Description

INSCRIBED BY FITZGERALD: FIRST EDITION OF FLAPPERS AND PHILOSOPHERS

FITZGERALD, F. Scott. Flappers and Philosophers. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1920. Octavo, original dark blue-green cloth. Housed in a custom slipcase.

First edition, second printing, published one month after the first printing, of Fitzgerald’s second book, inscribed, “For Beatrice Ecks from F. Scott Fitzgerald.”

“It was the custom for Scribners to follow a successful novel with a volume of short stories. On 10 September 1920 they published Fitzgerald’s first collection, Flappers and Philosophers? the volume sold surprisingly well for a collection of stories. By November 1922 there were six printings with a total of 15,325 copies. The income seemed like found money to Fitzgerald because all the stories had appeared in magazines” (Brucolli, 170). Flappers and Philosophers presented the reading public with what would become Fitzgerald’s prototypical Jazz-Age heroes and heroines. “Head and Shoulders” tells of a Yale student who falls for a dancer; “Berenice Bobs Her Hair” is based on letters Fitzgerald wrote to his younger sister Annabel, offering her advice on how to be more attractive to men; “The Cut-Glass Bowl” follows a wedding gift and the fortunes of the newlyweds who receive it; and “Benediction” displays Fitzgerald’s talent for parallelism when Lois, en route to meeting her lover, stops to visit her brother, a seminarian who is preparing for the priesthood. The final title came from a slogan that Fitzgerald had written for the early advertising copy for This Side of Paradise: “A Novel about Flappers Written for Philosophers.” Without rare dust jacket. Bruccoli A6.1.f.

Expert paper repair to inscription page, not affecting inscription. Interior fine; light rubbing to cloth extremities. A near-fine inscribed copy.