Books & Manuscripts

Hemingway, ErnestA Farewell to Arms. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929 8vo. Publisher's black cloth, gold paper title labels to upper board and spine printed in black; minor indentations to upper board, partial browning to endpapers. Dust jacket; a few small chips and light creasing and soiling to the jacket, spine a little toned, "Katherine Barclay" inscription to front flap. First edition of Hemingway's first best seller. A Farewell to Arms&nbsp;was published on 27 September 1929 in a first printing of 31,050 copies, after serialization in&nbsp;Scribner's&nbsp;Magazine&nbsp;from May to October. Within four weeks sales climbed to 33,000 copies, and a month later, despite the stock market crash, they soared past 50,000. A profile of Hemingway by Dorothy Parker in&nbsp;The New Yorker&nbsp;in November marked the point at which the author "passed beyond fame into living legend" (Lynn,&nbsp;Hemingway). "Its success was so enormous that it may be said to have ended Hemingway's influence as a writer. After it one could no more imitate that musical crystal-clear style; blown like glass from the white-heat of violence ..." (Connolly). This was the book that made Hemingway financially independent. Hemingway struggled with the ending; in the 2012 new edition of the work, 47 alternate endings were printed with it. A Farewell to Arms uses drinking to explore themes of camaraderie and escapism amid the chaos of war. The protagonist Frederic Henry often turns to alcohol as a means of emotional release: "I had drunk much wine and afterward coffee and Strega and I explained, winefully, how we did not do the things we wanted to do; we never did such things." REFERENCE:Hanneman A8a; Connolly,&nbsp;The Modern Movement&nbsp;60; cf. Bernard Oldsey,&nbsp;Hemingway’s Hidden Craft: The Writing of A Farewell to Arms&nbsp;(1979)

Hemingway, Ernest | A Farewell to Arms in its striking jacket

Fitzgerald, F. ScottThis Side of Paradise; The Beautiful and Damned; The Great Gatsby; Tender is the Night; The Last Tycoon. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1920; 1922; 1925; 1934; 1941 5 vols, 8vo. Scribner seal to copyright pages; page stock slightly toned (as often), very occasional minor spotting and smudging to margins, evidence of ownership signature to half-title of The Last Tycoon, else all vols clean and fresh. Full dark green morocco gilt by Temple Bookbinders, gilt lettering to spines, red topstain to The Last Tycoon. First editions, first impressions and first issue of The Great Gatsby with ‘sick in tired’ on p. 205, ‘chatter’ on p. 60, ‘northern’ p. 119, and ‘Union Street station’ p. 211. A superbly bound set of first editions by F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the leading authorial voices of the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald’s works vividly capture the spirit, disillusionment, and excesses of the 1920s and 1930s. This collection includes five of Fitzgerald’s most celebrated works, beginning with This Side of Paradise, his debut novel that established him as a literary sensation and chronicler of his generation. The Beautiful and Damned portrays the decline of a couple ensnared by wealth and ambition, while The Great Gatsby stands as a masterpiece of American literature, offering a poignant critique of the American Dream through the tragic figure of Jay Gatsby. Tender is the Night delves into the complexities of love, mental illness, and expatriate life, while the posthumously published The Last Tycoon reflects Fitzgerald’s unfulfilled ambitions and offers an unfinished yet compelling portrait of Hollywood.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott | An exquisitely bound set of first editions

Hemingway, ErnestIn Our Time.&nbsp;New York, Boni &amp; Liveright, 1925 8vo. Publisher's black cloth gilt. Dust jacket; chipped at corners and head and foot of spine, restoration to spine fold of upper panel. First edition of the work that brought Hemingway fame. In Our Time is the collection of short stories and vignettes that marked Ernest Hemingway’s American debut and established his literary reputation. Upon its publication, the collection was lauded by prominent contemporaries, including Ford Madox Ford, John Dos Passos, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, for its simple and precise use of language to convey a wide range of complex emotions. This acclaim placed Hemingway alongside Sherwood Anderson and Gertrude Stein as one of the most promising American writers of the period. The collection includes several early Hemingway classics, such as the famous Nick Adams stories: Indian Camp, The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife, The Three-Day Blow, and The Battler. It introduces readers to the hallmarks of the Hemingway style: a lean, tough prose, enlivened by an ear for the colloquial and an eye for the realistic that suggests, through the simplest of statements, a sense of moral value and a clarity of heart.&nbsp; Alcohol and drinking are recurring motifs throughout the collection, often serving as symbols of camaraderie, escape, or self-destruction. In The Three-Day Blow, Nick Adams and his friend Bill drink copious amounts of whiskey as they discuss relationships, masculinity, and independence. In The Battler, alcohol underscores the instability of Ad Francis, a former boxer whose erratic behavior hints at a troubled past. Now recognized as one of the most original short story collections in twentieth-century literature, In Our Time serves as a foundational text for understanding Hemingway’s later works. The collection was banned in Germany from 1933 to 1945 under the National Socialist regime. REFERENCES:Hanneman 3a

