The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood( First U.S. Edition, First Printing, 1986)

Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1986. First American edition, first printing, with complete number line ending in “1.” Hardcover in the original first-state dust jacket with the $16.95 publisher’s price intact.

Margaret Atwood’s landmark dystopian novel imagines the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian theocracy that has replaced the United States and stripped women of their political, economic, and reproductive autonomy. Told through Offred, a Handmaid assigned to produce children for the ruling class, the novel examines authoritarianism, religious extremism, gender, power, resistance, and the ways political systems can reshape private life.

First published in Canada in 1985, The Handmaid’s Tale became Atwood’s best-known novel and one of the defining works of modern dystopian literature. It won the 1985 Governor General’s Award, was shortlisted for the 1986 Booker Prize, and its cultural prominence increased dramatically following later film, stage, and television adaptations.

This is the desirable first U.S. printing, recognizable by the complete number line and the original Houghton Mifflin jacket featuring the iconic Fred Marcellino design. The jacket retains the original $16.95 price and the rear panel carries advance praise from Lois Gould, E. L. Doctorow, Judith Rossner, and Marge Piercy.

The book itself is exceptionally clean, with bright turquoise cloth spine, clean gray boards, sharp lettering, tight binding, and clean page block. The dust jacket remains bright and attractive with only light age/handling wear and minor edge wear. No major tears, chips, or losses are apparent in the photographs. A particularly attractive copy for a book that is now 40 years old.