A double dose of ‘The Great Gatsby’
Last night, I attended a talk by Dr Sarah Churchwell, author of Careless People. Today, I listened to a talk by Adam Douglas of antiquarian book dealers Peter Harrington on the final day of Masterpiece 2013 about her very subject.
Two stories to keep beside you
Pom Harrington: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
20 questions with Pom Harrington of leading rare book dealers Peter Harrington The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force? Integrity. “Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours? Do judge a book by its cover.
Peter Jukes: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
20 questions with author, screenwriter, playwright and literary critic Peter Jukes The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force? ‘Duende’. Sounds pretentious I know, but it basically means follow things, people, events that have ‘soul’. “Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours? […]
Churchwell enthusiastically told the assembled audience at The English Speaking Union about her research into the background of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Murder, mayhem and mystery were her guiding forces and equally fascinating was Douglas’ brief speech today about a rare first edition of this classic novel.
Priced at £120,000, the copy described was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1925 as part of a print run of some 18,000. Few survive but what makes this copy especially valuable is that it comes complete with the original dust jacket. Few survive as, as Douglas described, most were thrown away at the point of sale. Equally, as the jacket and book were printed separately and were differently sized, there is a degree of chipping to the jacket.
Nonetheless, this represents a remarkable piece of literary history. As Fitzgerald himself said of the cover:
“For Christ’s sake don’t give anyone that jacket you’re saving for me. I’ve written it into the book”.
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