Lot 840
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
(1899 - 1961) American writer, a Nobel prize winner and author of For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms, The Old Man and the Sea, and other classic novels. Superb content, very late manuscript L.S. "Ernest", 6pp. 4to., "Finca Vigia", San Francisco de Paula, Cuba, Sept. 5, 1960 to his friend Bill Davis, whom Hemingway affectionately addresses as "Negro". The letter is penned in the hand of Valerie Danby-Smith, a journalist Hemingway had met at Pamplona, as Hemingway was having difficulties with his eyesight. Much excellent content concerning his writing a three-part bullfighting article under deadline for Life magazine. The manuscript would ultimately be published posthumously in what many consider his last novel, The Dangerous Summer. In part: "...Thank you very much for doing such a wonderful job with the two Krauts. Annamarie's letter finally came through and you were right that she does not know when she is well off. I cannot give her exact publication dates nor give her 'some clarity as to her working program for the next few years' having just this morning...gone over 92,000 words on something that I hoped would not exceed 18,000 when I started with it. Still at least 15 days of steady work to go. I had to postpone the Paris Book from this fall. But you have to do one damned thing at a time...It was impossible for me to contract with Rowhowlt to write the book since over 60,000 words of it was written before he made the offer. It would be nice to have that money tax free...if Rowhowlt published it before Scribners did I could lose the American copyright...I would prefer not to have him advance me any money on anything where there are possible angles...For years I have never taken advances ever from people that I trusted. Then I took this advance from Life & it has been nothing but a headache...I could have stopped the work at a certain date...rewrite on the Paris book, had it in shape for Scribners & then returned to the bullfight thing & finished it off. But my head was forced by having to produce that cash to pay out Rice's mistake...I hate to ask you to do anything else ...[but] can you get me an account of the Cuenca fight. All I remember is the terrible state of the piso and how dangerous it was and that Pepe Casares would not deal with his bulls and that Chicuelo II & Antonio could, due to greater experience...preoccupation with the dangerous ring drives the rest of it out of my head. I also need accounts in the local papers of the fights in Muncia ...I might be wrong in remembering whether Antonio did the truco of kneeling in front of the bull & throwing away the minleta & the sword in the first or the second fight...do you remember too what was done exactly about the picadorsat Cuenca, Villara...& Ronda? Juanito Quintana has looked up several of the fights...Have handled the picador business OK so far & have only one more fight to write, the Ronda one. It is a hell of a difficult book to write, Negro, because of the because of the way it ended & the moral angle & what transcends it is the only frame it goes on...I still have to keep on writing...Val has caught 2 good white marlin & is handling rod very well. Sorry this letter is all business & begging...". Hemingway finally submitted a 75,000 word manuscript to the magazine, from which a 30,000 word extract was published in three installments, the first of which was published the same day this letter was written. The Dangerous Summer would be published posthumously by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1985. Very slight show through from a brief note on the verso of one page, else very good to fine condition.
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