Ernest Hemingway First Editions: How to Identify the Scribner's and Cape Firsts

Ernest Hemingway first editions divide into two groups. The first two books were printed in Paris in editions of a few hundred copies and are rare in any state. Everything from 1926 onward came from Charles Scribner's Sons in New York in printings of thousands, and those are the books most collectors own or hope to own. Identifying them means knowing how Scribner's marked a first printing, which titles have a misprint or jacket error that marks the first issue, and where book club copies imitate the real thing. Jonathan Cape published the British editions, usually a year behind. This guide takes the books in order, gives the points that two or more sources agree on, and ends with what copies have sold for.

We track each book on its own page, with the first printing and its points recorded against it: In Our Time, The Torrents of Spring, The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, Death in the Afternoon, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea and A Moveable Feast.

The books at a glance

Book	First edition	What to look for
Three Stories and Ten Poems	Contact Publishing, Paris, 1923, 300 copies	Grey-blue printed wrappers; the book itself is the point
in our time	Three Mountains Press, Paris, 1924, 170 copies issued	Lower-case title; numbered copies
In Our Time	Boni and Liveright, New York, 1925, 1,335 copies	Black cloth; the jacket is very rare
The Torrents of Spring	Scribner's, May 1926, 1,250 copies	Hemingway's first Scribner's book, before the A
The Sun Also Rises	Scribner's, 22 October 1926, 5,090 copies	"stoppped" on p. 181, line 26; jacket reads "In Our Times"
A Farewell to Arms	Scribner's, 27 September 1929	No A; seal on copyright page; no disclaimer on p. x; "Katharine Barclay" on jacket flap
Death in the Afternoon	Scribner's, 23 September 1932	A on copyright page; Domingo bullfight jacket
For Whom the Bell Tolls	Scribner's, 21 October 1940, 75,000 copies	A on copyright page; jacket without photographer's credit; $2.75
The Old Man and the Sea	Scribner's, September 1952	A and Scribner seal; $3.00 jacket; no prize mentions
A Moveable Feast	Scribner's, May 1964	"A-3.64[H]" on copyright page; $4.95 jacket

How Scribner's marked a first edition

Before 1930, according to the ILAB guide to publishers' practices, Scribner's usually put its seal and the month and year of publication on a first edition, but not consistently. From 1930 it printed a capital A on the copyright page of the first printing, often with the seal, and removed it from later printings. The start date is not quite settled: a Scribner's catalogue quoted by BookThink says 1929, Zempel and Verkler's First Editions says 1930, and the fact that the September 1929 A Farewell to Arms has no A supports the later date. In the 1970s Scribner's moved to a number line, which ISFDB dates to 1973; we have found that year in one source only.

So the A is a strong sign of a first printing on any Hemingway from Death in the Afternoon onward, but it is not the whole story: the book club printing of The Old Man and the Sea carries it too, and A Farewell to Arms never had one. Our guide to points of issue explains why such marks are one piece of evidence among several. The bibliographies dealers cite are Audre Hanneman's (Princeton, 1967, supplement 1975) and C. Edgar Grissom's (Oak Knoll, 2011); a catalogue that gives a Hanneman or Grissom number has checked its copy against one of them.

The Paris books: 1923 and 1924

Three Stories and Ten Poems was Hemingway's first book, published in Paris in 1923 by Robert McAlmon's Contact Publishing in an edition of 300 copies, in grey-blue printed paper wrappers. There are no issue points; the questions are whether the wrappers are original and whether the copy has been restored. Sotheby's estimated the unopened Whitney-Rechler copy at $50,000 to $70,000 in June 2024, and a copy inscribed to Hemingway's cousin Ruth made $83,050 at Freeman's in November 2025.

in our time, with its lower-case title, followed from the Three Mountains Press in 1924. Christie's and Bauman agree that 300 copies were printed but only 170 sound ones were issued, some on Rives handmade paper; the Baum copy sold at Christie's was number 22 of 70 on Rives. Its eighteen vignettes became the interchapters of the American In Our Time, published by Boni and Liveright in 1925 in 1,335 copies, in black cloth stamped in gilt. That was Hemingway's first book in the United States, and it is usually met without its jacket, one of the rarest in his bibliography.

The Sun Also Rises, 1926

Hemingway moved to Scribner's with The Torrents of Spring in May 1926, a first printing of 1,250 copies with no copyright page mark, since it predates the A. The Sun Also Rises was published on 22 October 1926 in a first printing of 5,090 copies, with a second printing of 2,000 in November; the University of Utah's Rare Books Division and Bauman give the same figures. The first issue is identified by a misprint on page 181, line 26, where "stopped" is set with three p's, and by the Ecclesiastes quotation on page viii. The jacket, designed by Cleonike Damianakes and printed in black and gold, has its own point: on the front panel the earlier book is called "In Our Times". Christie's cited all three, with Hanneman A6a, for the Baum copy in 2021 and the Goldstone copy in 2022. The binding is black cloth with gold paper labels. A copy in an unrestored "In Our Times" jacket is the prize of the whole field; many jackets on the market have been restored or partly replaced, as Christie's description of the Goldstone copy records, and our guide to dust jackets explains how to read such a description.

Jonathan Cape published the book in Britain as Fiesta in 1927, in blue cloth with a pictorial jacket priced 7s 6d. Bonhams catalogued a second impression dated September 1927 that appeared four months after the first, which places the first impression around mid-1927; dealers cite Hanneman 33A. Even that second impression, in its jacket, made £6,500 at Bonhams in June 2017.

