"THAT MUSICAL CRYSTAL-CLEAR STYLE, BLOWN LIKE GLASS FROM THE WHITE-HEAT OF VIOLENCE"

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 leatherette clamshell box. $12,000.

First trade edition, first issue, of the novel that "placed Hemingway, early, among the American masters," in scarce unrestored first-issue dust jacket. A lovely copy.

"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). First edition, first printing, with publisher's seal on copyright page, no disclaimer on page x; 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. Grissom A.8.1.a. Contemporary owner signature.

Book with inner paper hinge partially split but strong, minor marginal gray stain to first few leaves. Dust jacket with a few faint stains and only slightest rubbing to extremities. A near-fine unrestored copy.