A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms — A Book That Carries Its Own History

Sometimes a book is more than a story, it’s an artifact of the time it survived.
This copy of A Farewell to Arms, published by Grosset & Dunlap in 1929, wears its history openly. The the fragile wartime dust jacket tells the story. Inside, a printed notice reminds the reader that this book, produced under wartime conditions, complies with government regulations for the conservation of paper. Even the back cover becomes a small piece of propaganda: “It’s only a piece of paper!” it begins — an earnest plea to save scraps for the war effort, transforming every discarded page into potential lifeblood for a soldier far away.

Holding it now, you feel the paradox — a novel about love and disillusionment in war, printed on paper rationed by another..

There’s something profoundly moving about that. A book that once urged readers to save paper has itself been saved — passed through hands, shelves, and generations. And in doing so, it reminds us that stories, like materials, can endure scarcity, loss, and time.