Classic Work, Nice Condition, Great Inscription
Hiroshima
Publication: New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946. First Edition.
Notes: A very nice inscribed first edition of one of the great works of journalism, a moving account of the atom bomb attack on Hiroshima, Japan.
New York University's school of journalism ranked Hiroshima as the top work of journalism of the 20th century. Hersey, who had just won the Pulitzer Prize for A Bell for Adano, traveled to Japan in 1946. Breaking free of the US Army press minders and censors, he interviewed survivors of the blast, telling their horrific stories in straightforward prose. The New Yorker magazine devoted its entire August 31, 1946, issue to his reporting The historian Jane Mayer, looking back at Hiroshima in 2025 for the New Yorker, wrote, "Hersey’s candor had a seismic impact: the magazine sold out, and a book version of the article sold millions of copies." He didn't just change the debate about nuclear weapons, he created the debate. Eighty years on, the book is still in print.
According to Jeremy Treglown, Hersey's biographer, when Knopf went to publish the book, "Paper was still rationed, so the first printing was limited to 40,000 copies. It sold out in a week" (Mr. Straight Arrow, p. 147).
The book is somewhat cheaply manufactured and the jacket tends to become brittle and chip and tear.
[8], 120 pages.
Edition + Condition: First edition (stated). A very good copy in blue-grey cloth-textured boards, blindstamped on the front cover and stamped in gilt on the spine). The jacket is moderately spine-faded, as usual, with a few short tears and corner wear. Much nicer than usually found. Hersey inscribed this copy in typical fashion, quoting a line from the book: "For Fred Gullo: 'It seemed a sheet of sun...' (p. 8). John Hersey. New Haven, June 1972. Gullo was likely one of Hersey's students at Yale University. For nearly two decades, Hersey taught small seminar courses in fiction and non-fiction.
Item No: #244453
Price: $4,500