GATSBY LE MAGNIFIQUE - INSCRIBED BY THE TRANSLATOR by Fitzgerald, F. Scott (novel); Llona, Victor (translation) - 1926

Paris: Simon Kra, 1926. Gatsby Le Magnifique was the first translation of any Fitzgerald novel into a foreign language. The task of translation was assumed by Peruvian author and translator Victor Llona (1886-1953), who began working on it in the fall of 1925. Llona, who grew up in Paris, quickly gained the confidence of several Parisian publishers, and would translate more than 40 works by James Joyce, Sherwood Anderson, Theodore Dreiser, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Nathalie Barney, Paul Bowles, and others. He was Fitzgerald's sole champion from 1925 until they drifted apart in 1928. Gatsby appeared in October, 1926 in a tiny edition of 415 copies, selling fewer than 3,000 copies through 1927 (cf. Nowlin, Michael. "Fitzgerald's Survival of French Neglect." The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, Vol.10 (2012), pp.27-47). An uncommon contemporary inscription. Seventh Impression. Octavo (17.5cm); printed wrappers; photographic frontispiece portrait, [6],7-217,[3]pp, with 8pp publisher's catalog bound in at rear. Inscribed by the translator to French author George Langelaan on the half-title page: "A Monsieur G. Langelaan / de la part de F. Scott Fitzgerald et avec le trés sincère hommage du traducteur / Victor Llona / Paris le 5 Mars 1927." Edgeworn, spine-sunned, with sunning to spine, and some of the inevitable tanning to text edges; front joint invisibly repaired; just Very Good.