Floyd Dell

Dell’s progressive work, bearing an inscription in Hemingway’s hand: “Hadley Hemingway / 113 Rue Notre Dame des Champs / Paris VI" — the couple's famous apartment in Paris. 

• Floyd Dell (American).
• New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1920.
• Octavo.
• Maroon cloth stamped in green and red.

The Hemingways were introduced to Floyd Dell by Sherwood Anderson, an older, respected writer who proved enormously influential in Hemingway’s early career. Anderson not only exposed Hemingway and Hadley to Dell but also introduced them to key members of the vibrant expatriate scene in Paris, including Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound.

Hadley and Ernest Hemingway’s marriage, from 1921 to 1927, played a significant role in his early literary development. During their time in France, Hadley provided essential emotional and financial support as Hemingway established his career. Their relationship, while deeply affectionate, ended due to Hemingway’s affair with Pauline Pfeiffer. Despite the dissolution of their marriage, Hadley remained an important influence on Hemingway’s life.

“In the evening we would go to the apartment and, while Hadley cooked dinner, I would read and write in my notebook and we would talk. After dinner, I would take a drink and think over the day’s work and make plans for the next” (A Moveable Feast, Chapter 3).

The apartment at 113 Rue Notre Dame des Champs, the Hemingways’ second home in Paris, was located in the 6th arrondissement. They lived there from 1923 to 1926, perched above a sawmill. Hemingway later described it as “a good place for working,” despite the cacophonous sounds of the machinery. He wrote prolifically there, drafting many early short stories and what would later become The Sun Also Rises. The couple entertained Stein, Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald in the modest space. Hemingway’s memories of the apartment feature prominently in his memoir, A Moveable Feast.

The inscription, being in Hemingway’s hand rather than Hadley’s, suggests that this may have been a gift from husband to wife.

An astoundingly early and unusual association copy.