Hemingway, Ernest — Across the River and into the Trees [First Edition, First Printing]

London Jonathan Cape | Printed at the Alden Press and Bound by A.W. Bain & Co., Ltd., London First Edition, First Printing pp. [1-4], 5-256. Small octavo (5" x 7.5"). Bound in the publisher's original green cloth over boards with red monogram design to the centre and title stamped in silver on a red background to the spine. Top and fore edges trimmed, bottom edge untrimmed. A trifle bumped at the spine ends; otherwise, extremities remain exceptionally well-preserved. Contents are uniformly without blemish, remaining clean and unmarked within a firm, sound binding. Housed in its original, strikingly illustrated art-deco first state dustjacket (designed by the German-born British illustrator Hans Tisdall, 1910-1997), bearing the original price of 9s. 6d. (now housed in a protective mylar sleeve). A lovely copy through and through. ¶ References: See Hanneman 44a (p. 86), which notes that the "English edition was published September 4, 1950, preceding the American edition [published on September 7, 1950] by three days." Hemingway's first novel in nearly a decade since the publication of For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), it was first serialized in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1950. Taking its title from the last words of General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson - "Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees" - the book was widely derided by contemporary critics, a fact which distressed Hemingway. Nevertheless, it was the first of Hemingway's novels to reach the top of the New York Times bestseller list, where it remained for seven weeks from October 15 to November 26, 1950. It was recently adapted for the screen by Peter Flannery in 2022, starring Liev Schreiber and Matilda De Angelis in the lead roles.