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In Our Time -
Ernest Hemingway
1925 - Boni & Liveright, New York - First Edition, First Printing
First edition of Hemingway’s first American publication and his second book, published October 5th in a run of only 1,335 copies.
‘No other writer here recorded stepped so suddenly into fame, or destroyed with such insouciance so many other writers or ways of writing or became such an immediate symbol of an age.’ – Cyril Connolly, The Modern Movement.
‘On October 18, 1925, an American writer, not yet turned twenty-six, was first reviewed in The New York Times, whose anonymous critic called his short stories "lean, pleasing, with tough resilience," "fibrous," "athletic," "fresh," "hard," and "clean," almost as if an athlete, not a book, was being reviewed.
Hemingway had that effect on reviewers and readers alike. His prose style was dramatically different, demanding equally new ways of describing it. Not more than a handful of the newspaper's readers likely knew the Hemingway name, but the review of "In Our Time" could not have been more propitious.’ - Reynolds, New York Times.
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Price HK$ 11,000
1925 - Boni & Liveright, New York - First Edition, First Printing
First edition of Hemingway’s first American publication and his second book, published October 5th in a run of only 1,335 copies.‘No other writer here recorded stepped so suddenly into fame, or destroyed with such insouciance so many other writers or ways of writing or became such an immediate symbol of an age.’ – Cyril Connolly, The Modern Movement.
‘On October 18, 1925, an American writer, not yet turned twenty-six, was first reviewed in The New York Times, whose anonymous critic called his short stories "lean, pleasing, with tough resilience," "fibrous," "athletic," "fresh," "hard," and "clean," almost as if an athlete, not a book, was being reviewed.
Hemingway had that effect on reviewers and readers alike. His prose style was dramatically different, demanding equally new ways of describing it. Not more than a handful of the newspaper's readers likely knew the Hemingway name, but the review of "In Our Time" could not have been more propitious.’ - Reynolds, New York Times.
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Price HK$ 11,000
Death in the Afternoon -
Ernest Hemingway
1932 - Charles Scribner's Sons, New York - First Edition
A fine copy in bright delicate very good dust jacket. With a beautiful coloured frontispiece ‘The Bullfighter’ by Juan Gris, and numerous black and white photographs throughout.
‘Still considered one of the best books ever written about bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon reflects Hemingway's belief that bullfighting was more than mere sport. Here he describes and explains the technical aspects of this dangerous ritual, and "the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped on a stick." Seen through his eyes, bullfighting becomes an art, a richly choreographed ballet, with performers who range from awkward amateurs to masters of great grace and cunning’ [from a later edition]
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Price HK$ 20,000
1932 - Charles Scribner's Sons, New York - First Edition
A fine copy in bright delicate very good dust jacket. With a beautiful coloured frontispiece ‘The Bullfighter’ by Juan Gris, and numerous black and white photographs throughout.‘Still considered one of the best books ever written about bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon reflects Hemingway's belief that bullfighting was more than mere sport. Here he describes and explains the technical aspects of this dangerous ritual, and "the emotional and spiritual intensity and pure classic beauty that can be produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped on a stick." Seen through his eyes, bullfighting becomes an art, a richly choreographed ballet, with performers who range from awkward amateurs to masters of great grace and cunning’ [from a later edition]
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Price HK$ 20,000
Green Hills of Africa -
Ernest Hemingway
1935 - Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York - First Edition, First State dust jacket
‘There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very simplest things, and because it takes a man's life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave’
A very good example of what is a notoriously difficult first edition to find in prime condition.
‘In the winter of 1933, Ernest Hemingway and his wife Pauline set out on a two-month safari in the big-game country of East Africa, camping out on the great Serengeti Plain at the foot of magnificent Mount Kilimanjaro. "I had quite a trip," the author told his friend Philip Percival, with characteristic understatement.’ - from a later edition.
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Price HK$ 9,500
1935 - Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York - First Edition, First State dust jacket
‘There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very simplest things, and because it takes a man's life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave’A very good example of what is a notoriously difficult first edition to find in prime condition.
‘In the winter of 1933, Ernest Hemingway and his wife Pauline set out on a two-month safari in the big-game country of East Africa, camping out on the great Serengeti Plain at the foot of magnificent Mount Kilimanjaro. "I had quite a trip," the author told his friend Philip Percival, with characteristic understatement.’ - from a later edition.
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Price HK$ 9,500
East of Eden -
John Steinbeck
1952 - The Viking Press, New York - First Trade Edition, First Issue
Steinbeck ‘considered Eden to be his magnum opus, the crowning achievement of his life's work.
‘The subject is the only one man has ever used as his theme - the existence, the balance, the battle, and the victory in the permanent war between wisdom and ignorance, light and darkness - good and evil.’
‘I have written each book as an exercise, as practice for the one to come. And this is the one to come. There is nothing beyond this book-nothing follows it. It must contain all in the world I know and it must have everything in it of which I am capable’.
- John Steinbeck writing to his editor and publisher Pat Covici, The East of Eden Letters.
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Price HK$ 15,000
1952 - The Viking Press, New York - First Trade Edition, First Issue
Steinbeck ‘considered Eden to be his magnum opus, the crowning achievement of his life's work. ‘The subject is the only one man has ever used as his theme - the existence, the balance, the battle, and the victory in the permanent war between wisdom and ignorance, light and darkness - good and evil.’
‘I have written each book as an exercise, as practice for the one to come. And this is the one to come. There is nothing beyond this book-nothing follows it. It must contain all in the world I know and it must have everything in it of which I am capable’.
- John Steinbeck writing to his editor and publisher Pat Covici, The East of Eden Letters.
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Price HK$ 15,000