Hemingway, Ernest | In Our Time, Hemingway's treasured second book

Lewis, V.B.The Complete Buffet Guide, or How to Mix All Kinds of Drinks. Chicago: M.A. Donahue, (1902-3?) Publisher's green pictorial cloth; rubbing and fading, particularly to the spine and rear cover.&nbsp;First edition. Scarce early twentieth-century drinks manual with over 500 drinks recipes and 40 pages dedicated to toasts and after-dinner speeches. OCLC finds only 5 copies — all dated 1903. Noling suggests a 1902 date, possibly in error. REFERENCES:Noling, p. 254

Lewis, V.B. | Scarce early twentieth-century drinks compendium

(Drink History)&nbsp;— James AshleyJames Ashley. Who at the London Punch House on Ludgatehill 1731 First Reduc’d the Price of PUNCH &amp; rais’d its Reputation.&nbsp;[London: Thomas Worlidge, mid-18th century] Engraved portrait of James Ashley in cartouche flanked by ornate pedestals supporting two punch bowls, with engraved caption as above, by Thomas Worlidge; very slight rubbing and discoloration. Scarce trade card of the first celebrity mixologist.&nbsp;James Ashley was the proprietor of the London Coffee House and Punch-House (1731-1776), and became “London’s leading purveyor of Punch in the eighteenth century” (Wondrich, Punch, p. 65) and “the world‘s first celebrity mixologist, the first man to become famous for compounding and selling a mixed drink” (ibid, p. 172). Ashley, a former cheese merchant, opened his Punch-House in 1731 in Ludgatehill, London. Extensive advertising in London papers as well as the distinct ornate pedestals surmounted by iron punch bowls, which flanked its entrance, made the London Punch-House one of the most well-known drinking establishments in the city. Clientele included Hogarth, Boswell, Oliver Goldsmith, and Benjamin Franklin. A large sign outside of the Punch-House echoes the caption on this trade card, “Pro bono publico. James Ashley in 1731 first reduced the price of punch, raised its reputation, and brought it into universal esteem.” Ashley did indeed reduce the price of punch — from 8 shillings for punch made from a quart of arrack to 6 shillings — but his great innovation was to offer punch in smaller portions, in servings as small as two ounces. These small servings, made to order for the customer, were the precursor to the modern cocktail.&nbsp;&nbsp;This trade card is engraved by Ashley's friend Thomas Worlidge (1700-1766, dubbed “the English Rembrandt”) who also engraved portraits of Ashley's wife and one Mrs. Graywood, the bar-keep at the London Punch-House.

(Drink History) — James Ashley | The trade card of the first celebrity mixologist

Baker, Charles H., Jr. The Gentleman's Companion. Being an Exotic Drinking Book or, Around the World with Jigger, Beaker and Flask. New York: Crown at 419 Fourth Avenue, 1946 8vo. Frontispiece. Publisher's full brown calf by Brown &amp; Bigelow, Saint Paul and with "William J. Morris" to upper cover in gilt. A fundamental work in the literature of mixology and culinary travel. This 1946 edition exemplifies Baker's refined approach to cataloging cocktail recipes alongside vivid accounts of his global journeys.

