Maus: A Survivor’s Tale.

SPIEGELMAN, Art.

Item Number: 95828

New York: Pantheon Books, 1991.

First edition of Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus books based on his father’s experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. Octavo, two volumes, pictorial endpapers, illustrated. Signed by Art Spiegelman on the half-title page in each volume. Both volumes are fine in fine dust jackets. Housed in the original pictorial slipcase which is in near fine condition.

Spiegelman’s Maus books are a monumental achievement, both as a Holocaust survivor narrative and as a dramatically unique use of the comic strip form. A deceptively simple, chillingly effective cat-and-mouse allegory, Maus interweaves young Vladek and Anje’s horrifying struggles to survive in Hitler’s Europe and in Auschwitz with aging Vladek and his son Artie’s troubled relationship as they try to piece together “normal” lives. Recognizing the originality of the work, the 1992 Pulitzer Prize board created a special category to honor Spiegelman and the story’s two volumes.