TLS signed “Papa,” two pages, 8.5 x 11, Finca Vigia, San Francisco De Paula, Cuba letterhead, August 8, 1948. Letter to screenwriter Peter Viertel, in part: “You have to get out of the fnucking coast. You said good bye to it in the first book. Think Europe will be good for all of us. For a change anyway. I always get stink homesick for it and the last time was there we had lots of fun…but before that it was rugged and after that it was as bad as first war (not quite as bad but still bad). Am so happy in anticipation of seeing it now civilized and being able to see the pictures again and go into the old joints and have there be something to eat and to drink and find a good café where you don’t know anybody where you can read and write. Charley Sweeny and I always had our own cafes where we did not know anyone but the garcon. Then once a week or so he would meet me at my café and I would meet him at his. Then we would eat at wonderful places where we knew nobody.
I think the main awfullness of NY which I dislike same as you the coast is the corruption of going places where everybody knows everybody. That is fine in Ketchum. But with a whole big city to be able to pick your spots in is different. We used to go to places where knew people when were lonesome. But a good man shouldn’t be lonesome all the time any more than he should be scared all the time. Man should do his work and love that the most; then his woman and his children, then his friends, then all the things he likes to do, then—shit none of this makes very good sense. It isn’t ordered that simply.
Anyway will be wonderful to see youse guys. I will be good and kind to John and if he wants me to work out something just on the Zelia Parla deal ever will be glad to do. Sylvester is a Broadway heel. But John knows I’m straight I think. That girl was married in our house. I have handled by request of both parties all sorts of things, financial and otherwise, between her and the man who is father of her child for some years now. Sylvester cannot imagine anyone doing that sort of thing without getting at least ten percent. Her husband is one of my best friends in Cuba. Naturally I do not think it is just funny for Sylvester to libel her with complete irresponsibility and impunity. Also he made the mistake of sending me an advance copy of the book telling me who the principal character was. This gets up into evidence. He also went out to Winston Guest’s house on Gardner’s Island (where our boys and I have shot many times).
Also if you have no religion, do not love your wife, do not give a shit and have a sound professional grounding it is not so difficult as if you had some religion, loved your wife and had never learned the trade. Anyway for me. It was not until read his book on Infantry Tactics that knew had fought Rummel [sic] in Italy. Also kicked shit out of same. He didn’t notice, like lots of krauts, that they did not get where they had to get and that everything else was cabbage.
Must knock off now and get to work. Pete don’t let anything get to you. We have all been hit and will be hit again. We just shouldn’t have to stay in and you have to protect the very delicate and lovely mechanism you write with and still be a man and provide for your dependents. My god damned project was designed to try to do that. But I know it is a fine project because every time I think of it I light up the way I only light up when know am right.” Hemingway has added copious handwritten notations in pencil on the borders of both sheets, and read, in part: “Gig and I worked good on trip. Also caught 6 big king 8 yellowtail, 7 wahoo, and shot 24 negro geese for the cats (four meals) Have good cow 1 Guernsey now called ‘Colsie’s Pride.’ She saves 44.60 a month in milk. Gift of old friend. New when broke. Now has money,” “I thought Marys [sic] idea was silly. But never tell anybody you love they are silly…Love to Jige. Please send back this introduction and only show it to Eddie Rolfe if you see him. Don’t want Wolfram publishing it…Latimer no good. Repeat no good.” In fine condition.
In late September 1948, a 49-year-old Hemingway and his fourth wife, journalist Mary Welsh, sailed into Genoa’s harbor aboard the Polish ship Jagiello. Some twenty-four years after his last visit, 1948 also served as the first year that his classic A Farewell to Arms was published in the still recovering country. Upon his return, Hemingway regained his stride as a novelist and completed several works over the next few years, including The Old Man and the Sea, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. Though Finca Vigia remained his permanent home, Hemingway continued to travel extensively, indulging in the outdoor pursuits so vividly described in these lines to Peter Viertel, who wrote the screenplays for his novels The Old Man and the Sea and The Sun Also Rises. On this particular occasion, he was accompanied buy his son “Gigi” (Gregory), like his father, an avid marksman. In Constantinople, in 1922, Hemingway met Colonel Charles Sweeny, a soldier of fortune who was said to have fought in seven wars with the armies of five countries, and Sylvester is likely the novelist and short story writer Harry Sylvester, whom Hemingway had known since the 1930s. An exceptional, content-rich letter from ‘Papa,’ one brimming with Hemingway’s colloquial style and a slew of personal connections.
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