![HEMINGWAY, Ernest. Manuscript, composed of heavily revised typescript and autograph manuscript, of the long article "Marlin Off Cuba." [Havana, late 1934]. 27½ typed pages and 12 holograph pages, a total of 39½ pages, 4to, on poor quality tan paper, a working draft with extensive revisions by Hemingway, signed by him ("Hemingway") in pencil on an accompanying thicker blank sheet (defective), the typed pages nearly all double-spaced, the autograph manuscript pages (about 1500 words in Hemingway's hand) and all revisions on the typescript (some 1050 words in his hand) made in pencil, paginated by Hemingway (typed or in pencil); some nicks and chips professionally repaired, first page a bit foxed, a corner chipped on page 7, lower right corner of each page lightly dampstained (progressing from a small and mostly marginal stain on the front sheets to a larger one on those at the end), each sheet in acid-free mylar sleeve.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2000/NYR/2000_NYR_09364_0291_000(011322).jpg?w=1)
Details
HEMINGWAY, Ernest. Manuscript, composed of heavily revised typescript and autograph manuscript, of the long article "Marlin Off Cuba." [Havana, late 1934]. 27½ typed pages and 12 holograph pages, a total of 39½ pages, 4to, on poor quality tan paper, a working draft with extensive revisions by Hemingway, signed by him ("Hemingway") in pencil on an accompanying thicker blank sheet (defective), the typed pages nearly all double-spaced, the autograph manuscript pages (about 1500 words in Hemingway's hand) and all revisions on the typescript (some 1050 words in his hand) made in pencil, paginated by Hemingway (typed or in pencil); some nicks and chips professionally repaired, first page a bit foxed, a corner chipped on page 7, lower right corner of each page lightly dampstained (progressing from a small and mostly marginal stain on the front sheets to a larger one on those at the end), each sheet in acid-free mylar sleeve.
HEMINGWAY'S CONTRIBUTION TO "AMERICAN BIG GAME FISHING"
This is a working first draft for Hemingway's exhaustive treatment of marlin fishing off Cuba that was published as Chapter II (pages 55-81) in The Derrydale Press American Big Game Fishing, edited by Eugene V. Connett (New York, published 15 May 1935). Portions of the article, based on the first 13 pages of the manuscript, had first appeared, in a bit different form, in "Marlin Off the Morro: A Cuban Letter" in the first issue of Esquire magazine (Autumn 1933). The hybrid nature of this manuscript (a mixture of copiously revised typescript -- a second typewriter is used briefly -- and emended autograph manuscript) is explained by the fact that here Hemingway is reworking and greatly expanding the earlier version of his article. Holograph revisions of the typed portions are heavy, totalling approximately 1050 words in Hemingway's hand, not counting his markings, punctuation changes, and spelling corrections, etc. Whole sentences have been written interlinearly with long extensions into the margins; in some cases the insertions themselves have been revised. The twelve autograph manuscript pages also bear Hemingway's emendations, mainly extensive insertions between the lines and in the margins (the twelve pages having some 1500 words in his hand).
From his discovery of marlin fishing when he crossed over to Cuba in April 1932, the sport became a passion with Hemingway and "his admiration for these great fish knew no bounds" (Carlos Baker, Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story, Avon Books, 1980, p. 292). In the spring of 1934 he purchased his own boat, the Pilar, to devote himself to Gulf Stream fishing. Hemingway's article is really a disquisition on marlin fishing (he also discusses fishing for wahoo, broadbill, and mako). It is a virtual instructional manual on the sport, written with great detail for other sportsmen. Hemingway gives technical advice on all aspects of marlin fishing, ranging from what type of lines to use to who are the best Cuban fishing guides.
In a section dealing with trolling Hemingway cancels an appealing (but untypical) passage on "drifting" (probably for not showing himself as a serious enough fisherman): "Personally I think it is a marvelously attractive way to fish as you can lie down while doing it, the rods are placed in sockets and the line is held around some-ones [sic] big toe -- either your own or your boatman's, preferably the boatman's, and you can play the phonograph without having to use only loud recordings such as those of Fats Waller to rise above the noise of the engine. You can also hold a glass in either hand without having the rod interfere and it is always pleasant on the Gulf Stream in good company with the possibility of hooking into some giant bathosphere fish as a secondary consideration. My conscience still forces me to troll the Gulf Stream rather than drift, but I look forward to a long, mellow old-age drifting off the Cuban coast." A more representative passage: "The difficulty is to have the tackle and the knowledge of the fish to handle such a [large] one when he is hooked. To catch a really huge marlin a man must be prepared to spend several entire seasons in the Gulf Stream. Some years exceptionally big fish run, on others there seems to be a top limit of four hundred to five hundred pound fish as there was in 1934 and no giant marlin running. I caught the biggest fish I had a strike from in 1934, a 420 pounder, so I have no apologies for that season but in 1933 [through] lack of experience, unsuitable tackle and some bad luck, we lost marlin whose size I would not dare to estimate in print. The next year we had more experience and the proper tackle and the biggest fish were not running. Happily, in fishing, there is always a season ahead."
