Hemingway, Ernest Typed Letter Signed (“Ernest Hemingway”) to Mr. Ronald Paulson of NewHaven, Conn., on criticism of ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES, hismethod of creating character, current work, soldiering, etc Finca Vigia, San Francisco de Paula, Cuba, may 1, 1952 A fine, substantive letter to a student and admirer, soon to become a soldier, agreeing to sign a copy of his book, and with very interesting remarks on the critical response to ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES. “I was very interested in what you wrote about the book because the critical reception of it surprised me. Bernard Berenson, who I consider a first rate critic, wrote me that it was very good and that he liked it very much. So did other people whose judgement I trust. “But in most cases the criticism seemed to be very confused and think [sic] that I was writing some sort of megalomaniac autobiography. The Colonel I invented from what I knew of three very intelligent professional soldiers. One I had only known in this last war. But the other two I had known since I was a boy. I made him fifty one years old not because that was my own age but because that was the age of the class of '99 (in the European sense; not University) who being born in that year had fought in both wars. I DID use country I knew well and that is legitimate. “However to write of an officer with understanding and affection and respect is very suspect I guess. Then the fact that this officer was going to die seemed to anger them. That I could not figure out. Nor could I figure out all the business about such a girl being an impossible figure. Because most critics have wives or know women who look like the wives of both Alger Hiss and Whitaker Chambers doesn’t mean that there is no other sort of woman. But if I ever use a real girl in a book they write that she is incredible and is some sort of a wish fulfillment fantasy. I invent the girl as I invent the Colonel but I make them up from very real people… “Cape, I believed, jumped the gun by one day on the English edition…the editions are quite different. I have never read the British one but believe there are numerous cuts and excisions.…I have a book out this fall. The long, long and to hell long again book (series of books) will all finally appear. This is one of them…” “Good luck in your soldiering…Please give my best regards to Mr. [Robert Penn] Warren. I only met him once…He is a good writer and he ought to be a good teacher….” 4to. One page, densely typed on personal letterhead of Finca Vigia, with a few corrections in pencil. Fine. Handsomely matted and framed with accompanying envelope Price: USD 10,000.00 other currencies   order no. 35090    inquire

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