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

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."

A beautifully preserved and tight copy that is better than most; boards with spotting as is common, light wear at three corners and spine ends with fourth corner more heavily bumped; interior with light toning, a few spots of foxing on endpapers, and a couple of minor marks, otherwise near pristine; unclipped jacket with very light scuffing, spotting, and edge wear, areas of toning mostly at edges and interior, minor crease to front jacket flap, and a few pieces of tape on the interior that appear primarily preventative; in removable protective mylar jacket; a very good plus copy in a very good dj.