Baker, Charles H., Jr. | The Gentleman's Companion. Being an Exotic Drinking Book or, Around the World with Jigger, Beaker and Flask

Eliot, T.S.&nbsp;The Cocktail Party. A Comedy. London: Faber and Faber, 1950 Publisher's green cloth gilt. Dust jacket; worn, with chips to head and foot of spine, detached at rear joint, light toning and creasing.&nbsp;First edition, presentation copy from the author to Allen Tate: "To Allen Tate from T.S. Eliot 6 iii 50." A remarkable association copy, bearing a pre-publication presentation inscription from T.S. Eliot to his American friend and admirer, poet and critic Allen Tate. The English edition was published on March 9, 1950, followed by the American edition on March 10, 1950. Allen Tate (1899–1979) was a central figure in twentieth-century literary modernism. He met T.S. Eliot during a visit to England in the late 1920s. Best known for his poem Ode to the Confederate Dead and his critical essays on literature and culture, Tate shared a close intellectual connection with T.S. Eliot, whose fusion of modernist experimentation and respect for historical continuity deeply influenced Tate’s work. Eliot not only shaped Tate’s poetic style and critical thought but also helped advance his career by publishing his work in The Criterion, his literary journal, in July 1929. The Cocktail Party is a verse drama exploring themes of human relationships, self-discovery, and spiritual redemption through the lens of a seemingly ordinary social gathering. Including the noted error on page 29, line 1, where "here" is printed instead of "her." REFERENCES:Gallup A55

Eliot, T.S. | The Cocktail Party, presentation copy inscribed by the author

Goodwin, Jack and Knute StilesOn Booze. Berkeley: The Duck Press, 1975 Folio. Pictorial publisher's wrappers; two short marginal tears, some light creasing and soiling. A charming assemblage of full-page drawings by Knute Stiles, a prominent San Francisco painter and union organizer, accompanied by amusing poems penned by composer Jack Goodwin. Each page vividly portrays a specific drink and captures the essence of the characteristic drinker of each. Stiles was renowned for his role as co-owner and co-manager of "The Place", a Beat Generation bar nestled in North Beach. A scarce work.

Goodwin, Jack and Knute Stiles | On Booze — poems inspired by drinks and drinkers

Hammett, DashiellThe Maltese Falcon.&nbsp;New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1930 8vo. Title-page printed in black and dark teal. Publisher's light great cloth, spine blocked in black and blue, upper board stamped with falcon design in blue and ruled in black, lower board with Borzoi Books imprint in lower right corner, top edge blue; text block slightly shaken, areas of toning and light dampstaining, particularly to spine. Dust jacket, unclipped; restoration, most extensively to the spine and immediate area, with recoloration to text and a portion of the falcon, upper margin of panels restored with some recoloration, flaps reattached, rear panel lightly soiled, edges creased with appropriate restoration, altogether presents most attractively. Collector's clamshell box. First edition, first issue, in the prized unclipped dust jacket. The forerunner of American detective fiction and film noir, Hammett's hard-boiled tale of a jewel-encrusted falcon continues to captivate. Hammett himself had first-hand experience as a private detective, having worked for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency between 1915 and 1922. Writing in the introduction to the 1934 edition of his novel, Hammett described his central character of Sam Spade as "what most of the private detectives I worked with would like to have been and in their cockier moments thought they approached. For your private detective does not...want to be an erudite solver of riddles in the Sherlock Holmes manner; he wants to be a hard and shifty fellow, able to take care of himself in any situation, able to get the best of anybody he comes in contact with..." The Maltese Falcon&nbsp;was serialized in five parts in&nbsp;Black Mask&nbsp;between September 1929 and January 1930, and was first published in book form in February the same year. It was reprinted seven times in its first year of publication. In 1931 Warner bought the rights to the novel for $8,500 after which it was adapted for the screen three times: in 1931, 1936 (titled&nbsp;Satan met a Lady) and 1941. The influence of Hammett's most significant novel has been enduring. Raymond Chandler drew strongly on Sam Spade to create his Philip Marlowe, and later remarked of the author: "he was spare, frugal, hard-boiled, but he did over and over again what only the best writers can ever do...he wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before."﻿Unlike Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Hammett’s drinking takes place in the gritty, urban landscape of Prohibition-era San Francisco. Hard liquor is chucked back by edgy characters against a noir background. The stiff drinks cut through the tense atmosphere of the book, and whiskey in particular reflects Sam Spade’s hardened, tough-guy persona. REFERENCES:Layman A.3.1.a

