The Great Gatsby by FITZGERALD, F. Scott - 1926

London: Chatto and Windus, 1926. First U.K. Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. Fine. Octavo, 218pp. A stunning copy, bound in full crushed deep blue Levant goatskin, with gilt edges, borders, dentelles, and elaborate spine compartments. French marbled endpapers. Original navy cloth from boards and spine bound in at rear. An exquisitely beautiful copy of the truly rare first UK edition of Fitzgerald's undisputed masterpiece. Matthew Bruccoli, Fitzgerald's premier bibliographer, notes that just 3,000 copies of the UK edition were printed, compared to the ~20,000 examples of the first American printing. Those 3,000 copies were bound in two different cloths--navy and maroon--navy having established priority. "The Great Gatsby" was received with ambivalence upon publication, and with Fitzgerald off in Europe and dead within fifteen years of its first appearance, the author never enjoyed public or critical recognition for it in his lifetime. Fitzgerald often expressed a desire to earn a literary reputation in England, another chance that eluded him during his lifetime, and is evidenced by the small print run. To emphasize the scarcity of this UK edition, we count just about 20 holdings in worldwide libraries; it's also unclear how many of those are in the first binding. By comparison, OCLC records well over 1,000 holdings of the first American edition. A true rarity of modern literature, in a very handsome presentation.