by Hofstadter, Douglas R.

Published in 1979 by Basic Books, Inc., New York
ISBN: 0465026850
Edition: First edition, third printing
Binding: Hardback
Condition: Fine
Dust Jacket included. Condition of Dust Jacket: Very good
Comments: Inscribed by Hofstadter, association copy. How to describe a book that uses “strange loops,” dialogues, Zen koans, games, short stories, analysis, analogies, puzzles, music theory, art…in short, every method conceivable…to explore what cognition and intelligence are and where ideas come from? We can’t. Suffice it to say, “Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid” won both the National Book Award for Science Hardcover and the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. It continued to be held in such high regard that it went on to inspire MIT to create an entire course for high school students based on it in 2007 and a whole series of events at London’s Barbican Center were held to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Currently, the author, Douglas R. Hofstadter, and the ideas he started musing on in “Gödel, Escher, Bach,” are associated with artificial intelligence.

This particular book is an association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free end paper on April 16, 1980: “With fond memories, to my friends Pete and Månsi, from Doug.” The owner’s name, Peter D. Zimmerman, is also written above the inscription, on the top corner of the same page. (Zimmerman was a noted nuclear physicist and an advisor to a number of government disarmament agencies and committees, ending his career in the early 2000s at Kings College, London’s department of war studies.) This copy is a first edition, third printing. It is in excellent condition, with only some slight bumping to the top and bottom of the spine and a couple of very small stains on the fore edge of the text block to suggest its age. Other than the aforementioned inscription and name, there are no marks or other flaws to the tight, bright pages. The dust jacket shows the sun tanning to the spine that seems to be common with this book, though it is not as bad in this copy as often seems to be the case. There are two one-inch closed tears: one at the top at the fold where the front panel become the spine panel, and another at the bottom center of the front panel. Otherwise, there are a few other tiny tears around the edges of the dust jacket but not significant creasing or marks—the jacket is not price clipped or soiled, and is enclosed in an archival mylar cover. See our photos.
Signed Copy

Seller Inventory #: 0000523