Sympathy for the Devil (1987) Signed First Edition Reference

Sympathy for the Devil was Kent Anderson’s debut novel, published in 1987. It follows Hanson, a Special Forces soldier in Vietnam, through a year of combat that is rendered with an immediacy and specificity that only direct experience can produce. Anderson served as a Green Beret in Vietnam, and the novel draws so heavily on his own service that the line between fiction and memoir effectively dissolves.

The Book

The novel stands alongside The Things They Carried, Matterhorn, and Going After Cacciato in the first rank of Vietnam War fiction. What distinguishes Anderson’s work is the absence of any literary posturing — there are no metaphors about the war, no grand statements about American foreign policy. There is only the daily reality of combat: the heat, the insects, the fear, the violence, and the bonds between men who depend on each other for survival.

First Edition Identification

Publisher: Doubleday, New York Publication date: 1987 Format: Hardcover in dust jacket

Small first printing for a literary debut. The novel received strong reviews but modest sales.

Signed Copy Market Values

• Signed first edition, fine/fine: $200–$600
• Unsigned first edition: $30–$100

Anderson’s limited public profile makes signed copies genuinely scarce. The novel’s reputation has grown over the decades, driven by word-of-mouth among veterans and crime fiction enthusiasts. It is one of those books that readers press into other people’s hands.