May 16th Rare Autograph Auction
Signed book: This Side of Paradise. Later printing. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920. Hardcover, 5.25 x 7.75, 305 pages. Signed and inscribed on the first free end page in bold fountain pen, “To Spencer Jones ’14, from F. Scott Fitzgerald ’17.” Autographic condition: fine. Book condition: VG-/None. Though Fitzgerald did not complete his studies and graduate with the class of 1917, his years at Princeton permanently shaped his life and career. It was in this world of privilege that he devoted himself to finding his voice as a writer, and there that he met the people who would later reappear as characters in his novels—most notably Ginevra King, the muse behind many of his female characters, including Daisy Buchanan. In 1919, Fitzgerald completed and successfully pitched This Side of Paradise to Scribners; integrating 80 pages of an unpublished novel he had written while at Princeton, and telling the tale of an attractive Princeton student—certainly based on himself—the novel is inseparable from his university years. Inscribed to a fellow Princeton classmate, this is a fantastic association piece.
F. Scott Fitzgerald Signed This Side of Paradise
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