WELLS, H.G. (1866?1946).?The Time Machine: An Invention.?London: William Heinemann, 1895. 8vo. Half?title. Original printed wrappers (rebacked retaining a small portion of the original backstrip, staining to upper cover, also affecting preliminaries including title?page, lower edge of front cover renewed); folding wooden box with brass clasps and a morocco label gilt. Provenance: Lewis A. Scott?Elliot (ownership stamps on upper cover, contents page and at end); Thacker & Co. (bookseller?s stamp on upper cover). FIRST EDITION, CURREY?S BINDING A WRAPPER ISSUE, published simultaneously with the cloth issue. THE AUTHOR?S FIRST NOVEL and ?the earliest known work of science fiction to be based on the idea of time travel? (Wells Society). Currey states that the initial edition comprised 5000 copies in wrappers and 1000 in cloth. Demand for clothbound copies was so great, however, that unsold wrappered copies were stripped of their wrappers and cased in cloth. ?Quite a number of soiled paper copies were also rebound in cloth? making this fragile book even scarcer. Barron 2?161; Bleiler, Science Fiction 2325; Currey pp. 524?525; Wells 4.