Kurt Vonnegut "Slaughterhouse-Five" Signed Limited Numbered Edition No. 160 of 350, Leather Bound Collector's Edition [Very Fine w/Box]

Personally signed by Edith Vonnegut, Jess Walter and Julian De Narvaez.

SIGNED LIMITED EDITION NO. 160 OF ONLY 350

Suntup Editions 2022. Kurt Vonnegut "Slaughterhouse-Five". The Signed Numbered edition of 350 copies is a quarter goatskin binding with a duo-tone woven cotton cloth covering the boards. The cover features an inset label printed letterpress. Headcaps are sculpted and the headbands are handmade. Endsheets are Canson Mi-Teintes and the edition is housed in a slipcase covered with woven cloth and a paper label wrapping the spine and sides.

The edition is printed letterpress on Stonehenge cotton paper by Bradley Hutchinson on his Heidelberg cylinder press, and is handbound in the United Kingdom by Roger Grech. This edition is signed by Edith Vonnegut, Jess Walter and Julian De Narvaez. Very Fine without any flaws in the original shipping container from Suntup Editions.

"Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt". Vonnegut's most powerful book and also as important as any written since 1945.  

The signed limited edition of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut was presented in three states: Lettered, Numbered and Artist editions.

This is the numbered edition:

SIGNED NUMBERED EDITION

• Signed by Edith Vonnegut, Jess Walter and Julian De Narvaez.
• 6” x 9” trim size.
• 238 pages.
• Limited to 350 copies.
• Quarter goatskin binding with duo-tone woven cotton cloth covering the boards.
• Cover features an inset label printed letterpress.
• Sculpted headcaps.
• Handmade headbands.
• New exclusive introduction by Jess Walter.
• Frontispiece illustration by Edith Vonnegut.
• Six full color illustrations by Julian De Narvaez, as well as ten pen and ink vignettes which appear at the head of each chapter.
• Pen and ink illustrations printed letterpress with the text.
• Endsheets are Canson Mi-Teintes.
• Printed letterpress on Stonehenge cotton paper.
• Printed in two color on the title and chapter pages.
• Housed in a slipcase covered with woven cloth and a paper label wrapping the spine and sides.
• Handbound in the United Kingdom by Roger Grech.
• Bookmark with all pre-orders.

About Slaughterhouse-Five

Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know. The contents of this book are studied in universities around the world.

Slaughterhouse-Five is taken from the name of the building where the POWs were held. Like Catch-22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it unique poignancy—and humor.

Don't let the ease of reading fool you—Vonnegut's isn't a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters..." Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes 'unstuck in time' after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

From the publisher:

An American classic named by Modern Library as one of the top 20 best novels of all time, Slaughterhouse-Five is Kurt Vonnegut’s semi-autobiographical, science fiction infused anti-war masterpiece that defies genre.

Slaughterhouse-Five is the story of Billy Pilgrim, a World War II veteran and POW who becomes “unstuck in time,” experiencing all known events of his chronology out of order and sometimes simultaneously. Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history—sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness—as he struggles to find purpose, order, or meaning to his own existence and to that of humanity.

Published on March 31, 1969, Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It 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 POW, much like Vonnegut did. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.”

An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, 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.

In 2019, The New Yorker wrote, “Vonnegut’s novel is about that, about the inevitability of human violence, and about what it does to the not particularly violent human beings who get caught up in it.” Slaughterhouse-Five remained on the New York Times bestseller list for a total of sixteen weeks. The novel was a finalist for the National Book Award, and it was nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo.

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut’s humor, satiric voice and incomparable imagination first captured America’s attention in The Sirens of Titan in 1959 and established him as “a true artist” (The New York Times) with Cat’s Cradle in 1963. He was, as Graham Greene declared, “one of the best living American writers.” Mr. Vonnegut passed away in April 2007.

Jess Walter

Jess Walter is the author of ten books, most recently the story collection The Angel of Rome and the bestselling novels The Cold Millions and Beautiful Ruins. Among his honors, he has been a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award. His work has been published in thirty-two countries. He lives in Spokane, Washington, with his family.

Edith Vonnegut

Edith Vonnegut has exhibited in galleries across the United States, and has worked as a contributing illustrator to The Franklin Mint Press, as well as The New York Times Op-Ed page. She has written and illustrated the book Domestic Goddesses, and is currently working on a children’s book.

Julian De Narvaez

Julian De Narvaez is a graphic artist who bases his work on drawing as a generator of languages and narratives. On a technical level, his work tries to find a balance between traditional techniques and contemporary media, from pencil and paper to digital finishing. He currently resides in Colombia from where he continues to produce graphic work for books and other publishing projects.