The Great Gatsby.

FITZGERALD, F. Scott.

Item Number: 146995

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925.

First edition, first state of Fitzgerald’s “most perfectly realized work of art” with “chatter” p.60, “northern” p.119, “sick in tired” p.205, and “Union Street station” p.211. Octavo, original dark green cloth with gilt titles to the spine. With a rare Scribner’s ‘With the Compliments of the Publishers’ card signed by Fitzgerald’s editor, Maxwell Perkins, “Max” laid in. Maxwell Perkins, considered by many the greatest book editor of all time, left a monumental legacy in his thirty-seven years at the publishing house of Charles Scribner’s Sons, helping shape literature by discovering and guiding several highly influential writers including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and James Jones. After working as a reporter for The New York Times, Perkins joined Scribner’s Sons in 1910 as an advertising manager, before becoming an editor. At that time, Scribner’s was known for publishing older authors such as John Galsworthy, Henry James, and Edith Wharton. Perkins, however, wished to publish younger writers. Unlike most editors, he actively sought out promising new authors; he made his first big find in 1919 when he signed F. Scott Fitzgerald. Initially, no one at Scribner’s except Perkins had liked The Romantic Egotist, the working title of Fitzgerald’s first novel, and it was rejected. Even so, Perkins worked with Fitzgerald to revise the manuscript until it was accepted by the publishing house. Its publication as This Side of Paradise (1920) marked the arrival of a new literary generation that would always be associated with Perkins. Fitzgerald’s profligacy and alcoholism strained his relationship with Perkins. Nonetheless, Perkins remained Fitzgerald’s friend to the end of Fitzgerald’s short life, in addition to his editorial relationship with the author, particularly evidenced in The Great Gatsby (1925), which benefited substantially from Perkins’ criticism. It was also through Fitzgerald that Perkins met Ernest Hemingway, publishing his first major novel, The Sun Also Rises, in 1926. In near fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco and folding chemise slipcase. A very nice example, Scribner’s ‘Compliments’ cards signed by Perkins are rare.

In 1922, Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Cyril Connolly called The Great Gatsby one of the half dozen best American novels: "Gatsby remains a prose poem of delight and sadness which has by now introduced two generations to the romance of America, as Huckleberry Finn and Leaves of Grass introduced those before it" (Modern Movement 48). Consistently gaining popularity after World War II, the novel became an important part of American high school curricula. A prime candidate for the Great American Novel, original sales were very disappointing in comparison to Fitzgerald's earlier bestsellers. It was published in a first printing of 20,870 copies, with a second printing of 3,000 following a few months later. Priced at two dollars a copy, at a fifteen percent royalty, the first printing just covered Fitzgerald’s $6,000 advance from Scribner’s. Despite this, Fitzgerald himself was clear on his feelings of its merits: "I think my novel is about the best American novel ever written" (A Life in Letters, p. 166). In 1998, the Modern Library editorial board voted it the 20th century's best American novel and second best English-language novel of the same time period. Gatsby has been adapted into four films, with two exceptionally big-budget versions: the 1974 version starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, as well as Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 version starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carrie Mulligan. Fitzgerald’s granddaughter praised Lurhmann’s adaptation, stating “Scott would be proud.”