The Old Man and the Sea was published 60 years ago this week and one lucky person has marked the anniversary by paying $18,500 for a signed first edition of Ernest Hemingway’s famous novel. The inscription was: “with very best wishes, Ernest Hemingway, Keywest/1958.” If you’d like to know more about Hemingway’s time in Key West, I was lucky enough to visit Ernest Hemingway’s Key West Home in 2010, and spend time among the old books, the typewriter, the greenery, the furniture, and of course the many polydactyl cats.

It was a record price for a Hemingway book on AbeBooks but it was only our third most expensive sale in August, which was a good month for rare bookselling.