THE SPANISH EARTH

Cleveland: The J.B. Savage Company, 1938. Fine.. Limited first edition, one of less than 100 copies in the rare first issue with F.A.I. endpapers, of Hemingway's narration of the film THE SPANISH EARTH, produced to raise funds for the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War. This book was produced in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, while Hemingway was working as a correspondent in the war zone - experience that would become formative for one of his most acclaimed novels, FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, set during the same conflict. When Hemingway was sent one of his early copies, he immediately wrote the publisher asking that the endpapers, depicting the banner of the Federacion Anarquista Iberica, be changed: "Hemingway informed [the publisher] of the peril that the association of the F.A.I. banner and his name potentially place him so long as he worked in Spain" (Grissom 204). The second issue copies have plain endpapers, with Hemingway's objection to the FAI endpapers noted at the rear. Only 50 to 100 copies have the F.A.I. endpapers, making this edition - the sole edition published - rarely seen in the first issue, let alone in the original glassine. An elusive Hemingway collectible and a compelling artifact reflecting the contemporary American perception of the Spanish Civil War. 7.5'' x 5.25''. Original tan pictorial cloth stamped in orange with black lettering. In original glassine. Orange pictorial "F.A.I." endpapers. 60 pages. Housed in custom quarter blue goatskin clamshell box. Book beautiful. Glassine very good plus, with moderate wear to edges and a bit of shallow loss at bottom edge, overall remarkably intact.