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 pastedown. Light dust along top edge of text block, faint toning to fore edge of blue cloth, a bright, near fine example. In the publisher’s first state dust jacket, $3.00 on front flap, text printed in brown on flaps and rear panel, no mention of Nobel Prize on the rear panel. A bright example, faint sunning along top quarter, two short closed tears near head of spine. (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 pre-publication 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.
