Kurt Vonnegut "Galapagos" Signed First Edition, Leather-Bound Collector's Edition

Personally signed by Kurt Vonnegut, an important writer and famous for his unique blend of satirical science fiction writing.

The Franklin Library 1985. "Galapagos" Kurt Vonnegut. Signed Limited First Edition. Full genuine leather. 324 pages. An octavo size measuring 23.5 cm. Blue leather with raised bands, a gilt stamped title on the spine, and gilt stamped designs on the spine and covers. All edges are gilt. Orange moire endsheets. 

The Signed First Edition Society.

"SIGNED FIRST EDITION" as stated.

Galapagos

YA Leon Trout, the ghost of a decapitated shipbuilder, narrates the humorous, ironic and sometimes carping decline of the human race, as seen through the eyes and minds of the survivors of a doomed cruise to the Galapagos Islands. Vonnegut's cast of unlikely Adams and Eves setting out in a Noah's ark includes Mary Hepburn, an American biology teacher and recent widow; Zenji Hiroguchi, a Japanese computer genius (who does not make it to the ship, although his language-translating and quotation-spouting computer does); his wife, Hisako, carrying radiated genes from the atomic bombs; James Wait, who has made a fortune marrying elderly women; and Captain Aolph von Kleist.

Also included: six orphaned girls of the Kana-bono cannibal tribe, who will become the founding mothers of the fisherfolk after bacteria render all other women infertile. Serious fans of Vonnegut's wry and ribald prose will welcome this tale of the devolution of superbrained humans into gentle swimmers with small brains, but others may find this Darwinian survival tale too packed with ecological and sociological details that trap the story line in a series of literary devices, albeit very clever ones.

Reviews

“The best Vonnegut novel yet!”—John Irving

“Beautiful . . . provocative, arresting reading.”—USA Today

“A madcap genealogical adventure . . . Vonnegut is a postmodern Mark Twain.”—The New York Times Book Review

“A satire in the classic tradition . . . a dark vision, a heartfelt warning.”—The Detroit Free Press

“Interesting, engaging, sad and yet very funny . . . Vonnegut is still in top form. If he has no prescription for alleviating the pain of the human condition, at least he is a first-rate diagnostician.”—Susan Isaacs, Newsday

“Dark . . . original and funny.”—People

“A triumph of style, originality and warped yet consistent logic . . . a condensation, an evolution of Vonnegut’s entire career, including all the issues and questions he has pursued relentlessly for four decades.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Wild details, wry humor, outrageous characters . . . Galápagos is a comic lament, a sadly ironic vison.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“A work of high comedy, sadness and imagination.”—The Denver Post

“Wacky wit and irreverent imagination . . . and the full range of technical innovations have made [Vonnegut] America’s preeminent experimental novelist.”—The Minneapolis Star and Tribune

Kurt Vonnegut

KURT VONNEGUT (1922 - 2007) American novelist and graphic artist whose experience as an air force POW during the firebombing of Dresden, Germany, is recounted in his popular novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969).

Kurt Vonnegut was one of the most influential writers of his generation. Known for his dark humor, pessimism and sharp edge, he was the author of 14 novels - notably Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions - and other works of fiction and nonfiction.

His stories of human folly and cruelty have been assigned reading for at least two decades in college literature classes around the world! Most readers interested in the fantastic in literature are familiar with Kurt Vonnegut, particularly for his uses of science fiction. Many of his early short stories were wholly in the science fiction mode, and while its degree has varied, science fiction has never lost its place in his novels.