AN EXTRAORDINARY RARITY AND ONE OF THE FINEST OF ALL HEMINGWAY ASSOCIATION COPIES: FIRST EDITION OF HEMINGWAY’S FIRST BOOK, THREE STORIES AND TEN POEMS, ONE OF AN EDITION OF ONLY 300 COPIES, THIS COPY AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY HEMINGWAY IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION TO ONE OF HIS CLOSEST FRIENDS, ERIC EDWARD DORMAN-SMITH, GODFATHER OF HEMINGWAY’S SON BUMBY AND PROTOTYPE FOR ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES

HEMINGWAY, Ernest. Three Stories and Ten Poems. Up in Michigan, Out of Season, My Old Man… [Paris: Contact Publishing, 1923]. 12mo, original grayish blue paper wrappers lettered in black, uncut. Housed in custom chemise and half morocco slipcase.

A superb association copy of one of the rarest and most desirable Hemingway titles: the first and only edition of the author’s first book, one of an edition of only 300 copies, this copy warmly inscribed by Hemingway to Eric Edward “Chink” Dorman-Smith, Hemingway’s first and closest adult friend: “For Chink with love from Popplethwaite, Paris—August 1923.”

Dorman-Smith first met Hemingway (whom he called “Shamus O’Popplethwaite”) in Milan in November 1918, where the nineteen-year-old aspiring author was recuperating from jaundice contracted as a consequence of wounds he suffered attempting to save a wounded Italian soldier. Though only a few years Hemingway’s senior, Dorman-Smith had been fighting since 1914 with the Northumberland Fusiliers, and he gave Hemingway some of his earliest insight into the nature of war and a soldier’s understanding of death. Hemingway would regularly refer to Dorman-Smith and the adventures they shared in his journalism, poetry, stories and non-fiction from 1923 until the end of his life. Dorman-Smith’s career is portrayed in Across the River and Into the Trees, about which he remarked to Hemingway: “How did you know things that are known only to retired army officers?” Hemingway also wrote about him in Moveable Feast, and used two of his friend’s war anecdotes in in our time, which was dedicated to him. Sharing a love of literature and sport, the two would remain friends for life, taking any opportunity to get together for bouts of drinking, skiing, fishing, hiking, and bull-running; Dorman-Smith was godfather to Hemingway’s son, Bumby. Three Stories and Ten Poems was printed in Dijon by Maurice Darantiere, the printer of Joyce’s Ulysses and many other expatriate publications. Six of the poems had been previously published, the remaining four and all three stories (“Up in Michigan,” “Out of Season,” and “My Old Man”) appear here for the first time. Hanneman A1a.

Backstrip only lightly worn. A near-fine copy of a rare and notoriously fragile book, even more extraordinary for its contemporary inscription by Hemingway to one of his closest friends. Among the finest of all Hemingway association copies.