Main Page Overview of the Collection Dr. Bruccoli on Hemingway Apprenticeship and Paris Men Without Women and A Farewell to Arms Spain, Africa, and Social Conscience The Spanish Civil War and The Fifth Column For Whom the Bell Tolls World War II and Later Books Chronology Maurice J. Speiser Access and Permissions Return to Rare Books and Special Collections

Men Without Women and
A Farewell to Arms

In the period between his first two novels Hemingway found an American market for his stories including "The Killers," "In Another Country," and "Fifty Grand" in the "quality magazines" Atlantic Monthly and Scribner's. Men Without Women, his second story collection was published in 1927. Hemingway consolidated his popular and critical reputations with the publication of his second novel, A Farewell to Arms, in 1929. The Speiser papers include documents bearing on the stage and movie productions of the novel.

"The Killers,"
Scribner's Magazine, 81:3, March 1927, 227-233.

 

"Fifty Grand. A Story of the Prize Ring,"
Atlantic Monthly, 140:1, July 1927, 1-15.

Men Without Women.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1927. Original cloth, with dust-jacket.

 

"A Farewell to Arms,"
Scribner's Magazine, 85, May-October, 1929. Serialization, wrappers bound in.

At Key West, in fall 1928, Hemingway finished drafting his Great War novel, A Farewell to Arms. In the year of the 1929 crash, readers were ready to view the War more realistically, and Scribner's bid $16,000 for serialization rights. Not everyone was ready. In Boston, the second (June) magazine installment was banned as obscene.

A Farewell to Arms.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. First edition, first printing. Original cloth, in dust- jacket.

Primed by public reaction to the magazine text, the book (published September 27 that same year) became Hemingway's first bestseller, with over 60,000 copies sold by the end of the year. John Dos Passos attributed the sales ("like hot cakes") to its combination "of having a lovestory and being about the war," but he also recognized it as "a magnificent novel."

A Farewell to Arms.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929.
First edition, second printing, with Hemingway's disclaimer added on verso of dedication leaf.

A Farewell to Arms.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1929. Original gray wrappers. "Advance proof copy" in pencil on half-title page.

A Farewell to Arms.
Limited edition. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. Original cloth. Number 394 of 510 copies.

One of ten presentation copies. Inscribed "To Martha Speiser with much affection and fine memories of Hendaye Plage Ernest Hemingway."

A Farewell to Arms
New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1929.
Movie tie-in edition with scenes from the Paramount Production with Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper.

"Hundreds of thousands of readers have agreed that here is one of the world's finest modern love stories...under its cynical surface runs a fine courage and a real nobility".

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Updated July 16 2002 by the Department of Rare Books & Special Collections
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URL: http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/amlit/hemingway/hem4.html