CRAWFORD, William L. (1911-1984), ed. The Machine God Laughs. Los Angeles: Griffin Publishing Co., 1949.

8vo. Original cloth; dust jacket (toning, rubbing, chipping along extremities). Provenance: Forrest J. Ackerman (1916-2008), American editor, magazine publisher, and science fiction author; acquired by the present owner directly from Ackerman.

FIRST EDITION. The Machine God Laughs is a collection of three short stories published in a limited run of 1,200 copies which originally appeared in the magazine Fantasy Book. Included are stories by Festus Pragnell (1905-1965), a British constable, Basil Wells (1912-2003), and “Paul Dennis Lanford,” a pseudonym for Frederik Pohl, Robert A.W. Lowndes, and Joseph Harold Dockweiler.