Across the River and Into the Trees [First Printing]

Thirty Bedford Square, London: Jonathan Cape, 1950. First U.K. Edition Published September 4, 1950, three days before the first U.S. Edition. Stated at copyright: First Published 1950. Blue-green full cloth boards, maroon cover symbol and spine field w/silver spine titles, moderate shelf wear, discoloration. Pages fine, clean; no writing. Bind fine; hinges intact. Stylish wrapper, moderate rub, edge wear, closed tear; unclipped 9s. 6d. net, protected in new clear sleeve. Colorfully subdued wrap-around jacket art by Hans Tisdall of Venetian docked gondola. Titles beautifully incorporated in wrapper image w/title itself at back panel. Ernest Hemingway's first novel in a decade - since For Whom the Bell Tolls - holds the essential emotion of that phenomenally successful book. In 'Across the River and into the Trees' there is a concept of the same intensity. Like the story of the Spanish civil war, which was centered upon a microcosm of action - the tense last days of an American in the midst of a group of guerrilla fighters, this story limits its scope to a very short span in the life of an American. This story builds its bridge not of days, but of hours, and it is even more charged with feeling. For many readers it will evoke a memorable earlier novel, A Farewell to Arms, because the background again is Italy, and again it is war. This newer war, however, is already in the past. The fighting is over; the reader hears only its echoes. Venice is the scene and Colonel Richard Cantwell of the United States Army is the principal figure; and perhaps the most complex character Hemingway ever presented. Printed in Great Britain in the city of Oxford at The Alden Press; bound by A. W. Bain & Co. Ltd, London. 254 pages. Insured post.. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Book.