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Old Man and the Sea
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Old Man and the Sea Paperback - 1995

by Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway's triumphant yet tragic story of an old Cuban fisherman and his relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream combines the simplicity of a fable, the significance of a parable, and the drama of an epic.


About this book

This novella, only 140 pages, was first printed in its entirety in Life Magazine on September 1, 1952. It inspired a buying frenzy - selling over five million copies of the magazine in just two days!

The story about an aging Cuban fisherman wrangling a large marlin in the gulf stream was written in 1951 in Cuba and published in 1952. In 1953, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and led to Hemingway's nomination for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

Man's struggle against nature is the resounding theme throughout the book as Hemingway portrays Santiago's travails as an experienced fisherman facing a dry-spell of 85 days before finally wrangling a prized marlin. Hemingway also highlights the indomitable spirit of man while illustrating his ideal of manliness and character in the strong and determined fisherman facing danger and discomfort without complaint and with resolution, both in the days it takes Santiago to kill the marlin, and as he fights off the sharks that end up destroying his prized catch before he reaches the coast. Some say that Hemingway's tale is a reflection of his own determination to prove his writing career was not over, and the portrayal of the sharks may echo the critics who had been claiming for the ten years that his writing career, after the successful release of For Whom the Bell Tolls in 1940, was over.

The book is dedicated "To Charlie Scribner And To Max Perkins," friends of Hemingway's that had passed away before the book came out. Max Perkins, who also edited F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe, died in 1947 and Scribner, who was president of the publisher Charles Scribner's Sons, died in 1952.

Summary

The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingways most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeala relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.

From the publisher

*Winner of the Pulitzer Prize*
"A beautiful tale, awash in the seasalt and sweat, bait and beer of the Havana coast. It tells a fundamental human truth: in a volatile world, from our first breath to our last wish, through triumphs and pitfalls both trivial and profound, what sustains us, ultimately, is hope." --The Guardian The last of his novels Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the most enduring works of American fiction. The story of a down-on-his-luck Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal--a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream--has been cherished by generations of readers. Hemingway takes the timeless themes of courage in the face of adversity and personal triumph won from loss and transforms them into a magnificent twentieth-century classic. First published in 1952, this hugely popular tale confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.

First Edition Identification

First edition print run was 50,000 copies by Charles Scribner's Sons; New York. First edition points include the Scribner "A" and colophon on the copyright page, the publisher's pale blue cloth with Hemingway's autograph stamped in blind on the upper cover & the spine lettered in silver. There should be no mention of the Pulitzer or Nobel Prize or an ISBN number. On the inside flap of the blue-tinted dust jacket, the original price of $3.00 should be listed. There are two variations of the first edition dust jacket. One has a blue-tinted photo of Hemingway and the other has an olive-tinted photo; one is not thought to be better or more valuable than the other.

The last work published by Hemingway during his lifetime, signed first editions of The Old Man and the Sea can sell for upwards of $15,000 - $17,000.

Details

  • Title Old Man and the Sea
  • Author Ernest Hemingway
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition [ Edition: Repri
  • Pages 128
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Scribner Book Company, Old Tappan, New Jersey, U.S.A.
  • Date 1995-05-05
  • ISBN 9780684801223 / 0684801221
  • Weight 0.2 lbs (0.09 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.4 in (19.81 x 13.21 x 1.02 cm)
  • Reading level 940
  • Themes
    • Catalog Heading: Classics
    • Cultural Region: Caribbean
    • Curriculum Strand: Language Arts/Literature
    • Topical: Home School
  • Library of Congress subjects Male friendship, Bildungsromans
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 95148450
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Excerpt

