Bank check, 6.25 x 2.75, filled out and signed as “Ernest M. Hemingway,” payable to cash for $30, May 25, 1933. Faint vertical folds (one to last name) and punch cancellations and bank stamps lightly touching signature, otherwise fine condition. The reverse bears two Cuban revenue stamps and the ink-stamped endorsement of Ambos Mundos, the Havana hotel that was the writer’s longtime Cuban residence. Hemingway called the hotel “a good place to write” and produced the opening chapters of For Whom the Bell Tolls there. The check dates from the period when Hemingway and renowned photographer Walker Evans formed a short-lived friendship as both pursued their respective disciplines in Havana. Their curious but influential association was the subject of a 2007 exhibition, Ernest Hemingway and Walker Evans: Three Weeks in Cuba, 1933, at the Key West Museum of Art and History. Auction LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
