Books

Paris: Contact Publishing Company, 1923. Book. Very Good. Original Wraps. Inscribed by Author(s). First Edition. 12mo. Black lettered blue jacket over beige wraps, enclosed in green cloth slipcase. Hemingway's first book. Although Bill Bird's Three Mountains Press' In Our Time was contracted earlier, Robert McAlmon's Contact Editions book was published and released first. Limited to 300 copies only. This copy inscribed by Hemingway on the front endpaper "This book is the property of James Cowan--he is not responsible for it--nor did he buy it. It was presented to him by the author--Ernest Hemingway" Cowan was a fellow reporter for the Toronto Star newspaper, for which Hemingway also worked. Included also is a sheaf of correspondence between former owners and James Cowan attesting to it's history and authenticity. Also included a dealer's catalogue in which this book was listed for sale back in late thirties or forties. This copy wrapped in glassine which is…

"Three Stories & Ten Poems" was printed in Dijon by Maurice Darantiere, the same printer of "Ulysses" the year prior, and was published by Robert McAlmon's firm. This book marks the first publication of the stories "Up in Michigan", "Out of Season", and "My Old Man", along with the poems "Oklahoma", "Captives", "Montparnasse", and "Along With Youth". The other six poems were first published in the January 1923 issue of Poetry magazine under the collective title "Wanderings". This edition includes some of Hemingway's earliest surviving works, as his first wife, Hadley Richardson, lost a suitcase filled with his manuscripts in 1922. Hemingway was deeply involved in the production of this first publication, taking as much care as he did with his first child (Mellow, p. 239), and collaborated with Gertrude Stein on the typographical cover design. Edmund Wilson's insightful review of Hemingway's work, following his second book, "in our time" (1924), noted: "His prose is of the first distinction, [demonstrating] a naiveté of language often passing into the colloquialism of the character dealt with, which serves actually to convey profound emotions and complex themes."