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Hemingway on His Mother, Africa, His Hunting Boots, Collecting His Autograph, and His Father's Suicide All in One TLS!
Hemingway on His Mother, Africa, His Hunting Boots, Collecting His Autograph, and His Father's Suicide All in One TLS!
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Description:

Hemingway Ernest

 

Hemingway on His Mother, Africa, His Hunting Boots, Collecting His Autograph, and His Father's Suicide All in One TLS!

 

A remarkable signed typed letter with autograph annotations by Ernest Hemingway. On letterhead of "Finca Vigia San Francisco De Paula Cuba", (Finca Vigia was the home of Ernest Hemingway in San Francisco de Paula Ward in Havana, Cuba), 8.25" x 10.5". Dated "May 28, 1955", and signed by Ernest Hemingway with a large signature "Ernest Hemingway". Includes numerous handwritten additions by Hemingway in which he notates the insertion points via long lines. Letterhead faded with faint toning to the paper. Expected creasing, else near fine. Both the autographed comments and Hemingway's signature are with strong contrasting ink. Double matted with a black and white print of Hemingway to a completed size of 18" x 15".

 

A remarkable letter with meandering and revealing content, providing an important inside look at this great author. Written merely a year after Hemingway received the Nobel Prize in Literature, the letter begins with Hemingway lamenting about the lack of interest in something near and dear to him, his hunting boots, which he proudly offered to place in an auction. Aside from no one having an interest to bid on them, which bothered him a great deal, he goes into much depth about the pains and cost he put in to have them included in the auction, and his disappointment shows in the letter. He reflects on kids today, and his life in Africa, chagrined that he may not be returning there because of the deterioration of his health. All is shown in his letter when he comments that minimally "I can get those shoes rebuilt again and give them to some kid I know that hunts and they would mean a lot to him. They still have such kids in Europe and Africa although I guess not anymore in the states (to which he then hand writes the important point) I'd like to have the boots go back to Africa whether I can or not."

 

(Hemingway went on safari to Africa shortly after the publication of The Old Man and the Sea (1952), where he was involved in two successive near-fatal plane crashes that left him in pain and ill-health for much of the rest of his life.)

 

Perhaps the most chilling reflections in his letter are those in which Hemingway mentions burying his father, a suicide, and thus foreshadowing his own destiny merely 6 years later. This paragraph also shows his personal concern for his home town and their perceptions of him. "Don't really know what Oak Park should be getting around to forgive me about. I never owned any money there; never wrote anything bad about the town; came back and buried my father when he shot himself and supported my mother until she died". Thus another incredible revealing statement regarding Hemingway's mother - as his relationship with her was one stemming from that of duty rather than affection or love. Hemingway's parents' relationship reverberated and haunted him throughout his writings.

 

Clarence's suicide would haunt Hemingway for the rest of his life. While the family stuck to the story that health and financial issues were behind his death, the unspoken worry was that insanity was responsible. Hemingway refused to discuss the possibility, although soon after publicly admitted “I'll probably go the same way.” Instead, he chose to blame others: first his uncle, for giving his father bad investment advice and refusing to help with a loan; then his mother, Grace, in a hatred that would grow more virulent.

 

"I hated my mother as soon as I knew the score and loved my father until he embarrassed me with his cowardice,” he wrote in 1948. “My mother is an all time all american bitch and she would make a pack mule shoot himself; let alone poor bloody father.”

 

Over time, he would reinforce that view of his parents with a stunning callousness. He told Ezra Pound that he would have paid his father if he had postponed his suicide until after “Arms” was finished. “The suicide of my father,” he once said, “is the best story I never wrote.” And in The Green Hills of Africa, he wrote and later removed before publication: “My father was a coward. He shot himself without necessity.”

 

This desire to cast his father as a coward, and to contrast his behavior with his own “grace under pressure,” became a dominant theme in Hemingway's writing. He portrayed what he saw as his father's weak character in “The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife” and “Fathers and Sons.” In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway writes about the protagonist, Robert Jordan: “He was just a coward and that was the worst luck any man could have. Because if he wasn't a coward he would have stood up to that woman and not let her bully him..." He understood his father and he forgave him everything and he pitied him but he was ashamed of him.

 

Hemingway's meandering letter concludes with references to his massive collection of first printings (which were later confiscated by Cuba during the revolution, along with his property), and a belief that one day autograph letters by important authors (and others), have the potential to become highly valuable. A perfect conclusion to the letter! Once again Hemingway shows that he was before his time; if only he knew what his personal possessions and letters would bring at auction today, he would feel vindicated. Hemingway signed typed letters with lesser relevant content have more recently sold at auction in excess of $15,000. He is no doubt smiling from the beyond.

 

The letter is shown in full below:

"Thank you very much for your letter. Am glad to hear how those auctions turn out so I will not get sucked in on one again. It would have been much less bother and expensive for me (I had to send the package by air-express and send a car and chauffer twenty four to get it off) if they had written me and asked me to contribute to The Art Institute. At least that contribution would be tax deductible.

Am enclosing a check for $10. and would be very grateful if you would send the books back to me. You can send them by ordinary parcel post and please mark them Used Shoes - Non-Dutiable.

This may seem like a stupid request but that particular pair of boots mean a great deal to me and I only sent them because a good friend of mine had asked for something for the sale and I though the Art Institute, to which I owe a great deal, (used to go there everytime I went to town if I could make it and can still remember all the good pictures) might make some money by them. You keep the letter that went with them and this letter I promise that you will have made a profitable transaction.

The letter was typed by my wife from information I furnished to her and one word was corrected and it was signed by me.

I can get those shoes rebuilt again and give them to some kid I know that hunts and they would mean a lot to him and I would feel Ok about them. They still have such kids in Europe and in Africa although I guess not any more in the states. I'd like to have the boots go back to africa whether I can or not.

Don't really know what Oak Park should be getting around to forgive me about. I never owed any money there; never wrote anything bad about the town; came back and buried my father when he shot himself & supported my mother until she died; had her buried in Forest Home cemetery.

What I meant about not losing money on the transaction is that people buy letters by certain writers etc. Don't know who does it in Chicago but I have a good friend Lee Samuels of 155 John Street New York who collects 1st Editions of my books as a hobby who could probably tell you who buys letters of mine if you wrote him. He has a tobacco business down here and if it is too much trouble for you to write him I could ask him when I see him in a couple of weeks. I don't know how much they pay for letters but I think you could probably double the six bucks you invested in the boots.

With all good wishes,

Ernest Hemingway".

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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