Yuri Gagarin Signed Book, Incredibly Rare "Doroga v kosmos" [Journey to Space. A Memoir], by Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968), first human to travel to outer space. Hard covers, dust jacket, autographed on the flyleaf by the Cosmonaut himself. With an introduction by Nikolai Kamanin, the head of the Soviet Cosmonaut Corps. Moscow, Pravda, 1961. Clean cloth cover, creases and light chips to edges on jacket, cracked binding with exposed mull, one page partially loose.

An important first edition of Gagarin’s autobiography that differs in some aspects from expanded and reworked later editions. The book was produced shortly after the Gagarin’s historic spaceflight; the narrative is Gagarin’s, but in putting it down on paper he was assisted by two experienced Pravda journalists, Nikolai Denisov and Sergei Borzenko, who are credited as “literary transcribers”. It is important to underscore Gagarin-signed books are quite elusive. American authors regularly sign their books during promotional tours, but such practice did not exist in the Soviet Union – and after his flight, Gagarin rarely came into direct contact with the general public. To get Gagarin’s autograph, one had to have good friends in Star City, or among VIPs that feted the Cosmonaut on his ceremonial appearances.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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