“TANSTAAFL!”: SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS

HEINLEIN, Robert. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1966. Octavo, original orange cloth, original dust jacket; housed in a custom slipcase. $7200.

Scarce first edition of one of Heinlein’s most popular and influential novels.

"Heinlein had been studying politics and revolutions for decades, and poured all his insights about the realities that took precedence over illusion into The Moon is a Harsh Mistress… [It] was greeted with enthusiasm by Heinlein's science fiction readers… [and] won Heinlein his fourth Hugo award and is seen by the majority of mainstream genre readers as echt-Heinlein, which fellow author Samuel Delaney described as 'expressing the storytelling he does best, balancing social portraiture with didacticism and headlong narrative in about equal measures.' Perhaps because [Heinlein's previous novel] Farnham's Freehold had sold poorly, Putnam's issued only a small first run of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress—less than 9000 copies—for a late-year release that frustratingly missed the Christmas book-buying season. They were caught unprepared for the enthusiastic demand for the book—a demand which has not abated" (Patterson, 51). The book has endured not only as a science fiction classic but also as an oft-cited expression of Libertarian political philosophy. First edition, with no statement of printing on copyright page and price of $5.95 on front flap of dust jacket. "Scarce and highly prized" (Smiley, 37). Currey, 192. Anatomy of Wonder II-512. Smiley, 37.

Book fine, dust jacket near-fine with a bit of faint foxing to flaps and rear panel and mild edge-wear, front panel bright and vivid.