Description
The first edition, first printing of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, in the publisher’s first issue dust jacket.
Octavo, 296pp. Brown hardcover, title stamped in brown on green cloth spine. Stated “First Edition” on copyright page. Slight lean to text block, foxing along top edge. Faint foxing to gutters of front and rear endpapers. Gift inscription from 1960 to front free endpaper.
In the publisher’s first issue dust jacket, with a retail price of $3.95 on the front flap, a blurb from Jonathan Daniels printed on rear flap, and a photo of Harper Lee taken by Truman Capote on the rear panel. Bookseller pricing label is covering the $3.95 retail price. Notable creasing along all edges of panels, with a 2 inch closed tear to front panel at spine, foxing along hinge flaps and rear panel. Rear panel hinge is delicate, beginning to detach at the margins.
Housed in custom black cloth clamshell, title in gilt on morocco label on spine.
This copy of To Kill a Mockingbird is one of 5,000 first published by J.P. Lippincott on July 11, 1960. The novel had been on the New York Times Bestseller list for 41 weeks when it was honored with the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
This first issue dust jacket was designed by Shirley Smith. The rear panel features a portrait of Harper Lee taken by Truman Capote. The two were neighbors in their hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, and remained lifelong friends. Capote aided in the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird by recommending literary agent Maurice Crain to Lee in 1956.
