The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Very Good-/Good-
- Seller
-
Hudson, New Hampshire, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
This is an early edition of "The Old Man and the Sea" by ERNEST HEMINGWAY with its original dust jacket. 1955; Charles Scribner's Sons; New York. "Nobel Prize" dust jacket variant with a photograph of Hemingway and "Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1954" on the back cover. The dust jacket is un-clipped with the original $3.00 price intact on the front flap, and has reviews of the story on both flaps.
Condition:
Light foxing spots on the covers; clean spine. Light soiling at the left edge of the front cover, and along the right edge of the back cover. Sharp cover corners. Tight binding with no cracks and no loose pages. Both covers are firmly attached. The text pages are in excellent condition and appear unread - clean with no issues found. Light tanning along the gutter between the end papers and pastedowns; the end papers & pastedowns also have a bit of light foxing. Overall in Very Good- condition. The dust jacket is un-clipped with the original $3.00 price intact on the front flap; there is a diagonal tear on the front cover that extends from the top edge to the center that has been repaired with clear tape on the back-side; separate 1" tear at the top edge of the front cover; tears over "Ernest" on the spine that have been repaired with clear tape on the back-side; light tanning to the back cover; small pieces missing at the flap corners...overall the jacket is in Good- condition.
Synopsis
This novella, only 140 pages, was first printed in its entirety in Life Magazine on September 1, 1952. It inspired a buying frenzy - selling over five million copies of the magazine in just two days! The story about an aging Cuban fisherman wrangling a large marlin in the gulf stream was written in 1951 in Cuba and published in 1952. In 1953, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and led to Hemingway's nomination for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Man's struggle against nature is the resounding theme throughout the book as Hemingway portrays Santiago's travails as an experienced fisherman facing a dry-spell of 85 days before finally wrangling a prized marlin. Hemingway also highlights the indomitable spirit of man while illustrating his ideal of manliness and character in the strong and determined fisherman facing danger and discomfort without complaint and with resolution, both in the days it takes Santiago to kill the marlin, and as he fights off the sharks that end up destroying his prized catch before he reaches the coast. Some say that Hemingway's tale is a reflection of his own determination to prove his writing career was not over, and the portrayal of the sharks may echo the critics who had been claiming for the ten years that his writing career, after the successful release of For Whom the Bell Tolls in 1940, was over. The book is dedicated "To Charlie Scribner And To Max Perkins," friends of Hemingway's that had passed away before the book came out. Max Perkins, who also edited F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe, died in 1947 and Scribner, who was president of the publisher Charles Scribner's Sons, died in 1952.
Read More: Identifying first editions of The Old Man and the Sea
Reviews
The Old Man and The Sea is an excellent novella for someone to read looking to get away from the troubles of life only to find that some troubles lead to the greatest reward of even though the reward is only a small amount.
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Details
- Bookseller
- CraigsClassics (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 7888
- Title
- The Old Man and the Sea
- Author
- Ernest Hemingway
- Format/Binding
- Cloth
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good-
- Jacket Condition
- Good-
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Charles Scribner's Sons
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1955
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- ernest hemingway, old man and the sea, islands in the stream, across river into trees, moveable feast, green hills africa, snows kilimanjaro, in our time, death in the afternoon, to have and have not, men without women, for whom bell tolls, sun also rise
- Bookseller catalogs
- Literature / Fiction;
Terms of Sale
CraigsClassics
About the Seller
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Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Flap(s)
- The portion of a book cover or cover jacket that folds into the book from front to back. The flap can contain biographical...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Gutter
- The inside margin of a book, connecting the pages to the joints near the binding.
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...