signed first edition
1938-1940 · Indianapolis
by [VONNEGUT, Kurt] SHORTRIDGE HIGH SCHOOL
Indianapolis: [Shortridge High School Press], 1938-1940. First Edition. Three volumes; quarto (25.5 - 27.25cm.); original cloth, the two earliest Annuals with color pictorial plates mounted to upper covers, last issue pictorially blind-embossed; illus., mostly photographic, throughout. Light edge wear, tiny loss to cover plate of earliest volume not approaching image or text, the usual student signatures throughout, else a Very Good or better set. High school yearbooks dating from Vonnegut's sophomore, junior, and senior years. We find images of Vonnegut on the student council in 1938 and 1940 (though never the Fiction Club); ths Social Committee in 1939 and 1940; and the editorial staff in 1940. He was also listed one of the ten most popular boys ("Uglymen") in school his senior year. Years later, Vonnegut would famously write: "[Shortridge High School is] my dream of an America with great public schools... (Inventory #: 33807)