In Our Time was published by Boni & Liveright, New York, on 5 October 1925 in a first printing of 1,335 copies priced at $2.00. It was Hemingway’s first book published in the United States, following the Paris-printed in our time (lowercase, Three Mountains Press, 1924, 170 copies) — a slim collection of vignettes that is now one of the rarest books in American literature. The Boni & Liveright edition expanded the earlier work dramatically, interleaving the vignettes (now set as brief inter-chapters in italic type) with a full sequence of short stories that introduced the figure of Nick Adams and announced a prose style unlike anything American readers had encountered.
The Book
The collection contains fifteen stories alternating with brief vignettes (the “inter-chapters”) drawn from the earlier Paris publication. The stories trace the arc of a young American life — from childhood in Michigan (“Indian Camp,” “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife,” “The End of Something”) through war (“Soldier’s Home,” “A Very Short Story”) to the aftermath of trauma (“Big Two-Hearted River,” the collection’s culminating masterpiece). The inter-chapters, most only a paragraph long, provide brutal counterpoint: scenes of war, bullfighting, and execution rendered in flat, declarative prose that makes their violence all the more shocking.
The Nick Adams stories constitute the emotional spine of the collection. Nick is Hemingway’s most autobiographical creation — a boy growing up in northern Michigan who encounters violence, death, and the failures of adult authority before leaving for war in Europe. “Indian Camp,” in which Nick’s doctor father performs a caesarean section with a jackknife while the father of the child kills himself in the bunk above, establishes the collection’s method: violence observed with clinical precision, its emotional impact registered only in what is not said.
“Big Two-Hearted River,” which closes the collection, is Hemingway at his most radical. In two parts totalling roughly thirty pages, Nick returns from the war (never mentioned) and goes fishing alone in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The story consists almost entirely of the precise physical details of making camp, cooking, and fishing. There is no dialogue, no flashback, no explicit mention of trauma. Yet the story communicates, through rhythm, repetition, and the almost pathological intensity of Nick’s attention to each physical task, a profound portrait of a man holding himself together by the thinnest of margins. It is one of the most influential short stories of the twentieth century.
The Paris Predecessor: in our time (1924)
The Three Mountains Press edition of in our time (lowercase) was published in Paris in January 1924 as part of a series edited by Ezra Pound. Only 170 copies were printed on Rives hand-made paper, bound in boards covered with a collage of newspaper clippings. It contains eighteen vignettes — the raw material that would become the inter-chapters of the 1925 edition. This is the true first Hemingway book (his previous publication, Three Stories and Ten Poems, appeared in 1923 in an edition of 300 copies from Contact Publishing Company, Paris).
Copies of the 1924 in our time are among the most valuable books in American literature. Fine copies in the original newspaper-clipping boards have sold for $150,000–$300,000. The book’s rarity, its physical beauty, and its position as the origin point of Hemingway’s style make it the ultimate trophy for collectors of literary modernism.
Publication History and Points of Issue
Boni & Liveright first edition (1925): The first printing of 1,335 copies is identified by:
- The Boni & Liveright colophon on the copyright page
- No statement of subsequent printings
- Price of $2.00 on the front flap of the dust jacket
- The dust jacket is cream-coloured with black and red lettering
The dust jacket is extremely scarce. The thin paper stock was fragile, and many copies were sold without jackets or had their jackets discarded. Fine copies in the jacket are genuinely rare — perhaps fifty to seventy-five survive in collector condition. The jacket design features a woodcut-style illustration and lists Hemingway’s previous Paris publications.
Scribner’s edition (1930): When Hemingway moved to Scribner’s, they acquired the rights and published their own edition with a new introduction by the author. This is collected at modest prices ($200–$500 in jacket).
Critical Reception and Legacy
In Our Time was not a commercial success — the first printing took over a year to sell through — but it attracted intense attention from the literary establishment. Edmund Wilson, writing in The Dial, praised its “artistic seriousness” and called Hemingway “the most promising young writer of his generation.” Ford Madox Ford, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound had already championed the Paris vignettes; the expanded American edition confirmed that Hemingway was not merely talented but transformative.
The collection’s influence is beyond calculation. The Nick Adams stories established the modern American short story as a vehicle for psychological complexity achieved through understatement rather than exposition. “Big Two-Hearted River” alone has generated a shelf of critical commentary and inspired generations of writers from Raymond Carver to Denis Johnson to George Saunders. The inter-chapter technique — fragmented, non-linear, juxtaposing domestic and martial violence — anticipated the formal experiments of postmodern fiction by decades.
Collecting In Our Time
In Our Time occupies a position near the summit of American book collecting. The market distinguishes sharply between the 1924 Paris edition and the 1925 Boni & Liveright edition, and between copies with and without the dust jacket.
Three Mountains Press in our time (1924, Paris). 170 copies. The ultimate Hemingway collectible alongside signed copies of The Sun Also Rises. Copies in any condition command extraordinary prices:
- Fine in original boards: $200,000–$350,000
- Very Good with wear to boards: $100,000–$180,000
- Any copy, any condition: $40,000+
Boni & Liveright first edition (1925, New York). 1,335 copies first printing.
- Fine in dust jacket: $30,000–$80,000
- Near Fine in jacket: $15,000–$35,000
- Fine without jacket: $2,000–$5,000
- Later printings or Scribner’s edition: $100–$500
Value trajectory (2016–2026): The 1924 Paris edition has appreciated roughly 2.5× over the decade. The 1925 Boni & Liveright edition in jacket has seen 2–3× appreciation, driven by the same collector dynamics affecting all blue-chip Hemingway: diminishing supply, institutional acquisition, and generational wealth transfer.
Signed copies of either edition are extremely rare. Hemingway signed copies of the Paris edition for friends and patrons — any such copy, if authenticated, would be museum-quality. Inscribed copies of the Boni & Liveright edition have sold for $50,000–$100,000.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between in our time and In Our Time? The lowercase version (1924, Paris, Three Mountains Press) contains only the vignettes. The uppercase version (1925, New York, Boni & Liveright) interleaves these vignettes with the full Nick Adams stories. They are different books with different publishers, different contents, and very different values.
How do I identify a first printing of the 1925 edition? Look for the Boni & Liveright colophon on the copyright page and the absence of any subsequent printing statement. The dust jacket should price the book at $2.00.
Is the Scribner’s reissue collectible? The 1930 Scribner’s edition, with Hemingway’s new introduction, is collected as a secondary Hemingway item. Fine copies in the jacket bring $200–$500 — a fraction of the Boni & Liveright first but an accessible entry point.