Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana. Part 2

Fitzgerald, F. Scott Tender is the Night. New York: Scribner’s, 1934 8vo. Leaves lightly toned. Publisher’s dark blue-green boards, gilt-lettered spine; some stains, spine lightly sunned. Illustrated dust-jacket depicting a Riviera scene; spine panel lightly faded and rubbed. Green morocco clamshell case. First edition of the author's other masterpiece. Tender in the Night was Fitzgerald's last novel and, in his own opinion, his finest work. In the nine years which had passed between the publication of The Great Gatsby and the appearance of Tender is the Night in April 1934, anticipation and expectation had built around what would be Fitzgerald's last novel. However, upon publication, it achieved neither the acclaim nor the sales for which Fitzgerald hoped, an outcome which puzzled him for the rest of his life. This was despite a number of overwhelmingly positive reviews, including that of John Chamberlain for The New York Times, who wrote: "Mr. Fitzgerald has not forgotten his craftsmanship... Beyond the story, there is [his] ability to catch the 'essence of a continent,' the flavor of a period, the fragrance of a night and a snatch of old song, in a phrase." REFERENCES Bruccoli A14.1a; Connolly 79

View 1 of Lot 406: Fitzgerald, F. Scott | Tender is the Night, first edition 

fitzgerald, f. scott | tender is the night, first edition

Fitzgerald, F. Scott All the Sad Young Men. New York: Scribner’s, 1926 8vo. Leaves lightly toned. Publisher’s green cloth boards, upper cover lettered in blind, spine gilt-lettered, original unclipped pictorial dust-jacket with cover image by Cleon in green and black; dust-jacket cleanly split along front cover fold, minor loss at head. Custom clamshell case. First edition, first issue, of Fitzgerald's third collection of stories (containing nine), including several of his finest: "The Rich Boy," "Winter Dreams," "The Baby Party," "Absolution," and "The Sensible Thing." These stories were first collected in February 1926, and originally published in journals. Writing to his editor Maxwell Perkins, Fitzgerald wrote of the title that "seven stories deal with young men of my generation in rather unhappy moods." Of the nine stories, "Absolution" was the one of the best-received, and originally written to provide backstory to The Great Gatsby. Several of the other the stories interweave semi-autobiographical moments of Fitzgerald's marriage with Zelda and his time and classmates at Princeton. Its review in the The New York Times held All the Sad Young Men to tough standards after the success of The Great Gatsby: "It must be said that the collection as a whole is not sustained to the high excellence of 'The Great Gatsby,' but it has stories of fine insight and finished craft....He has written a book of mellow, mature, ironic, entertaining stories, and one of them, at least, challenges the best of our contemporary output." REFERENCES Bruccoli A1.12.a; Kuel, F. Scott Fitzgerald: a study of short fiction, 52

View 1 of Lot 405: Fitzgerald, F. Scott | All the Sad Young Men, first edition

fitzgerald, f. scott | all the sad young men, first edition

Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Vegetable. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1923 8vo. Half-title, 2pp. of publisher's advertisements at end; light staining at gutter of preliminary leaves, scattered and light foxing. Publisher's green linen cloth, cover stamped in blind, spine gilt-lettered; some foxing to fore-edge. Original pictorial dust jacket; areas of restoration primarily to folds of jacket, one or two chips. Custom black and red clamshell case. First edition, first printing of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s satirical play, The Vegetable, in the original jacket. “Any man who doesn't want to get on in the world, to make a million dollars, and maybe even park his toothbrush in the White House, hasn't got as much to him as a good dog has—he's nothing more or less than a vegetable.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Vegetable Though The Vegetable failed to garner positive reviews with contemporary critics, current scholars have drawn parallels with this satirical commentary on the American dream with Fitzgerald’s most notable work. “The failure of The Vegetable…may have provided, in part, an impetus for Fitzgerald to strike out in the new artistic direction that resulted a year and a half later in the publication of The Great Gatsby” (West). REFERENCES Brucolli A10.1.a; West, “Menken’s Review of Tales of the Jazz Age,” in Menckeniana, 4

View 1 of Lot 404: Fitzgerald, F. Scott | The Vegetable, first edition

fitzgerald, f. scott | the vegetable, first edition

Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana. Part 1

Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925 8vo. Publisher's green cloth, upper cover lettered in blind, spine gilt. Original dust-jacket with Cugat illustration, the J corrected by hand; some restoration.

View 1 of Lot 205: Fitzgerald, F. Scott | "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past"

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