Hugh Hefner’s Playboy (Limited Edition)

Hugh Hefner’s Playboy

Edition of 1,500

US$ 3,000

This edition is sold out. However, occasionally, copies do become available again. If you would like to be put on the waiting list, please register your interest here.

In a nutshell

This is the definitive history of Playboy and its legendary founder. Hugh M. Hefner presents an illustrated autobiography with chronological highlights from Playboy’s first 25 years. His personal life and career—from cartoon-drawing childhood to astonishing success with Playboy—are revealed in the most intimate portrait ever.

This sumptuous six-volume anthology celebrates the decadence, sophistication, and wit of the original men’s magazine and its creator. Hugh Hefner’s Playboy highlights the extraordinary years from 1953 to 1979, with a selection of each era’s spiciest centerfolds and writing by literary icons Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, Jack Kerouac, and Ray Bradbury, as well as some of the most important Playboy interviews, including Martin Luther King, John Lennon, Richard Nixon, and Roman Polanski.

A wealth of never-before-seen ephemera from Hefner’s personal archives includes original artwork, cartoons and correspondence, and 700 pages of autobiographical text about his youth, military service, early career as a cartoonist, numerous girlfriends, and eventual success with Playboy. A vast selection of personal photos—many previously unseen—include behind-the-scenes shots from the Playboy Mansion, Playboy Clubs, and the Big Bunny jet.

Limited to 1,500 sets, each numbered and signed by Hugh Hefner
Six volumes totaling 3,506 pages, packaged in a 10 mm thick Plexiglas box
Features 59 of the hottest Centerfolds in full size, and all 312 covers from the magazine’s first 25 years
Comprehensive overview of artwork and pictorials by all of the important Playboy artists and photographers
Contains a facsimile edition of Playboy’s groundbreaking first issue, featuring Marilyn Monroe’s iconic nude portrait
Hefner’s text in English with German, French, and Spanish translations
Special bonus: includes a 7 x 7 cm (2.8 x 2.8 in.) piece of Hef’s legendary silk pajamas!

Limited Edition of 1,500 numbered copies signed by Hefner, in a Plexiglas case. Includes a facsimile edition of Playboy #1 from 1953—featuring the iconic Monroe cover and first nude shots—and a 7 x 7 cm (2.8 x 2.8 in.) piece of Hef’s famous silk pajamas, worn by the great man himself

The editor and author

Hugh Marston Hefner (1926–2017) was the founder of Playboy magazine and a champion of free speech, civil rights, and sexual freedom. After starting the publication from his kitchen in 1953, Hefner became a pioneering intellectual force that helped transform social and sexual mores in the United States, publishing leading writers including James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, and Jack Kerouac, as well as trailblazing interviews with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. and Fidel Castro.

Hugh Hefner’s Playboy

Edition of 1,500

Hardcover, six vols. in acrylic box with piece of pajama and facsimile, 8.8 x 12.3 in., 51.92 lb, 3506 pages

“Our recommendations for summer-reading coffee-table, nay patio books from TASCHEN: (1) Hugh Hefner's Playboy ($ 1300). This one needs no explanation”

— Playboy, Los Angeles