 1966 science fiction novel in which a poet-cryptographer must decipher an alien language that rewires the minds of anyone who speaks it. This copy is the Ace Books paperback original (Ace 04595, $1.75), seventh printing, January 1980.

Quick Facts

• Title: Babel-17
• Author: Samuel R. Delany
• Publisher: Ace Books (paperback original)
• Cover art: Jerome Podwil
• First published: May 1966, first Ace printing; © 1966 Ace Books, Inc.
• This copy: seventh Ace printing, January 1980 — code ACE/04595-2, original price $1.75
• Awards: Nebula Award for Best Novel (1966, shared with Daniel Keyes’s Flowers for Algernon); Hugo finalist (1967)
• Pages: 173; no ISBN on this printing

The Story

In the middle of an interstellar war, the Invaders’ sabotage is traced to Babel-17 — a language so precisely engineered that anyone who masters it becomes an unwitting saboteur. General Forester sends for Rydra Wong, the “Cosmic Poetess” whose mind encompasses all tongues, and she descends into Transport Town to find the inner meaning of the weapon before the Human Race perishes (back-cover blurb). The novel is Delany’s sustained exploration of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis — language shaping perception — wrapped in high-adventure space opera.

About This Book

Babel-17 was completed in July 1965 and appeared from Ace Books as a paperback original in May 1966, with cover art by Jerome Podwil. It shared the 1966 Nebula Award for Best Novel with Daniel Keyes’s Flowers for Algernon and was a Hugo finalist in 1967. A London edition followed from Gollancz in 1967; Sphere issued a revised text in 1969 that linguist Walter E. Meyers noted corrected some of the novel’s linguistic problems — this copy carries the original 1966 Ace text. The copyright page lists five earlier printings (May 1966, January 1970, April 1973, July 1975, April 1978) before this seventh of January 1980.

This Copy

• Cover: black starfield with Podwil’s action scene — a blonde woman in white holding a pistol astride an orange creature on a futuristic vehicle, cratered planet at left; tagline “BATTLE-CODE FOR COSMIC CONQUEST—”
• Back cover: full Invaders-vs-Earthpeople’s-Alliance blurb and the SFWA Nebula Award line; “Printed in U.S.A.”
• Copyright page: complete Ace printing list, Marilyn Hacker epigraph credits, and Delany’s dedication — “this one, now, is for Bob, to explain just a little of the past year”

Condition Report

• Overall Grade: Very Good+ (VG+)
• Cover & Spine: Very crisp all around, some minimal edge wear in places. Spine has just the hint of a crease seen when held to the light at the right angle. Covers show little to no reading creasing. Small circular surface rub at bottom of the spine.
• Text Block & Pages: Sprayed gold edges are bright, solid, not rubbed or thumbed
• Binding: Square and tight, no loose, torn or folded pages. No writing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a first edition? It is the original Ace paperback text (first published May 1966), but this copy is the seventh printing, January 1980 — not a first printing.

Does it have an ISBN? No — no ISBN appears on this printing; identification is by the Ace code ACE/04595-2 and the copyright page.

Is the text revised? No. The 1969 Sphere revision corrected some linguistic details, but this copy carries the original 1966 Ace text.

See accompanying images for full condition details. Will ship promptly, carefully packaged.

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