THE TORRENTS OF SPRING
First edition, in the first printing dust jacket, of this novella parodying his (then more famous) friend Sherwood Anderson's novel DARK LAUGHTER.
Fine in very good jacket.
Price: $7,500.00
THE TORRENTS OF SPRING
"the book isn't personal and the tougher it is the better." – Hemingway, 21 May 1926 letter to Sherwood Anderson
At the time of this book's publication, Hemingway's friend Sherwood Anderson was a far more acclaimed writer: his reputation made in 1919 with WINESBURG, OHIO, and his 1925 novel DARK LAUGHTER becoming a bestseller. In explaining to Anderson his inspiration for TORRENTS OF SPRING (written in about seven days after reading Anderson's DARK LAUGHTER), Hemingway argued it was because fellow authors should not "pull our punches": "if when a man like yourself who can write very great things writes something that seems to me, (who have never written anything great but am anyway a fellow craftsman) rotten, I ought to tell you so" (21 May 1926 letter to Anderson). In this same letter Hemingway does seem to realize that criticism of a friend's work need not extend to a book-length satirical publication ("I guess this is a lousy snooty letter and it will seem like a lousy snooty book") – but the book played a larger role in Hemingway's long-term career. Because his publisher Boni & Liveright refused to publish it, Hemingway was released from his contract with them and subsequently moved on to Scribner's – where he worked with editor Max Perkins to create one of his best books, THE SUN ALSO RISES (1926).
Read more: Grissom, Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography, A.4.1.a; Baker (editor), Ernest Hemingway, Selected Letters, 1917-1961.
The Object
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926. Full title: The Torrents of Spring: A Romantic Novel in Honor of the Passing of a Great Race. 7.5'' x 5''. Original black cloth lettered in red. In original unclipped ($1.50) pictorial dust jacket with highlights in orange, 9 titles on rear flap. Fore-edge machine deckle. [8], 143, [1] pages. Book very fresh with just a bit of faint spotting, minor bump to rear top corner. Jacket somewhat toned, with section of abrasion at head of spine, including a few small spots of loss.
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