Fitzgerald, F. Scott | "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past"

Fitzgerald, F. Scott

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

8vo (193 x 130 mm). Half-title. Publisher's green cloth, upper cover lettered blind, spine gilt; lacking the dustjacket, lightly bumped at head and foot of spine, upper board's lower right corner just barely exposed, light soiling to top edge.

First edition of this prime candidate for the Great American Novel. While widely regarded as Fitzgerald's masterpiece, the original sales were disappointing in comparison to his earlier bestsellers. The work barely paid back his advance from Scribner's. Nonetheless, Fitzgerald himself was clear on his feelings of its merits, stating "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 ..." While lacking the jacket, this is an excellent example.

REFERENCE

Bruccoli A11.1.a; Connolly 48