Book of the Day: The Great Gatsby- 1st ed., 2nd printing.

For Fitzgerald's birthday, Henry Bemis Books is offering a first edition, hardcover copy of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic, The Great Gatsby. Our Gatsby lacks the dust jacket (if it had that, I’d be on a beach in Honduras already), and has a couple of condition issues: some loose pages and a cellophane tape repair to the title page. The front and back insides of the dust jacket are pasted inside the boards. The gold lettering on the outer boards is still good. Only 23,000 copies made up the first edition; when Fitzgerald died in 1940, there were unsold copies in the Scribner warehouses. 90 years on, only a tiny number survive, in any condition.

HBB price: $250.