"MANKIND WASN'T ALWAY SO LUCKY": FIRST EDITION OF VONNEGUT'S THE SIRENS OF TITAN

VONNEGUT, Kurt. The Sirens of Titan. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961. Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. $7800.

First edition in cloth of Kurt Vonnegut's influential second book, one of 2500 copies, a splendid copy.

"The Sirens of Titan is a fine complex satire about the folly of mistaking good luck for the favour of God; it features the first of a number of mock-religions that Vonnegut would invent— the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent—and concludes with the revelation of the manipulation of human history by Tralfamadorian aliens sending messages to one of their kind stranded on Titan. One leading character has an extemporal viewpoint from which all moments appear co-existent—a theme which crops up again, along with the Tralfamadorians, in…Slaughterhouse-Five" (Clute & Nicholls, 1289). "First Printing" stated on copyright page. Initially issued in wrappers by Dell in 1959. 100 Best Novels 31.

Book fine and fresh; crisp dust jacket with very mild toning to spine, rear panel and flap edges, most minor wear to spine ends. A beautiful about-fine copy.