27 “That Musical Crystal-Clear Style, Blown Like Glass From The White-Heat Of Violence” 28HEMINGWAY, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York, 1929. Octavo, original black cloth, dust jacket, custom box. $8500 First trade edition, first issue, of the novel that “placed Hemingway, early, among the American masters,” in scarce unrestored first-issue dust jacket. “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). Interior fine, cloth with very faint spotting, mild toning to spine, small bump to rear board; unrestored dust jacket with a bit of rubbing and edgewear, spine with almost none of the usual toning. A near-fine copy. “An’ You Get To Tend The Rabbits” 29STEINBECK, John. Of Mice and Men. New York, 1937. Small octavo, original beige cloth, dust jacket. $12,000 First edition, first issue, of Steinbeck’s “beautifully written [and] marvelous picture of the tragedy of loneliness” (Eleanor Roosevelt), in scarce original dust jacket. The author began Of Mice and Men as a children’s story. “Although the finished novelette does not seem appropriate for children—that intention was obviously abandoned—the simplicity of its style and the clarity and precision of its imagery may well have been prompted by this original purpose… “ (Benson, 326). The result is “a sophisticated and artful rendering of the basic conflict between two worlds: between an idealized landscape and the real world with its pain and anguish” (Literary History of the American West, 433). First issue, with all first issue points. Goldstone & Payne A7a. Book fine, lovely unrestored dust jacket with three short closed tears along top edge, a bit of wear to ends of mildly toned spine. A near-fine copy.
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