A Farewell to Arms, 1929

Published on 27 September 1929, A Farewell to Arms catches out sellers who trust the A. There is none. The first issue is identified by the Scribner seal on the copyright page and by the absence of a legal disclaimer on page x, which was added to later printings; Bauman and Jonkers both describe their first issues that way, with Hanneman A8a. The first issue jacket, again by Damianakes, misspells the heroine's name as "Katharine Barclay" on the front flap and carries a $2.50 price. A limited edition of 510 numbered copies signed by Hemingway appeared at the same time; number 42 made £4,000 at Bonhams in June 2015.

The Cape edition followed on 11 November 1929. Its first state has a misprint of its own, "seriosu" for "serious" on page 66, which John Atkinson and Raptis both record. Dealers describe the cloth as pink, magenta or purple, most likely the same cloth faded to different degrees, so do not reject a copy on colour alone.

Death in the Afternoon, 1932

The bullfighting book was published on 23 September 1932 and is the first Hemingway title where the A does the work: Bauman and the University of Utah both identify the first issue by the A on the copyright page, with Hanneman A10a. The jacket reproduces Roberto Domingo's painting Toros, and the frontispiece is Juan Gris's The Bullfighter. A $3.50 price on the front flap is reported by one dealer listing. A first edition made £1,875 at Bonhams in June 2015.

For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940

Scribner's published the Spanish Civil War novel on 21 October 1940 in a first printing of 75,000 copies at $2.75, and it was a Book of the Month Club selection, so copies are plentiful. The first printing has the A on the copyright page. The first issue jacket is the thing to check: on the rear panel the photograph of Hemingway appears without the photographer's name, which was added to later jackets. Bauman, Ulysses Rare Books and Maggs all describe the first state that way, with Hanneman A18a, and the $2.75 price should be on the front flap. The cloth is beige. A first printing in the first issue jacket sold at Hindman in June 2024 for $2,159 against an estimate of $400 to $600.

The Old Man and the Sea, 1952

The novella appeared in Life on 1 September 1952, and Scribner's published the book a week later, in pale blue cloth lettered in silver, with a jacket priced $3.00. The first printing has both the A and the Scribner seal on the copyright page, and nothing in the preliminaries about the Pulitzer Prize of 1953 or the Nobel Prize of 1954. One dealer reports a first printing of 51,700 copies, a figure we have not confirmed elsewhere.

The Book of the Month Club edition is the standard trap, because it also has the A. PPrize and the Barnebys listing agree on the differences: the club copy has no Scribner seal, prints the printer's details at the foot of the copyright page, has no price on the jacket flap, and may carry a small blind stamp on the rear board. Our guide to book club editions covers the general rules. Cape published the first British edition in 1952, in blue pictorial cloth with a jacket priced 7s 6d; a jacketed copy made £170 hammer at Bellmans in July 2022.

A Moveable Feast, 1964

The Paris memoir was published posthumously on 5 May 1964. By then the A came with a date code: the first printing reads "A-3.64[H]" on the copyright page, meaning printed March 1964 in hardback, and the jacket is priced $4.95. Raptis and other dealers give the code the same way, and the University of Virginia's bestsellers database notes that the first two printings carried A and B and the third no mark. One dealer says the book club printing carries a W; we have not found that in a second source.

Three traps

The A alone. It applies only to titles from 1930 onward, and the Book of the Month Club printing of The Old Man and the Sea has it too. Look for the seal and the jacket price as well.

The jacket on the wrong book. Three of the novels have jacket points, so a later printing in a first issue jacket, or the reverse, is common. Heritage sold a second printing of A Farewell to Arms in a first issue jacket in 2012; it is not a first issue and should not be priced as one.

Restored and facsimile jackets. The 1926 jacket is so valuable that restored examples are the norm, and reputable houses say so. Ask for a condition report before paying for a jacket you have not examined.

What they have sold for

Prices are reported results with their sources, including premium unless stated. They are not valuations of your copy.

Book	Sale	Price
Three Stories and Ten Poems, wrappers lined and recased	Swann, New York, 17 June 2010 (reported by Paul Fraser Collectibles)	$21,600
Three Stories and Ten Poems, inscribed to his cousin Ruth	Freeman's, November 2025	$83,050
in our time, 1924, number 22 of 70 on Rives paper	Christie's, Baum collection, 17 September 2021	$40,000
in our time, 1924, inscribed to Maxwell Perkins	Freeman's, 2 February 2023	$277,200
The Sun Also Rises, first issue, unrestored jacket	Christie's, Baum collection, 17 September 2021	$87,500
Fiesta, Cape, second impression, in jacket	Bonhams, London, 14 June 2017	£6,500
A Farewell to Arms, first issue, unclipped jacket	Hindman, May 2022	$2,375
A Farewell to Arms, first trade edition, first issue jacket	Freeman's Hindman, July 2024	$1,397
A Farewell to Arms, limited, 42 of 510, signed	Bonhams, London, 24 June 2015	£4,000
Death in the Afternoon, first edition	Bonhams, London, 24 June 2015	£1,875
For Whom the Bell Tolls, first printing, first issue jacket	Hindman, 6 June 2024	$2,159
The Old Man and the Sea, first printing, unrestored jacket	Hindman, 6 June 2024	$4,445
The Old Man and the Sea, Cape, in jacket	Bellmans, July 2022	£170 hammer
Eight Scribner's first editions, Torrents to Islands, one lot	Bonhams, London, 18 March 2015	£5,000

If you own one of these books, grade it honestly, check the points on its page, and compare it with sold copies in the same state and the same jacket rather than with asking prices.