This Side of Paradise.

FITZGERALD, F. Scott.

Item Number: 137990

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920.

First edition of Fitzgerald’s first novel, with an initial printing of only 3,000 copies. Octavo, original cloth. Near fine in the rare original first issue dust jacket with some restoration to the extremities. The dust jacket is of utmost rarity, much more so than The Great Gatsby, which was published five years later.

This Side of Paradise is the debut novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It takes its title from a line of Rupert Brooke's poem Tiare Tahiti, the book examines the lives and morality of post–World War I youth. The novel's hero, Amory Blaine, is a handsome, spoiled young man who attends Princeton, becomes involved in literary activities and has several ill-fated romances. A portrait of the Lost Generation, the novel addresses Fitzgerald's later theme of love distorted by social climbing and greed" (Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature). Fitzgerald was still at university when he submitted the manuscript, then titled The Romantic Egoist, to Charles Scribner, whom he had known at Princeton. It was published on 26 March 1920, was an immediate success, and launched Fitzgerald's literary career.