<P><Font size="+1"><B>from <I>The Old Man and the Sea</I></B></Font>
<P>
He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally <I>salao,</I> which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail that was furled around the mast. The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.
<P>
The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.
<P>
Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.
<P>
"Santiago," the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from where the skiff was hauled up. "I could go with you again. We've made some money."
<P>
The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.
<P>
"No," the old man said. "You're with a lucky boat. Stay with them."
<P>
"But remember how you went eighty-seven days without fish and then we caught big ones every day for three weeks."
<P>
"I remember," the old man said. "I know you did not leave me because you doubted."
<P>
"It was papa made me leave. I am a boy and I must obey him."
<P>
"I know," the old man said. "It is quite normal."
<P>
"He hasn't much faith."
<P>
"No," the old man said. "But we have. Haven't we?"
<P>
"Yes," the boy said. "Can I offer you a beer on the Terrace and then we'll take the stuff home."
<P>
"Why not?" the old man said. "Between fishermen."
<P>
They sat on the Terrace and many of the fishermen made fun of the old man and he was not angry. Others, of the older fishermen, looked at him and were sad. But they did not show it and they spoke politely about the current and the depths they had drifted their lines at and the steady good weather and of what they had seen. The successful fishermen of that day were already in and had butchered their marlin out and carried them laid full length across two planks, with two men staggering at the end of each plank, to the fish house where they waited for the ice truck to carry them to the market in Havana. Those who had caught sharks had taken them to the shark factory on the other side of the cove where they were hoisted on a block and tackle, their livers removed, their fins cut off and their hides skinned out and their flesh cut into strips for salting.
<P>
When the wind was in the east a smell came across the harbour from the shark factory; but today there was only the faint edge of the odour because the wind had backed into the north and then dropped off and it was pleasant and sunny on the Terrace.
<P>
"Santiago," the boy said.
<P>
"Yes," the old man said. He was holding his glass and thinking of many years ago.
<P>
"Can I go out to get sardines for you for tomorrow?"
<P>
"No. Go and play baseball. I can still row and Rogelio will throw the net."
<P>
"I would like to go. If I cannot fish with you, I would like to serve in some way."
<P>
"You bought me a beer," the old man said. "You are already a man."
<P>
"How old was I when you first took me in a boat?"
<P>
"Five and you nearly were killed when I brought the fish in too green and he nearly tore the boat to pieces. Can you remember?"
<P>
"I can remember the tail slapping and banging and the thwart breaking and the noise of the clubbing. I can remember you throwing me into the bow where the wet coiled lines were and feeling the whole boat shiver and the noise of you clubbing him like chopping a tree down and the sweet blood smell all over me."
<P>
"Can you really remember that or did I just tell it to you?"
<P>
"I remember everything from when we first went together."
<P>
The old man looked at him with his sun-burned, confident loving eyes.
<P>
"If you were my boy I'd take you out and gamble," he said. "But you are your father's and your mother's and you are in a lucky boat."
<P>
"May I get the sardines? I know where I can get four baits too."
<P>
"I have mine left from today. I put them in salt in the box."
<P>
"Let me get four fresh ones."
<P>
"One," the old man said. His hope and his confidence had never gone. But now they were freshening as when the breeze rises.
<P>
"Two," the boy said.
<P>
"Two," the old man agreed. "You didn't steal them?"
<P>
"I would," the boy said. "But I bought these."
<P>
"Thank you," the old man said. He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride.
<P>
"Tomorrow is going to be a good day with this current," he said.
<P>
"Where are you going?" the boy asked.
<P>
"Far out to come in when the wind shifts. I want to be out before it is light."
<P>
"I'll try to get him to work far out," the boy said. "Then if you hook something truly big we can come to your aid."
<P>
"He does not like to work too far out."
<P>
"No," the boy said. "But I will see something that he cannot see such as a bird working and get him to come out after dolphin."
<P>
"Are his eyes that bad?"
<P>
"He is almost blind."
<P>
"It is strange," the old man said. "He never went turtle-ing. That is what kills the eyes."
<P>
"But you went turtle-ing for years off the Mosquito Coast and your eyes are good."
<P>
"I am a strange old man."
<P>
"But are you strong enough now for a truly big fish?"
<P>
"I think so. And there are many tricks."
<P>
<FONT SIZE="-1">Copyright &copy; 1952 by Ernest Hemingway<BR>
Copyright renewed &copy; 1980 by Mary Hemingway</FONT>

Media reviews

Citations

  • Library Journal, 05/01/1995, Page 138
  • Newsweek, 12/03/2007, Page 20
  • People Weekly, 04/21/2014, Page 56

About the author

Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer of his time. Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the twentieth century. His classic novel The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. His life and accomplishments are explored in-depth in the PBS documentary film from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, Hemingway. Known for his larger-than-life personality and his passions for bullfighting, fishing, and big-game hunting, he died in Ketchum, Idaho on July 2, 1961.
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