FAIL-SAFE. New York, Toronto, London: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., [1962]. Octavo, two-part boards. First edition, second printing. A presentation with signed inscription by Wheeler on the front free endpaper: "For Jeanette / with warmest regards -- / (during the movie negotiations) -- / Christmas 1962 / Harvey Wheeler." Additionally signed by coauthor Eugene Burdick below Wheeler's inscription. A Hollywood agency file copy with the book label of Ziegler, Hellman and Ross Agency affixed below the inscription. "Tautly paced best-selling thriller about an accidental first strike on Moscow which the president allows to be balanced by the destruction of New York City." - Brians, Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction, 1895-1984, p. 150. The novel, first published in the SATURDAY EVENING POST as a three-part serial 13-27 October 1962, was the basis for a 1964 film directed by Sidney Lumet with a cast including Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Dan O'Herlihy, Frank Overton and Fritz Weaver. "A hard-hitting, dreadful-warning best seller which was made into an effective film." - Pringle, The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction, second edition (1995), p. 129. Anatomy of Wonder (1987) 3-81. Reginald 02197. Tiny tear in boards at lower spine end professionally mended, a very good or better copy in very good dust jacket with several short tears mended by a paper conservator. Presents very well. (#158286).
Price: $1,000.00
"Second Printing" on copyright page.