New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952. First edition. A Near Fine copy in Very Good+ dust jacket. Ink gift inscription (dated 1952) to upper free endpaper. A clean copy of the book with just a bit of fading to spine. In the unclipped first issue jacket (with panel text in brown and no Nobel Prize announcement). Dust jacket slightly sunned, mostly at top edge and spine, and with some wear to head and tail of spine.

The final work of fiction published in the author's lifetime, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and cited by the Nobel Prize Committee, The Old Man and the Sea cemented Hemingway's legacy as one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. The story follows the tribulations of an aging and suddenly unlucky fisherman, Santiago, as he tries to catch a gigantic marlin in the Straits of Florida. Ultimately, Santiago's story is an existential metaphor through which Hemingway explored in a seemingly simple way the dignity and biblical nature of an old man's trials at the end of life. It was a massive success. The book was originally published in full in an issue of Life Magazine, which subsequently sold 5 million copies in less than a week. “No outbursts of spite or false theatricalism impede the smooth rush of its narrative. Within the sharp restrictions imposed by the very nature of his story Mr. Hemingway has written with sure skill. Here is the master technician once more at the top of his form, doing superbly what he can do better than anyone else” (contemporary New York Times review). Near Fine in Very Good + dust jacket. (Item #7886)