Hiroshima

HERSEY, John [Kiyoshi Tanimoto]

Published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1946

About this Item

Small octavo, 117pp. First trade edition, after the initial appearance of the entire text as a single-subject issue of The New Yorker Magazine the same year. A crisp, sound copy, very good or slightly better, in the publisher's dull green cloth with dull red topstain. Very gentle rubbing to corners, the spine mildly cocked, and a few marginal stains on the last few leaves, not affecting any text. Publisher's price of $1.75 written in pencil on the front free endpaper. Lacking the dust jacket. A magnificent copy, SIGNED by one of the subjects, Kiyoshi Tanimoto, on the front free endpaper, with an additional inscription by him in Japanese. In a few places in the text, someone has written in very light pencil the words "begin" and "stop" at the beginning and ending of some passages which relate the experience of Tanimoto. One suspects that these passages were being read aloud by someone who was introducing or honoring Tanimoto. Tanimoto was a Japanese convert to Christianity, who had studied at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta just before the war. Hersey's deeply human portrait of the effects of this apocapyptic weapon helped to spark decades-long debates worldwide about the realities and consequences of nuclear weapons. It is also considered by most literary critics to be the first widely read example of the "New Journalism," the writing style which borrows variuos conventions of literary fiction to tell true stories (a tradition continued by John McPhee, Tom Wolfe, and many others). Copies of "Hiroshima," when found signed, are usually signed by Hersey, and often with a quotation. Looking in commerce and auction records, we only know of two copies signed by any of the book's subjects. Scarce, and desirable thus.

Seller Inventory # 11890

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Hiroshima
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
• Publication Date: 1946
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very good +
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Japanese History