THE GREAT GATSBY by FITZGERALD, F. Scott - 1925

First edition. Octavo, 218 pages, the Scribner's dark bluish-green linen cloth, two marginal smudges at p.123. This is the John Talbot Copy. It has the first printing, second state of the dust jacket: the original "J" in Jay Gatsby on the rear panel of the dust jacket has been corrected with an upper-case J - with the lower curve of the original 'j' just peeking through. In a custom clamshell protective box. NOTE: The original dust jackets were about 4mm taller than the cloth bindings, making the top edge of the jacket uncommonly susceptible to damage. This jacket has an estimated 98% of its original paper, There are tears and punctures ( Ask to see more of photographs taken by Ted Tamburo Photography), and some discoloration on the inside of the jacket, smudge on the top cover of the book, bright spine gilt. Note: the jacket has been cleaned on both sides, and stabilized with Japanese tissue; and the book hinges repaired by The Chicago Conservation Center.

The first state of the text, including the "sick in tired" reading p. 205 [Bruccoli All.l.a; See also 2012 exhibition at the Library of Congress: "Books That Shaped America"]. "It remains a prose poem of delight and sadness which has by now introduced two generations to the romance of America, as HUCKLEBERRY FINN and LEAVES OF GRASS introduced those before it -Cyril Connolly, THE MODERN MOVEMENT, 48." "But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic -their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground -pp.27-8." "It has almost the status of a holy work, and it's seen as embodying all kinds of things about American values and society." - Prof. James L. West III, editor of the restored edition. Note: Francis[co] Cugat's haunting, best-known painting - which Fitzgerald begged Max Perkins to reserve for this novel - is titled "Celestial Eyes". In a letter to Fitzgerald, Perkins called the jacket art "a masterpiece for this book." 'Fine Books & Collections' called this Gatsby Dust Jacket: "The Most Valuable Piece of Paper in Modern Literature". Decades later, the original gouache painting was rescued from a trash can at Scribner's. It now is protected at Princeton University. Nonetheless, " The real magic lies embedded in his prose. It reveals itself in his amazing range and versatility ... There is a sacramental quality in which Fitzgerald's words transform their external geography as thoroughly as the realm within. The ultimate effect, once the initial reverberations of imagery and language have subsided, transcends the bounds of fiction." - Charles Scribner III. Fitzgerald "was prompted to write this book by surveying the tragic situation of many people because of the utter confusion of ideals into which they have fallen, with the result that they cannot distinguish the good from the bad. The author did not look upon these people with anger or contempt so much as with pity. He saw that good was in them, but that it was altogether distorted. He therefore pictured, in the Great Gatsby, a man who showed extraordinary nobility and many fine qualities, and yet who was following an evil course without being aware of it ... He showed him in the midst of a society such as certainly exists, of a people who were worshiping false gods. He wished to present such a society to the American public so that they would realize what a grotesque situation existed, that a man could be a deliberate law-breaker, who thought that the accumulation of vast wealth by any means at all was an admirable thing, and yet could have many fine qualities of character." - Max Perkins, who edited TGG, in a letter 28 August 1928.