The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway (1953), Illustrated by C.F. Tunnicliffe and Raymond Sheppard
This distinguished edition of Hemingway’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novella pairs his spare, powerful prose with the complementary artistic visions of two masters of mid-century illustration. Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe’s meticulously observed marine drawings—rendered with scientific precision honed through years of wildlife studies—bring the Gulf Stream’s ecosystem to life, from the leaping marlin to the scavenging sharks. Raymond Sheppard’s emotive charcoal sketches of Santiago, the aging Cuban fisherman at the story’s heart, capture the character’s quiet dignity and exhaustion in a style reminiscent of Rockwell Kent’s maritime works.
Published in 1953 by The Reprint Society (UK) shortly after the novella’s initial 1952 release, this volume represents a unique collaboration between two British artists interpreting an American classic. Tunnicliffe’s plates emphasize the natural world’s beauty and brutality, while Sheppard’s portraits highlight the human dimension of Hemingway’s existential parable. The illustrations alternate between full-page plates and vignettes, their black-and-white austerity mirroring the text’s unadorned profundity.
Collectors note this edition’s historical significance as Hemingway’s last major work published in his lifetime, earning him both the Pulitzer (1953) and Nobel Prize (1954). While first trade editions lack these illustrations, this 1953 printing has become sought-after for its artistic synthesis. Tunnicliffe’s original drawings for the volume are held by the Anglesey Archives (Wales), demonstrating his fieldwork-based process.
For enthusiasts of literary illustration, this edition sits alongside such notable pairings as Lynd Ward’s Frankenstein or Fritz Eichenberg’s Wuthering Heights. Those drawn to its maritime themes may appreciate Rockwell Kent’s Moby-Dick illustrations or William Edward Norton’s seascapes that influenced Hemingway’s visual imagination during the book’s gestation in Cuba.
