A rare edition of Ernest Hemingway’s first book, Three Stories & Ten Poems [Paris]: Contact Publishing Co., 1923, one of just 300 copies printed brought $68,500 on Feb. 8 to lead Heritage Auctions’ $736,000+ Rare Books Signature(r) Auction, which took place at the company’s Beverly Hills salerooms. All prices include 25% Buyer’s Premium.

The edition contains a warm inscription from Hemingway to two of the editors of The Little Review, the important ‘little magazine’ that published works by avant garde writers of the time such as James Joyce and T. S. Eliot. The inscription reads: “For j.h. [Jane Heap] and Margaret Anderson with love from Hemingway.”

Complementing the rare edition of Hemingway’s first book was another important early edition from Hemingway, which, while not as rare or valuable as the top lot in the auction, showed surprising strength: a First Edition, First Printing in the scarce First Issue dust jacket of his Men Without Women, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1927 more than doubled pre-auction estimates to finish at $5,313.

“There was great enthusiasm across the board in this auction,” said James Gannon, Director of Rare Books at Heritage Auctions, “especially for classic American literature, with Hemingway asserting his authority as the perennial favorite.”