Fail–Safe; in The Saturday Evening Post

New York: The Saturday Evening Post, 1962. First Edition. wrappers. Very good. 3 vols. The 1st appearance anywhere, serialized in 3 issues of The Post for October 13 – October 27. Original wrappers, very good. A cold war thriller in which millions die. The American novel cannot be separated from the American insight, and that insight tolerates a raucous inefficiency in order to accommodate among its protections a recognition that one persuasion, more than any other, is responsible for the slaughter of individuals on the altar of historical ideals. The belief that somewhere, in the past or in the future, in divine revelation or in the mind of an individual, (truncated) in the pronouncements of history or science or politics, or in the evil heart of a mad person or in the simple heart of an uncorrupted good person, there is a lasting formula, an ultimate answer, a perfect solution. (Inventory #: 1002)