To Kill a Mockingbird 1960

First printing of Harper Lee's landmark novel, preserved in its original first-issue jacket.

Publisher and Year: Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1960

Edition: First edition stated, first printing (later printings would be so stated). All reprints lack the first edition statement. In its original first-issue dust jacket. Although price-clipped, the jacket is still identifiable as a first issue example, as it meets all of the remaining critical issue points: there is no printing statement on the bottom of the front flap; the Capote blurb on the top of the front flap is printed in green; the review blurb on the rear flap is by Jonathan Daniels; and the rear panel features a photo of Lee taken by Truman Capote. One of only 5,000 copies printed on July 11, 1960.

Condition and Description: Octavo, brown paper-covered boards with green cloth spine stamped in brown, 296 pp. Stain to the fore-edge of the front board. Subtle foxing to the green cloth. Hinges and binding tight. Light foxing to text-block edges; moderate foxing to endpapers; interior pages largely unaffected apart from a very occasional small spot. No prior ownership markings. Crease to the upper corner of pages 211–228, decreasing in size across the range (refer to picture of page 211). Dust jacket with significant creasing, rubbing, and abrasions, most evident at the bottom edge of the front panel; small losses at extremities; closed tear to lower left of the front panel; one-inch separation at the base of the front flap fold with an adjacent stain; faint remnant of two letters in pencil at upper right corner of rear panel (see final picture); and foxing to jacket flaps and verso. A worn but complete and still presentable first printing in an unrestored first-issue dust jacket.

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

Set in Depression-era Alabama, To Kill a Mockingbird confronts racial injustice and moral courage through the eyes of Scout Finch, whose father Atticus stands as literature's enduring model of integrity. Lee drew heavily on her own childhood in Monroeville, Alabama, where her friendship with Truman Capote provided the model for the character Dill. The novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and became a lasting bestseller, with more than forty million copies sold worldwide. Its plainspoken yet lyrical style made it an instant classic not only with the general public, but with critics as well, with the novel appearing on the Modern Library's list of the 100 best novels, Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Novels, and The Guardian's survey of the 100 best novels written in English. Immortalized in cinema by the 1962 adaptation starring Gregory Peck, To Kill a Mockingbird endures as both a beloved family story and a cultural emblem in the national conversation on fairness and compassion.

Inventory ID: 248 - 928 - 675