A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ. A Novel.

Third printing. Publisher's original navy cloth with gilt titles to the spine, in the George Sottung illustrated dustwrapper. A very good copy, the binding square and firm, a little faded to the edges, with a light cup ring to the upper board, and some rubbing to the spine tips and extremities. The contents, with light offsetting and spotting to the endpapers, are otherwise clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. The closed text block is a touch toned and spotted. Complete with the spotted, nicked, and creased dustwrapper, which has a little wear to the tail of the lightly toned spine, with a couple of chips at the head of the toned rear flap fold, and a cup ring to the underside of the front panel (not visible to the printed side). Retaining the original price to the clipped lower front flap ($4.95).

The author's classic post-apocalyptic social science fiction novel, widely considered a masterpiece of the genre. Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for 'Best Novel'. In his youth, Walter Miller Jr. served as part of a bomber crew that participated in the destruction of the ancient Monte Cassino monastery during the Second World War, resulting in his life-long post-traumatic stress disorder. Miller, a Catholic, was so deeply influenced by his experiences in this particular raid that he wrote 'Canticle', then a short story, over a decade later. The 'Canticle' novel is a fixup of three novellas published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction between 1955-57, with notable revisions affecting the religious elements of the story. The book remained a standalone work for decades, as the only novel published during the author's lifetime, and to date has never been out of print. At the time of his death in 1996, Miller had written about 500 manuscript pages of a sequel and arranged for fellow author Terry Bisson to complete the work. The eventual release of 'Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman' in 1997 received mixed reactions from fans and critics alike, who appreciated the plot but did not feel that it measured up to the original, labelling it as 'Walter Miller's other novel'.