“THAT MUSICAL CRYSTAL-CLEAR STYLE, BLOWN LIKE GLASS FROM THE WHITE-HEAT OF VIOLENCE”: HEMINGWAY’S A FAREWELL TO ARMS, INSCRIBED BY HEMINGWAY TO HIS FRIEND PROFESSOR FRASER DREW

HEMINGWAY, Ernest. Farewell to Arms. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929. Octavo, original black cloth, gold paper labels, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First trade edition, scarce second issue, a presentation/association copy of the novel that “placed Hemingway, early, among the American masters,” this copy warmly inscribed to Hemingway scholar and his frequent correspondent, “To Frazer Drew from his friend, Ernest Hemingway,” in first issue dust jacket, rarely found.

“Probably [Hemingway’s] best… Its success was so enormous… After it one could no more imitate that musical crystal-clear style; blown like glass from the white-heat of violence… the beginning, like all his beginnings, seems effortless and magical” (Connolly, Modern Movement 60). “The novel that placed Hemingway, early, among the American masters… the most satisfying and most sustained, the consummate masterpiece, among Hemingway’s novels. It bears the mark of Hemingway’s best gifts as a writer” (Mellow, 377-79). Second issue, appearing within days of the first, the only issue with the legal disclaimer on page [x], which “did not arrive in time for the first printing, was omitted after the second printing” (Hanneman 8a); in first issue art deco dust jacket by Cleonike Damianakes, with front flap misspelling of the heroine’s name as “Katharine Barclay” instead of “Catherine Barkley.” Appeared simultaneously with a limited edition of 510 numbered copies. Hanneman 8a. Bruccoli & Clark, 178. With bookplate of Professor Fraser Drew of the University of Buffalo in New York. As a young teacher, Drew wrote a letter to which Hemingway responded kindly. This was somewhat unusual as Hemingway could be quite cold or even nasty with correspondents. At Drew’s request, Hemingway signed six of Drew’s books and presented Drew with six more “as an act of contrition” for taking so long to return the books. Eventually, Hemingway invited Drew to visit him in Havana. On April 8, 1955, one year after Hemingway won the Nobel for literature, Drew and Hemingway spent a long afternoon discussing literature and teaching, later recounted by Drew in his article “Unedited Notes on a Visit to Finca Vigia” (in Bruccoli, Conversations With Ernest Hemingway, 89-98), an account remarkable for its portrayal of Hemingway’s modesty and generosity. At the end of Drew’s visit with Hemingway, “He said, Let’s go up to the house and sign those books of yours,” after which Hemingway inscribed all the books Drew had brought with him and (as before) presented him with many others from his own collection.

Book fine with only a bit of faint scattered foxing to text; lightest edge-wear to unrestored first-issue dust jacket. An about-fine copy with a memorable association.