London: George Bell and Sons, 1908. 390 pp. (with six of the advertisement pages in the rear missing) Approximately 5 x 7 3/4". 1st edition. Red-cloth variant binding (much more scarce than the common blue one) - third state, title in black on cover with illustrated paste-down, title and publisher on spine in gilt, considerable foxing on page edges and some throughout, otherwise, very good plus condition. (Curry 1979, p. 526)

Herbert George Wells (1866 - 1946) is often called the "father of science fiction" along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. The War in the Air is a military science fiction novel, originally published in The Pall Mall Magazine, about the futuristic idea of using aircraft in warfare.