The Discovery of Long-Lost Hemingway Letters

For a variety of reasons (re-reading “The Sun Also Rises,” reading “The Paris Wife,” seeing the film "Midnight in Paris,” etc.) I have written several times this year about Hemingway. The current (October 2011) issue of Vanity Fair includes a fascinating article about the finding of a treasure trove of long-hidden letters and documents in Hemingway’s house in Cuba, the Finca. The documents are finally -- after much detective work and diplomacy -- being released, and are being digitized by the John F. Kennedy Library; some of them are now being published, and more will be published in the future. The letters published in Vanity Fair are to Hemingway’s parents, his wives, his friends, and Ezra Pound. Some are very down to earth and even naïve, the letters of a young man. They include worries about his work, about finances, and about love. There are charming glimpses of his life with his wife Hadley and of his friends in Paris. One, for example, describes Gertrude Stein as “very large and nice…and very keen about my poetry.” These letters are a real “find”; it is not often that a cache of documents by and about a major writer is found, rescued, and published. Kudos to all involved in making this happen.