Cosmos, 3rd Korean Edition, 1981

book
2017
offset lithograph, adhesive bound
170 x 240 mm, 480 pp

As the name indicates, it’s a version – an infra-flat one – of a Korean translation of Cosmos, published by Munhwa Seojeok in 1981. Apart from the fact that the pages are unrecognizably blurred, all the other aspects of the book, from the format to the extent, printing, paper, binding and the content, are exactly the same as the original: 170 x 240 mm, 480 pp, four-color offset printing on rough-grain uncoated paper, paperback with red endpapers, “An astonishing profile of the great universe, unfolded vividly and arrestingly, with more than 250 colorful plates, by the best planetary investigator of our century, the Pulitzer-winning writer Carl Sagan.” Even an accidental flaw has been replicated: the missing page 63 (where a section about the life-determining DNA is supposed to begin), which was torn out from our copy at some point in its 36-year history.