“THE WORLD IS A FINE PLACE AND WORTH THE FIGHTING FOR”

HEMINGWAY, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1940. Square octavo, original tan paper wrapper, printing on recto only. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $4800.

Rare unrevised proof copy, issued for Book-of-the-Month club judges, almost assuredly predating the first edition.

“This is the best book Ernest Hemingway has written, the fullest, the deepest, the truest. It will, I think, be one of the major novels of American literature… Hemingway has struck universal chords, and he has struck them vibrantly” (J. Donald Adams). Published on October 21, 1940, For Whom the Bell Tolls “was chosen as the Book-of-the-Month Club selection for November 1940… An unrevised proof was issued in a brown paper cover for the Book-of-the-Month Club judges, 7-3/4 by 6-1/2 inches, 476 pages, printed on the right side only. A note explains that the last two chapters are omitted because the author wished to read the proofs up to that point ‘before perfecting the end” (Hanneman 18a). This copy is without the note, which was attached to the last page of text. Hanneman A18a.

Interior fine, light soiling to original wrappers, ink mark to spine. Quite rare.