Kurt Vonnegut "Player Piano" Signed Advance Review Proof, w/Self-Caricature

A stunning example of this rare and highly sought after advance review copy. One of only 34 advance review proof copies in existence, this one boldly signed by Kurt Vonnegut with a self-caricature. Includes letter of authenticity.

Charles Scribner's Sons: New York, 1952. KURT VONNEGUT, JR.. "Player Piano". First edition; advance proof copy issued in publisher's pictorial wrappers. 295 pages. Octavo, publisher's original grey pictorial wrappers with blue, green, and violet lettering/design to covers and spine. The text of the two jacket flaps is laid down on the front endsheets.

Housed in a custom hand-made black Asahi slub linen clamshell box with gold gilded green leather label and lined with custom hand-made marble paper.

The rare advance review copy of Kurt Vonnegut's seminal debut novel. A chilling story by Vonnegut that is set in the future with a society that is primarily mechanized, with the upper class of people being distinguished from that of the civil engineers, and skill laborers who seem to be the lower class.

About

In Player Piano, Kurt Vonnegut's first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul's rebellion is vintage Vonnegut - wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality.

Player Piano, author Kurt Vonnegut's first novel, was published in 1952. It is a dystopia of automation and capitalism, describing the dereliction they cause in the quality of life. The story takes place in a near-future society that is almost totally mechanized, eliminating the need for human laborers.

This widespread mechanization creates conflict between the wealthy upper class, the engineers and managers who keep society running, and the lower class, whose skills and purpose in society have been replaced by machines. The book uses irony and sentimentality, which were to become a hallmark developed further in Vonnegut's later works. source: Wikipedia. Review

"A funny, savage appraisal of a totally automated American society of the future." San Francisco Chronicle

"An exuberant, crackling style . . . Vonnegut is a black humorist, fantasist and satirist, a man disposed to deep and comic reflection on the human dilemma." Life

"His black logic . . . gives us something to laugh about and much to fear." The New York Times Book Review