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Three Stories & Ten Poems -- Inscribed to Dr. Don Carlos Guffey

by Hemingway, Ernest

Price: $225,000.00

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Description

Contact Publishing Co, 1923. Soft Cover. SIGNED by Ernest Hemingway -- 1st Edition 1st Printing -- FINE/FINE -- copy of Three Stories & Ten Poems -- Inscribed to Dr. Don Carlos Guffey. Small 8vo. [i-xii] + [1-64] pp. Hemingway has inscribed this copy to Dr. Don Carlos Guffey "To Dr. Don Carlos Guffey .. This book purchased at great expense by him hoping [hand correction] if he is [hand correction] to sell it he will not want for the market to reach top. Ernest Hemingway." Three Stories: "Up in Michigan," "Out of Season," "My Old Man". Ten Poems: "Mitraigliatrice", "Oklahoma", "Oily Weather", "Roosevelt", "Captives", "Champs d'Honneur", "Riparto d'Assalto", "Montparnasse", "Along With Youth", and "Chapter Heading".Bound in the original grayish-blue printed paper wraps, which fold over the top, bottom, and fore-edge of the first and last blank leaves. The edges are untrimmed. This, Hemingway's first book, was first issued in an edition of only 300 copies. Robert McAlmon, founder of the Contact Publishing Co. in Paris and an American expatriate himself, published "Three Stories" in the summer of 1923 after having it printed in Dijon by Maurice Darantiere. "As shown by the advertisement on the back cover, it was expected that "in our time" would be published first. According to Hemingway's inscription to Dr. Guffey in a copy of "in our time", William Bird had that manuscript 'long before' Robert McAlmon had this book set up, but because "in our time" was sixth in a series it did not appear until 1924" (Hanneman A1). Six of the ten poems (instead of five, as erroneously printed in the Acknowledgment) were previously printed in "Poetry: A Magazine of Verse" in January, 1923. This book, however, is the first appearance of "Oklahoma", "Captives", "Montparnasse", and "Along With Youth". Regarding the three stories, "Out of Season" and "My Old Man" were reprinted in "In Our Time" some 15 months later. "Up in Michigan", on the other hand, was not reprinted until it appeared in "The Fifth Column" in 1938. In addition to being a noted book collector -- from whose library a magnificent array of inscribed Hemingway copies have come -- Dr. Guffey was the obstetrician who delivered Hemingway's two sons. Just after finishing medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Guffey acquired a faculty position at the University of Kansas in 1905; in 1911, he became the University's first Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. On 28 June 1928, Dr. Guffey delivered Patrick Hemingway, son of Ernest and second wife Pauline Pfeiffer, by Caesarean section; Gregory Hemingway would come in 1931. Some have proffered that Catherine Barkley's Caesarean section in "A Farewell to Arms" was modeled after Patrick's birth. Over the years, a relationship grew between Hemingway and Dr. Guffey, manifesting in the form of several presentation copies of the author's novels, including "A Farewell to Arms", "The Sun Also Rises", a manuscript of "Death in the Afternoon", and this copy of "Three Stories & Ten Poems". This copy includes a provenance letter on Charles Sessler, Inc. letterhead, dated June 5, 1963 and addressed to the noted Hemingway collector Henry M. Watts. Sessler's letter recounts the details of Watts' acquisition of this copy: "With regard to your copy of THREE STORIES AND TEN POEMS, this was purchased for you by us at auction on April 28, 1959. This was Dr. Guffey's copy, inscribed to Dr. Don Carlos Guffey...The price you paid for your copy was not $575.00 but $440.00, the book having realized $400.00 at the sale plus our ten percent commission." A true bargain, considering the results of the recent Sotheby's sale of the Maurice Neville collection, where the inscribed Guffey copy of "The Sun Also Rises" -- Hemingway's fourth book -- brought in $366,400. Housed in a fine custom folding box of half blue morocco and blue cloth. A fine copy of a monumental Hemingway item. (Hanneman A1) Published by: Contact Publishing Co., 1923 First edition. Signed.