Thirteen to Centaurus [in] Amazing Fact, April 1962 Signed by J.G. Ballard

Thirteen to Centaurus [in] Amazing Fact and Science Fiction Stories, April 1962 
New York: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1962
 
8vo., decorative wraps showing an image by Lloyd Birmingham of a space man missing a hand and a foot in a barren desert-like landscape; quotation and image to lower wrap by Virgil Finlay taken from Ballard’s short story contribution; advertisements to versos of wraps printed in black and white; pp. 3-146, with illustrations throughout by Finlay, Summers and others; a very fresh example, the vibrant wraps with just some small damp splashes to rear, a little browned and creased along backstrip with small patch of abrasion affecting title lettering at foot; paper stock evenly toned, as always, otherwise a lovely copy. 
 
Volume 36, No. 4 in Amazing Fact and Science Fiction magazine, where Ballard contributes his short story ‘Thirteen to Centaurus’ which appears here in print for the first time. This copy signed by Ballard in blue ink next to the start of his story at p. 24. 
 
Amazing Stories was the first American magazine devoted solely to the subject of Science Fiction. Launched in 1926, it adopted this standard pulp format in the 1930s, and by the 1960s regularly published original contributions from such household names as Philip K Dick, Arthur C Clarke, Richard Matheson and others. Ballard’s contribution here is set within a mysterious habitat known as ‘The Station’, and follows a crew of thirteen people as they travel through the universe on a multi-generational spaceship.