Story & Significance
Robert Randall never existed. The name was a joint pseudonym for Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett, two of the most prolific writers working the magazines in the mid-1950s, and The Shrouded Planet (Gnome Press, 1957) is the first of only two novels published under it. Currey confirms the collaboration and the pseudonym in his entries for both authors, and lists the first edition as stated on the copyright page, which this copy carries. Chalker and Owings record the book as a novelization of the novelettes “The Chosen People” and “The Promised Land,” and call the joining work seamless, which collaborating writers fixing up magazine material did not always manage. For collectors building a Silverberg shelf, this is an early and easy-to-overlook hardcover appearance, hiding in plain sight under a name that gives no hint of who wrote it.
The novel opens the story of Nidor, a cloud-covered world whose stable, tradition-bound society is quietly unsettled by the arrival of human visitors. Gnome followed it with a sequel, The Dawning Light (Gnome Press, 1959), also under the Randall name and also confirmed by Currey, making this the first half of a complete two-volume set that can still be assembled at reasonable cost relative to the marquee Gnome titles.
Physical Description
This copy is bound in dark blue boards with the spine lettered in light blue, with First Edition stated on the copyright page. Currey records the first edition simply as boards, without noting binding variants or assigning priority for this title. The dust jacket is the uncredited Wallace Wood design, identified by Chalker and Owings, and it is unclipped with the original $3.00 price intact on the front flap. Wood, better known for his comics work, signed nothing here, so the attribution rests on the bibliography rather than the jacket itself.
Condition is very good in a very good jacket. The text block shows toning, a familiar trait of Gnome Press paper stock from this era, and there is one small bump to the front board. The jacket shows light chipping at the spine ends. Internally there is a small, closed tear on the title page; the pages are otherwise entirely free of marks or writing. The binding is tight and both hinges are intact.
Collector's Note
The print run numbers on this title deserve a closer look than the usual single figure. Chalker and Owings report 5,000 copies printed, but they also note Greenberg's report that 2,038 copies were remaindered, and they are candid that the meaning of “remaindered” in the Gnome context is uncertain. Their best reading is that those copies were destroyed, or more likely never bound and discarded by Wolff, which would put the true number of finished copies near 2,962. We pass that analysis along with their caveat intact: the 5,000 figure is the nominal run, and the real survivorship pool may be considerably smaller. It is a good example of why a single print run number on a Gnome title rarely tells the whole story.
Bibliographically, this is otherwise a straightforward title by Gnome standards. Unlike books such as Methuselah's Children, where Currey untangles five bindings and multiple jacket states, his entry here records boards and a stated first edition and leaves it there. No binding priority, no jacket points. A stated first edition with the copyright page statement and an unclipped $3.00 jacket is about as clean a verification as this publisher offers.
The faults on this copy are honest and fully visible in the photographs: the toned text block, the bump, the spine chipping, and the closed tear at the title page. None of them touch the structural integrity of the book, and the unclipped Wood jacket does the heavy lifting for display. For a collector pairing it with The Dawning Light, or for anyone tracking Silverberg's pseudonymous work back to its hardcover beginnings, this is a solid, accurately graded example.
Story & Significance
Robert Randall never existed. The name was a joint pseudonym for Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett, two of the most prolific writers working the magazines in the mid-1950s, and The Shrouded Planet (Gnome Press, 1957) is the first of only two novels published under it. Currey confirms the collaboration and the pseudonym in his entries for both authors, and lists the first edition as stated on the copyright page, which this copy carries. Chalker and Owings record the book as a novelization of the novelettes “The Chosen People” and “The Promised Land,” and call the joining work seamless, which collaborating writers fixing up magazine material did not always manage. For collectors building a Silverberg shelf, this is an early and easy-to-overlook hardcover appearance, hiding in plain sight under a name that gives no hint of who wrote it.
The novel opens the story of Nidor, a cloud-covered world whose stable, tradition-bound society is quietly unsettled by the arrival of human visitors. Gnome followed it with a sequel, The Dawning Light (Gnome Press, 1959), also under the Randall name and also confirmed by Currey, making this the first half of a complete two-volume set that can still be assembled at reasonable cost relative to the marquee Gnome titles.
Physical Description
This copy is bound in dark blue boards with the spine lettered in light blue, with First Edition stated on the copyright page. Currey records the first edition simply as boards, without noting binding variants or assigning priority for this title. The dust jacket is the uncredited Wallace Wood design, identified by Chalker and Owings, and it is unclipped with the original $3.00 price intact on the front flap. Wood, better known for his comics work, signed nothing here, so the attribution rests on the bibliography rather than the jacket itself.
Condition is very good in a very good jacket. The text block shows toning, a familiar trait of Gnome Press paper stock from this era, and there is one small bump to the front board. The jacket shows light chipping at the spine ends. Internally there is a small, closed tear on the title page; the pages are otherwise entirely free of marks or writing. The binding is tight and both hinges are intact.
Collector's Note
The print run numbers on this title deserve a closer look than the usual single figure. Chalker and Owings report 5,000 copies printed, but they also note Greenberg's report that 2,038 copies were remaindered, and they are candid that the meaning of “remaindered” in the Gnome context is uncertain. Their best reading is that those copies were destroyed, or more likely never bound and discarded by Wolff, which would put the true number of finished copies near 2,962. We pass that analysis along with their caveat intact: the 5,000 figure is the nominal run, and the real survivorship pool may be considerably smaller. It is a good example of why a single print run number on a Gnome title rarely tells the whole story.
Bibliographically, this is otherwise a straightforward title by Gnome standards. Unlike books such as Methuselah's Children, where Currey untangles five bindings and multiple jacket states, his entry here records boards and a stated first edition and leaves it there. No binding priority, no jacket points. A stated first edition with the copyright page statement and an unclipped $3.00 jacket is about as clean a verification as this publisher offers.
The faults on this copy are honest and fully visible in the photographs: the toned text block, the bump, the spine chipping, and the closed tear at the title page. None of them touch the structural integrity of the book, and the unclipped Wood jacket does the heavy lifting for display. For a collector pairing it with The Dawning Light, or for anyone tracking Silverberg's pseudonymous work back to its hardcover beginnings, this is a solid, accurately graded example.
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