A Farewell to Arms

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929 First edition, first printing, first issue dust jacket with Catherine Barkley's name misspelled as "Katharine Barclay" to front flap. Publisher's black cloth with gold paper labels lettered in black to front board and spine; in the original pictorial dust jacket with a drawing by Cleon. Near fine book, with a light smudge to top of spine label, gold labels very bright and unchipped, a touch of foxing to front joint, light rubbing to bottom edges of boards and bottom corners, light offsetting to endpapers, and creased top left corner of rear free endpaper; very good unclipped dust jacket, with light toning to spine, shallow chipping to spine ends, bottom edge of front panel, and corners, a tiny bit of dampstaining to foot of spine, light rubbing to jacket folds and top edge of front panel, and a touch of spotting to rear panel. Overall, a lovely copy in an attractive and bright example of the iconic dust jacket. Hanneman A8. Set in Italy during World War I, A Farewell to Arms tells the story of a romance between the protagonist Frederic Henry, an American serving as a lieutenant in the Italian ambulance corps, and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse tending to wounded soldiers. Widely considered one of the best novels to come out of the war, the novel is, as the first edition dust jacket proclaims, "the very essence of beauty as twisted and made tragic by war" that "expresses the innermost nature of war." Unlike many of the other war novels by contemporary writers, A Farewell to Arms addresses not only the aftermath of WWI but the events of the war itself, specifically the Italian Front around the Battle of Caporetto of Autumn 1917. Accordingly, it stood out amongst the war novels, becoming Hemingway's first bestseller, and establishing him as a premier American writer. Interestingly, in his 1958 interview with The Paris Review, Hemingway famously remarked, "I rewrote the ending to A Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied." . First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Dust Jacket Included.