"THE VICTOR BELONGS TO THE SPOILS": FIRST ISSUE OF FITZGERALD'S THE BEAUTIFUL AND DAMNED

FITZGERALD, F. Scott. The Beautiful and Damned. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922. Octavo, recent full dark green morocco gilt, raised bands, gilt spine decorations, top edge gilt. $2500.

First edition, first issue, of Fitzgerald's scarce second novel, handsomely bound in full morocco with the original cloth front cover and spine preserved.

"The Beautiful and Damned brought Fitzgerald accolades from those whose opinions he valued. Mencken congratulated him for staking out new ground… Fitzgerald was aiming high; he only wanted to be the best novelist of his generation" (Turnbull, 130-31). Fitzgerald wrote to Zelda in 1930, "I wish The Beautiful and Damned had been a maturely written book because it was all true. We ruined ourselves… I have never honestly thought that we ruined each other" (Bruccoli, 180). First issue, with "Published March, 1922" on copyright page. Original cloth front cover and spine bound in at the back. Bruccoli A8.1.a.

Minor offsetting to a few leaves from a laid-in contemporary newspaper review, contents otherwise clean. A handsome copy.