RARE IN THE DUSTWRAPPER

HEMINGWAY, Ernest ~ In Our Time.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Jonathan Cape, London: 1926.

8vo., blue publisher's cloth, lettered in white to spine with Cape device to foot; together in the rare printed dustwrapper (unclipped, 6s. net to front flap), featuring lettering and decorative borders in blue; THE BOOK a very good example, a little bumped and rubbed at edges with some minor fading to the spine; light overall toning internally but clean overall, with a couple of corner creases to a few pages; THE WRAPPER darkened to folds and especially to spine; rubbed and creased along folds with some chips to ends of folds and spine, and a couple of splash marks to the upper panel; completely unrestored. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First UK edition, first printing of Hemingway's second published work, and his first book to be published in Great Britain. This copy in the second state blue cloth binding. Part of the 'Second Story' series. An early collection of 15 short stories with the prose bridge 'chapter' divisions and an 'L' Envoi'. Hemingway's writing career began while as a reporter for The Kansas City Star, where he spent six months after graduating from High School. When the First World War broke out, he enlisted in the Red Cross, and later served as an ambulance driver on the Italian front. Hemingway struggled to readjust to life after the war. One of the stories included here, 'Big Two-Hearted River' was based on a camping trip he took with some High-School friends, and is semi-autobiographical, describing the protagonist's attempts to readjust to life after the experiences of war. After marrying, Hemingway moved to Paris and began to move within a circle of writers who referred to themselves as 'the lost generation' - Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and James Joyce, amongst other artists such as Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro. He began to write travel pieces, and had compiled a collection of short stories before the suitcase containing his manuscripts was lost by his wife at a train station at the Gare de Lyon. All that remained were two stories, and Hemingway had to start again from scratch. 'in our time' (all lower case) was first produced in Paris in 1924, and in this early iteration the stories it contained were more like vignettes, which had initially appeared in Ezra Pound's 'The Little Review' the previous year. Many were on the subject of war, bullfighting, grief and loss, and of the small run of 300 copies, only 170 survived, due to the poor printing process. After it was printed, he continued to write short stories, and in 1925, after combining the vignettes with the new stories, 'In Our Time' was reprinted in America. It now contained fourteen short stories with the vignettes interwoven as 'interchapters', many introducing his Nick Adams character (closely modeled on himself) for the first time. The book is now considered to be one of Hemingway's masterpieces, and certainly established him as a writer of great promise. Until very recently, this example has been housed in a private collection. Very elusive indeed with the wrapper.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Very Good
JACKET: Very Good