Books

First US edition, one of 25 copies bound for presentation using proof sheets, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper three weeks prior to publication, "For Ben Meyer, from his friend Ernest Hemingway. Havana, 21/8/50". The recipient was Benjamin Franklin Meyer (d. 1998), a journalist and Latin America correspondent for the Associated Press. Meyer interviewed Hemingway on 21 August 1950 as part of Hemingway's promotion of this title. The resultant article, which discussed the effort that went into writing the work as well as Ernest and Mary Hemingway's fishing exploits, was published across the US on 10 September. Meyer worked as the Associated Press executive representative for Havana between 1941 and 1943 and again between 1948 and 1954, and he built up a relationship with both Hemingways. Included with the book is a typed letter signed by Mary to Meyer, dated 27 April 1958, thanking him for his help in connecting her with one "Mr. Hallgarten" who sent her photos of her hometown of Bemidji, Minnesota. She comments that, "for years I've been resigned to the conclusion that all projects of casual conversation, especially at cocktail parties, come to zero", adding that Meyer following through on a promise made at one such party was "a rare performance". This was Hemingway's first novel in ten years, following For Whom the Bell Tolls in 1940. It was inspired by his stay in Venice in 1948, where he fell in love with the then 19-year-old Adriana First US edition, one of 25 copies bound for presentation using proof sheets, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper three weeks prior to publication, "For Ben Meyer, from his friend Ernest Hemingway. Havana, 21/8/50". The recipient was Benjamin Franklin Meyer (d. 1998), a journalist and Latin America correspondent for the Associated Press. Meyer interviewed Hemingway on 21 August 1950 as part of Hemingway's promotion of this title. The resultant article, which discussed the effort that went into writing the work as well as Ernest and Mary Hemingway's fishing exploits, was published across the US on 10 September. Meyer worked as the Associated Press executive representative for Havana between 1941 and 1943 and again between 1948 and 1954, and he built up a relationship with both Hemingways. Included with the book is a typed letter signed by Mary to Meyer, dated 27 April 1958, thanking him for his help in connecting her with one "Mr. Hallgarten" who sent her photos of her hometown of Bemidji, Minnesota. She comments that, "for years I've been resigned to the conclusion that all projects of casual conversation, especially at cocktail parties, come to zero", adding that Meyer following through on a promise made at one such party was "a rare performance". This was Hemingway's first novel in ten years, following For Whom the Bell Tolls in 1940. It was inspired by his stay in Venice in 1948, where he fell in love with the then 19-year-old Adriana Ivancich. The story was originally serialized in Cosmopolitan from February to June of 1950. Upon publication, it was positively reviewed by Tennessee Williams in the New York Times: "I could not go to Venice, now, without hearing the haunted cadences of Hemingway's new novel. It is the saddest novel in the world about the saddest city, and when I say I think it is the best and most honest work that Hemingway has done, you may think me crazy. It will probably be a popular book. The critics may treat it pretty roughly. But its hauntingly tired cadences are the direct speech of a man's heart who is speaking that directly for the first time, and that makes it, for me, the finest thing Hemingway has done" ("Writer's Quest"). Copies in the presentation binding have Scribner's "A" on the copyright page and several typographic errors corrected for the trade edition, notably on page 21, line 26: "Papadopohi", was later changed to "Papadopli". The UK edition was released three days earlier. READ MORE Octavo. Original blue buckram, spine lettered and ruled in gilt, author's facsimile signature stamped on front cover in gilt. Together with: Typed letter signed (204 x 152 mm), from Mary Hemingway to Ben Meyer, single sheet composed on one side on Finca Vigía, Cuba headed paper, hand-dated 27 April, with original addressed and franked envelope dated 1958. Housed in a custom blue quarter morocco folding box. Minor bumps to bottom edge, light toning to endpapers: a fine copy. Grissom A22.1.a(d); Hanneman 23a. Tennessee Williams, "A Writer's Quest For a Parnassus", New York Times, 13 August 1950.

Across the River and Into the Trees is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1950, after first being serialized in Cosmopolitan magazine. The title derives from the last words of U.S. Civil War Confederate General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson: “Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.” Hemingway's novel chronicles the experiences of Colonel Richard Cantwell, an aging officer in the U.S. Army, during a weekend duck-hunting trip in Italy. Reflecting on his past and his love affair with a young countess, Cantwell's narrative captures themes of love, war, youth, and age.