As we reported, a rare first edition copy of Ernest Hemingway's modestly presented first book went under the hammer earlier this month.
Three Stories & Ten Poems (1923), from an initial print run of just 300 copies sold for $81,250 to top a rare books auction. Conducted at Beverly Hills, California, the sale totalled over $736,000.
The price of the work was no doubt bolstered by an inscription from Hemingway to two of the editors of The Little Review.
The Little Reviewwas an important magazine known for publishing works by challenging or ground-breaking writers, with T.S. Eliot and James Joyce two of those to benefit. The inscription reads: "For j.h. [Jane Heap] and Margaret Anderson with love from Hemingway."
 Ernest Hemingway's first edition of Three Stories & Ten Poems |
Another early Hemingway which appeared alongside Three Stories & Ten Poems was another important early edition from Hemingway. The work from 1927 came after Hemingway was more established and is not a vanishing rarity, nevertheless the bidders were keen on the first edition, first printing of Men Without Women.
No doubt keen to own a copy complete with dust jacket it more than doubled estimates to sell for $5,313.
"There was great enthusiasm across the board in this auction," said James Gannon, director of rare books at the auction house, "especially for classic American literature, with Hemingway asserting his authority as the perennial favorite."
Collectors on the lookout for signed books by great authors of the early 20th century may be interested to take a look at this limited edition of Virginia Woolf's Orlando which comes complete with autograph.
