Description
First edition, first printing of The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, in the first state dust jacket.
Octavo, [ii], 140pp, [2]. Light blue cloth binding with title in silver on spine. First edition with Scribner’s “A” on copyright page, and printed on laid paper. Free of marks or notations. Previous ownership inscription on front free endpaper, dated 1952. In the publisher’s first state dust jacket, text printed in brown on flaps and rear panel, price clipped, with no mention of Nobel Prize on the rear panel. A bright, near fine jacket, faint sunning along top quarter, archival tape repair to verso at the spine, small blemish along center of spine, an attractive example. (Hanneman 24a) (Grissom A24.1.a) Housed in custom clamshell case, blue cloth, title in gilt over blue leather label.
The Old Man and the Sea was first published by Life Magazine on September 1, 1952. Hemingway received $40,000 in royalties for the rights to this prepublication copy. The first printing in book form was released on September 8th, 1952, with 51,700 copies issued. (Grissom A.24.1.a) This book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953.
