LITERATURE 30 “The Test Of Whether A Book Is Any Good Is How Much Good Stuff You Can Remove From It”: Extraordinary Long Hemingway Letter, Twice Signed As ‘Papa’ Extraordinary typed and heavily annotated letter from Hemingway in Cuba to friend and fellow author and screenwriter Peter Viertel in Malibu, California, a long, lively letter discussing his writing progress, a proposed trip, hunting and shooting pigeons, drinking, baseball and “a fine new whore in town,” with over 150 words of additional notes written in the margins and on the verso of the second page in blue ink by Hemingway. Twice signed as ‘Papa.’ A large section of this long letter discusses Hemingway’s progress on Across the River and into the Trees: “In the bad weather we stayed at Puerto Escondido, you remember the place where I shot that iguana, and I wrote 5,000 some words while we were holed up. Have been having awfully good luck with it and it goes as fast as when I wrote THE SUN ALSO RISES in six weeks and the day I wrote THE KILLERS in Madrid one morning when it snowed and a story called TEN INDIANS in the afternoon and then couldn’t cool out and wrote TODAY IS FRIDAY in the evening. After that got drunk. The only trouble writing alone here is like pitching with nobody in the stands or making a Hell of a fight to absolutely empty seats. Have been pitching one hit and no hit ball and am pitching double headers like Ed Walsh. He was the only man they said who could ever strut while sitting down but he won 40 ball games in one year for a team that never gave him more than one or two runs. I’m going awfully good. Wish the Hell you and Jige were here to read it and tell me whether it’s as good as it feels. When you’re half a hundred years old you ought to be able to tell pretty well, though, unless you’ve gone into your second childhood. Hope this hasn’t happened. Would like to live to be a smart and mean old man. And just lay back and let the bastards lead. Have scrapped about 100,000 words. After all, the test of whether a book is any good is how much good stuff you can remove from it…” After three more paragraphs discussing shooting and bull-fighting stories, Hemingway concludes by discussing a new arrival: “We have a fine new whore in town who has just come in and who really loves the profession… It is hard being a good boy alone in this town when you are a lonesome character.” (Hemingway mentions sharing “7 bottles of Roederer Brut ‘42” with this new arrival—a favorite vintage of Colonel Cantwell, the protagonist of Across the River.) The recipient Viertel, an author and screenwriter, met Hemingway while the two were on vacation in Idaho in 1948, and the two men quickly became close friends. Viertel went on to write the screenplays for The Old Man and the Sea and The Sun Also Rises. His 1991 memoir Dangerous Friends recounts anecdotes from their meeting and friendship. Fine condition. An extraordinary Hemingway letter. 30 HEMINGWAY, Ernest. Typed letter twice signed “Papa” to Peter Viertel. Finca Vigia, Cuba, 29 September 1949. Quarto, two sheets of stationery, typed on one side of each leaf for two full pages, annotated in pen by Hemingway. $42,000 “Have been having awfully good luck with it and it goes as fast as when I wrote THE SUN ALSO RISES in six weeks and the day I wrote THE KILLERS in Madrid one morning when it snowed and a story called TEN INDIANS in the afternoon and then couldn’t cool out and wrote TODAY IS FRIDAY in the evening. After that got drunk.”
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