New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952. First edition. First printing, with Scribner's "A" on the copyright page. A Near Fine copy in Very Good dust jacket. Publisher's blue cloth. A clean copy of the book with just a bit of fading to the spine. In the unclipped first issue jacket (with panel text in brown and no Nobel Prize announcement). Dust jacket with toning to spine and to fold of back flap, a bit of chipping to crown, and a pinpoint hole to the front panel.

The final work of fiction published in the author's lifetime, 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 the dignity 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 five million copies in less than a week. The novel eventually won the Putlizer Prize and was cited by the Nobel Prize committee when Hemingway won the award in 1954 "for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style."

“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 #8074)