Details
HEMINGWAY, ERNEST. Autograph letter signed ("E." followed apparently by ", K., K.") to "Dear Weeley" (seemingly his boyhood friend William B. Smith, Jr.), Ste-Julie Station, Quebec, 16 August n.y. [early 1920s -- the last digit of the printed "192_" not filled in by Hemingway]. 3 pages, 4to, on two sheets of Hotel Ste-Julie printed stationery, with a small sketch of an imperial quart whisky bottle at end by Hemingway, a few short marginal fold tears.
"[QUEBEC] IS EXTREMELY WILD AND PRIMITIVE"
"Well, a convivial ghost has been in this room, gulping its share of 'The Embassy-Special Old Liqueur Whisky' and then in the dining-room using 1/4 qt. of native sherry at $1.00 per qt. You would have had all the French you required here, Weeley, along with cover charges. Of course there is no romantic interest. We are forty-five miles from Quebec [city]. Owing to a violent and prolonged downpour we paused here...Weeley all the signs are in French, all the Truck Drivers from whom we ask directions speak French, and more, all the pups understand French...The country is extremely wild and primitive...Owing to our mastery of the verbs 'manger' and 'boire' we have done fine so far...Well, Weeley, with every swallow we have missed you -- and believe me, one swallow has not made the summer. Leave the Russian Peril, for La Belle, Quebec." Not in Letters, ed. C. Baker and apparently unpublished.
Provenance: Unnamed consignor (sale, Sotheby's New York, 17 December 1992, lot 121).
"[QUEBEC] IS EXTREMELY WILD AND PRIMITIVE"
"Well, a convivial ghost has been in this room, gulping its share of 'The Embassy-Special Old Liqueur Whisky' and then in the dining-room using 1/4 qt. of native sherry at $1.00 per qt. You would have had all the French you required here, Weeley, along with cover charges. Of course there is no romantic interest. We are forty-five miles from Quebec [city]. Owing to a violent and prolonged downpour we paused here...Weeley all the signs are in French, all the Truck Drivers from whom we ask directions speak French, and more, all the pups understand French...The country is extremely wild and primitive...Owing to our mastery of the verbs 'manger' and 'boire' we have done fine so far...Well, Weeley, with every swallow we have missed you -- and believe me, one swallow has not made the summer. Leave the Russian Peril, for La Belle, Quebec." Not in Letters, ed. C. Baker and apparently unpublished.
Provenance: Unnamed consignor (sale, Sotheby's New York, 17 December 1992, lot 121).