Amerika – Franz Kafka
VG/Poor

Description

For sale: a Rare and Exceptional first US hardcover edition, first printing of Amerika by Franz Kafka in a Poor dust jacket protected in a new archival wrap. First US Edition unstated, October, 1946 New Directions. First Printing, with no subsequent printing.

The book is in Very Good condition with clean, bright boards, strong title ink on a straight spine, a few marks on page blocks, tight binding, rolled spine ends, mild edge wear, and rubbed corners. The interior of the book is also in Very Good condition with the previous owner’s name on the first free end paper. A tape stain on both front and rear end papers with light transfers on the paste downs. No other marks, inscriptions, or other signs of ownership inside. The end papers and the interior pages are clean and lightly toned.

The price-clipped dust jacket is in Poor condition with mild surface and heavy edge wear, many gaps and tears. First state jacket with the price cut from the front flap and stains from old cellophane tape now replaced with acid-neutral tape. Cover design by Alvin Lustig. Looks good in a new Brodart archival wrap.

Kafka began writing what he had entitled The Missing Person in 1912 and wrote the last completed chapter in 1914. Three years after his death, Max Brod, Kafka’s friend and literary executor, edited the unfinished manuscript and published it as Amerika. Kafka’s first and funniest novel, Amerika tells the story of the young Karl Rossmann who, after an incident involving a housemaid, is banished by his parents to America. Expected to redeem himself in this magical land of opportunity, young Karl is swept up instead in a whirlwind of dizzying reversals, strange escapades, and picaresque adventures.

Ships promptly in a secure mailer with book wrapped in both craft paper and bubble wrap.