Slaughterhouse-Five, Signed by Kurt Vonnegut, Easton Press Limited Edition 312/850, 2007

Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse–Five; or, The Children’s Crusade: A Duty–Dance with Death. Norwalk: The Easton Press, [2007]. Illustrated by Dennis Lyall. Limited Edition, Number 312 of 850, Signed by Vonnegut on the limitation page. Large 8vo. Original pictorial red leather stamped in yellow and gilt. Raised bands to spine, all edges gilt, and silk moiré endpapers. Presented with its original and matching pictorial slipcase.

Presented is a signed, limited edition printing of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. The book was published by Easton Press in 2007 in a limited edition of 850 copies, of which this is hand-numbered 312 of 850 on the limitation leaf. The book is signed and inscribed by Vonnegut on the limitation page, in blue felt-tipped ink pen. Beautifully bound, the book is presented in its original pictorial red leather boards, stamped in black, yellow and gilt, with raised bands to the spine, silk moiré endpapers and all edges gilt. The book is illustrated throughout by Dennis Lyall. 

Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great anti war books.The book was first published on March 31, 1969 by Delacorte Press. Centered on the awful firebombing of Dresden during World War II, and pulled from Vonnegut’s own experience of the Dresden bombing, the novel combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim. A barber’s son turned draftee, turned optometrist, turned alien abductee, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a prisoner of war, as well as non-linear time travel. 

Slaughterhouse-Five turned Kurt Vonnegut into a cult hero in American literature, despite the book being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. “But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it” (Penguin Random House). George Saunders has declared Vonnegut to be “the great, urgent, passionate American writer of our century, who offers us . . . a model of the kind of compassionate thinking that might yet save us from ourselves.”

More than fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut’s portrayal of political disillusionment and postwar anxiety reads as relevant, darkly humorous, and as profoundly affecting as ever. The book was selected by The Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time and is also listed in TIME’s “100 Best Novels.”

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922–2007) emerged as a novelist and essayist in the 1960s and penned the classic books Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Breakfast of Champions before 1980. He is known for his satirical style and celebrated for the creative science-fiction elements found in his work. He blended literature with science fiction and humor and the absurd with pointed social commentary. Vonnegut is considered one of the most influential American novelists of the twentieth century. 

CONDITION:

Excellent condition. Limited Edition, Numbered 312 of 850 copies hand–numbered on limitation leaf and additional slip laid in. Signed by Vonnegut on the limitation page in blue felt-tipped ink. Signature very legible and without fading or smearing. Large 8vo. Original pictorial red leather stamped in black, yellow and gilt. All edges gilt. Silk moiré endpapers and silk page marking ribbon. Original matching pictorial slipcase, with embossing and gilt.