signed-firsts

Our Gang (1971) Signed First Edition Reference

Approx. 2 min read · 4 May 2026

Our Gang (Starring Tricky and His Friends) (1971) is Philip Roth’s savage political satire of Richard Nixon, published at the height of the Vietnam War and Watergate-era paranoia. The novel imagines a thinly veiled Nixon figure — “Trick E. Dixon” — engaged in increasingly absurd political machinations, culminating in his assassination and his campaign to become president of Hell. Published by Random House, it was Roth’s most overtly political work and his most topical — a book designed to intervene in a specific political moment rather than endure beyond it.

First Edition Identification

Publisher: Random House, New York Publication date: 1971 Format: Hardcover, 200 pages First printing indicator: “First Printing” on the copyright page

The first printing was moderate in size. The book sold reasonably well on publication — Nixon-bashing was commercially viable in 1971 — but its deeply topical nature limited its long-term commercial life.

Signed Copy Values

Flat-signed: $300–$700
Inscribed: $500–$1,200

Among the most affordable signed Roth firsts. The novel’s topicality — its humor depends on knowledge of Nixon-era politics that fewer readers carry with each passing decade — limits its appeal to collectors focused on literary quality. It is primarily a completist acquisition, though collectors with an interest in political fiction or literary satire may find it independently compelling.

The Satire Tradition

Our Gang belongs to a tradition of American political satire that includes Mark Twain’s late political writings, Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here, and later examples like Gore Vidal’s historical novels. For collectors who organize around genre or mode rather than author, Our Gang pairs effectively with these titles and with Roth’s own The Plot Against America (2004), which returned to the territory of American political fiction from a very different angle.

Market Position

Minimal investment potential. The book’s dependence on Nixon-era context, its absence from serious critical discussion of Roth’s major work, and its ample supply in both signed and unsigned form keep prices low. It is worth owning as part of a comprehensive Roth collection but is not a standalone investment proposition.