Vasily Grossman Signed Firsts: A Reference

Vasily Grossman (1905–1964) wrote the twentieth century’s other great novel of war and totalitarianism. Life and Fate — his epic novel centered on the Battle of Stalingrad — was confiscated by the KGB in 1961 and not published until 1980 (in Switzerland, from a smuggled microfilm). Grossman died in 1964 believing his masterwork was destroyed. The novel is now widely regarded as the Russian War and Peace of the twentieth century.

Key Title

• Life and Fate (Zhizn’ i sud’ba, Editions L’Age d’Homme, Lausanne, 1980; English: Harper & Row, 1985)

Signed Copy Market Values

Grossman died in 1964, before Life and Fate was published. Signed copies of Life and Fate do not exist. However, signed copies of his earlier published works are extraordinarily rare collectibles.

• English first of Life and Fate (Harper & Row, 1985): $50–$150 unsigned
• Signed copies of earlier Grossman works: Museum-level rarities

Life and Fate’s publication history — confiscated, smuggled, published posthumously — makes it one of literature’s great survival stories.