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. Ownership notation on the front free endpaper, dated “September, 20, ’52,” the month this book was published. Faint dust remnant along top edge of text block.
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. Bright illustrations, touch of wear at the head of the spine, a near fine example. Housed in custom clamshell case, blue cloth, lined with black felt, title in silver over blue label. (Hanneman 24a) (Grissom A24.1.a)
A superb example.
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.
