Franklin Library leather edition of Kurt Vonnegut's "Galapagos," a Limited edition, Illustrated by Anita Kunz, Personally Signed by KURT VONNEGUT, one of the SIGNED FIRST EDITION SOCIETY series, published in 1985. Bound in hunter green leather, the book has marbled paper end leaves, hubbed spine, acid-free paper, Symth-sewn binding, satin book marker, gold gilding on three edge--in near FINE condition---except for 'foxing' on gilt on foredge and top.  Kurt Vonnegut, who lived from 1922-2007, was an American novelist and short story writer with a career spanning over 50 years.  Born in INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, he attended CORNELL University but dropped out and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943.  He was then deployed to Europe to fight in WW II and was captured by the Germans at the BATTLE OF THE BULGE. Vonnegut wrote in the 'special message' to subscribers: "My wife JILL KREMENTZ and I went to the Galapagos Islands on a two-week cruise out of Ecuador in March 1982. . .It was very educational. "Galápagos" is the story of a small band of mismatched humans who are shipwrecked on the fictional island of Santa Rosalia in the Galapagos Islands after a global financial crisis cripples the world's economy. Shortly thereafter, a disease renders all humans on Earth infertile, with the exception of the people on Santa Rosalia, making them the last specimens of humankind. Over the next million years, their descendants, the only fertile humans left on the planet, eventually evolve into a furry species resembling sea lions. They have a snout with teeth adapted for catching fish, a streamlined skull and flipper-like hands. The narrator is a spirit who has been watching over humans for the last million years. This particular ghost is the immortal spirit of Leon Trotsky Trout, son of Vonnegut's recurring character KILGORE TROUT. Leon is a Vietnam War veteran who is affected by the massacres in Vietnam. He goes AWOL and settles in Sweden, where he works as a shipbuilder and dies during the construction of the ship, the Bahía de Darwin. This ship is used for the "Nature Cruise of the Century." Planned as a celebrity cruise, it was in limbo due to the economic downturn, and due to a chain of unconnected events the ship ended up allowing humans to reach and survive in the Galápagos. A group of girls from a cannibal tribe living in the Amazon rainforest, called the Kanka-bono girls also end up on the ship, eventually having children with sperm obtained from the ship's captain. The deceased Kilgore Trout makes four appearances in the novel. He pledges that he, and the blue tunnel, will not return for one million years.  Characters include: Leon Trout, dead narrator and son of Kilgore Trout; Hernando Cruz, first mate of the Bahía de Darwin; Mary Hepburn, an American widow who teaches at Ilium High School; the Kanka-bono girls, a group of young girls from a cannibal tribe living in the Amazon rainforest. Roy Hepburn, Mary's husband who died in 1985 from a brain tumor; Akiko Hiroguchi, the daughter of Hisako that will be born with fur covering her entire body; Hisako Hiroguchi, a teacher and Zenji's pregnant wife; Zenji Hiroguchi, a Japanese computer genius; Andrew MacIntosh, an American financier and adventurer of great inherited wealth; Jesus Ortiz, a talented Inca waiter who looks up to wealthy and powerful people and others. 295 pages.  I offer combined shipping.