Description

“FOR ELIZABETH SAGE QUEEN OF THE JAZZ AGE”: FIRST EDITION OF TALES OF THE JAZZ AGE, INSCRIBED BY FITZGERALD AND IN SCARCE ORIGINAL DUST JACKET

FITZGERALD, F. Scott. Tales of the Jazz Age. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1922. Octavo, original dark green cloth recased, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box.

First edition, first issue of Fitzgerald’s second collection of stories, inscribed, “For Elizabeth Sage, Queen of the Jazz Age, from F. Scott Fitzgerald, Encino, 1939.”

Includes his masterpieces “A Diamond as Big as the Ritz” and “May Day.” It was Fitzgerald’s claim that he had coined the term “Jazz Age.” Always retaining his affection for this era, Fitzgerald would later write, “It is the custom now to look back on the boom days with a disapproval that approaches horror. But it had its virtues, that old boom: Life was a great deal larger and gayer for most people and the stampede to the Spartan virtues in time of war and famine should not make us too dizzy to remember its hilarious glory” (Turnbull, 225). First issue with “Published September, 1922” and Scribner seal on copyright page. Bruccoli A9.I.a. Owner signature and address.

Mild wear to extremities of extremely scarce dust jacket, with toning to spine panel and chipping to spine head, affecting the word ‘TALES’ in the title. A near-fine copy in a very good, unrestored and almost unobtainable dust jacket, rare inscribed.