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CATCH - 22.
by Heller, Joseph
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very good condition
- Seller
-
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: Jonathan Cape, 1962. Book. Very good condition. Hardcover. First Edition. Octavo (8vo). 443 pages of text. Three quarter leather binding with gilt-stamped spine. New endpapers. The original maroon cloth backstrip/spine has been affixed to a new rear endpaper. A few minor spots of staining/soiling scattered to a few dozen closed page edges and two pages with tiny creases to the lower corner. Joseph Heller (1823-1999). First edition, first printing with no further printings noted on the copyright page..
Synopsis
Catch-22 is Joseph Heller’s first novel and his most acclaimed work. Set during World War II, the novel uses a distinctive non-chronological third-person omniscient narration, mainly focusing on the life of Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier. Occasionally, the narrator also shows us how other characters, such as the chaplain or Hungry Joe, experience the world around them. As the novel’s events are described from the different points of view through separate out-of-sequence storylines, the timeline of Catch-22 develops along with the plot. The novel's title refers to a plot device that is repeatedly invoked in the story. Catch-22 starts as a set of paradoxical requirements whereby airmen mentally unfit to fly did not have to, but could not actually be excused. By the end of the novel, the phrase is invoked as the explanation for many unreasonable restrictions. “Catch-22” has since entered the English language and can be understood as an unsolvable logic puzzle, a difficult situation from which there is no escape. Upon publication, the book was not a best seller in the United States. It was merely a cult favorite until the publication of the paperback edition in 1962, which set record sales — most likely benefitting from a national debate about the pointlessness of the Vietnam War. Catch-22 has since been ranked as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the Modern Library, one of the 20th century's top 100 novels by the Radcliffe Publishing Course, and one of the 100 greatest novels of all time by The Observer.
Read More: Identifying first editions of CATCH - 22.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Kurt Gippert Bookseller (ABAA)
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 019601
- Title
- CATCH - 22.
- Author
- Heller, Joseph
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very good condition
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publisher
- Jonathan Cape
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1962
- Size
- Octavo (8vo)
Terms of Sale
Kurt Gippert Bookseller (ABAA)
For most items, media mail shipping will cost $3.95 and Priority $7.95, and insurance is available for an additional cost. Books guaranteed to be as described; condition guaranteed if sent insured. Authenticity guaranteed on autograph and manuscript material. All items returnable within 10 days; notification of return is required; a small restocking fee may apply if return is due to customer error. Shipping rates are for normal octavo (8vo) titles; heavy, oversize (folio and quarto 4to), multi-volumes sets and special services such as insurance are extra.
About the Seller
Kurt Gippert Bookseller (ABAA)
Biblio member since 2003
Chicago, Illinois
About Kurt Gippert Bookseller (ABAA)
Primarily mail-order and shows; open bookstore only by appointment or invitation; select inventory of 30,000+ books, ephemera, autographs, maps and manuscript material. Most dustjackets protected in archival mylar. Many books without dustjackets protected in custom archival mylar. Member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA), the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), The Manuscript Society, and the Midwest Antiquarian Booksellers Association (MWABA) (formerly the Midwest Bookhunters or MWBH). Proprietor: Kurt Gippert.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Copyright page
- The page in a book that describes the lineage of that book, typically including the book's author, publisher, date of...
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
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