Bank check, 6.25 x 2.75, partly filled out and signed by Hemingway, payable to Sun Valley Lodge for $100, February 13, 1961. The reverse of the check also bears Hemingway’s endorsement signature. The Sun Valley Lodge was a favorite haunt of the writer, who lived in nearby Ketchum. It was at the lodge, in 1939, that Hemingway completed For Whom the Bell Tolls; in order to keep the “creative juices” flowing, a temporary bar and bookshelf were specially installed in his suite. At the time he wrote this check, Hemingway was desperately trying to shake off the depression that hounded him in his final years. In April, he made an unsuccessful suicide attempt and checked himself into the Mayo Clinic in a last-ditch attempt at recovery; less than three months later, on July 2, he finally took his own life with a shotgun. Light vertical folds, small edge tear (repaired on reverse), and punch cancellations touching both signatures, otherwise condition is fine. Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
