The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald – FIRST EDITION, First printing

This is the FIRST edition, FIRST printing of Gertrude Stein's (1874-1946) FIRST published book and is from the FIRST issue of 700 copies, with a further 300 copies exported to Britai...

Paul Scott's After the Funeral, illustrated by Sally Scott, with an introduction by Roland Grant. Andoversford: Whittington Press & William Heinemann, 1979. Limited Edition. Roya...

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Beautiful and the Damned. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922. First edition, first state. Rebound in ¼ leather and cloth boards, with raised bands, gilt titles, and tooling to the spine. Gilded edges. New archival cloth slipcase. Presented is a first edition, first state of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and the Damned. The book was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in New York in 1922. It is presented here, rebound, in gorgeous blue ¼ leather and cloth boards, with raised bands, gilt titles, and gilt tooling to the spine, and a new archival slipcase. The Beautiful and the Damned was Fitzgerald’s second novel, following his debut This Side of Paradise. The book is an exploration of the nouveau riche, New York City nightlife in the 1920s, and the inner dynamics of two young and reckless newlyweds. Semi-autobigraphical, Fitzgerald modeled the characters of Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert on himself and his new spouse Zelda Fitzgerald and the story draws circumstantially upon the early years of Fitzgeralds' tempestuous marriage. Fitzgerald started writing The Beautiful and the Damned in August of 1920, while in Westport Connecticut. Having reflected upon the criticisms of his debut novel This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald sought to improve upon the form and construction of his prose in this second book. He relied heavily on editorial suggestions from his friend Edmund Wilson...

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...