Rushdie, Salman (1981) ‘Midnight’s Children’, UK signed first edition

Salman Rushdie (1981) ‘Midnight’s Children‘, UK first edition, first printing, published by Jonathan Cape on American style cut paper. Signed on the title page by Rushdie without further inscriptions. Signed to us in person at a promotional event for the author’s novel ‘Quichotte’ at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford on 27 August 2019. We still have the ticket for the event.

Condition: near fine in like dust jacket. No previous owners’ inscriptions of any sorts, not stamps, no bookplates. A little shelf wear and a couple orange spots (foxing) to the side edges of the paper as the American sheets stick out and are in contact with the air. The boards are clean and corners sharp. Lettering of the spine is vibrant and NOT rubbed out as often seen. Dust jacket is first state and slightly gone milky as often encountered; not price clipped. A a little rubbing to top edge as shown. A beautiful copy of an absolue modern classic.

Salman Rushdie has received many prizes and accolades throughout his career, and is tipped to win the Nobel Prize eventually. Infamously, after the publication of ‘The Satanic Verses’ in 1988 and the issued fatwa he lived in hiding for many years.

‘Midnight’s Children’ is a landmark novel which won the Booker Prize in 1981. The print run was with 2,500 copies very small, and many copies ended up in libraries with the usual stamps. In the year of publication the printing industry went on strike so the publisher was forced to use an American company to print the book. That is why only the first printing features the American style cut paper. Winner of the 1981 Booker Prize, the 1993 Booker of Bookers to mark the 25th anniversary, as well as the Best of Bookers for the 40th anniversary of the prize in 2008.