A Farewell to Arms was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, on 27 September 1929 in a first printing of approximately 31,050 copies priced at $2.50. It was Hemingway’s second novel and his first sustained work of autobiographical fiction, drawing directly on his experience as a Red Cross ambulance driver on the Italian front in 1918 and his love affair with Agnes von Kurowsky, the American nurse who tended him after he was wounded at Fossalta di Piave. The novel was serialised in Scribner’s Magazine from May to October 1929 before book publication.
The Novel
The novel is narrated by Frederic Henry, an American lieutenant serving with an Italian ambulance unit during the First World War. During a retreat, Henry is wounded by a mortar shell and sent to a hospital in Milan, where he falls in love with Catherine Barkley, an English nurse. Their affair — tender, desperate, shadowed by the war’s violence and the knowledge that nothing lasts — becomes the emotional centre of a novel that is also a devastating account of military catastrophe: the Italian retreat from Caporetto in 1917, one of the great set pieces in war literature.
Henry deserts the army during the Caporetto retreat after the Italian battle police begin executing officers who have become separated from their units. He and Catherine flee to Switzerland, where she becomes pregnant. The novel’s final pages — Catherine’s death in childbirth, Henry’s walk back to the hotel in the rain — are among the most devastating in American fiction. Hemingway famously rewrote the ending thirty-nine times (the manuscripts are held at the Kennedy Library), struggling to find the right note of finality. The published ending achieves its power through radical compression: “After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.”
Themes and Style
A Farewell to Arms perfected the method Hemingway had introduced in The Sun Also Rises: a first-person narrative in which the most powerful emotions are conveyed through what is not said, through the rhythms of plain declarative sentences, and through the precise notation of physical experience. The “iceberg theory” is fully operational here — the reader senses the enormous weight of feeling beneath the surface of Henry’s flat, reportorial prose.
The novel is simultaneously a love story, a war novel, and a philosophical meditation on the impossibility of happiness in a universe governed by chance. Hemingway’s fatalism — “the world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places” — finds its most sustained expression here. The alternation between the tenderness of the love scenes and the brutality of the war chapters creates a rhythm of hope and devastation that mirrors the novel’s argument: that life offers no permanent refuge, that the “separate peace” Henry seeks with Catherine is an illusion, and that the rain, which falls throughout the novel as a symbol of death, will eventually take everything.
Publication History
First edition, Scribner’s (1929): The first trade edition is identified by:
- The Scribner’s seal on the copyright page
- No disclaimer on the copyright page regarding the serialisation (first state)
- The price of $2.50 on the front flap of the dust jacket
First-state dust jacket: The critical distinction is between the first state of the jacket (without a legal disclaimer about the magazine serialisation) and the second state (with the disclaimer added). The first-state jacket is significantly more valuable. The jacket design features a photograph-style image of a soldier and nurse.
Signed limited edition (1929): Scribner’s issued 510 copies on handmade paper, signed by Hemingway. These were issued in a slipcase and are identified by the limitation statement. Signed limited copies trade between $15,000 and $30,000 depending on condition.
UK first edition: Published by Jonathan Cape, London, in 1929. Fine copies in jacket bring £2,000–£5,000.
Scribner’s Magazine serialisation (May–October 1929): The complete six-issue run in original wrappers is collected at $500–$1,500.
Critical Reception
The novel was a critical and commercial triumph. It topped bestseller lists for months and confirmed Hemingway’s position as the most important young American novelist. Dorothy Parker, writing in The New Yorker, called it “a complete vindication” of Hemingway’s method. Malcolm Cowley praised its “biblical simplicity.” The novel sold over 80,000 copies in its first four months — an extraordinary number for 1929.
The critical reputation has only grown. A Farewell to Arms is now regarded as one of the two or three greatest American war novels, alongside Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage and Heller’s Catch-22. It is taught in virtually every American literature survey course and has been adapted for film twice — in 1932 (with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes) and 1957 (with Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones) — though neither adaptation captured the novel’s spare intensity. The 2012 publication of the manuscript variants, edited by Sean Hemingway, revealed the extraordinary labor behind the seemingly effortless prose and renewed critical interest in the novel.
Collecting A Farewell to Arms
A Farewell to Arms is one of the most actively collected Hemingway titles, combining canonical literary status with a large enough first printing to provide supply for the market.
First edition, first printing (1929, Scribner’s):
- Fine/Fine, first-state jacket (no disclaimer): $25,000–$45,000
- Fine/Fine, second-state jacket: $12,000–$20,000
- Near Fine in jacket: $8,000–$15,000
- Without jacket: $1,000–$3,000
Signed limited edition (1929, 510 copies):
- Fine in slipcase: $20,000–$35,000
- Very Good: $12,000–$18,000
Value trajectory (2016–2026): Approximately 2–2.5× for copies in collector condition with first-state jacket. The signed limited edition has appreciated more modestly (1.8×) because its larger production number provides steadier supply.
Condition notes: The dust jacket is the primary value driver. First-state jackets are distinguished from second-state jackets by the absence of a disclaimer reading “None of the characters in this book is a living person” on the copyright page. Jacket chips and fading are common; truly fine jackets are scarce.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between the first-state and second-state jacket? The first state lacks a legal disclaimer that Scribner’s added to later copies in the same first printing. The first-state jacket is worth roughly twice the second-state.
Is the signed limited edition a good buy? At $20,000–$35,000, the signed limited provides authenticated Hemingway signature and a beautiful physical object. However, the 510-copy run is relatively large for a signed limited, which moderates its appreciation compared to truly rare signed Hemingway items.
How does this compare to The Sun Also Rises as a collectible? The Sun Also Rises has a smaller first printing (5,090 vs. 31,050), greater cultural cachet as the Lost Generation novel, and commands higher prices. A Farewell to Arms offers comparable literary importance at a more accessible price point, making it an excellent choice for serious collectors building a Hemingway collection.