.jpg?w=1)
Details
FITZGERALD, F. Scott. This Side of Paradise. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920.
8o. (A small dampstain on a few preliminary lower margins.) Original dark green cloth, spine lettered in gilt (spine a little dulled); quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance: Aiken Reichner, fellow student at Princeton (presentation inscription).
FIRST EDITION of the author's first book. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY FITZGERALD TO A JUNIOR SCHOOL-MATE AT PRINCETON, AIKEN REICHNER, on the front free endpaper: "For Aiken Reichner Hoping that you'll find your literary stride within the next year--and with a great deal of confidence that you will-- F. Scott Fitzgerald March 28th, 1920 Princeton, N.J."
Fitzgerald entered Princeton in the fall of 1913, where he was conditionally admitted to the Class of 1917. With his energy primarily devoted to extra-curricular social and literary pursuits, his grades suffered miserably there. After repeated failed attempts to make-up for missed classes or failing grades, he would eventually drop-out and join the army rather than complete his degree.
Fitzgerald was in residence at the Cottage Club at Princeton for the publication of This Side of Paradise, on March 26, 1920. It was presumably here that he met the younger Reichner and inscribed this copy two days after publication. The autobiographical Princeton set novel was an immediate success, and secured Fitzgerald's reputation as the voice of his generation. On the brink of his first great literary success, Fitzgerald confidently inscribed this copy to his junior schoolmate with words of encouragement. Reichner's family had a long connection with Princeton. Aiken followed his father there (Class of 1894), and his son, Aiken Jr., was later a member of the Class of 1947.
"The novel's defiant tone had the same powerful impact on rebellious postwar youth as Salinger's Catcher in the Rye did in 1951, and it became a bible and guidebook as the Twenties began to roar. Like Eliot's Poems, Owen's Poems, Huxley's Limbo and Lawrence's Women in Love (all of which appeared in 1920), Fitzgerald's novel captures the spirit of dissillusionment that followed the Great War" (Meyers, p.56). Bruccoli A5.1.a.
8o. (A small dampstain on a few preliminary lower margins.) Original dark green cloth, spine lettered in gilt (spine a little dulled); quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance: Aiken Reichner, fellow student at Princeton (presentation inscription).
FIRST EDITION of the author's first book. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY FITZGERALD TO A JUNIOR SCHOOL-MATE AT PRINCETON, AIKEN REICHNER, on the front free endpaper: "For Aiken Reichner Hoping that you'll find your literary stride within the next year--and with a great deal of confidence that you will-- F. Scott Fitzgerald March 28th, 1920 Princeton, N.J."
Fitzgerald entered Princeton in the fall of 1913, where he was conditionally admitted to the Class of 1917. With his energy primarily devoted to extra-curricular social and literary pursuits, his grades suffered miserably there. After repeated failed attempts to make-up for missed classes or failing grades, he would eventually drop-out and join the army rather than complete his degree.
Fitzgerald was in residence at the Cottage Club at Princeton for the publication of This Side of Paradise, on March 26, 1920. It was presumably here that he met the younger Reichner and inscribed this copy two days after publication. The autobiographical Princeton set novel was an immediate success, and secured Fitzgerald's reputation as the voice of his generation. On the brink of his first great literary success, Fitzgerald confidently inscribed this copy to his junior schoolmate with words of encouragement. Reichner's family had a long connection with Princeton. Aiken followed his father there (Class of 1894), and his son, Aiken Jr., was later a member of the Class of 1947.
"The novel's defiant tone had the same powerful impact on rebellious postwar youth as Salinger's Catcher in the Rye did in 1951, and it became a bible and guidebook as the Twenties began to roar. Like Eliot's Poems, Owen's Poems, Huxley's Limbo and Lawrence's Women in Love (all of which appeared in 1920), Fitzgerald's novel captures the spirit of dissillusionment that followed the Great War" (Meyers, p.56). Bruccoli A5.1.a.