Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil
New York: The Viking Press, 1963.
First edition, first printing. Hans Morgenthau's review copy, publisher's slip inscribed to Morgenthau laid in. [viii], 275 pp. Bound in publisher's tan cloth stamped in red and black, black topstain. Near Fine with light toning and soiling to cloth and several small stains to upper textblock edge slightly impinging on margins. Light offsetting to endpapers, light toning to contents. In a Good unclipped dust jacket with moderate toning and soiling and heavy chipping to upper and lower edges.
An interesting association copy of the first edition of the book that introduced the immortal phrase "the banality of evil." Hans Morgenthau was a close friend of Hannah Arendt and admired her work. Viking Press must have been pleased with his review for the Chicago Tribune, in which he praised the book as "a profound and documented analysis of the issues and the historic background of the Eichmann trial." Other reviewers were infuriated by Arendt's depiction of the Nazi war criminal as a dull bureaucrat and not an evil genius, and the book remains controversial today.
Price: $2,800