TLS signed “Yours, Ernest,” one onionskin page both sides, 8.5 x 11, Finca Vigia letterhead, no date but postmarked May 21, 1953. Letter to Charles Poore, a New York Times literary critic who wrote extensively on Hemingway and his work. In full:
“Glad the book is to the printer. That is the happiest situation I know.
May and I were down the coast anchored off Megano de Casigua, which is almost a full atoll well out into the edge of the stream, when we caught the prize news on the evening newscast. Miss Mary made martinis for both of us and we opened up some special cheese for supper to celebrate. There was a big squall and everybody had been wet through and we were both happy. Miss Mary said I was her Pulitzer Prize winning husband and had they given it to me for being a good boy for nearly three years or what? I told her I had never understood the Pulitzer prize very well but that I had beaten Tony Pulitzer shooting and maybe it was for that.
Then the next morning and in the evening they still had it on the radio at news time and I was pretty sure there would shortly be an announcement from SHAEF that it had been cancelled because I was a civilian or never went to college or something.
When we got home there was the check and I endorsed it to Mr. Bumby and sent it to Ft. Bragg. I think that is sounder procedure than sending it back like Mr. Lewis did. It is the same as five months jump pay and I thought the check looked nice endorsed to Capt. John H. Hemingway 0-1798575 who helped me write The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell To Arms and rendered a signal service to literature by pulling Mr. Scott Fitzgerald out of the fireplace where he had gone to sleep when we lived at 115 Rue Notre Dame des Champs. Mr. Bumby is very good at many things but he cannot write worth a damn and so I thought it in the finest traditions of the service that he should receive the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. [In pencil, Hemingway adds, ‘I didn’t mention any of this in the endorsement, am still practicing toujours le fucking politesse.’]
We fish three more marlin tournaments and then get away for Europe and Africa. I’ve done three years hard here on the island and am three books ahead of the batter so it is okay to take a break.
Spike should be fine in the Navy. Am one of the few characters that worked in bad times without pay for both establishments and I liked the Navy very much. That was why did not like Harry Butcher. Seeing that son of a bitch with four stripes on always had the same effect as seeing Coolidge wearing a war-bonnet. Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if they would have stripped Calvin and put war paint on him as well as the bonnet and put him bare-back naked on a war pony.
Had a letter from J. Donald Adams, the old Westerner, saying why did I have to go to Africa and why don’t I ‘come home.’ It was a nice letter. But one reason I don’t go out west now is because they closed gambling everywhere except Nevada, they have laws you can’t bring your dog into a restaurant and some places now you can’t bring your dog into a saloon by state laws and my dog doesn’t understand it and thinks it is discrimination. The last time I came through Texas driving with Miss Mary and Blackie she was packing in the Tourist Cottage and I had gone to check the car and get some breakfast with Blackie. He is a well behaved dog and always split breakfast with him. The character who ran the place said, ‘You gotta get that dog outa here.’ I said, ‘All right you take that plate of ham and eggs and stick it up your ass.’ [In pencil, Hemingway adds, ‘Toujours le fucking politesse.’]
Another thing is you can’t kill eagles anymore on your bear baits in the fall and take the tails down to the reservation and trade them for a ponies or for a young squaw. I don’t know if Benny DeVoto, the summer westerner, or Mr. Adams went in for this. Am pretty sure Mr. VanWyck Brooks would disapprove.
Now too if you pack into some country to get some meat in the fall there are six or eight other outfits in there and they shoot at anything that moves. If they shoot at me I shoot right back and sooner or later you will kill somebody doing that and get in trouble.
Anyway home is in your heart. Places always get over-run. One thing I want to see about Africa is how it has changed. The Mau-Mau business doesn’t seem the thing to get into the high jerk-off knotch about. There have been 16 whites, I believe, killed out of a population of 28,000. That runs about 8 deads to a Division. Of course maybe they haven’t had the Custer fight yet. But I’ve seen much worse places to defend than The New Stanley or the Muthaiga Club. Cut away the ornamental underbrush and have a good field of fire and I believe you could hold out at least until the Gin and Tonic ran out. I wrote Joe Collins. Don’t understand the new set-up too well. It would be an awful shame to lose him and Bradley both. I hear from Buck Lanham but he is very busy with the 1st Division and he always over-works. He has promised me a job if we ever have to fight. I think things are much better and we will probably never have to fight unless somebody blows up the battleship Maine.
Best luck Charlie. I hope we have good luck with the book. But if we don’t we will five them some reading for their money. I want to write three good stories on this trip. One trouble I have is that the best stories I know to write I can’t publish until Tubby Barton is dead and it would be very like him to outlive me.” In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope.
The book Hemingway references at the beginning of this letter must be The Hemingway Reader, a collection of stories and excerpts compiled by Poore and first published in 1953. The 1953 Pulitzer Prize winners had been announced just three weeks earlier, with Hemingway being awarded the Prize for Fiction in recognition of The Old Man and the Sea. In the next paragraph he references two icons of American literature—Sinclair Lewis, who refused his Pulitzer in 1926; and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who had a habit of drunkenly visiting Hemingway unannounced when they were living in Paris in the mid-1920s. Hemingway was about to embark on his second trip to Africa, thus his discussion of the Mau Mau Uprising which made Kenya a dangerous destination for whites. He also mentions Buck Lanham, one of Hemingway’s best friends from his time as a war correspondent, whoserved as the inspiration for Colonel Cantwell in Across the River and into the Trees. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
This item is Pre-Certified by PSA/DNA
Buy a third-party letter of authenticity for
$100.00
*This item has been pre-certified by a trusted third-party authentication service, and by placing a bid on this item, you agree to accept the opinion of this authentication service. If you wish to have an opinion rendered by a different authenticator of your choosing, you must do so prior to your placing of any bid. RR Auction is not responsible for differing opinions submitted 30 days after the date of the sale.
