Description
First edition, first printing of Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway, inscribed to F. Trubee Davison, the president of the American Museum of Natural History.
Octavo, [viii], 294, [2]. Publisher’s green cloth, facsimile signature in gilt on front cover. Title in gilt on spine. The first printing, with “Scribner’s A” on copyright page. Sunning to spine, wear to gilt band. Solid text block, internally clean. In the publisher’s first edition dust jacket, $2.75 retail price on front flap, shallow chipping along edges of spine, sunning to spine, light spotting to verso, a very good example. This jacket is variant B, identical to Jacket A, except for the alignment of the green print on the rear panel.
(Grissom A.13.1.a) (Hanneman A.13.a) Housed in custom black leather clamshell, title in gilt over blue label on spine, internally lined with tan cloth.
This copy is inscribed on the front free endpaper: “For F. Trubee Davison / hoping (I won’t bore him too much and) it will remind him a little of Africa / Ernest Hemingway.”
The recipient of this copy, F. Trubee Davison (1896-1974) was the United States Assistant Secretary of War and President of the American Museum of Natural History. During World War I, he formed the “First Yale Unit,” the first naval air reserve unit. After the war, Davison served as Assistant Secretary of War for Air from 1926-1933, when he was asked to head the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He quickly set off to Africa in 1934 to enhance the collection at the Natural History Museum, begun by Theodore Roosevelt and Carl Akeley, with four additional elephants. While in Africa, in the company of Martin and Osa Johnson, Davison met Hemingway before an elephant hunt. Hemingway sent this copy of Green Hills to Davison in November of 1935, with Davison writing to thank Hemingway on November 15, 1935. (Ernest Hemingway Collection – JFK Library – EHPP-IC06-018)
