Signed, in a Clamshell Box
Mother Night
Publication: New York: Harper & Row, 1966. First Edition.
Notes: A novel about Howard W. Campbell, Jr., an American living in Germany who becomes a Nazi propagandist. First published in 1962 as a paperback original, this hardcover edition includes a new introduction by Vonnegut in which he recounts his experience of the Dresden fire bombing, which would become the central event in Slaughterhouse Five, written a few years later.
In the introduction Vonnegut surmises that had he been born in Germany rather than the United States, he probably would have become a Nazi. This book is an exploration of that idea.
Published in a small edition of 5,500 copies, per Ahearn, Author Price Guide, Vonnegut A004b.
202 pages.
Edition + Condition: First hardcover edition (stated). A near fine copy with light bumping to the spine ends. The jacket has short tears at the top and bottom of the spine but is otherwise near fine. Signed by Vonnegut on the front free endpaper.
This copy is housed in a black clamshell box with a red leather label of the sort that Vonnegut's screenprinter, Joe Petro III, commissioned. From the collection of Tom Garner.
Just so people won't ask: Yes, this copy has the C-Q code on the copyright page and 0466 on the front flap, but those are not issue points.
Item No: #364621
Price: $3,000