Books

First edition, first printing, of the author's first novel, a ruthless satire on Sherwood Anderson and his clique of American writers that Hemingway deemed pretentious. After completing the draft, Hemingway informed Ezra Pound that it was "probably unprintable but funny as hell... It's [the] first really adult thing [I] have done. Jesus Christ it is funny" (cited in Mellow, p. 318). As Hemingway suspected, the work was turned down by his publisher Horace Liveright on the grounds that its characterization of Anderson, who Liveright also published, went too far. This rejection prompted Hemingway to break his contract with Boni and Liveright and join Scribner's, which would remain his publisher for the rest of his life. Octavo. Finely bound by the Chelsea Bindery in dark green morocco, spine lettered and framed in gilt, covers ruled in gilt, inner dentelles gilt, marbled endpapers, edges gilt. A fine copy. Hanneman 4a. James R. Mellow, Hemingway: A Life Without Consequences, 1992.

The Torrents of Spring is a novel by Ernest Hemingway written in 1925 about a young man's disillusionment with love. It satirizes the over-romanticized literature of the time and is a parody of Sherwood Anderson's 'Dark Laughter'.