America in the Coming Age of Electronics 
 
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 
 
Scribners: 1952. Book club edition. Hardcover in a jacket. Octavo. Small tears along the top and bottom of the jacket. Both flaps of the jacket are clipped. Spine has some soiling and some folds. Bumping on the edges of the boards with a little exposure of the corners. Bottom corner of the text block is also bumped. 295 pages. Very good. 
 
Vonnegut's first novel is about factory workers being replaced by machines. A fan will love seeing proto-Vonnegut finding his way and figuring out that special game he played with his readers as madness runs the world and everyone does their best to deal (or deny). And some jacket designs, like this one, fit the book and its moment of publication perfectly. 
 
"This book is not a book about what is, but a book about what could be. 
 
The characters are modeled after persons as yet unborn, or, perhaps, at this writing, infants. 
It is mostly about managers and engineers. At this point in history, 1952 A.D., our lives and freedom depend largely upon the skill and imagination and courage of our managers and engineers, and I hope that God will help them to help us all stay alive and free.
But this book is about another point in history, when there is no more war, and ..."