For Whom The Bell Tolls.

HEMINGWAY, Ernest.

Item Number: 97852

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940.

First edition of the novel that is regarded as one of Hemingway’s best works. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “For Helena Guest Wishing her all good luck always Ernest Hemingway.” The recipient, Helena Guest was the first wife of the Anglo-American polo star and Hemingway close friend, Winston Guest. The pair divorced in 1944 and his second wedding, to the inimitable socialite C.Z. Guest, was held at Hemingway’s Cuba home with the author acting as best man. Fine in a fine first issue dust jacket with a touch of shelfwear. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. A nice association.

For Whom the Bell Tolls combines two of the author's recurring obsessions: war and personal honor. "This is the best book Ernest Hemingway has written, the fullest, the deepest, the truest. It will, I think, be one of the major novels of American literature Hemingway has struck universal chords, and he has struck them vibrantly" (J. Donald Adams).