Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, first edition

"He did not remember when he had first started to talk aloud when he was by himself.  He had sung when he was by himself in the old days and he had sung at night sometimes when he was alone steering on his watch in the smacks or in the turtle boats.  He had probably started to talk aloud, when alone, when the boy had left.  But he did not remember.  When he and the boy fished together they usually spoke only when it was necessary.  They talked at night or when they were storm-bound by bad weather.  It was considered a virtue not to talk unnecessarily at sea and the old man had always considered it so and respected it."

HEMINGWAY, Ernest.  New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952.  Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket.  $2400.

First edition. Book fine, bright dust jacket with only minute edge-wear and light crimping at base of spine. A very well-preserved copy of a truly classic American novel, rare in this condition.