Ernest Hemingway, 1926

Torrents of Spring
Ernest Hemingway, 1926
HEMINGWAY, Ernest (1899-1961). Torrents of Spring. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926.

A very fine first edition copy of Hemingway’s first novel, styled as a parody of best-selling authors of the period and called by Fitzgerald "the best comic book ever written by an American." The Torrents of Spring was begun in mid-November, completed by Thanksgiving, and rejected by his publisher Boni and Liveright in equally as little time. "I have known all along," Hemingway wrote Fitzgerald, that the firm "could not and would not be able to publish it as it makes a bum out of their present ace and best seller Anderson" (Selected Letters, p.183). With the contract broken, Hemingway flirted with Harcourt and Knopf before eventually signing with Scribner's. Fitzgerald was very involved on both sides of the negotiation with Scribner's, and actively encouraged the prospect with his editor there, the great Maxwell Perkins. The Torrents of Spring was published by Scribner's in an edition of aonly 1250 copies on May 28, 1926 and The Sun Also Rises followed five months later. Hanneman A4a.

Octavo. Original cloth; pictorial dust-jacket (sunning to spine panel, a little wear at head); custom box.