"A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway, First Edition, Original DJ, circa 1929

Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. First Edition, Later printing. Octavo, Rebound in quarter leather an...

Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. First trade edition, first issue. In the original first-state dust jacket and publisher’s black cloth boards. Presented in a new archival ¼ leather and cloth clamshell case, with raised bands, gilt tooling, and titles to the spine. Presented is a first trade edition, first issue of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. The book was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in New York, in September of 1929. This first printing is presented with its original first issue dust jacket. The dust jacket, as designed by Cleonike Damianakes Wilkins, is considered by many to be one of the greatest of the 20th century and rivals even The Great Gatsby in its collectibility. Set during World War I, A Farewell to Arms tells the story of a young American Lieutenant serving as an ambulance driver in Italy struggling through love and war. The story is told through first person narration detailing many aspects of war that would have been very familiar to readers at the time, as the book was published only 11 years after the 1918 armistice. The simple, direct tone his character uses when giving his unromanticized account of the war later defined Hemingway’s writing style. A Farewell to Arms is loosely based on Hemingway’s own experiences. The author briefly served overseas as an ambulance driver in the Italian Army, sustained injuries, and met a nurse who he eventually proposed marriage to but was declined. The novel’s post-war disillusionist subject assigned Hemingway to the “Lost Generation” of Modernist artists. A Farewell to Arms was Hemingway’s most successful publishing venture to date. Charles Scribner's Sons issued seven impressions of the novel in the short time between September and December of 1929, with over 100,000 volumes sold. The novel secured Hemingway’s place as a popular American author and became his first bestselling book. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was an American author and journalist. His distinctive writing style, characterized by economy of words and dry understatement, strongly influenced 20th-century fiction, as did his life of adventure and his public image. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Hemingway published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works during his lifetime; a further three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously. Many of his works are now considered classics of American literature. The book’s striking dust jacket design was illustrated by the artist Cleonike Damianakes Wilkins, who worked under the pen name of Cleon. Wilkins was known for her distinctive fusion of Art Deco and Hellenistic styles. She designed the dust jackets for Hemingway’s earlier The Sun Also Rises in 1926 and his later publication In Our Time in 1930, as well as Conrad Aiken’s Great Circle, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s All the Sad Young Men,and Zelda Fitzgerald’s Save Me the Waltz. Wilkins was chosen by Hemingway’s celebrated editor at Scribner’s, Maxwell Perkins. In order to differentiate Hemingway’s tale from other, competing WWI novels on the bookshop shelves, Perkins sought to widen its appeal through the dust jacket. The resulting design was Wilkins’ interpretation of Sandro Botticelli’s epic oil painting “Venus...

Hemingway, Ernest, To Have and Have Not. New York: Charles Scriber’s Sons, 1937. First edition, first printing. Beautifully rebound in 1/4 gray Moroccan leather and cloth boards, with raised bands and gilt tooling and titles to the spine. Housed in a matching cloth slipcase. This first edition, first printing of Ernest Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not was published in New York by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1937. The original internal pages have been professionally rebound in quarter gray Moroccan leather and cloth boards with raised bands, gilt titles, and gilt tooling to the spine. The book is housed in a custom matching archival slipcase. Set during the Depression, Hemingway’s novel follows the dramatic story of fishing boat captain Henry Morgan who turns to a life of contraband running between Cuba and Florida to save himself and his family. To Have and Have Not began as a short story, published as "One Trip Across" in Cosmopolitan in 1934, introducing the character of Harry Morgan...

Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls. Philadelphia: The Blakiston Company, 1940. First Blakiston Edition. Rebound in quarter navy leather...

Heller, Joseph. Catch-22. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961. First edition, first printing. Octavo. In original blue cloth boards, stamped in white. In the original unclipped dust jacket. Presented with a new archival ¼ leather and cloth clamshell. Presented is the first edition, first printing of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. Catch-22 was published by Simon and Schuster, in October of 1961. This book is presented in the original publisher’s blue cloth boards, titled and embossed in white, and the original, unclipped dust-jacket. The Simon and Schuster “A Note to the Reader” postcard is laid in. The book comes with a new, archival ¼ leather and cloth clamshell. Catch-22 was Joseph Heller’s first novel and his most acclaimed work. Set during World War II, the novel uses a unique, non-chronological third-person narration, mainly focusing on the life of a B-25 bombardier in the U.S. Army, Captain John Yossarian, and his attempts to avoid bombing runs. Both the title and plot device, “Catch-22” refers to an Air Forces regulation which asserts that a man is considered insane if he willingly agrees to fly dangerous combat missions, but that if he makes the formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved." By the end of the novel, the phrase is invoked as the explanation for many unreasonable restrictions. “Catch-22” has since entered the English lexicon. Heller spent eight years writing "Catch-22," and used his own war experiences as inspiration for the novel. From 1942 to 1945, Heller served as a combat bombardier in the Twelfth Air Force and was stationed on the Island of Corsica. Upon publication, the book was not an immediate bestseller, but did elicit glowing reviews from some. “Wildly original, brilliantly comic, brutally gruesome, it is a dazzling performance that will probably outrage nearly as many readers as it delights. In any case, it is one of the most startling first novels of the year and it may make its author famous” (Orville Prescott, New York Times). It became a publishing sensation thanks to the 1962 paperback edition, which set record sales and benefitted from the national debate surrounding the Vietnam War. In the decades since, it has inspired a feature film, a miniseries, a 50-character stage play, and sold more than 10 million...

Ernest Hemingway. Men Without Women. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1955. Uniform edition. Signed and inscribed by Hemingway on the free end page....

AUTHOR: LINDBERGH, Charles A. TITLE: "WE". PUBLISHER: NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1927. DESCRIPTION: SIGNED FIRST EDITION. 1 vol., signed by Lindbergh on the title-page, illustr...

Farthing Hall by Hugh Walpole & J.B. Priestley. Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1929. Stated first edition hardcover no dust jacket. A novel consisting of letters between Mark French, who a ...

Author: Kline, Otis Adelbert. Title: The Planet of Peril. Publisher: Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co.,1929. Description: First Edition. 1 vol., hardbound, original brown stamp...

A Guide to American Pewter by Carl Jacobs. NY: The McBride Company, 1957. First edition hardcover with dust jacket. 216 pp. A guide to pewter for the c...

Fabergé, Court Jeweler to the Tsars by G. von Habsburg-Lothringen and A. von Solodkoff. New York: Tabard Press, 1979. First edition hardcover with dust jacket. 170 pp. A book on the works of Carl Fabergé. For more than 35 years, Peter Carl Fabergé (1846-1920) was a purveyor of exquisite creations in jewels and precious metals to European royalty, most notably Russia and England, and to the wealthy of the world. He was a designer of unsurpassed ingenuity and delicacy. He turned out a profusion of jeweled flowers in rock-crystal pots, enameled cigarette cases, desk sets in multicolored gold, silver and platinum, along with miniature gold sedan chairs and coronation coaches...

Pisanello, Painter to the Renaissance Court by Luke Syson and Dillian Gordon. London: National Gallery Company, 2001. First edition hardcover with dust jacket. 264 pp. A book on the works of Pisanello by London's National Gallery to accompany the exhibition. Pisanello (1395-1455) was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance. He is known for his amazing large murals, elegant portraits, small easel...