"The Old Man and the Sea", by Ernest Hemingway, published by Charles Scribner's Sons, Second Printing of the First Edition. Lacking the letter 'A' on the copyright page, otherwise the markings are identical to the first printing: '1952' is imprinted on the title page, 'Copyright 1952 by Ernest Hemingway' and Scribner's colophon on the copyright page. No other printings listed on the copyright page.

Facsimile of the first printing dust jacket in the myler cover, hard boards, original publisher's navy-blue cloth with embossed Hemingway's signature [a little wear of the silvery lettering on spine]; 5.3/4" x 8"; 140 pages are fine, overall very good condition.

First printing of Hemingway's classic man-versus-nature story was issued on September 8, 1952, 11 days after the full text of Hemingway's novella was published in a twenty-page spread in "Life Magazine". Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and one of Hemingway's most beloved and successful story that has been characterized as a fable, it deals with a Cuban fisherman's struggles to land a giant marlin that he has hooked, and reflects Hemingway's concern for life as a struggle of man against nature, including his own nature; seen by many as a late-career return to form. The title which cinched the Nobel Prize for the author in 1954. Basis for the John Sturges film with Spencer Tracy.

"Gregorio Fuentes, the Captain of Hemingway's fishing boat, the Pilar. was Hemingway's dear friend and companion for over twenty years - in his recollections of his relationship with Hemingway and the creation of the story: " 'I was with Hemingway when he got the idea for The Old Man and the Sea,' he recalls. They were motoring along Cuba's north coast when they came across an old man in a skiff fighting a big fish. Sharks had surrounded him, and he was in a fierce battle. 'We stopped and offered to help, but the old man shouted for us to get away,' Fuentes says. 'Later we heard the old man had died, which saddened Papa deeply. I know that is why he wrote the book.' Fuentes was also with Hemingway aboard the Pilar in 1953 when the writer heard over the radio that he had won the Pulitzer Prize for the book. But he remembers Hemingway's greatest triumph as having more to do with fishing than writing. 'I was with him when he caught a 1,542-pound sailfish off Peru,' he beams. 'It was just the two of us, and it took three hours to catch. Was he ever excited!' 'In my whole life, I've known few other people of his caliber."

The author's so-called "Nobel" novel and the last major work published in his lifetime. Widely considered to have been the book that clinched the much-coveted literary award. This parable of a novel also won the Pulitzer Prize in 1952 and remains one of the high spots of modern American literature.

The laconic American voice and limpid prose style he developed and mastered were immensely influential to the Minimalist School, to cite just one example. The way he lived his life - the romance of being a writer - was for many readers and writers the model of a writer's life. One of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.

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