"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. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $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.

Text very fresh, mild toning to spine of about-fine book; trace of soiling, edge-wear, faint toning to spine of scarce near-fine dust jacket.