Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana

8vo. Original gilt-lettered blue cloth (light sunning to spine). Provenance: Ruth White Lowry (1884-1974), Hemingway's cousin and Kansas City native (ownership signature, recipient of Hemingway's signature, Kansas City, 1928).

Second printing. SIGNED BY HEMINGWAY TO HIS COUSIN, RUTH LOWRY. Hemingway appears to only sign his last name, with the first part of the inscription, including "Ernest", written in an unknown hand, presumably Ruth's. Hemingway was staying at the Lowrys' home in Kansas City while his wife gave birth to their first child. During her recovery, he began writing what would become A Farewell to Arms.

Hemingway met Ezra Pound in 1922 through a letter of introduction from Sherwood Anderson shortly after Hemingway moved to Paris as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star. Pound quickly became a mentor to Hemingway, introducing him to modernist literary techniques such as Imagism, which influenced Hemingway's sparse and precise prose style. He also helped promote Hemingway's early work, including publishing his poems in Poetry magazine and facilitating the publication of Three Stories & Ten Poems (1923) and in our time (1924).