The Best Short Stories of 1926 [Includes a First Hemingway Book Appearance] [The Undefeated; Men Without Women; The Old Man and the Sea] by O'Brien, Edward, J. [Editor]; Hemingway, Ernest; Lardner, Ring W.; Sherwood, Robert E.; Gale, Zona; Crowell, Chester T.; Strater, Edward L.; and others - 1926

New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1926. First edition. Hardcover. Fine/near fine. A Fine copy of the first edition, first printing of this notable collection of stories (one tiny bubble to the front board, some minor spotting seen when held at an angle to the light), in a Near Fine dust jacket (which appears once to have been covered by an acetate overjacket affixed to the jacket's flap corners with small portions of said acetate overjacket remaining affixed at the jacket's flap corners ---- otherwise Fine with only light edge wear and some foxing to the verso); being a collection of the best Short Stories of the year and notable for containing the first book appearance of Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Undefeated". The story later appeared in Hemingway's second short story collection "Men Without Women" (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1927), and centers on a bullfighter, Manuel Garcia, who is just out of the hospital and looking for work. While his old friend and picador discourages him from taking on a fight, Garcia nevertheless does so and is injured in his first fight. With the protagonist fighting an animal while considered by those who know him to be too old to fight, the story to a degree presages Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea", giving it an added importance. Copies in the original dust jacket are exceedingly scarce. An altogether about Fine copy and exceedingly scare when in the dust jacket and in a condition as nice as is this copy.