Hemingway, Ernest (1925) ‘In Our Time’, US signed and inscribed family association first edition

Ernest Hemingway (1925) ‘In Our Time‘, US first edition, first printing, published by Boni and Liveright. Signed and inscribed on the ffep to Hemingway’s cousin and friend Ruth Lowry: “From her official (KC Star) cousin, Ernest Hemingway.” Housed in a full leather solander case for protection. Provenance: from the library of Hemingway’s cousin Ruth White Lowry (1884-1974) by descent. The book has been in the collection of this branch of the Hemingway family since her passing. Ruth Lowry lived in Mission Hills, Kansas. Hemingway’s second wife, Pauline, and he had decided to travel to Kansas City for the birth of their son, Patrick, and stayed at Lowry’s house. They had an intimate relationship with many mutual visits and joint holidays. Condition: very good without the original dust jacket. Light shelf wear and rubbing as shown. Internally clean. At just 18 years old, Hemingway worked briefly as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star from 1917 to 1918, covering crime, medical emergencies, and obituaries. During this time, he began to develop the concise, impactful writing style that would become his literary hallmark. He later credited the Star’s style emphasizing brevity and clarit—as “the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing.” In Our Time features two Kansas City-based vignettes, and the story “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen” is set in a Kansas City hospital. Landmark short stories included in this collection which are studied in school and universities for English degrees are Indian Camp; Big Two-Hearted River; and The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife. The short story collection is considered a masterpiece and instrumental in Hemingway’s iceberg theory. This American first edition had a low print run of just 1,335 copies. The 16 short stories featured in the First American edition are interspersed with 16 inter-chapters or vignettes from the 1924 limited edition published in Paris. Heminway won the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea as well as the Nobel Prize in Literature for his entire oevre.