Books

New York: Pantheon Books. Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. c1962. First US Edition; First Printing. Cloth. An attractive first printing of the first American edition in near fine condition, lightly sunned in dust-jacket with minor tanning to spine. Signed by author Grass on the half-title page; Grass' famous autbiography of Oskar Matzerath, the indomitable drummer, thirty years old, detained in a mental hospital, convicted of a murder he did not commit. It is taken down with the aid of his tin drum - the chosen symbol of his way of life - which helps him to remember his checkered past. Translated by Ralph Manheim; 8vo; [1-14], 15-591, [1] pages .

The Tin Drum is a novel by Günter Grass, considered one of the author's masterpieces and one of the key novels of the 20th century. The novel is the first book of Grass's Danzig Trilogy, and it tells the story of Oskar Matzerath, a boy who wills himself to stop growing and communicates through his tin drum. The book is a richly imaginative tale that combines history, folklore, and political commentary, presenting a surreal account of the rise of Nazism and the horrors of World War II.

First editions of 'The Tin Drum' published by Verlag Hermann Luchterhand in 1959 may be identified by checking the details on the copyright page, which should state the publication year as 1959, the publisher as Verlag Hermann Luchterhand, and may include the mention of it being a first printing or Erstausgabe. Additionally, the dust jacket and artwork can also be indicative of the first edition.