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THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA
by Hemingway, Ernest
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Scribner's Sons, 1952.. Blue cloth. A lovely copy in bright, fresh, crisp pictorial dust jacket showing only very minor use at the edges and a 1.5 cm closed tear at the top edge of the front panel (but see below). First edition in book form, Grissom's binding A and dust jacket A. This is, however, a freak copy, cased with the spine stamping upside down when originally bound for the publisher. Laid in is a description of this "brilliant copy" by Sessler's in Philadelphia -- one of at least two booksellers who did not note the binding aberration. The Pulitzer award winner for its year, and the sourcework for the several film and television adaptations, the first in 1958. GRISSOM A.24.1.a. HANNEMAN A24a.
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
On Mar 6 2014, a reader said:
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
- William Reese Company - Literature ABAA-ILAB
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- WRCLIT88643
- Title
- THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA
- Author
- Hemingway, Ernest
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Scribner's Sons
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1952.
Terms of Sale
William Reese Company - Literature ABAA-ILAB
All material is shipped subject to approval, but notification of return must be made within ten days and returns made in a prompt and conscientious fashion.
As our inventory is housed in two locations, queries about availability should be made by e-mail rather than telephone.
We do not drop-ship to third parties.
About the Seller
William Reese Company - Literature ABAA-ILAB
Biblio member since 2006
New Haven, Connecticut
About William Reese Company - Literature ABAA-ILAB
Since 1975, William Reese Company has served a large international clientele of collectors and private and public institutions in the acquisition of rare books and manuscripts and in collection development.
With a catalogued inventory of over thirty thousand items, and a general inventory of over sixty-five thousand items, we are among the leading specialists in the fields of Americana and world travel, and maintain a large and eclectic inventory of literary first editions and antiquarian books of the 18th through 20th centuries.
We issue frequent, and substantial, catalogues in our fields of specialization.
With a catalogued inventory of over thirty thousand items, and a general inventory of over sixty-five thousand items, we are among the leading specialists in the fields of Americana and world travel, and maintain a large and eclectic inventory of literary first editions and antiquarian books of the 18th through 20th centuries.
We issue frequent, and substantial, catalogues in our fields of specialization.
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....
- Crisp
- A term often used to indicate a book's new-like condition. Indicates that the hinges are not loosened. A book described as crisp...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
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