ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES

First edition, advance issue. Dark blue cloth with gilt stamping, one of 25 copies bound for presentation. Signed and inscribed by Hemingway three weeks prior to publication: "For Ben Meyer / from his friend / Ernest Hemingway. / Havana 21/8/50". With original letter and envelope, from Mary Hemingway to Ben Meyer, on Finca Vigia San Francisco de Paula Cuba stationery. Book is lightly bumped to lower corners, else an extremely bright and fine copy. Housed in a custom folding leather and cloth case lettered and ruled in gilt.

Ben Meyer was a journalist who traveled to Cuba to interview Hemingway about his latest novel, Across the River and Into the Trees. In the article, Meyer quotes Hemingway as being very pleased with his new work, and describes Hemingway’s house (Finca Vigia, Lookout Farm) and his daily activities. Published first in the Kansas City Star on 10 September, 1950, Meyer’s article celebrates the publication of Across the River, a book Hemingway himself stated "is about love and death, happiness and sorrow and the town of Venice. I really fired all the barrels on this one." Meyer stayed in contact with the Hemingways, as evidenced in the letter to him from Mary Hemingway, dated 1958, thanking him for photos he sent to her of her hometown, Bemidji, MN. Conversations with Ernest Hemingway, Bruccoli, 1986.

Originally published serially in Cosmopolitan from February - June 1950, Across the River and Into the Trees tells the story of American Colonel Richard Cantwell during the last day of his life as he recalls his experiences in war and love as a younger man in Venice. Hemingway took the title of this novel from the last words of General Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson, quoted on page 307: "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees." Like much of his writing, this novel is highly autobiographical. Also in typical Hemingway fashion, Across the River utilizes the Iceberg Theory, in which the true essence of the story is not expressly said in the plot but rather is meant to be inferred.