Death in the Afternoon.

HEMINGWAY, Ernest.

$12,000.00

Item Number: 124152

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948.

Early printing of Hemingway’s masterwork on bullfighting. Octavo, original black cloth, spine lettered in gilt, frontispiece by Juan Gris, illustrated. Association copy, inscribed by Hemingway on the front free endpaper, “For Nita with regards and affection (Ernest Hemingway) Mr. Papa. Finca Vigía – SF. de Paula 22/7/49.” The recipient, Juanita “Nita” Jensen was Hemingway’s secretary at his home in the San Francisco de Paula Ward of Havana, Finca Vigia, from 1949 to 1952. While working as a secretary at the American embassy in Havana, Nita received government clearance to moonlight as a part-time secretary for Hemingway, typing the majority of his letters between 1949 and 1952. In 1952, she married diplomatic officer Walter Houk at Finca Vigía. In addition to hosting the wedding, Hemingway gave away the bride and cosigned the necessary legal paperwork and the couple became frequent visitors of the finca, often accompanying Hemingway on fishing trips aboard the Pilar and visits to his favorite local bar, the Floridita. Very good in a very good dust jacket with chipping to the crown and foot of the spine. An exceptional association.

Published in 1932, Death in the Afternoon is Hemingway's masterwork on the magnificence of the art of bull-fighting. John Dos Passos praised the book as "an absolute model for how that sort of thing ought to be done," and a contemporary review in The New York Herald Tribune described it as "full of the vigor and forthrightness of the author's personality, his humor, his strong opinions—and language… In short, it is the essence of Hemingway" (Mellow, 415).