FLAPPERS AND PHILOSOPHERS.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott:
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920. Green cloth, lettered in gilt and blind. Expert restorations to head and toe of spine and joints. A good, sound copy, enclosed in a folding half morocco slipcase. First edition of Fitzgerald's first collection of short stories. The first impression consisted of five thousand copies. Inscribed by Fitzgerald at the top of the front free endsheet: "For Harold Ober who chaperoned these debutantes [/] with best wishes [/] F. Scott Fitzgerald." There are some pencil annotations in the table of contents, noting studio names and dollar figures, presumably corresponding to sale of film rights. Harold Ober, then with the Paul Reynolds Agency, took on F. Scott Fitzgerald as a client in November 1919. Scribner's had accepted THIS SIDE OF PARADISE, published in March of 1920, and Ober rapidly placed several of these stories with SMART SET, SATURDAY EVENING POST, etc. Ober remained Fitzgerald's agent through both the high times and the lean times, and was the dedicatee of Fitzgerald's last collection of short stories, TAPS AT REVEILLE (1935). As Fitzgerald's work became harder to place, Ober advanced him funds in the form of interest- free loans, a debt Fitzgerald finally paid off during his tenure at M-G-M. Their correspondence was published in 1971. An excellent association copy. BRUCCOLI A6.I.a.
(Item ID: WRCLIT51589) $55,000.00
Inscribed to His Agent "...who chaperoned these debutantes..."