Post by samsloanThe Serendipity Books auction sale took place on June 26, 2012. I won
177 lots of books in the auction for which I paid $3,300 plus I paid
$865 to Box Brothers to bring the six thousand to seven thousand books
to the Goodall Mansion, for a total of $4200 expended.
I have so far reprinted 8 books I bought at this auction plus I have
listed 25 books I won in this auction on my Ishi Press seller account
on Amazon. Among the books I am offering for sale on Amazon is an
original first edition of Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse by Sigmond
Freud.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X9UPK8
I am offering it for the low, low, bargain basement price of only
$149.95
Sam Sloan
I bought this book at The Serendipity Bookstore auction that took
place in Berkeley California on June 26, 2012. I won 177 lots of books
in the auction for which I paid $3,385.58 plus I paid $865 to Box
Brothers to bring the six thousand to seven thousand books to the
Goodall Mansion, for a total of $4250.58 expended.
The auction took place because the owners, Peter B. Howard and his
wife, died within a few months of each other. Peter Brigham Howard was
born on 1 July 1938 and died in March 31, 2011 in Alameda, California
at age 73. His wife Alison Seelye Howard was born on 30 January 1939
and died on 16 August 2010 in Alameda California at age 71. Their
deputy, Nancy Kosenka, continued the bookstore for another six months.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/07/serendipity-books-r-i-p/
After that, the contents of the store were put up for auction. I
bought 28% of the books being auctioned, including this book.
I have so far reprinted 8 books I bought at this auction plus I have
listed 25 books I won in this auction on my Ishi Press seller account
on Amazon.
I believe that the Jonathan Cape edition was published before the
Scribner edition, for several reasons. The Scribner edition was
published in September 1929. Several other editions by different
publishers were published that same year, including the Jonathan Cape
edition. A Farewell to Arms was serialized in Scribner's Magazine from
May 1929 to October 1929. There was little exchange of commerce
between the USA and Europe in 1929 so it seems likely that the book
published by Jonathan Cape came before the book published by
Scribner's.
Hemingway was living in Paris at the time and since Paris is closer to
London that is another reason why is seems likely that the London
edition came first.
Jonathan Cape had been Hemingway's publisher previously. On the page
entitled “By the Same Author”, three books are listed: In Our Time,
Fiesta (published in America with the title The Sun Also Rises), and
Men without Women.
In Our Time was first published in Paris in 1924.
Fiesta was the original title of the work. It was published in London
under that title. It was published in America by Scribner's as The Sun
Also Rises. Wikipedia states that Hemingway broke a contract with
another publisher to publish it with Scribner's.
Men Without Women is a collection of short stories published by
Scribner's in October 1927. It was also published by Jonathan Cape in
London at about the same time.
These were not cooperative arrangements. These two publishers were
bitter rivals.
One needs to remember that back in 1929, commercian trans-Atlantic Air
Traffic did not exist. Charles Lindbergh made his historic flight from
New York to Paris on May 20–21, 1927. Regular passenger service to
Europe did not start until 1946. Thus, if Hemingway came to America
and then returned to Paris all in 1929 it had to be by boat. If you
have been reason about the Titanic you will know that a trip across
the Atlantic took weeks. Strange that this remarkable journey from
Paris to New York and back taking a month of his time is not mentioned
in any biography of Hemingway.
They also did not have photocopy machines back them. Probably there
was only one typed manuscript to A Farewell to Arms plus at best one
carbon copy. They did have radio and telegraph back then, however. So,
what must have happened is first Johathan Cape published it in London
and then it was transferred to New York later.
What I find remarkable is the Jonathan Cape Edition does not have a
copyright notice. I have never seen another work by an author as
famous as Hemingway that did not have a copyright notice. Under the
copyright law of 1929 or at any time prior to 1978, a work published
without a copyright notice is public domain and can be reprinted by
anybody. Thus, I can safely and legally reprint the Jonathan Cape
Edition of A Farewell to Arms.
Another issue concerns the use of expletives by Hemingway. In early
editions of A Farewell to Arms, the words "shit", "fuck", and
"cocksucker" in A Farewell to Arms were replaced with dashes ("----").
There are at least five copies of a first edition in which Hemingway
re-inserted the censored text by hand, so as to provide a corrected
text. Hemingway's corrected text has not been incorporated into modern
published editions of the novel.
The only place in the Jonathan Cape Edition that I can find with
dashes or dots comes on page 76 here where he writes, “Wop. You are a
frozen faced . . . wop.” It is possible that one of these dirty words
was originally inserted into these spaces.
I have searched as thoroughly as I can and I cannot find any further
information about where these dirty words are or are supposed to be.