Books

The First UK printing published by Jonathan Cape, London in 1962. The BOOK is in Very Good+ condition. Very slight lean. Original cloth boards with a little fading at the spine ends mirroring loss to the wrapper. Light toning to the text-block. Paper clip indentations to the upper edge of the first handful of pages. Some very light spotting to the prelims and rear pastedown. Pencilled 'Review' to the upper front blank end-paper and pencilled 'Review 14/6/62' to the rear upper pastedown. The WRAPPER is complete and is in Very Good- condition. It is the very scarce First Issue without the review blurbs to the rear panel. Some loss to the spine ends and corners, rubbed and creasing in places, with moderate toning to the spine and edges. The odd age related marking and a few closed tears. Despite these issues, the wrapper still presents well in a removable Brodart archival cover. Loosely inserted are two publisher's Promotional Postcards (Captain Yossarian and Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder) which are in Very Good condition with some toning and spotting. A collectible copy of this author's classic title. Extremely scarce to find the book issued with the correct first issue wrapper in any condition, as is the case here with this book being a review copy. Most copies extant have the later issue wrapper with review blurbs to the rear panel. This wrapper was the one originally printed and features the famous conversation between Doc Daneeka and Yossarian where the classic 'Catch-22' is described. In fact, having contacted Jonathan Cape who provided me with the printing ledgers for this book and its wrapper, which seems to state that only 100 of these original wrappers were printed before they were later changed. This would make this particular wrapper is one of the rarest modern first edition wrappers ! I can provide the images of the ledgers as required. Collectible. More images available on request. Ashton Rare Books welcomes direct contact.

Catch-22 is a satirical war novel by American author Joseph Heller, first published in 1961. The novel is set during World War II, from 1942 to 1944, and follows Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier, and the other airmen in the camp, who attempt to maintain their sanity while fulfilling their service requirements so that they can return home.