Across the River and into the Trees.

New York, NY Charles Scribner's Sons, 1950. Hardcover First Edition [1950]; First Printing indicated. First Edition [1950]; First Printing indicated. ["A" on the copyright page and yellow lozenge on the backstrip of the DJ]. Very Good in Poor DJ: Book shows indications of careful use; just a hint of wear to extremities; a bit of scuffing near the titles at the backstrip; considerable spine lean. Binding remains quite secure; text clean. DJ is split along the front hinge and at the outside edge of the front panel, so that the DJ is now in three pieces held together only by the mylar cover; else in remarkably good shape: shows a couple of tears at the head of the backstrip; moderate wear to extremities and very mild rubbing; price [$3.00] has not been clipped. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. 308pp. Black cloth boards with gilt signature on cover, gilt lettering on spine. Photograph of Hemingway on back of DJ by Paul Radkai. Hardback with DJ. In the fall of 1948, Ernest Hemingway made his first extended visit to Italy in thirty years. His reacquaintance with Venice, a city he loved, provided the inspiration for Across the River and into the Trees, the story of Richard Cantwell, a war-ravaged American colonel stationed in Italy at the close of the Second World War, and his love for a young Italian countess. A poignant, bittersweet homage to love that overpowers reason, to the resilience of the human spirit, and to the worldweary beauty and majesty of Venice, Across the River and into the Trees stands as Hemingway's statement of defiance in response to the great dehumanizing atrocities of the Second World War. Hemingway's last full-length novel published in his lifetime, it moved John O'Hara in The New York Times Book Review to call him "the most important author since Shakespeare."