Published by New York The Derrydale Press 1935, 1935
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.
First Edition
LIMITED EDITION, one of 850 copies only. Handsomely Illustrated with a colour frontispiece, four colour plates and a number of other drawings by Lynn Bogue Hunt, and with a profusion of photographs, drawings and maps on glossy plates. Large 4to, publisher's original ribbed royal blue cloth lettered and decorated in gilt on the spine and elaborately lettered and decorated in gilt on the upper cover with a border incorporating corner designs of game fish, pictorially decorated endpapers, t.e.g. xxii, 236, index pp. A bright, and handsome copy, internally largely unopened, the cloth bright and fresh with only the lightest evidence of shelving at the extremities, the spine gently mellowed to a pleasing navy-blue. SCARCE FIRST EDITION IN HANDSOME COLLECTOR'S CONDITION. WITH THE IMPORTANT CHAPTER ON MARLIN FISHING BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY. Includes contributions from Lynn Bogue Hunt, Van Campen Heilner, S. Kip Farrington, Jr., as well as a chapter on fishing for marlin off Cuba by Ernest Hemingway. A wonderful and justly sought-after production by the Derrydale Press.
Published by New York: The Derrydale Press, 1935, 1935
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
First Edition
First edition, first printing. This attractive production includes Hemingway's article "Marlin off Cuba" (pp. 55-81), on which he drew extensively while writing The Old Man and the Sea (1952). Hemingway's interest in Gulf Stream fishing coincided with his rejection of cosmopolitan culture and pursuit of big game hunting in the early 1930s. In addition to Hemingway's article, the work includes photographic illustrations of him and an extended extract from his account, "told in the graphic Hemingway manner" (p. 49), of the world-record Atlantic sailfish catch of 1934. The volume concludes with the national and international records of heaviest confirmed catches: the marlin record, set in New Zealand in 1926 by Laurie D. Mitchell, stood at 976 lbs. The Derrydale Press was notable for its lavishly produced North American sporting books. Its founder, Eugene V. Connett III, was "a publishing genius [who] sought out the most respected outdoor writers of his day and convinced them to become Derrydale authors. He combined their words with the output of equally well regarded artists and illustrators whose drawings, paintings, and etchings were beautifully reproduced on the fine Italian paper that Connett favoured. Today these books and prints are the most valuable and most collectible sporting books and prints ever published in North America" (Lyons). This copy includes the publisher's illustrated eight-page prospectus; its final page has the bookseller's stamp and ticket of Harry F. Marks, New York. Grissom B22; Hanneman B18. Jed Lyons, preface to James Cummins Catalogue 113, The Derrydale Press. Quarto. Original blue vertical-ribbed cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt within decorative maritime frames, blue illustrated endpapers, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed. With dust jacket. Colour frontispiece and 4 colour plates by Lynn Bogue Hunt, with tissue guards; 47 uncoloured plates, many printed on both sides, including numerous photographic half-tones and 11 maps; text with diagrams, headpieces, and initials. Title page printed in blue and black. Text printed on handmade paper. A little rubbing, one corner bumped, occasional internal browning, largely fresh; jacket mildly toned, couple of chips, tears, and marks, still very well-preserved, unclipped: a near-fine copy in like jacket.