Arts & Autographes

HEMINGWAY Ernest [Oak Parks, Illinois, 1899 - Ketchum, Idaho, 1961], romancier et nouvelliste américain.

Lettre autographe, signée

Lettre autographe, signée « Papa », adressée à son ami le scénariste Peter Viertel. Ketchum, Idaho, 31 décembre 1958 ; 2 pages in-4°. Très belle lettre relatant une partie de chasse : « Nous espérons vous revoir quelquefois avant que vous écriviez un autre scénario de mes livres. Peut-être pour For Whom the Bell Tolls [Pour qui sonne le glas]. For Whom the Bell Tolls fut publié en 1940.« Dear Pete : Thanks for the letter and the word from and on Jerry W. Also Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too. It’s been good out here all fall and so far this winter except for the skiing – a worn 10 inches showing rocks on Baldy – down to almost six actually now. No good prospects either but the weather is very screwy and nobody knows anymore. 18 inches in N. Mexico yest. – towards south bound on way Rose Bowl – we had a long beautiful fall and very good shooting – lots of birds and very good cluckers and hen shooting – spread all the way up here to Ketchum now. Fine snipe, plenty pheasants and constant ducks, although season only has 6 more days to run and the – flight not yet down from Canada where they’ve been leaving temps of 47 to 57 for months. Have had good shooting –. Have been working good and shooting well all fall. Weigh 204 – and averaged that size last winter. Everything else ok. Hope your book goes good and keeps on and you hold to what you say and do not fuck it up writing picture shit. Could use something good by you to read. Am so glad you are happy and things ok. Did not write because I kept hearing so much shit and as in some ways it was a tough year for a while did not want to bother or bore you. The last letter I’d had from you was good so stood on that. The news that you’re working good is the best I could have. Give our love to your girl. We will be here a couple more months or maybe only six weeks.Things very bad in Cuba so may have to go there sooner. Want to finish this book before I go back. Bud Purdy and your other friends send you their best. We missed you this year. Hope we’ll see you sometime before you write another picture from some book of mine. Maybe when they do For Whom the Bell Tolls over again sometime. I can get another cap out of that one. Still have this cap and will try to make it last another ten years but that is a long time to wait to see you. Hope you have a good summer and a fine winter. Give my best to John H. if you see him. Write here if you get time. Love from Mary too. Papa. »Peter Viertel met Ernest Hemingway in Sun Valley, Idaho in 1946. Viertel was working on his book, Love Lies Bleeding (1964), a fictional account of the life of Spain’s most famous matador, which was inspired by Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon (1932). Hemingway lambasts the screenwriting process in this letter, and felt that Viertel was demeaning himself with his Hollywood work. Almost all Hemingway’s novels and short stories were made into movies, but he disliked all of them. He must have held Viertel in high regard, though, for he jokes about making another movie from one of his books! Hemingway was working on A Moveable Feast, a memoir of his life in Paris during 1921-26, his greatest work of nonfiction.