Hemingway, Ernest

The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952

8vo. Publisher's blue cloth, stamped in blind and silver; spine rubbed; extremities lightly worn. Original dust-jacket; price-clipped, with minor wear to extremities, else a bright, fine example. In a quarter-morocco slipcase.

Hanneman A24a

In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

A presentation copy of the first edition, inscribed to his Goddaughter Alden Calmer as a belated wedding gift, on the front endpaper: "For Alden / this strange book which / I had the un-believable (sp.) / luck to write / E.H." Alden was the daughter of Ned Calmer, who wrote for the Paris Herald Tribune in the early 1930s, when he befriended Hemingway. Alden was born in 1930 and was baptized in 1933 with Hemingway present as her godfather in the church of Ste. Sulpice.

Calmer left Paris in 1936 to work in New York as a reporter for Havas, the French news agency; he later joined CBS as a news correspondent, reporting to Edward R. Murrow. Hemingway and Calmer maintained loose, sporadic relations when Hemingway came to New York from Cuba. Alden recalls meeting with him on two occasions in the 1940s and one in the 1950s. When Hemingway was unable to attend Alden’s wedding in June 1951, he sent a congratulatory telegram soliciting ideas for an appropriate gift. No suggestions were forthcoming, though surviving family members recollect that Ned, who was then in Rome for CBS, suggested that a signed set of his books would be a welcome present. In 1951 Ned gathered his own Hemingway volumes, augmented by new acquisitions, and sent them to Cuba for Hemingway’s inscriptions. In 1955 he sent an additional box.

These were busy years for Hemingway, who between 1952 and 1954 wrote The Old Man and the Sea, survived an airplane crash in Africa, and received the Nobel Prize for Literature.  In November 1955, Mary Hemingway wrote to Calmer with profuse apologies that he had not yet signed the books, and with assurances that the situation would be remedied immediately. Despite Mary’s declaration, the books were not shipped for two years.