Fitzgerald, F. Scott

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

8vo (7 1/2 x 5 1/4 ins; 190 x 133 mm). Publisher's linen-like green cloth with gilt spine title; spine a little rubbed and faded, slightly cocked. Original dust-jacket with iconic Francis Cugat illustration ("j" corrected to capital by hand as in all but one copy); spine panel with ends chipped above text, rear panel with loss below bottom rule, front panel chipped at corners, rubbing and some loss underneath author's name, rubbing to front flap fold, but overall still crisp and unfaded and without any restoration or text loss.

Daisy Langmead 1925 (pencilled signature to endpaper)

Bruccoli  A11.1.a; Connolly 48

First edition, first issue of Gatsby in an unrestored jacket. A prime candidate for the Great American Novel, Gatsbyis widely regarded as Fitzgerald's masterpiece, though its sales at the time were disappointing in comparison to his first bestsellers and barely paid back the advance from Scribner's.

Fitzgerald himself was clear on his feelings of the novel's merits, "I think my novel is about the best American novel ever written" (Letters p. 166). Certainly few since have argued 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 an iconic status as well, not only for the image but for the difficulty in obtaining a  fine or unrestored example. The slightly taller size of the jacket than the book itself has led to most surviving copies in jacket having at least some chips and or restoration.  Wholly different in its Deco style from the earlier book jackets and designed by Xavier Cugat's brother, Francis, the cover image has become inextricably  linked to the novel's tone and themes as few if any jacket 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 perhaps 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."