Small 8vo, black quarter cloth over sky blue paper boards, black metallic blue stamped titles, green endpapers, 467pp. First Edition, with ‘first published in 1987 by Viking Penguin Inc’ to copyright statement. Unclipped dust jacket (18.95) with light creasing and toning to flap edges, the faintest of rubbing to panels. Ownership signature to front endpaper, faint bump to top front board corner, age toning to pages. Contents clean, binding sharp, square and taut. The scarce first edition of the author’s first book, in the original dust jacket with front panel illustration by Lon Kirschner. One of only 1,300 copies reported to be printed by the publisher. The Broom of the System was published when Wallace was 24 years old, he is credited to the rear panel as an MFA candidate at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Bizarre interlocking narrative of a publishing house, a high profile nursing home escape, Wittgenstein, a talking dog and televangelism, set in a not so distant future of 1990 Cleveland Ohio. A nearly fine copy in mylar.