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The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea

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The Old Man and the Sea

by Hemingway, Ernest

  • Used
  • first
Condition
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Seller
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Scottsdale, Arizona, United States
Item Price
£460.46
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About This Item

London; (1955): Jonathan Cape. First Edition. Octavo. First illustrated edition by this publisher with drawings by C.F,. Tunnicliffe and Raymond Sheppard. Originally commissioned as later natives, these two artists' different interpretations of the story were considered so excellent and so interesting in their varying styles that both have been included. Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in November 1954. Bound in 1/4 black cloth over white pictorial paper covered boards depicting Santiago, spine lettering white, pictorial endpapers some toning or foxing to boards, upper corner only slightly bumped, early previous owner's name, A very nice copy in unclipped pictorial dust jacket, toning to edges, spine fading, only very light chipping to spine ends and corners and along upper edge.

Synopsis

This novella, only 140 pages, was first printed in its entirety in Life Magazine on September 1, 1952. It inspired a buying frenzy - selling over five million copies of the magazine in just two days! The story about an aging Cuban fisherman wrangling a large marlin in the gulf stream was written in 1951 in Cuba and published in 1952. In 1953, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and led to Hemingway's nomination for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Man's struggle against nature is the resounding theme throughout the book as Hemingway portrays Santiago's travails as an experienced fisherman facing a dry-spell of 85 days before finally wrangling a prized marlin. Hemingway also highlights the indomitable spirit of man while illustrating his ideal of manliness and character in the strong and determined fisherman facing danger and discomfort without complaint and with resolution, both in the days it takes Santiago to kill the marlin, and as he fights off the sharks that end up destroying his prized catch before he reaches the coast. Some say that Hemingway's tale is a reflection of his own determination to prove his writing career was not over, and the portrayal of the sharks may echo the critics who had been claiming for the ten years that his writing career, after the successful release of For Whom the Bell Tolls in 1940, was over. The book is dedicated "To Charlie Scribner And To Max Perkins," friends of Hemingway's that had passed away before the book came out. Max Perkins, who also edited F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe, died in 1947 and Scribner, who was president of the publisher Charles Scribner's Sons, died in 1952.

Read More: Identifying first editions of The Old Man and the Sea

Reviews

On Mar 6 2014, a reader said:
The Old Man and The Sea is an excellent novella for someone to read looking to get away from the troubles of life only to find that some troubles lead to the greatest reward of even though the reward is only a small amount.

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Details

Bookseller
Alcuin Books, ABAA-ILAB US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
022212
Title
The Old Man and the Sea
Author
Hemingway, Ernest
Book Condition
Used
Quantity Available
1
Edition
First Edition
Publisher
Jonathan Cape
Place of Publication
London; (1955)
Keywords
Fishing First British Dust Jacket Illustrated Santiago
Bookseller catalogs
Literature;

Terms of Sale

Alcuin Books, ABAA-ILAB

We accept Visa, MC, American Express and Discover. All books are carefully described and may be returned within ten day if the customer is not satisfied. Members ABAA, ILAB. Shipping is $5 for US orders based on books weighing 2 lbs. Worldwide shipping available.

About the Seller

Alcuin Books, ABAA-ILAB

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2006
Scottsdale, Arizona

About Alcuin Books, ABAA-ILAB

Alcuin Books located in Old Town Scottsdale is a store with 15,000 serious books for the collector or scholar. We have ample parking in front of the store for those who wish to browse our holdings.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Chipping
A defect in which small pieces are missing from the edges; fraying or small pieces of paper missing the edge of a paperback, or...
Cloth
"Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
Jacket
Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Spine
The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
First Edition
In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
Edges
The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
Octavo
Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...

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