FAREWELL TO ARMS by Hemingway Ernest - 1929

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. First Edition, first state with Scribner's seal on copyright page and no disclaimer on p. [x]. 8vo, very handsomely bound in full black morocco, the spine lettered and decorated in gilt, the borders of the covers ruled in blind. [2], [x], [1]-355 pp. A very fine copy, the binding in pristine condition, the text-block very clean and very well preserved with only slight age mellowing. FIRST EDITION IN A VERY HANDSOME BINDING OF FULL BLACK MOROCCO GILT of this true high-spot of 20th century literature and one of the Modern Library’s top 100 novels of the century. Hemingway’s moving and tragic tale of an American service man and the British nurse he falls in love with during the horrors of the first World War was only his second published novel. Hemingway’s characters in even such an early novel as this, reflect the honesty and resonance that is so distinctive to his prose. The novel was based on Hemingway's own experiences serving in the Italian campaigns during the First World War. The inspiration for Catherine Barkley was Agnes von Kurowsky, a real nurse who cared for Hemingway in a hospital in Milan after he had been wounded. He had planned to marry her but she spurned his love when he returned to America.