Three Stories and Ten Poems
Ernest Hemingway, 1923
HEMINGWAY, Ernest (1899-1961). Three Stories and Ten Poems. Paris: Contact Publishing Co., 1923.

First edition, one of 300 copies. Though Three Stories and Ten Poems sold miserably, Hemingway's efforts did yield one award-winning short story: "My Old Man," which was included in The Best Short Stories of 1923, edited by Edward J. O'Brien. Hemingway had originally showed O'Brien his "soulful" tale of a boy's disillusionment with his crooked jockey-father "as a curiosity, as you might...pick up your booted foot and make some joke about it if it had been amputated after a crash." O'Brien's reaction was quite the opposite; he found the work exceptional enough to include among the best of the year. O'Brien also asked permission to dedicate the upcoming anthology to Hemingway, who agreed, adding: "And to show you how much I appreciate it I will make a very solemn vow to you and God never to think about any readers but you and God when writing stories all the rest of my life" (Selected Letters, ed. Carlos Baker, p. 103). Hanneman A1a.

12mo. Original printed gray-blue wrappers (spine slightly darkened, some minor soiling); custom box.