"IF IT WEREN'T FOR THE PEOPLE… THE WORLD WOULD BE AN ENGINEER'S PARADISE": FIRST EDITION OF VONNEGUT'S PLAYER PIANO

VONNEGUT, Kurt. Player Piano. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952. Octavo, original green cloth, original dust jacket. $4500.

First edition of Vonnegut's first novel, an "increasingly prescient," darkly humorous dystopia.

A "dystopia of automation, Player Piano… describes the dereliction of the quality of life by the progressive surrender of production and political decision to machines. The mixture of heavy irony, bordering on black humor, and unashamed sentimentality displayed in the novel became the hallmark of Kurt Vonnegut's work" (Clute & Nicholls, 1289). "The story… is increasingly prescient as globalism triumphs" (Anatomy of Wonder II-1202). This first edition numbered 7600 copies "and is accordingly difficult to find today" (Reed, 41). With Scribner's "A" on copyright page. Pieratt & Klinkowitz AA1. Bruccoli & Clark I:395. Currey, 407.

Book fine; toning to spine of handsome near-fine dust jacket.