HEMINGWAY ERNEST: (1899-1961)

HEMINGWAY ERNEST: (1899-1961) American Novelist, Nobel Prize winner for Literature, 1954.A.L.S., Ernesto, four pages, 4to, Key West, 31st March 1936, to Erl Rowan of the Miami Herald. Hemingway states that he was glad to hear from his correspondent, but was sorry not to be present at a committee meeting, explaining 'Was over my head in work. Am behind on my book and working to a deadline…' and continuing 'Suppose you saw what I wrote Mrs. [Oliver C.] Grinnell about the broadbill harpooning and that's why you sent the clipping….Listen, kid, I had not seen one single comment on C. B. Millers speech when [I] wrote Mrs. G. nor have seen any. We don't get columns here. Sorry he ratted on you. That was lousy. I have no ax (sic) to grind in this, except possibly that have found plenty of pro fishermen as good or better fellows than amateurs'. Hemingway also questions his correspondent's statistics, remarking '1929 was a wonderful broadbill year. 1934 pitiful…3 only caught on rod and reel that year! So you can ignore 1935 as a good year in your American production and crash down on us with 1935 Canadian production. Always more broadbill off Nova Scotia anyway than off U.S.' and continues to enquire 'Erl, tell me, what are you shooting for? Who is this C.B. Miller? Why should you bat for him? Probably he is a marvellous fellow but you and I know broadbill, marlin and tuna run in cycles. When they are thick they are cheap. When they are scarce they bring plenty in from outside but why not tax the imported fish and not throw even 1200 good sword fishermen out of work so rich pricks can pass baits to them….I am for making a living and for sport for the rich man and the poor man, and especially the poor man and against all class legislation. It is better that every rich man should have to go up to New Brunswick and learn to cast a salmon fly properly and pay for his fishing or rent a good trout stream or go out and find new ocean fishing (there is a world of it to fish) than that one single poor man should be deprived of the livelihood that the sea has brought and that he has learned to take since over a hundred years. That's where I stand'. The writer further adds 'If you want to publish this [I] would be delighted. In my remarks about the broadbill figures (and I think they may be just) simply…say choosing your yearly figures' and poses the question 'What the hell is angling anyway? You don't make the living you should recording it. We all go broke doing it. It was designed to be done for fun. But the fish should not be wasted! Everyone should be allowed to practice it according to their own standards so long as the supply of fish is preserved.' Hemingway concludes 'Cuba, where I get completely accurate figures, has had lousy marlin figures for 2 years. Next year may be a better one than the great 1933 - or the 1927 or 1929 - In one year I caught 54 in another 17. Should I blame commercial slaughter? In 1929 I might have caught 154. They were that thick. Anyway good luck to you always. I certainly appreciate all you do and the work you put into it. You are a damned fine sportsman. But don't let politicians suck you in - But of course you won't. Have been working like hell'. Accompanied by the original envelope hand addressed by Hemingway, marked 'Personal', and signed ('E. Hemingway') by him in the return address. A letter of good content relating to one of Hemingway's great passions. VG £3000 - 4000 Mrs. Oliver C. 'Bill' Grinnell - Author of American Big Game Fishing (1935) in collaboration with Lynn Bogue Hunt and Ernest Hemingway. Grinnell's introduction to the book and the charts provided within it explain that the fishing records started in the 1930s (the period when Hemingway began big game fishing, inspired by the Cuban fishermen who had been towed for two days by a giant marlin) were inaccurate on the subject of size. Her description of fishing for big game also contains many elements found in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea (1952) - the beauty of the ocean and marine life in particular. Hemingway's economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.