Philip Young and Charles W. Mann, The Hemingway Manuscripts: An Inventory (University Park: Penn State University Press, 1969), 113: a "typescript, carbon, pencil corrections, 35 pages, last page in pencil" of "Marlin Off Cuba" in the Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Library. This later typescript is the only other manuscript of the article located.
HEMINGWAY'S CONTRIBUTION TO "AMERICAN BIG GAME FISHING"
This is a working first draft for Hemingway's exhaustive treatment of marlin fishing off Cuba that was published as Chapter II (pages 55-81) in The Derrydale Press American Big Game Fishing, edited by Eugene V. Connett (New York, published 15 May 1935). Portions of the article, based on the first 13 pages of the manuscript, had first appeared, in a bit different form, in "Marlin Off the Morro: A Cuban Letter" in the first issue of Esquire magazine (Autumn 1933). The hybrid nature of this manuscript (a mixture of copiously revised typescript -- a second typewriter is used briefly -- and emended autograph manuscript) is explained by the fact that here Hemingway is reworking and greatly expanding the earlier version of his article. Holograph revisions of the typed portions are heavy, totalling approximately 1050 words in Hemingway's hand, not counting his markings, punctuation changes, and spelling corrections, etc. Whole sentences have been written interlinearly with long extensions into the margins; in some cases the insertions themselves have been revised. The twelve autograph manuscript pages also bear Hemingway's emendations, mainly extensive insertions between the lines and in the margins (the twelve pages having some 1500 words in his hand).
From his discovery of marlin fishing when he crossed over to Cuba in April 1932, the sport became a passion with Hemingway and "his admiration for these great fish knew no bounds" (Carlos Baker, Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story, Avon Books, 1980, p. 292). In the spring of 1934 he purchased his own boat, the Pilar, to devote himself to Gulf Stream fishing. Hemingway's article is really a disquisition on marlin fishing (he also discusses fishing for wahoo, broadbill, and mako). It is a virtual instructional manual on the sport, written with great detail for other sportsmen. Hemingway gives technical advice on all aspects of marlin fishing, ranging from what type of lines to use to who are the best Cuban fishing guides.
In a section dealing with trolling Hemingway cancels an appealing (but untypical) passage on "drifting" (probably for not showing himself as a serious enough fisherman): "Personally I think it is a marvelously attractive way to fish as you can lie down while doing it, the rods are placed in sockets and the line is held around some-ones [sic] big toe -- either your own or your boatman's, preferably the boatman's, and you can play the phonograph without having to use only loud recordings such as those of Fats Waller to rise above the noise of the engine. You can also hold a glass in either hand without having the rod interfere and it is always pleasant on the Gulf Stream in good company with the possibility of hooking into some giant bathosphere fish as a secondary consideration. My conscience still forces me to troll the Gulf Stream rather than drift, but I look forward to a long, mellow old-age drifting off the Cuban coast." A more representative passage: "The difficulty is to have the tackle and the knowledge of the fish to handle such a [large] one when he is hooked. To catch a really huge marlin a man must be prepared to spend several entire seasons in the Gulf Stream. Some years exceptionally big fish run, on others there seems to be a top limit of four hundred to five hundred pound fish as there was in 1934 and no giant marlin running. I caught the biggest fish I had a strike from in 1934, a 420 pounder, so I have no apologies for that season but in 1933 [through] lack of experience, unsuitable tackle and some bad luck, we lost marlin whose size I would not dare to estimate in print. The next year we had more experience and the proper tackle and the biggest fish were not running. Happily, in fishing, there is always a season ahead."
Philip Young and Charles W. Mann, The Hemingway Manuscripts: An Inventory (University Park: Penn State University Press, 1969), 113: a "typescript, carbon, pencil corrections, 35 pages, last page in pencil" of "Marlin Off Cuba" in the Hemingway Collection at the John F. Kennedy Library. This later typescript is the only other manuscript of the article located.