“THAT MUSICAL CRYSTAL-CLEAR STYLE, BLOWN LIKE GLASS FROM THE WHITE-HEAT OF VIOLENCE”: SIGNED LIMITED EDITION OF HEMINGWAY’S A FAREWELL TO ARMS, THE ONLY ONE OF HIS WORKS SO ISSUED

HEMINGWAY, Ernest. Farewell to Arms. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. Tall octavo, original white parchment spine and corners, green paper boards, uncut and unopened, original glassine. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

Signed limited first edition of Hemingway’s “consummate masterpiece,” number 2 of only 510 copies signed by him.

"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" (Connally 60). "A Farewell to Arms was the novel that placed Hemingway, early, among the American masters… [it is], in fact, 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). The only signed limited first edition of any of Hemingway's works. Without scarce original slipcase. Hanneman A8b. With bookplate of Professor Fraser Drew of the University of Buffalo in New York. As a young teacher, Drew wrote a letter to which Hemingway responded kindly. This was somewhat unusual as Hemingway could be quite cold or even nasty with correspondents. At Drew's request, Hemingway signed six of Drew's books and presented Drew with six more "as an act of contrition" for taking so long to return the books. Eventually, Hemingway invited Drew to visit him in Havana. On April 8, 1955, one year after Hemingway won the Nobel for literature, Drew and Hemingway spent a long afternoon discussing literature and teaching, later recounted by Drew in his article "Unedited Notes on a Visit to Finca Vigia" (in Bruccoli, Conversations With Ernest Hemingway, 89-98), an account remarkable for its portrayal of Hemingway's modesty and generosity. At the end of Drew's visit with Hemingway, "He said, Let's go up to the house and sign those books of yours," after which Hemingway inscribed all the books Drew had brought with him and (as before) presented him with many others from his own collection.

Wear to scarce original glassine, typically not present. Only very minor sunning to original boards. A near-fine copy.