Time Out of Joint by Dick, Philip K - 1959

Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1959. First edition of the author's first hardcover book. What at first glance appears to be a story about a man living in late 1950s America opens up to reveal that the protagonist is actually living in the late 1990s and performing crucial intelligence work in a war against lunar rebels. Here Dick established thematic devices-constructed reality, contradictory timelines, recovered memory, and the ethics of government-that he later employed in his most compelling science fiction. The title itself serves to evoke these themes; it refers to the line uttered by Hamlet to Horatio after being visited by his father's ghost, a life-altering supernatural event that shifts Hamlet's perceived reality. Edges of text block very lightly foxed and a few areas of wear at spine tips, else a fine, bright copy in cloth. In a fine dust wrapper with a hint of fading to spine, and some light foxing, and a short closed tear to front panel. Uncommon thus. (Pringle 5).