AN EXTRAORDINARY ASSOCIATION COPY: THE FIRST EDITION OF IN OUR TIME, ONE OF ONLY 170 COPIES PRINTED, AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED JUST WEEKS AFTER PUBLICATION BY HEMINGWAY TO THE UNDERWRITER OF THE BOOK

HEMINGWAY, Ernest. in our time. Paris: Three Mountains Press, for sale at Shakespeare and Company, 1924. Quarto, original tan printed boards with black lettering and publisher’s device printed over a collage of red-lettered facsimile newspaper items; uncut. Housed in custom chemise and half morocco slipcase.

First edition of this beautiful production, number 45 of only 170 copies, inscribed by Hemingway to the underwriter of the book, concert pianist Alma Estelle Lloyd, on the front free endpaper: “It being impossible to write £30 worth of dedication, So ——— —, with affection to Lloyd from Ernest Hemingway, Paris, April, 1924.” The work was published in March of 1924.

Hemingway’s second published book, in our time is certainly one of his rarest both because of the limited number of copies printed and its fragile nature. A series of short vignettes, the work is a powerful statement on war and includes chapters written during Hemingway’s recent visits to Spain and the fictional account of the death of Maera, a renowned matador. In his review, Edmund Wilson called it “a harrowing record of the barbarities of the period in which we live.” Ezra Pound edited in our time, and it was later expanded into the American edition of 1925 in which these 18 chapters appeared interspersed among other classic Hemingway short stories.

Inscribed copies of in our time—already a very scarce Hemingway item, especially in such nice condition as the present copy—are exceedingly rare. Alma Estelle Lloyd, The recipient of the present copy, was a concert pianist in Paris in the 1920s. Her life crossed Hemingway’s in a very meaningful way in 1924, as reflected in this inscription: her gift of £30 permitted Hemingway to pay for the printing of in our time at the Three Mountains Press. With woodcut frontispiece of Hemingway from a portrait by Henry Strater. Hanneman A2a. Bookplate of Richard Manney, from the 1991 sale of his renowned collection.

Binder’s adhesive offsetting to endpapers, as usual. Only minor expert restoration to spine and corners. A near-fine copy of one of the rarest of Hemingway titles, very rare inscribed, and with a splendid association.