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613

Ernest Hemingway

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Ernest Hemingway

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Auction Date:2010 Jul 14 @ 22:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
ALS, seven pages on three sheets of 5.5 x 7 Hotel Ambos Mundos, Habana letterhead (Hemingway has used a folded sheet to pen the two pages of text and used the full reverse as a third page), May 24, with “1933” noted in pencil. Lengthy letter to Arnold Gingrich, editor of Esquire magazine, discussing business, Hemingway’s daily life in Cuba, fishing, author John Dos Passos, and other matters. In part: “Dear Mr. Gingrich: I’ll drop the Mr. if it means anything to you but have a strong tendency to Mr. anyone that I do not know well personally and prefer to be Mistered in turn. This may be a hangover from different times or it may be a protest against Ernie, Spike, Ray Bill etc-ing of Hearst organizations…I remember Max Perkins…I wrote him that it would cost me at least $10,000 to stop calling him Mister…Esquire, sounds bad me (as title)—But maybe we will be inflated into a bullship…feeling of prosperity for it to go by them…Have caught 29 marlin swordfish…caught 7 last Saturday (believe a record) 3 Sunday, 3 Monday, 4 Tuesday…Dos Passos was very sick…you could reach him care Gerald Murphy…I was frank about the title not to be snooty nor because you know my own title was bad, but because, I believe, you asked me to be.” In fine condition, with intersecting folds and brushes to some of the words. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, addressed in Hemingway’s hand and signed “E. Hemingway” in the return address area.

In March 1933, Gingrich encountered Hemingway in a bookstore and persuaded him to write an article for a soon-to-be published magazine called Esquire—a name chosen after a secretary showed him a letter addressed to ‘Arnold Gingrich, Esq.’ As noted here, the iconic author was less-than-enthusiastic about Gingrich’s choice: “Esquire, sounds bad me (as title)...I was frank about the title not to be snooty nor because you know my own title was bad, but because, I believe, you asked me to be.” The magazine’s editor and publisher opted to go with his instinct, sticking with the name and creating a publication that flourished during the Great Depression for the Hearst Corporation.

With Hemingway’s name attached to the project, Gingrich—who was fascinated by the author and gladly paid him handsomely for his submissions—was also able to increase his ad sales and secure other big-name writers. When the first issue of Esquire hit newsstands in October of that year, stories featured those composed by Hemingway, Dos Passos, and Dashiell Hammett, plus articles by Bobby Jones on golf and Gene Tunney on boxing. Hemingway’s references to fishing, one of his many favorite pastimes, must have amused the Esquire editor, as Don Passos once related a tale of how Hemingway and Gingrich partook in an excursion—leaving Gingrich mosquito-bitten, sea sick, sunburned, and yet remarkably pleased to be in Hemingway’s company.
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