Slaughterhouse-Five (Two Formats)
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade. Delacorte Press, 1997. Hardbound. Design by Nancy Field. $65.
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade. Delta Books, 1969. Softbound. $20.
Two variations on the iconic cover by 'Big Look Book' innovator Paul Bacon, known for his use of negative space and large, bold titling type, also seen in his equally memorable first editions of both Catch-22 and Portnoy's Complaint. 'Slaughterhouse is a kind of evasion—,' observed Anthony Burgess in a 1974 Playboy interview, 'in a sense, like J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan.' When Vonnegut was asked in his own Playboy interview about the utopian implications of the novel, he replied, 'You understand, of course, that everything I say is horses**t.'
The hardbound copy has a tight, square spine; clean, unmarked interior; and no notable wear to the book. The jacket is not price-clipped and has light to moderate edge-wear. The softbound copy has a tight, square spine; clean, unmarked interior; a blacked-out price to the front cover; and some light edge-wear and fainting toning/soiling to the covers. Featured Rare & Collectible / Fiction.
