first-edition-of-hemingway-s-i-the-old-man-and-the-sea-i-in-first-issue-jacket
Lot 4083

First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket

Lot Details & Additional Photographs
Ernest Hemingway. THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952. First edition with capital "A" and Scribner's press device on copyright. Light blue cloth-covered boards with Hemingway signature blind-stamped on upper board and silver lettering on the spine, in illustrated blue and brown jacket lettered in b&w. 8vo; [i-ii], [1]-140, [141-142 blank]pp. Dust jacket in first state with price ($3.00), brown text on flaps with "Jacket design by A." on front flap, no mention of winning the Nobel Prize on rear flap, and photo of Hemingway on the back in blue (later changed to olive). Hanneman A24a.

8 1/4 x 5 7/8 in.

The Old Man and the Sea was first published in Life magazine, quickly followed by Scribner's publication just days later on September 8, 1952. The novella was a New York Times Book Review's best-seller for nearly 6 months, as well as the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Hemingway won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954, "for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea" (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1954/summary/).

From the rear jacket flap: "One cannot hope to explain why the reading of this book is so profound an experience.... At the end...you are likely to feel that you have been changed by what you have read."

Boards with spotting, spine slightly cocked, corners and spine ends lightly rubbed, and some soiling at rear joint; interior with light toning, several small stains on early pages, occasional light grime, very minor edgewear, and one area of slight gutter cracking, pages overall extremely clean; endpapers with faint offsetting and spotting at hinge; jacket toned with spotting to interior and small areas on exterior, tiny hole at rear fold, and edgewear including chipping (heaviest at head of spine and front flap), creasing, and (3) 1/4- to 1/2-in. tears along bottom edge of front cover; a good to very good copy in a good to very good, unclipped dj.