Description

“READ (1) THE RICH BOY (2) ABSOLUTION”: PRESENTATION COPY OF ALL THE SAD YOUNG MEN, WARMLY INSCRIBED AT LENGTH BY F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, IN ORIGINAL DUST JACKET

FITZGERALD, F. Scott. All the Sad Young Men. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926. Octavo, original dark green cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition, presentation copy, of Fitzgerald’s great collection of short stories, boldly inscribed across the entire front free endpaper: “For George Northrop (alias Nathan Leopold) Kidnapper Extraordinary from his cordial friend F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York. June 1927. Read (1) The Rich Boy (2) Absolution.” In very early issue dust jacket with unbattered lips.

“Fitzgerald’s strongest collection, with four major stories (‘The Rich Boy,’ ‘Winter Dreams,’ ‘Absolution’ and ‘The Sensible Thing’) as well as five commercial stories? As was his custom, Fitzgerald polished the magazine texts of these stories. He was convinced that the book publication of stories affected his reputation, whereas the magazine appearances were ignored by the critics” (Bruccoli, Some Sort of Epic Grandeur, 272). The lips of the female figure on the dust jacket are fresh and unbattered, indicating that it is from early in the print run. Bruccoli A13.1.a. The recipient of this presentation copy, George Northrop, was a friend of Fitzgerald’s, with whom Fitzgerald is known to have spent time in Provence. In this inscription, he refers to him as “Nathan Leopold” of Leopold and Loeb infamy. After finishing The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald started to write a manuscript called, by different biographers, either Type or World’s Fair. It “had been conceived as a novel of sensation; vaguely inspired by the Loeb-Leopold case, he had planned to end it in matricide. He had woven in the Murphys [wealthy American ex-pat friends] and their life on the Riviera, but the story was too brittle for him. Only with Zelda’s breakdown and his own decline had he found a theme worthy of his tragic intent” (Turnbull, 208). Accordingly, Fitzgerald abandoned that novel and went to work on the painfully autobiographical Tender Is the Night.

Flyleaf containing inscription neatly rehinged, expert restoration to spine ends of original cloth, dust jacket with expert restoration. An extremely good copy, wonderfully inscribed.