For Whom the Bell Tolls

$1,250.00

5b Ernest Hemingway. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1940. First Edition, First Printing.

Notes

For Whom the Bell Tolls is a war novel by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1940. Set during the Spanish Civil War, it follows Robert Jordan, an American dynamiter fighting with the anti-fascist Republican side. Tasked with blowing up a bridge to aid a crucial offensive, Robert finds himself embedded with a group of guerrilla fighters in the mountains. Over the course of several tense days, he forms deep bonds with the rebels and falls in love with a young woman named María, all while facing the brutal realities of war, sacrifice, and mortality. The novel explores themes of honor, duty, love, and the personal cost of political conflict. Hemingway’s spare, powerful prose and his focus on psychological depth and moral ambiguity have made this one of his most acclaimed works.

Ernest Hemingway, born in 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, was one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century. Known for his distinctive, economical writing style—often called the “iceberg theory”—Hemingway wrote novels, short stories, and journalism that often centered on war, masculinity, loss, and resilience. He served as a correspondent in several conflicts, including the Spanish Civil War, which deeply informed For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 and remains celebrated for works like The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and The Old Man and the Sea. His life was marked by adventure and tragedy, and his work continues to resonate for its emotional intensity and raw realism.

Description

Tan canvas binding with black facsimile signature of the author on upper board. Red labels with black lettering along the spine. Original pictorial dust jacket with some general chipping along the edges congregating on the upper and lower spine. First edition, first printing with “A” on the copyright page.