Fitzgerald, F. Scott | "... borne back ceaselessly into the past."

Property from the Jean Hart Kislak Collection

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner's, 1925

8vo. Publisher's green cloth, upper cover lettered in blind, spine gilt. Original dust-jacket with Cugat illustration, second state of jacket; wholly unrestored with the front panel a little frayed along top edge and a spot of rubbing along fold, but the iconic image intact, rear panel with a few short, closed tears, the spine with loss at top intruding into "The" and a closed tear leading to a larger spot of loss at bottom, but a not unattractive copy in a rather tight close box.

First edition, first issue. 

A prime candidate for the Great American Novel, Gatsby is widely regarded as Fitzgerald's masterpiece, though the original sales were very disappointing in comparison to his earlier bestsellers. The work barely paid back his advance from Scribner's.

Fitzgerald himself was clear on his feelings of its merits, "I think my novel is about the best American novel ever written" (Letters, p. 166). Certainly few since have disputed Cyril Connolly's estimation of it as "one of the half-dozen best American novels ... it remains a prose poem of delight and sadness which has by now introduced two generations to the romance of America ..."

The dust jacket for Gatsby has achieved a near legendary status as well, not only for the image but for the great difficulty in obtaining an unworn or unrestored example. Gatsby's design by Xavier Cugat's brother, Francis, has become inextricably linked to the novel's tone, with a depth that few, if any, other wrapper designs have managed. Fitzgerald's comment to his editor Maxwell Perkins ("For Christ's sake don't give anyone that jacket you're saving for me. I've written it into the book.") has long intrigued readers as a reference to one of the novels most evocative images, that of a "girl whose disembodied face floated along the dark cornices and blinding signs." The slightly taller size of the jacket than the book in first edition has led to most surviving jacketed copies having significant chipping and loss and usually at least some (and usually heavy) restoration and while the present may exhibit the former, it does not suffer from the latter.

REFERENCE:

Bruccoli A11.1.a; Connolly 48