Hammett, Dashiell | The Maltese Falcon in its rare jacket

Hemingway, ErnestThe Sun Also Rises. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926 8vo. Half-title. Publisher’s black cloth with gilt labels; head and foot lightly bumped. Dust jacket; restoration, primarily at the spine panel ends, folds, and lower portion of the front panel, facsimile portions of the title, publisher's imprint, and a few words on the bottom of the front panel, verso of spine reinforced. First edition, first issue, the Goldstone copy, with “stoppped” on p. 181 and the front panel of the jacket citing "In Our Times" instead of "In Our Time." Hemingway’s fraught work examines the "lost generation" as they gather in bars and cafes to search for meaning in the harsh post-war world. Alcohol is essential to this: "I drank to forget and to keep from remembering. I thought about everything. I remembered all the bad things that had happened to me." Hemingway reflects on the closeness of the expatriate communities in Paris and Spain, from Les Deux Magots to Café Iruña, where conviviality deepened their understanding of one another and encouraged the fruitful exchange of ideas. Jake Barnes, the protagonist, epitomizes a generation of men both physically and emotionally battle-scarred, using alcohol as a salve in the post-war years. This drinking ritual fosters both camaraderie and tension within friendships, particularly with the deeply insecure Robert Cohn and the self-destructive Lady Brett Ashley. Adrian Homer Goldstone’s collection was exemplified by fine copies of American literature by Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway. A well provenanced example with the scarce jacket. REFERENCES:Connolly 50; Hanneman A6a PROVENANCE:Adrian Homer Goldstone (bookplate)

Hemingway, Ernest | "A handbook for conduct for the new generation..."

Fitzgerald, F. ScottThe Great Gatsby.&nbsp;New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925 8vo. Intermittent very light dampstaining to gutter. Publisher's linen-grain dark green cloth, spine lettered in gilt and upper cover in blind; minor bumps to head and foot of spine and corners, short tear to upper hinge repaired with adhesive. Third state pictorial dust jacket by Francis Cugat with eight reviews quoted on rear panel; restoration, including backing of the jacket with resulting minor warping, flaps reattached, recoloring to the front panel, spine and flaps, affecting the author’s name on the lower edge of the front panel and a few other letters, rear panel and upper edges of flaps lightly soiled, some light scuffing to front panel —&nbsp;altogether presents most attractively. Collector’s clamshell box. First edition, first printing of the text and rare third printing of the dust jacket. “The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alive with chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot” (Chapter 3). A prime candidate for the Great American Novel,&nbsp;Gatsby&nbsp;is widely regarded as Fitzgerald's masterpiece, though the original sales were very disappointing in comparison to his earlier bestsellers. It was published in a first printing of 20,870 copies, with a second printing of 3,000 following a few months later. Priced at two dollars a copy, at a fifteen percent royalty, the first printing just covered Fitzgerald’s $6,000 advance from Scribner’s. Despite this, Fitzgerald himself was clear on his feelings of its merits: "I think my novel is about the best American novel ever written" (A Life in Letters, p. 166). The joy and sadness of the Jazz Age is hauntingly epitomized through Cugat’s dust jacket, reflecting Fitzgerald’s fascination with the wealthy elites, their parties, and the thin, glamorous veil that lifts to reveal a poignant emptiness. Drinking acts as a vehicle for his narrative in multifarious ways, be it through the bootlegging titular character Jay Gatsby, the excessive tippling of Tom Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson, or the sparkling allure of champagne cocktails, mint juleps and gin rickeys.&nbsp; The Great Gatsby&nbsp;has inspired numerous adaptations including movies, TV shows and stage productions, proving the enduring allure of Gatsby, a figure whose charm is as captivating as it is illusory. REFERENCES:Bruccoli A11.I.a; Connolly 48

Fitzgerald, F. Scott | "In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars."

Fitzgerald, F. ScottTender Is the Night.&nbsp;New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934 8vo. Half-title, vignettes by Edward Shenton. Publisher's green cloth; some wear, spine with split at upper joint, bumped at corners with some exposure text block a little shaken, split to rear hinge. First edition, third printing, signed and with a cryptic inscription by Fitzgerald on the dedication leaf, "For you 'Marg Mortimer' or 'Edna Carlyle' or whatever you call yourself now—Seriously, For Hope from F. Scott Fitzgerald." Fitzgerald uses alcohol as a symbol of debauchery and excess, mirroring the disillusionment and decline of his characters. While drinking often signifies personal struggles or emotional detachment, there are also moments of celebration, where it becomes intertwined with the glamorous, carefree lifestyle of those on the Riviera, uniting them through shared social rituals. "The cocktails were like fire. They burned through the drinkers, quick and hot, making them laugh and forget themselves, until the party took on a life of its own” (Chapter 3). REFERENCES:Bruccoli A.15.I.c&nbsp; PROVENANCE:"Marg Mortimer", "Edna Carlyle" or "Hope" (presentation copy)

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F. Scott Fitzgerald