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Details
HEMINGWAY, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929.
8o. Original black cloth, printed gold labels on front cover and spine (minor wear); original(?) dust jacket (worn with old tape repairs); an additonal extremely fine dust jacket is supplied as well. Provenance: Eric Knight (see previous lot; presentation inscription).
FIRST EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY OF HEMINGWAY'S MASTERPIECE, WITH A LENGTHY INSCRIPTION FROM HEMINGWAY TO ERIC KNIGHT in pencil on the front free endpaper: "To Eric Knight this account of life and travels in Northern Italy during 1917 and 18 with a short excursion on the [Staban] lakes and an account of part of a winter spent in French Switzerland above Lake Lewan with best wishes from the author Ernest Hemingway." Additionally, Hemingway has written on the following page, "Because this book is dear to me I send it to you."
Hemingway was working on A Farewell to Arms, when his second wife Pauline gave birth to their first son, Patrick. He felt the need to escape the distractions of a newborn, so he took off from Kansas City for Wyoming with friend Bill Horne. He had just thirty pages left to write after three weeks in the rugged outdoors. Upon finishing the novel he said, "I've...never felt better or stronger or healthier in the head or body--nor had better confidence or morale--haven't been sick since I've been in America--knocking on wood--not had an accident--more knocking." The year 1928 would end on a low for him, however, when on December 6th, Hemingway's father committed suicide.
The novel was serialized in six parts in Scribner's Magazine from May to October 1929, but with some revisions to the text--the magazine's publishers insisted that Max Perkins take out the curse words, and edit the discussion between Rinaldi and Lieutenant Henry about the pain of sex for "good" girls. The book was published by Scribner's on September 27, 1929, and was both a huge commercial and critical success for Hemingway. Four weeks after publication sales soared to 33,000 copies; a month later they exceeded 50,000--despite the crash of the stock market.
"Superlatively favorable reviews in American journals by Malcolm Cowley, Clifton Fadiman, Henry Seidel Canby, and T.S. Matthews, among many others, plus equally enthusiastic comments in England by Arnold Bennett, J.B. Priestley, and the anonymous reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement, helped to create the demand for the book and to spread the author's fame more widely than ever. Indeed, a New Yorker 'Profile' by Dorothy Parker on November 30, 1929, may be said to have marked the point at which Hemingway passed beyond mere fame into living legend" (Lynn, p. 391). Connolly, The Modern Movement 60 ("probably his best"); Hanneman A10a.
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FIRST EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY OF HEMINGWAY'S MASTERPIECE, WITH A LENGTHY INSCRIPTION FROM HEMINGWAY TO ERIC KNIGHT in pencil on the front free endpaper: "To Eric Knight this account of life and travels in Northern Italy during 1917 and 18 with a short excursion on the [Staban] lakes and an account of part of a winter spent in French Switzerland above Lake Lewan with best wishes from the author Ernest Hemingway." Additionally, Hemingway has written on the following page, "Because this book is dear to me I send it to you."
Hemingway was working on A Farewell to Arms, when his second wife Pauline gave birth to their first son, Patrick. He felt the need to escape the distractions of a newborn, so he took off from Kansas City for Wyoming with friend Bill Horne. He had just thirty pages left to write after three weeks in the rugged outdoors. Upon finishing the novel he said, "I've...never felt better or stronger or healthier in the head or body--nor had better confidence or morale--haven't been sick since I've been in America--knocking on wood--not had an accident--more knocking." The year 1928 would end on a low for him, however, when on December 6th, Hemingway's father committed suicide.
The novel was serialized in six parts in Scribner's Magazine from May to October 1929, but with some revisions to the text--the magazine's publishers insisted that Max Perkins take out the curse words, and edit the discussion between Rinaldi and Lieutenant Henry about the pain of sex for "good" girls. The book was published by Scribner's on September 27, 1929, and was both a huge commercial and critical success for Hemingway. Four weeks after publication sales soared to 33,000 copies; a month later they exceeded 50,000--despite the crash of the stock market.
"Superlatively favorable reviews in American journals by Malcolm Cowley, Clifton Fadiman, Henry Seidel Canby, and T.S. Matthews, among many others, plus equally enthusiastic comments in England by Arnold Bennett, J.B. Priestley, and the anonymous reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement, helped to create the demand for the book and to spread the author's fame more widely than ever. Indeed, a New Yorker 'Profile' by Dorothy Parker on November 30, 1929, may be said to have marked the point at which Hemingway passed beyond mere fame into living legend" (Lynn, p. 391). Connolly, The Modern Movement 60 ("probably his best"); Hanneman A10a.