The Great Gatsby by FITZGERALD, F. SCOTT - 1934

New York: The Modern Library, 1934. First Modern Library Edition; with a new introduction by the author. Near fine in a very good dust jacket, lacking the remainder (“discontinued title”) stamp often or even usually found, a poignant reminder of how far the author’s reputation and popularity had fallen in such a short time. Given the author’s steep fall into obscurity, this edition is not an insignificant reprint, but is integral to the history of what many regard as be the great American novel, even if this edition was his final, futile grasp at immortality during his lifetime. This copy is bound in brown (terra-cotta) cloth, one of several variants. Presentation copy; inscribed by the author “For Billy de Beck [deBeck]/ I wish him this: no rubber check/ to wear his bliss/ His love to neck/ His mountain self; /And no one to check/ Billy himself/ from F. Scott Fitzgerald/ Asheville 1936.” The recipient, a successful cartoonist (Barney Google and Snuffy Smith), Ring Lardner, and Fitzgerald all lived at one time in Great Neck, the fictional West Egg of The Great Gatsby.