Slaughterhouse-Five.

VONNEGUT, Kurt

New York: Delacorte, 1969.

First edition / First printing. Hardcover. A near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket. Item #2609

His masterwork, a powerful fictional memoir of his experiences during the Allied fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany. Vonnegut's philosophical reflections on the tragic absurdity of humankind are embedded in an impressionistic, pessimistic yet comic science fiction tale that is a high spot of the literature of the 1960s and since. The first printing was 10,000 copies and the book eventually sold more than 60,000 copies in hardcover and innumerable in paperback, becoming a classic of its era and a standard on college campuses -- at first by word-of-mouth and later as part of the canon. On all three major lists of the top books of the 20th century. Ownership signature of another writer, dated May, 1969 (the book was published in March); spine very slightly slanted and a bit of edge sunning to cloth, as is typical with this title; still about near fine in a mildly spine-tanned dust jacket with a light stain covering half of Vonnegut's white shirt on the rear panel. In a custom slipcase.