Random House: 1975. First printing. Hardcover in a jacket. Octavo. Stain on the top of front panel of the jacket. Jacket is clipped. Bumping on the corners of the jacket as well as the boards. Stains on the top edge of the text block as well as on the very top of the boards. Cockling near the gutter on the preliminary leaves. 301 pages. Very good. 
 
In the 70s Singer convinced many to reexamination their assumptions about the meaning of animal suffering and then to take action to stop that suffering, but Liberation’s a classic because it continues to convince. Both practical and philosophical, the book offers rich, clear arguments and vegetarian menus and styles of cooking. A vegetarian and animal lover himself, Ed Gorey was among Singer’s philosophical allies, and though Gorey worked a hired gun book designer, he enjoyed designing and illustrating Singer’s work and applying the Edenic cover image. 
 
“Five years ago I myself would have laughed at the statements I have now written in complete seriousness. Five years ago I did not know what I know today. If you read this book carefully, paying special attention to the second and third chapters, you will then know as much of what I know about the oppression of animals as it is possible to get into a book of reasonable length. Then you will be able to judge if my opening paragraph is a wild exaggeration or a sober estimate of a situation largely unknown to the general public. So I do not ask you to believe my opening paragraph now. All I ask is that you reserve your judgment until you have read this book.”