Fitzgerald, F. Scott

Afternoon of an Author: A Selection of Uncollected Stories and Essays

New York, NY, USA: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1957. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. "For a writer whose productive career lasted only twenty years and whose energy was prodigally expended on other things than writing, (F.) Scott Fitzgerald wrote an astonishing amount. Of the more than one hundred and fifty short stories he wrote during those twenty years, only about a quarter were collected during his lifetime; a few new ones were put together between boards when Malcolm Cowley's selection was published by Scribner's seven years ago. Of Fitzgerald's thirty or forty essays, ten were printed in The Crack-Up, edited by Edmund Wilson. Apart from the fact that this state of affairs leaves a considerable part of the important work of a great writer unavailable, there is the further difficulty that it prevents most readers from seeing clearly how Fitzgerald developed as a writer. Now, Arthur Mizener, author of the highly successful biography of Fitzgerald, The Far Side of Paradise, has taken from this body of Fitzgerald's uncollected work a revealing and eminently enjoyable cross-section of Fitzgerald's Art." (from front flap) An early gathering of theretofore uncollected stories & essays by F(rancis) Scott (Key) Fitzgerald (1896-1940), the canonical American author who best-described & criticized the flamboyance & excess of the fabled "Jazz Age" of the "Roaring" 1920s. Selected, with an introduction & notes by Arthur Mizener (1907-1988), the eminent American literary critic & academician who wrote the first biography of Fitzgerald, The Far Side of Paradise (1951, noted above). Hardcover in unclipped likely first-issue dust jacket (with $4.50 price printed at front flap), first edition, first printing with "A.2-58 [MH]" stated at last line of copyright page. An important & path-breaking Fitzgerald collectible in its scarcest contemporary form. Book in relatively quite fine condition with very slight rubbing, fading to light reddish-brown cloth front, back covers & spine (gilt letters & decorations at spine mostly bright & intact); a bit of wear, mild fading & a few tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same; light rubbing, browning to side & lower edges of text block; mild-to-moderate rubbing, fading at upper edge of same. Interior fine with mild browning, spotting to blank pastedowns & endpapers; a hint of browning to page leaves, mostly at blank margins/edges; very occasional spotting at blank areas of a few leaves. Dust jacket (again relatively) good-to-near-fine with mild rubbing, browning, fading & faint scratching to front, back covers, spine & flaps; light-to-significant wear at edges & corners of same incl. tiny bumps, creases & several short, mostly closed tears esp. at covers & spine with minimal loss of paper, surface paper; previous seller's small oblong sticker, somewhat rubbed, browned & spotted, affixed to back cover at lower left corner/edge. Fine / Good-Near Fine. [Item #6493]

Price: $50.00