LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2008 Feb Grand Format Book & Manuscript #682  / 

57052

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Player Piano, 1st edition.

Currency:USD Category:Books / Antiquarian & Collectible Start Price:975.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Player Piano, 1st edition.
<B>Kurt Vonnegut, Jr</B></I>. <B><I>Player Piano</B></I></B></I>. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952. <BR>First edition. Octavo. 295 pages.<BR><BR>Green-cloth-bound. Silver lettering on spine. Minor bumps on top edge of front cover. The dust jacket is very good with some wear on the spine and minor paper loss along the top edge. Overall near fine condition. <BR><I><BR>Player Piano</B></I> was the first novel written by former World War II POW Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (who would drop the suffix from his name following his father's death in 1957). A "soft science-fiction" story, it describes a future society where mechanization has led to a conflict between the haves (a wealthy managerial class) and the have-nots (laborers who have been replaced by machines). Vonnegut himself was a laborer at General Electric when he wrote the novel. He later explained, "This was in 1949 and the guys...were foreseeing all sorts of machines being run by little boxes and punched cards. To have a little clicking box making all the decisions wasn't a vicious thing to do. But it was too bad from the human beings who got their dignity from their jobs." [<I>Playboy</B></I>, July 1973] <I>From the Robert and Diane Yaspan Collection.</B></I><BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Books & Catalogs (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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